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Diary 7: August 1939 - April 1940 Item 13
TRANSCRIPTION
Sunday 10th Sept 39
Had Walters, Sweetser, and Wrong to dinner bridge
last night. A friend of W's. called having come from
Berlin(he is Argentinian) in a car marked "D" for
Deutschland and the Swiss authorities asked him to leave
it in Zurich to avoid incidents. He had seen German cars
some from Italy with their windows smashed. As the
Swiss broadcaster said last night Swiss opinion is
unanimous as to the responsibility for the war. Last
time there was much division.
Further petrol restrictions. No Sunday driving
allowed except for military, doctors, and Dip. Corps.
No more dejeuners de Dimanche dans le campagne for the
Genevese. Streets were remarkably quiet without
cars and hosts of cyclists, sometimes eight abreast,
had it all their own way.
Went to Avenol's for lunch and felt like one of
Bateman's cartoons (as I wrote to Elsie) so selfconsciousl
prominent. We wont use our cars for ordinary jaunts, of
course. With Avenol on the lake, in his luxurious
motorboat- he thought the restriction did not apply in
any case to motorboats. Called at Phelan's for tea.
They talked yachtman's "shop".
Podesta Costa took leave of us yesterday.
Have just been listening to a talk on Poland, & its
struggle for freedom, from London ("As far away as
Poland is"). It is so like our own. No Irishman
can have other than sympathy and admiration for the
Poles. But it must be confessed that post-warPoland
developed, especially in recent years, a Chauvinism
far from attractive. I have already mentioned their
disgusting attitude when CzechoSlovakia was on the
torture rack. They had not been cleverly treated by
France but their claim to play the role of a Great Power
their exercise of a raw type of Power Politics, their
stupid support of Germany when the latter was destroying
the League and getting ready for the attempt to
dominate Europe, the crude boasting of representatives
like Komarnicki They wer lost them much sympathy
and friendship. They went along so confidently. When
they denounced the Minorities Treaty arrgts a few
years ago, Imagining freedom from League restrictions
and fron French pressure and relying on their pact
with Germany and the latter's need of them, they struck
one of the first blows at their own future. I am not
sure that most of the blame does not fall on Beck
personally.
Language(s) of Transcription
LOCATION
Gdańsk (Poland) (54.3612, 18.5499)
Story Location
ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT
Document Date
Document Type
Document Description
Language of Description
Keywords
External Web Resources
People
Luis Podestá Costa
Description: League of Nations Under Secretary General
Wikidata Reference: Q22569661
STORY INFORMATION
Title
Diary 7: August 1939 - April 1940
Creator
Lester | Seán | 1888-1959
Contributor
Seán Lester
Lester, Seán, 1888-1959
Date
August 1939 - April 1940
Type
Text
Rights
This collection has been digitised and made available by Dublin City University Library. Please credit Dublin City University Library when using these images, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Language
eng
Identifier
#hq388c59q
LandingPage
https://www.europeana.eu/item/707/_hq388c59qCountry
Ireland
DatasetName
707__Dublin_City_University
Begin
1936-05-01
End
1937-02-28
Language
en
Created
2022-03-23T16:13:34.244Z
2022-03-23T16:13:40.137051Z
2022-03-23T16:13:40.137645Z
Story Description
Handwritten and typed diary entries relating to Lester's time as Deputy Secretary General of the League of 12 Nations in Geneva, the outbreak of the Second World War, and the evacuation of his wife and three daughters from Geneva to Ireland. Includes letters and cards to Lester from: Jack T Mayo ['an English fishing companion']; Ambrose B Wareing, the Danzig correspondent for the Daily Telegraph newspaper (letter dated 16 June 1937); Isidro Fabela, Mexican diplomat; Pierre Stoppani, League of Nations Economic Relations Section; Eóin MacNeill, Professor, National University of Ireland; Vladimir Sokoline, Under Secretary General's Office, League of Nations; Stephen Gwynn, former MP for Galway city, academic and journalist; S Pelychuoniades, Hellenic Delegation to the League of Nations; Joseph MN Jeffries, author and journalist; Phyllis Manning, a friend who it seems, also holidayed in Connemara and who worked at the Agricultural Economics Research Institute in Oxford, and GC Greene, 'British Sporting Agency Ltd, Digswell Vale, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, UK. Includes extract from letter written by Raymond Fosdick, Rockefeller Foundation, to Arthur Sweetser, League of Nations' Public Information Section. Also includes a handwritten 'note for talk with S.G.' [?Secretary General, Joseph Avenol], dated September 1938, newspaper cuttings, poems by Patricia E Lester [Seán Lester's daughter], and black and white photographs. First photograph features the following individuals chatting beside a bench in a garden or park 'at luncheon to [?Iroguiera' Luis Podestá Costa, League of Nations Under Secretary General; Frank P Walters, League of Nations Under Secretaries-Generals in charge of Political Section Office; Lester, and Isidro Fabela, Mexican diplomat. Second photograph features Lester, Alberto Guani, Uruguayan Foreign Minister, and [?Iroguiera] in Lester's office. There are two gaps in the diary when Lester did not record entries for months at a time. This diary opens with '[n]ot a line written in a notebook for months', and an entry on 31 January 1940 notes that '[n]othing written for 2 months'.
