5 August 1919
My dear wife,
You have been away from home – your home, mine, our child’s – since December. There is something keeping you away, something you are not telling me.
I intend to try to get permission to travel to England, I shall write to Mark. I shall stay as long as is needed. I am not threatening, I am only setting out the position. I need to know what is keeping you.
I have looked back at my letters to you. I think I have been too gentle. You know, when one’s country has been defeated, it destroys one’s self-confidence. But that does not mean I shall let you disappear from my life. You are my wife and the mother of my child, and I want us all to be together again.
Oh my Irene, is it because you see me as an enemy of your country, that you do not write? Do you hate me, because I am a German?
Write to me, Irene,
Thomas