[‘I must speak as a full pacifist’: Laurence Housman, writer, artist and radical activist.] Three Typed Letter Signed to Rev. A. H. Sayers regarding a talk he is to give to the Monmouth Town League of Nations Union, and his book ‘The Unexpected Years

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. All three letters 1p, 8vo. The third letter in good condition, lightly aged; the first two in fair condition, on creased and chipping cartridge paper, with a few spots of rust from a paperclip. All three folded for postage. All three signed ‘Laurence Housman’. ONE (3 November 1936): Begins: ‘Dear Mr. Sayers, / I am rather perturbed to find that the meeting I am asked to speak at is the Annual of the League of Nations Union. The request for me to speak came from the Peace Pledge Union, and no indication was given that it was not a Peace Pledge meeting. / I take the position of an absolute pacifist, and I am not in agreement with a good deal of the League of Nation’s policy, nor am I any longer an accredited speaker.’ If he does speak to the Monmouth Town LNU, ‘I must speak as a full pacifist; on those terms I am quite willing to come, and you can explain the position to your meeting’. The letter has an autograph postscript: ‘P.S. “The Price of Peace” could be my title. I have no photo-block for publication.’ TWO (5 November 1936): ‘[A]s you are prepared to put up with what I shall say on Peace, I am willing to keep the engagement’. He proceeds to discuss transport arrangements, and ends by asking Sayers to ‘thank Miss MacDonald for her kind offer of hospitality’. THREE (22 February 1937): He is glad that his book ‘The Unexpected Years’ has given Sayers pleasure. ‘In spite of the many knocks I received in the course of them, I also managed to get pleasure out of them, and hope to continue to do so.’