Would a name, by any other...

One last Simon related bit. At dinner he told a story of one British Lord's message to another British Lord. He very charmingly asked his wife if it was all right to tell it.

I do not remember, at the moment, what led to the story, but I think it had to do with propriety and its nuances. As can be seen in the image, Lord Kerr (Amb. to Russia, 1943) wrote Lord Pembroke the following message:

My Dear Reggie,

In these dark days man tends to look for little shafts of light that spill from Heaven. My days are probably darker than yours, and I need, my God I do, all the light I can get. But I am a decent fellow, and I do not want to be mean and selfish about what little brightness is shed upon me from time to time. So I propose to share with you a tiny flash that has illuminated my sombre life and tell you that God has given me a new Turkish colleague whose card tells me that he is called Mustapha Kunt.

We all feel like that, Reggie, now and then, especially when Spring is upon us, but few of us would care to put it on our cards. It takes a Turk to do that.

Sir Archibald Clerk Kerr

H.M. Ambassador

He quoted the message from memory and I will not forget it for a very long time. [N.B. I really apologize for the subject of this post...but not enough to change it.]