"THERE SEEMS LITTLE DOUBT BUT THAT ROOSEVELT WILL BE THE NEW PRESIDENT IN AMERICA" HALL (Sir William Reginald, 1870-1943, Admiral in the Royal Navy, Director of Naval Intelligence in the First World War, The Dreadnought Project)

Fine Typed Letter Signed to "My dear Arturio" thanking him for a "book. I have not read it so it is a great treat to come. I am sending you a book but have not decided yet which one. I am sending to [sic] a line to Ivy Lethbridge as you suggest; I am awfully sorry for her. All very quiet here and life slips by without one seeming to do anything in particular. Faith seems to enjoy her life. She spent the last week in Town with an old friend and is off again on Friday ... Ess is very fit and hard at work planting bulbs ... Are you a coming here for a few days on your way back from Treniffle? I do think it would be good for you and Goda. The exposure of the Red tactics with the Hunger marchers will harden public opinion in favour of doing something to stop these demonstrations; it is sheer folly to allow London to be capsized by these ruffians and insurances become almost compulsory with many people who otherwise would not have to insure. I can't complain of course being in that trade! There seems little doubt but that Roosevelt will be the new President in America; I heard from Morgans intelligence man the other day. They seem to think that, though the election will not be popular with big business, affairs will settle down after a few months. The amazing thing to my mind is that Roosevelt should want to be President seeing that he is partially paralysed; It kills even a wholly sound man and R ought to last only a short time if he does his job ... if he is really wise, he will have a coalition cabinet and rake in some of the best of the Republicans. A National Government covers a multitude of sins as we know over here ...", 2 sides 4to., Hawk's Lease, Lyndhurst headed paper, 1st November

Hall was appointed Director of the Intelligence Division by the Admiralty in October 1914. Together with Sir Alfred Ewing he was responsible for the establishment of the Royal Navy's codebreaking operation, Room 40, which decoded the Zimmermann telegram, a major factor in the entry of the United States in World War I.
Despite his retirement from military on political life Hall by the late 1930s had been identified as an important target person by the National Socialist police apparatus: In early 1940 the Reichssicherheitshauptamt in Berlin, the headquarters of the intelligence service of the SS, added his name to the Sonderfahndungsliste G.B., a list of people residing in the UK, whom the Nazi leadership and/or its intelligence service regarded as particularly important or (from their point of view) dangerous and who for that reason were slated to be tracked down and apprehended with heightened priority by special task forces of the SS, that were to follow on the heels of the occupying forces in case of a successful invasion of the British islands by the Wehrmacht.
In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide. Roosevelt took office in the midst of the Great Depression, the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. During the first 100 days of the 73rd United States Congress, Roosevelt spearheaded unprecedented federal legislation and issued a profusion of executive orders that instituted the New Deal—a variety of programs designed to produce relief, recovery, and reform.

Item Date:  1932

Stock No:  40625      £575

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