Pip [Arthur?] Hughes to Miss Mary Hughes, Florence, 26 Apr 1915

The letter regards a financial matter. Pip then comments that Miss Hughes and the Dicks are on the wrong track with the "infernal" war "which has to be fought to a finish" as the German leaders only believe in force and so have to be beaten by it. Pip states it is not fair to turn on the English press for saying this as to win on the battlefield is commonsense and not due to 'monied' interests, Pip questions whether men like John Bailey and Herbert Hawkinson have any personal advantage to seek [journalists?]. Pip also points out that the Germans know our terms and are not prepared to accept them. Pip states that the humanitarians [of which Miss Hughes is one] would reduce us to a "mush of concessions" and that Tolstoi [Tolstoy] is a 'sort of Bismarck [Otto von, Prussian and German statesman] upside down!". Although he does concede that they may be needed as a counterbalance to English Prussians [warmongers?] but that still Miss Hughes should not fight the war but let war cure war ie let it run its course and that "our" job is to endure and wait for peace to dictate our terms as "Pacifism is for times of peace" and Miss Hughes must understand this, pacifist ideas are sound and can wait and should wait. Pip criticises Miss Hughes for attacking The Times but he states that Clutton Brook's articles in The Times Literary Supplement are of the kind not found in Germany. Pip states that we should "consol" ourselves with the thought that our country is right. He concludes his argument by saying that Miss Hughes and the Dicks have their own form of resentment, towards the rich, and that they think there is always some capitalist to blame, when in truth the poor are no better than the rich. He concludes the letter by saying the weather is lovely and opinion is gaining that Italy will join the war [they did so in by May 1915 declaring war on Austria-Hungary and in Nov 1916 by declaring war on Germany]. Pip has signed himself "Pip °small capitalist"