Evening star., 1941-07-10
Friends Of Wodehouse
Ask Reservation OF
Judgment on Him
No Traitor, but Politically
Naive Man, Informed
London Circles Soy
By HELEN KIRKPATRICK,

Foreign Correspondent OF The Star and
Chicago Daily News.
LONDON, July l0.-While most
of the English literary world is en-
gagged in violent attacks on P. G..
WodehouSe, a few persons here who
know all the circumstances feel that
judgment should be reserved until
the whole story is known. Those in
formed say Mr.. WodehouSe is no
traitor but just politically naive
and money-minded man.
The list of Well-knoWn authors
who are getting all excited over Mr.
Wodehouses exodus from German
prison camp-a former insane
asylum-to the more comfortable
accommodation of Berlin's Adlon
Hotel, grows daily longer.
Playwright Ian Hay led off on the
day following Mr.. Wodehouse's C..
B. S. broadcast, deprecating the
noveliSt's action. The most prom
inent writers, who have followed
each other in quick succession in
clude A. A. Milne. E. G. Bentley,
Storm Jameson. Gilbert Frankau
and Dorothy Sayers. The most
scathing letter to the newspapers
was that written last week by Mr.
Milne, who described Mr. Wodehouse
as IAN escapist" who had once again
escaped.
The famous creator of "JeeveS," ."
according to Mr.. Milne, always has
sought to evade responsibility, from
the time, during the last war when
he fled to America, then fed to
Europe afterward to avoid postwar
taxes.
Uninterested in Politics.
MT Wodehouse had encouraged in
himself a natural lack of interest
in politics. Mr.. Milne asserted, pol
itics being all the things which
grownups talk about at dinner when
one is hiding under the table"
All the comment so far has as
sumed that Mr Wodehouse bought
himself out of prison by promising
to do broadcasts for the Nazis This
morning both Gilbert Frankau and
Dorothy Sayers seek to explain
without eXcusing, the humorist's
action.
Mr.. Frankau asks whether his
critics are so sure that they would
not have done the same thing and
how much of this heresy hunt is due
to jealousy of Mr.. Wodehouses
moneymaking ability. Mr.. Frankau
wonders when the heresy hunt will
include 'our more astute literati
who have removed themselves. their
tables and their typewriters 10 the
other side OF the Atlantic"
Miss Sayers points out the lack of
realization Of the power of propa-
ganda which still existed when Mr..
Wodehouse was captured and sug-
gests that years of imprisonment
could not have instilled such knowl-
edge.
Questions in Parliament a few
days ago showed disgust at the
humoriSt'S action and members de-
manded that records of Mr.. Wode-
houses broadcastS be kept so that he
could be tried for treason after the
war.
Today Storm Jameson, while con-
demning Mr.. Wodehouse's action,
calls the open discussion in the press
silly"
Like Many Situations in Books.
The actual facts of the Wodehouse
transfer from prison TO the Adlon
Hotel place the whole affair in a
slightly different light. And the
circumstances are not entirely un-
like many situations in which
"JeeveS" and BERTHE Wooster" have
been in many of the Wodehouse
books.
The novelist was living near lie
Touquet when the German advance
caught up with him but he had four
more chapters in his last book TO
finish and no one was able to con-
vince him he should leave them un-
finished and fee. He was more than
SO years of age when captured and
will, in few months, be 60 Neither
the Germans nor the British intern
enemy aliens of so years of age or
older. Mr.. Wodehouses release was
thus natural and he had the choice
of living anywhere in central Bsr-
lin. Having large royalties from his
books published in Germany. he
chose the Adlon, rather than a cheap
boarding house. His broadcasts had
been arranged before his release and
apparently had nothing to do with
effecting it.
The BERTHE Wooster touch. how
ever, was in the prison camp where
Mr.. Wodehouse had refused special
accommodation and had shared a
room with go other British prisoners.
All he had asked had been a place
in which to work He got it-in
big room where tap dancer and
saxophonist were also given places
to work.
Others Volunteered Work.
II Mr.. Wodehouse is now working
for the Germans, informed friends
say, he is not the only one. Three
hundred British out of 1000 pris-
oners in that camp volunteered to
work on the roads in order to get
exercise and make a little money.
These friends say that Mr.. Wode-
house is money minded and prob
ably convinced that his broadcasts
will keep him before his American
public. Also. they say. he is COM
pletely devoid of patriotism and
would not have thought of his broad
casts in terms of working for his
country's enemy. The Germans
suddenly realized that his broad
casts gave them a long-sought op-
portunity to expel c. B. S., whose
representative, William L. Shirer,
had enraged them by his recent
book. They also became aware of
the tremendous propaganda value
they could make of him.
tCopyright, 1941, by Chicago Daily News.)