TRANSCRIPTION
LOCATION
DESCRIPTION
PEOPLE
STORY INFO
TUTORIAL
Sunday 10th Sept 39
Had Walters, Sweetser, and Wrong to dinner bridge
last night. A friend of W's. called having come from
Berlin(he is Argentinian) in a car marked "D" for
Deutschland and the Swiss authorities asked him to leave
it in Zurich to avoid incidents. He had seen German cars
some from Italy with their windows smashed. As the
Swiss broadcaster said last night Swiss opinion is
unanimous as to the responsibility for the war. Last
time there was much division.
Further petrol restrictions. No Sunday driving
allowed except for military, doctors, and Dip. Corps.
No more dejeuners de Dimanche dans le campagne for the
Genevese. Streets were remarkably quiet without
cars and hosts of cyclists, sometimes eight abreast,
had it all their own way.
Went to Avenol's for lunch and felt like one of
Bateman's cartoons (as I wrote to Elsie) so selfconsciousl
prominent. We wont use our cars for ordinary jaunts, of
course. With Avenol on the lake, in his luxurious
motorboat- he thought the restriction did not apply in
any case to motorboats. Called at Phelan's for tea.
They talked yachtman's "shop".
Podesta Costa took leave of us yesterday.
Have just been listening to a talk on Poland, & its
struggle for freedom, from London ("As far away as
Poland is"). It is so like our own. No Irishman
can have other than sympathy and admiration for the
Poles. But it must be confessed that post-warPoland
developed, especially in recent years, a Chauvinism
far from attractive. I have already mentioned their
disgusting attitude when CzechoSlovakia was on the
torture rack. They had not been cleverly treated by
France but their claim to play the role of a Great Power
their exercise of a raw type of Power Politics, their
stupid support of Germany when the latter was destroying
the League and getting ready for the attempt to
dominate Europe, the crude boasting of representatives
like Komarnicki They wer lost them much sympathy
and friendship. They went along so confidently. When
they denounced the Minorities Treaty arrgts a few
years ago, Imagining freedom from League restrictions
and fron French pressure and relying on their pact
with Germany and the latter's need of them, they struck
one of the first blows at their own future. I am not
sure that most of the blame does not fall on Beck
personally.
- English (English)
- Français (French)
Sunday 10th Sept 39
Had Walters, Sweetser, and Wrong to dinner bridge
last night. A friend of W's. called having come from
Berlin(he is Argentinian) in a car marked "D" for
Deutschland and the Swiss authorities asked him to leave
it in Zurich to avoid incidents. He had seen German cars
some from Italy with their windows smashed. As the
Swiss broadcaster said last night Swiss opinion is
unanimous as to the responsibility for the war. Last
time there was much division.
Further petrol restrictions. No Sunday driving
allowed except for military, doctors, and Dip. Corps.
No more dejeuners de Dimanche dans le campagne for the
Genevese. Streets were remarkably quiet without
cars and hosts of cyclists, sometimes eight abreast,
had it all their own way.
Went to Avenol's for lunch and felt like one of
Bateman's cartoons (as I wrote to Elsie) so selfconsciousl
prominent. We wont use our cars for ordinary jaunts, of
course. With Avenol on the lake, in his luxurious
motorboat- he thought the restriction did not apply in
any case to motorboats. Called at Phelan's for tea.
They talked yachtman's "shop".
Podesta Costa took leave of us yesterday.
