To Charles Augustus Strong
C/o Brown Shipley & Co 123 Pall Mall, London. S.W.1
[Southampton, England?] June 17, 1919
Dear Strong,
Since I wrote this morning, more difficulties! I have spent the whole day at the French passport office, sent from one man, softened and informed of my case, to another who knew nothing about it, and once or twice (if I hadn’t protested) back to the man from whom I had been sent forward. I now understand why the war lasted five years, and the Conference six months. One person makes the inquiries, and begins to understand; then another person, with a sense of his own importance but no information, makes the decision.
The upshot is that the top man will not let me go to Paris at all (Qu’est- ce que vous allez faire à Paris?) unless I obtain a note from the Concierge, or other responsible person, VISÈD by the commissaire of the quartier, to the effect that I really resided at the Avenue de l’Observatoire before the war. It will be necessary to give dates; I am not absolutely sure myself just when I first arrived and made that my headquarters, but it was perhaps in Jan. or Feb. 1912. We left, as you know, in July 1914.
If you and the Concierge can send me such a document, I may possibly be able to start next week; but I am not sure that I may not be sent to somebody else, who will make different conditions. If I were not really desirous of seeing you, and reverting to the old life, I should chuck the whole thing, and go back to Oxford—for life.
I know that my irritation of today—it is very hot and I am very tired— will not last for ever, but you will understand my feelings and their transitory causes—
Yours ever,
G Santayana
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Two, 1910-1920. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001.
Location of manuscript: Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow NY