Transcription: P1/9 (4)                                                      League of Nations Association                                    8 West 40th Street                                    New York City                                    August 26, 1940 Dear Sean:        I certainly got the greatest kick yesterday morning, not only at hearing your voice over the transatlantic phone, but still more, per- haps, in catching the firmness and courage of its tones. It is a grand sensation, to me, to feel that, far away as I am physically from Geneva, I can still reach it by voice. I hope it may have given a similar reac- tion to you to feel thus in touch with your friends in America.      The information we exchanged seems to me to be extremely satis- factory. We had sensed a good deal of the situation from our general knowledge of Geneva, and had got further intimate details from letters or people coming over. Carter Goodrich had all sorts of information which I arranged for him the day after he arrived. Loveday, of course, added a great deal more, but in addition to that, one or all of us have seen a good many other people recently from Geneva: Winant, BWertheimer, Stenig, Nisot, etc.      Mr. Hambro has been very anxious to get everything that he could, and has asked me to keep in constant touch with him. Apart from my ac- companying him to Washington, as he requested, and our two meetings at Princeton, he has had me come up regularly to the Waldorf, and has seemed very appreciative of the information I could give him, and the introduc- tions I could make, not to mention, of course, the opportunity it gave for talking the situation over with someone from Geneva. He has sought every possibility of being of any help he could, and has been very gen- erous and frank in his whole relationship here.      As I said on the phone, we all of us feel the deepest sympathy  and understanding for all the difficulties which have faced you these past months. We can pretty well appreciate what they have been, and all of us feel the greatest admiration for your courage and devotion in carrying  on in a situation which we deeply appreciate has been getting more and  more lonely. Indeed, it gives me a definite twinge of conscience to  think of one after another of us leaving, and you staying on in ever  greater difficulty. All we can say, I think, is that each of us is try- ing to do the best he can in the post assigned to him. I do want you to  know, however, that what I said on the phone came very much from the heart.       Now, however, it looks as though we were getting into easier waters. The information we exchanged yesterday on the telephone and your cable to Mr. Hambro last night indicate a considerable clarification. Perhaps now we will be able to go ahead with greater clarity and unity,  even if with sadly reduced facilities.      The next important thing would seem to be the meeting of the Supervisory Commission. Mr. Hambro is leaving this coming Saturday for a

Transcription: P1/9 (4) Mr. Lester, Page 2                            August 26, 1940 New York for a very useful hour's talk with Mr. Hambro and for a telephone message to the American Export Line to try to get priority for the rest of the mission now waiting at Lisbon. Thereafter we made the two-hour trip to Princeton to get settled for the night.      The next day we called officially on the Institute people,  after which Mr. Hambro came down for a formal business luncheon with Dr. Aydelotte and Riefler of the Institute, Mr. Brakeley of Princeton University, and Mr. Walter Stewart, who is both a member of the Institute and Chairman of the Board of the Rockefeller Foundation. We had nearly three hours of close and very satisfactory discussion, which allowed everything to get started on a good basis.      The following day Loveday, Riefler and I devoted to going over  both the working facilities at the Institute and the living facilities  in the town. The former are excellent and ought to work out very satis- factorily. The latter are somewhat different from what people are used to in Geneva, but will also develop staisfactorily. One nice thing:  Dr. Aydelotte turned over his house to the Lovedays for the ten days that he is to be away on vacation.      I give you all these details to show that the Princeton ven- ture has got off to what seems to me to be a very happy start. Loveday seems to be very pleased with the warmth and cordiality of his recep- tion and with the facilities for work. He is making every effort to get all the physical details out of the way at the earliest possible moment, and is obviously impatient to get down to actual work.       Mr. Hambro seems equally delighted with the Princeton arrange- ment, and has been extremely cooperative in every way. He has made two trips to Princeton, as you know, first to look over the situation, and  second to see it launched. We can surely count on him for all possible assistance.      There has been a good deal of interest, as you can imagine, as to the possibility of the other sections coming over, notably opium and health, and I have only to assure you that if a decision in that sense is taken at Geneva they will be as cordially received as the economic  group. Everyone here with whom I have talked is extremely hopeful that it may work out this way.         With best wishes,                                           Yours very truly,                                                                      A.S.

