AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON, April 19, 1952
My dear Dean:
I enclose herewith Anthony's letter to you and I also enclose his covering letter to me which I think you will find of interest.
I can't tell you how pleased he was with your note when I delivered it to him.
Kindest regards,
Yours sincerely,
s/Walter
Enclosures:
The Honorable Dean Acheson, Secretary of State, Washington
FOREIGN OFFICE, S. W. 1.
18th April, 1952
My Dear Walter.
Here is my reply to Dean's letter. You may like to read it.
When you have done so, will you please stick it down and send it on its way?
[Handwritten: I wish that all international affairs were like this.]
Forever, Anthony
His Excellency The Honourable Walter S. Gifford.
April 18, 1952
My dear Dean,
I was sincerely touched by your letter, and still more by the thought - that prompted you to write it.
I had not seen the 'Newsweek' article until Walter Gifford told me about it. Certainly it was about as mischievous as it could be, though I should have thought too silly to be effective except with the most naive. I laughed a good deal at my knowledge of Latin quotations. They couldn't be weaker! Few but faithful, as Winston once said of his own.
I agree that the remark about Cordell Hull is particularly hilarious. Actually we spent much of our time in a duet in you praise. A pity the writer couldn't hear. I well remember how pleased you were when I said I was going to visit him, as I was when you told me you were going to see Mr. Bevin. You also told me the moving story of how Cordell gallantly came down to the State dept to support you publically when the mean attacks upon you were at their height.
In some ways, however, I am grateful to the writer of that letter for having been the cause of your writing to me a letter I shall always value. I am indeed happy that you feel, as I do, how very pleasant and intimate has been our work together. I could not possibly have asked for a kinder and more understanding colleague to hold my hand when I came back to the endless jungle of public life.
Yours ever
Anthony