Philip de Laszlo: War, Pt. 2

"The Honourable Marguerite de
Fontaine Drever Joicey"

"On the morning of July 17th, while Philip de Laszlo was painting the Honorable Marguerite Joicey, an incident occurred which was to have disastrous consequences. The details are so important that they are best related in Philip de Laszlo's own words: 

'About 12 o'clock, while I was hard at work, my servant Rose Murphy, who had been with me for nine years, handed me a note on a tray saying that the man who had brought it was waiting. Thinking that it was merely a begging letter, I told her to open it and read it to me as she often did while I was painting. She could not read it as it was written in Hungarian. 

I then read the letter, which bore the address of some hotel and ran as follows: 'I am here in great distress. I am a reserve officer of the Hungarian Army. If you could see me I should be obliged. If not, I will go away.' The letter was signed Arpad Horne.I thought that if the man were in real trouble, I had better go down and see him. 

I found him to be a nice looking young fellow of 20 or 21, but he was trembling. He asked if I could give him some money. Telling him to wait I went back to the studio, but I could only find 10 shillings. I borrowed a pound note from my sitter and also gave him the address of a Hungarian acquaintance I thought might be able to help him. 

Then he told me that he had escaped from the internment camp at Donnington Hall. 'You should not have come to me,' I said. 'You have put me in a very awkward position.' Later when I talked the matter over with my wife I realized even more fully the gravity of the situation and decided that however distasteful it might be, I must inform the police that the man was at large.'

The following afternoon de Laszlo went to the police station, taking the envelope with the address the man had initially sent up to him. He told the inspector exactly what had occurred and a written record was made of his statement. The young man was arrested the same afternoon, and sent back to Donnington Hall.

De Laszlo continued: 'When I gave him the money I certainly had no disloyal intention towards England. I was moved to pity by the man's plight, but as soon as I realized that I had acted foolishly I did my best to remedy any harm that I might have done. Later, when I told the whole story to my solicitor, he declared that he would have done the same with an Englishman abroad. 'What you did was only human,' he said.

Few who in imagination could put themselves in de Laszlo's position would disagree with his solicitor's opinion. But the law takes no cognizance of motive in such a case, and de Laszlo would suffer for his humanity."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Portrait of a Painter" by Owen Rutter.)