WCP7236

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne,¹

June 6th. 1904

G. McAlpine Esq.

My dear MacAlpine

Thanks for your interesting letter. I am very glad you have so agreeable a post with that amount of leisure which every human being ought to have. Will² was with us for a week at Easter & again at Whitsuntide, as he had a bad cold since the winter, & was very much pulled down. The week's rest here did him good but he should have had a month[?]. The climate of Manchester [2] and a good deal of rather uncongenial work, and also, (and I think mainly) because he does not study his diet, & get what is really nourishing to the body, — altogether, do not agree with him, & I rather hope he may be moved back to Rugby again or get some post under some local or general authority.

What a paradise such an island as Mauritius might be if white man had been content with to live & work in it, without importing dark races to do all the work for them — to be slaves or [3] serfs! Strange that none but socialists see that the whole system of imported labour is thoroughly rotten & absolutely immoral, & must necessarily in the long term, lead to all kinds of social evils.

As to your naturalist friend in the Seychelles he can send me nothing, as that is an absolutely tropical island, & I only want a few sub-tropical or warm-temperate seeds & bulbs. Should he come back to Mauritius ask him if he can send me any bulbs etc, that grow at say above 2000 [4] feet altitude, as these I dare say I could grow in any greenhouse. I suppose on the plateau now you are having quite cool weather.

The garden here is looking beautiful now, the flowers & shrubs having grown wonderfully.

With all best wishes| Believe me | Yours very sincerely | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]