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The Citadel
Quebec

Mrs Carruthers 8 Gower Street London W.C

4th August, 1936.

My dears,

My dears,

We have emerged successfully from the President's visit.
We were marvellously fortunate, as it was sandwiched between two bad
days, and the weather was perfect. We had a terrific time before he
came. The house was always full of USA Secret Service men, and the head
of the latter was always quietly but politely upsetting Eric Mackenzie's
carefully arranged plans. Only when he said that the car, in
which the President would be, must be driven by the President's own
chauffeur in a Homburg hat, did Eric say that this was impossible!
It would spoil the look of the procession.

The President's lameness makes things very difficult for
him, and rather for his hosts. We had to put sloping bits of wood
everywhere where there was a step. He is marvellously brave about
it, and his son and Gus, his confidential servant, rush to his side
the moment he wants to get up. Between them they make it all seem
easy and natural.

Quebec filled up with people, and there were a great many
American tourists too. The G. men, who always accompany the President,
went in a car after him and John, literally armed to the teeth.
They even had a machine-gun! Two of them stood on the running-board
of their car and it made one feel very safe, though I must say it
does spoil the look of a procession a little bit. It took forty-five
minutes to drive from Wolfe's Cove, where the President was landed.
The slopes of the hill were covered with G. men. Michael Adeane remarked,
"We shall hear nothing but their howls, as the hill is covered