Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to Alfred Sze, Chinese Legation, Washington, D.C. , December 12, 1923
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Title
Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to Alfred Sze, Chinese Legation, Washington, D.C. , December 12, 1923
Subject
Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to Alfred Sze, Chinese Legation, Washington, D.C. , December 12, 1923
Transcription
December 12, 1923
Dr. Alfred Sze
Chinese Legation
Washington, D. C.
Dear Dr. Sze:
Mary Sun has shown me your letter with its very kind and attractive invitation to her and her two brothers to pass the holidays with you in Washington. I am heartily in sympathy with the plan, but am writing merely to inquire about one or two details which involve possible complications here. I hope you will be perfectly frank with me in your answers.
It has been my custom for a number of years to have all of the Chinese students in this vicinity including the several of my own household, at our home for Christmas Day. Other boys who happen to be left over in town are regularly invited in for the Christmas tree and attendant celebration. In making my plans this year I merely wish to know what to count on.
You refer in your letter to Mary and her two brothers, and I assume that you mean the two younger boys, Charlie and Thomas, who are still here in school and living in my house. The oldest brother, Arthur, who is a student at Boston Tech, is planning to pass the holidays with us and I am wondering; whether this is understood, for I think the other children are a bit embarrassed at the idea of accepting the invitation and leaving their oldest brother behind. Quincy Sheh, now at Bowdoin College, has also written that he will be our guest for the holidays, and as he came, and has been ever since in intimate contact, with the Suns, I am sure that he, too, might wish to change his plans if he knew of their contemplated absence.
I am wondering whether visit perhaps just after Christmas Day would answer the purpose just as well. I do not wish to press this point at all, for I am anxious to do only what will prove just and most enjoyable for the children themselves, and I am sure that the Washington visit, whatever the dates involved, will be a most profitable one to them and one which they should certainly make. If it can be made, however, without depriving them of the chance to enjoy a part of the vacation here with their friends, I am inclined to think that it will be a little more acceptable all around, though as I intimated above, I would not for the world offer a suggestion, oven, that does not fit in fully with your plans and me wholly with your wishes.
Trusting that you will be as frank in your reply as I have been in my inquiries, believe me with personal regards.
Very sincerely yours,
Dr. Alfred Sze
Chinese Legation
Washington, D. C.
Dear Dr. Sze:
Mary Sun has shown me your letter with its very kind and attractive invitation to her and her two brothers to pass the holidays with you in Washington. I am heartily in sympathy with the plan, but am writing merely to inquire about one or two details which involve possible complications here. I hope you will be perfectly frank with me in your answers.
It has been my custom for a number of years to have all of the Chinese students in this vicinity including the several of my own household, at our home for Christmas Day. Other boys who happen to be left over in town are regularly invited in for the Christmas tree and attendant celebration. In making my plans this year I merely wish to know what to count on.
You refer in your letter to Mary and her two brothers, and I assume that you mean the two younger boys, Charlie and Thomas, who are still here in school and living in my house. The oldest brother, Arthur, who is a student at Boston Tech, is planning to pass the holidays with us and I am wondering; whether this is understood, for I think the other children are a bit embarrassed at the idea of accepting the invitation and leaving their oldest brother behind. Quincy Sheh, now at Bowdoin College, has also written that he will be our guest for the holidays, and as he came, and has been ever since in intimate contact, with the Suns, I am sure that he, too, might wish to change his plans if he knew of their contemplated absence.
I am wondering whether visit perhaps just after Christmas Day would answer the purpose just as well. I do not wish to press this point at all, for I am anxious to do only what will prove just and most enjoyable for the children themselves, and I am sure that the Washington visit, whatever the dates involved, will be a most profitable one to them and one which they should certainly make. If it can be made, however, without depriving them of the chance to enjoy a part of the vacation here with their friends, I am inclined to think that it will be a little more acceptable all around, though as I intimated above, I would not for the world offer a suggestion, oven, that does not fit in fully with your plans and me wholly with your wishes.
Trusting that you will be as frank in your reply as I have been in my inquiries, believe me with personal regards.
Very sincerely yours,
Creator
Alfred E. Stearns
Publisher
Phillips Academy
Date
December 12, 1923
Rights
All Rights Reserved by Phillips Academy
Language
English
Type
Correspondence