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Budapest, November 22, 1922
Dear Professor,
As an impartial observer of the events within the Committee, I hasten to share with you my views about them.
In the current question (the trifle about the secretary's report to the Korrespondenzblatt),1 Rank is definitely right. It would have been nonsense to value formalities and agencies as more important than the interest of the cause itself. But on the whole I find that the (often quite unjustified) sensitivity of Abraham and Jones must be spared, precisely in the interest of the cause. We must do everything to forestall dissension within the Committee. Misunderstandings should be eliminated by amicable discussion, and even in scientific questions one shouldn't offend the most loyal adherents. I am convinced that both Abraham and Jones, if we make them aware of certain errors (while sparing their sensitivities, of course), will not be closed off to insight into certain of their own insufficiencies.
But I can't protest vehemently enough about the idea of Rank's, which was certainly only planted in the heat of the battle, that the constitution of the Committee, or even the form of the Zeitschrift should be tampered with. The Zeitschrift is and remains the soul of the whole movement; it must under all circumstances be saved and maintained.
It was, perhaps, unavoidable that little special alliances also formed within the Committee from time to time. But all our efforts must be aimed at making such alliances, which are permitted only for dealing with current questions, superfluous as soon as possible, by making the good