Transcription: P1/9 (4)                      League of Nations Association                      8 West 40th Street                      New York City                      August 26, 1940 Dear Sean:      I wish I could convey to you the emotion I we experienced last Wednesday when the Yankee Clipper came down out of the sky from Lisbon, bearing the first members of the staff of the League's technical services  who were coming to the United States in the present emergency in response to an invitation from American sources to carry on and develop their tech- nical work here.      It was a very small thing, perhaps, at the start, only Loveday as Director of the Economic and Financial Section, together with his wife and two children, but at the same time it was a symbol and a promise which deeply touched all of us.      My mind went back over twenty years to the time when I saw Woodrow Wilson take the League of Nations out of this country and plant it on European soil at the end of the first World War. It seemed pecul- iarly fitting that part of the League should now, in the moment of trial in European during the second World War, return to the soil of the coun- try which gave it birth - and even to that town of Princeton whence Woodrow Wilson, as university president, set out to become President  of the United States.      Our emotions begain with our arrival at the field. We got there a bit early to find out the exact moment of landing and to go off and get a bit of lunch beforehand. Just as I got out of the car, how- ever, I head the loud speaker shouting: "Attention! Attention! The plane now circling overhead is the Yankee Clipper just completing its one hundredth (?) flight from Lisbon, having left that city twenty-five hours ago."      We had just time to get up on the runway when this the immense  plane settled gracefully down on the water and was towed up to the land- ing place. Very shortly Loveday, evidently lame from the automobile accident at Grenoble, walked up the runway, accompanied by his wife and two children, and apparently very surprised to see us.      Dr. Aydelotte had been good enough to send his seven-passenger  car up from Princeton, and Riefler has also come with his. We had quite a little reception committee: Riefler, who, as you know, is a member of the League's financial section, Mitchell Carroll, Chairman of the League's  Fiscal Committee, Ben Gerhig, Commissioner General of the League's Pavilion at the Fair, and my wife and myself.       Loveday got through the sometimes trying ordeal with the press in very good form, he explaining the technical purposes of his mission,  and I adding that he would not want to answer any general questions as to the situation in Europe, as he was here on a purely technical mission which he wanted to keep entirely within those limits. We then went into

Transcription: Left-hand page - blank   Right hand page                                                         P1/9 (4)                      League of Nations Association                      8 West 40th Street                      New York City                      August 26, 1940 Dear Elsie:      I had the great kick yesterday morning of hearing Sean's voice over the transatlantic telephone from Geneva. At the end of the  conversation he said: "Could you drop a line to Elsie to tell her that the one thing I would like to do would be to go back to Ireland to join her, but that, unfortunately, Arthur Sweetser won't let me."      That is, of course, a witticism, unless for the words "Arthur Sweetser" you substitute "the League of Nations." Sean is certainly giving an extraordinary example of devotion and determination in car- rying on at his post, which is greatly admired and respected by all of us. I can appreciate fully what the sacrifice means to him, and through what difficulties he has been.      Ruth and I arrived here in mid-May as we had planned a year ago. We have got all our various children together, but are still try- ing to work out plans for the future. Certainly this is a terribly  tough moment for any kind of personal or family life, and I can well imagine how difficult it is for you and yours.       This letter takes the very best wishes to you from both Ruth and myself, and our sincere hopes that it will not be too long before all our situations come back to something more nearly human an normal.      Again with best wishes,                            Yours very truly, P.S.  Had  to send back  my  messages.

Description: Shelfmark: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. germ. 758

Description: Shelfmark: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. germ. 802

Description: Avisartikel fra 1936 omhandlende Peter Frederiksen samt et brev hjem til hans mor fra Frankrig den 23. januar 1919 på Røde Kors brevpapir. || Peter Frederiksen blev født den 2. januar 1896 i Herskind i Østjylland. Han udvandrede i 1913 som 17-årig til Kasson, Minnesota, i USA. Han deltog på amerikansk side i 1. Verdenskrig fra juni 1918 og frem til krigens afslutning. Han kæmpede ved Vestfronten i Frankrig, og den 2. november 1918, under et engreb på tyske stillinger, blev han såret i højre ben af fjendtlig ild. Han måtte derefter indlægges på lazaret i flere måneder. Slaget den 2. november 1918, hvor han og hans division stormede en større by, havde store tabstal til følge. Han blev for sin indsats i 1. Verdenskrig tildelt flere udmærkelser, bl.a. to guldbånd samt purpurhjertet (Purple Heart). Purpurhjertet er en amerikansk militær udmærkelse, der uddeles til dem, som er blevet skadet eller dræbt i militær tjeneste. Peter Frederiksen drev efter krigen en farm ved Kasson, blev gift og fik fire børn. I 1936 blev han indlagt på hospitalet i Rochester med blidtarmsbetændelse, som han blev opereret for. Mens han lå på hospital fik han lungebetændelse, og dette viste sig at være dødeligt. Peter Frederiksen døde som 40-årig, og fik en militær begravelse på Evergreen kirkegård i Mantorville, Minnesota.

Description: Shelfmark: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. germ. 714

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