THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

13, Cheyne Walk,
Chelsea, S.W.

[?June 1914]

Dear Martin Shaw
I shall be delighted to do all I can to help – though I am as much in ignorance on these matters as yourself.
I do feel it was not fair of M^rs Dearmer to sugggest a contract like that – simply for the reason that she can afford to wait for her money & you cannot.  On the other hand if you had demanded a sum for providing the music (just as Miss Watson, say, got a sum for providing the band) I do not know that you could also expect to share profits.
But it seems to me that the 1^st thing to do is to find out from a solicitor (or from Thring¹ of the author’ society² if you belong) whether this agreement is binding or not; the obvious thing to have done if you did not approve of the agreement submitted w^d have been to have withheld the music – but I quite see that in your present relations with the Dearmers this w^dhave been an unpleasant thing to have done.
If it w^dhelp you & Gwynne to come here & talk it over with me please do so – if he also agrees that it w^dbe useful – but as I say I have no expert knowledge of these things.
I wish you belonged to the authors – they w^d help you a lot.
Yrs sincerely

R.V.W.

1.  George Herbert Thring.
2.  The Society of Authors.