Have just been listening to a talk on Poland, & its
struggle for freedom, from London ("As far away as
Poland is"). It is so like our own. No Irishman
can have other than sympathy and admiration for the
Poles. But it must be confessed that post-warPoland
developed, especially in recent years, a Chauvinism
far from attractive. I have already mentioned their
disgusting attitude when CzechoSlovakia was on the
torture rack. They had not been cleverly treated by
France but their claim to play the role of a Great Power
their exercise of a raw type of Power Politics, their
stupid support of Germany when the latter was destroying
the League and getting ready for the attempt to
dominate Europe, the crude boasting of representatives
like Komarnicki They wer lost them much sympathy
and friendship. They went along so confidently. When
they denounced the Minorities Treaty arrgts a few
years ago, Imagining freedom from League restrictions
and fron French pressure and relying on their pact
with Germany and the latter's need of them, they struck
one of the first blows at their own future. I am not
sure that most of the blame does not fall on Beck
personally.
Language(s) of Transcription
English Translation
Transcription History
Sunday 10th Sept 39 Had Walters, Sweetser, and Wrong to dinner bridge last night. A friend of W's. called having come from Berlin(he is Argentinian) in a car marked "D" for Deutschland and the Swiss authorities asked him to leave it in Zurich to avoid incidents. He had seen German cars some from Italy with their windows smashed. As the Swiss broadcaster said last night Swiss opinion is unanimous as to the responsibility for the war. Last time there was much division. Further petrol restrictions. No Sunday driving allowed except for military, doctors, and Dip. Corps. No more dejeuners de Dimanche dans le campagne for the Genevese. Streets were remarkably quiet without cars and hosts of cyclists, sometimes eight abreast, had it all their own way. Went to Avenol's for lunch and felt like one of Bateman's cartoons (as I wrote to Elsie) so selfconsciousl prominent. We wont use our cars for ordinary jaunts, of course. With Avenol on the lake, in his luxurious motorboat- he thought the restriction did not apply in any case to motorboats. Called at Phelan's for tea. They talked yachtman's "shop". Podesta Costa took leave of us yesterday. Have just been listening to a talk on Poland, & its struggle for freedom, from London ("As far away as Poland is"). It is so like our own. No Irishman can have other than sympathy and admiration for the Poles. But it must be confessed that post-warPoland developed, especially in recent years, a Chauvinism far from attractive. I have already mentioned their disgusting attitude when CzechoSlovakia was on the torture rack. They had not been cleverly treated by France but their claim to play the role of a Great Power their exercise of a raw type of Power Politics, their stupid support of Germany when the latter was destroying the League and getting ready for the attempt to dominate Europe, the crude boasting of representatives like Komarnicki They wer lost them much sympathy and friendship. They went along so confidently. When they denounced the Minorities Treaty arrgts a few years ago, Imagining freedom from League restrictions and fron French pressure and relying on their pact with Germany and the latter's need of them, they struck one of the first blows at their own future. I am not sure that most of the blame does not fall on Beck personally.
Sunday I0th Sept 39 Had Walters, Sweetser, and Wrong to dinner bridge last night. A friend of W's. called having come from Berlin(he is Argentinian) in a car marked "D" for Deutschland and the Swiss authorities asked him to leave it in Zurich to avoid incidents. He had seen German cars some from Italy with their windows smashed. As the Swiss broadcaster said last night Swiss opinion is unanimous as to the responsibility for the war. Last time there was much division. Further petrol restrictions. No Sunday driving allowed except for military, doctors, and Dip. Corps. No more dejeuners de Dimanche dans le campagne for the Genevese. Streets were remarkably quiet without cars and hosts of cyclists, sometimes eight abreast, had it all their own way. Went to Avenol's for lunch and felt like one of Bateman's cartoons (as I wrote to Elsie) so selfconsciousl prominent. We wont use our cars for ordinary jaunts, of course. With Avenol on the lake, in his luxurious motorboat- he thought the restriction did not apply in any case to motorboats. Called at Phelan's for tea. They talked yachtman's "shop". Podesta Costa took leave of us yesterday. Have just been listening to a talk on Poland,& its struggle for freedom, from London ("As far away as Poland is"). It is so like our own. No Irishman can have other than sympathy and admiration for the Poles. But it must be confessed that post-warPoland developed, especially in recent years, a Chauvinism far from attractive. I have already mentioned their disgusting attitude when CzechoSlovakia was on the torture rack. They had not been cleverly treated by France but their claim to play the role of a Great Power their exercise of a raw type of Power Politics, their stupid support of Germany when the latter was destroy- ing the League and getting ready for the attempt to dominate Europe, the crude boasting of representatives like Komarnicki They wer lost them much sympathy and friendship. They went along so confidently. When they denounced the Minorities Treaty arrgts a few years ago, Imagining freedom from League restrictions and fron French pressure and relying on their pact with Germany and the latter's need of them, they struck one of the first blows at their own future. I am not sure that most of the blame does not fall on Beck personally.
English Translation
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