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3 April 1924
Vienna, IX. Berggasse 19
Dear Jones,
Last week, as a result of my catarrhal influenza, I felt so poorly that I let myself be persuaded to spend Saturday and Sunday at the Semmering Kurhaus, three hours from Vienna. The results were so good that I am repeating the excursion this week and perhaps each week thereafter. Moreover, in my present condition the need for rest and recuperation was demonstrated so unequivocally that I decided to forgo the Salzburg Congress, with all its attendant trouble and excitement, and to spend a week's holiday at the Semmering once again at Easter. I am therefore informing you that I shall not attend the Congress this year. I know this amounts to an admission of my present frailty, but it cannot be avoided.
I hope that my absence will also have the result of showing the gentlemen of the former Committee that, in the interest of the Association and the Movement, they must somehow get along with one another, if they are not to sacrifice a great cause to personal sensitivities.
You may have already heard that Rank is going to New York1 at Ames's invitation for four or five months immediately after the Congress. He will treat patients there and promote our interests in every respect. You will find it understandable that I do not want to miss this unexpected and rare opportunity to disseminate our literature in America. So, if I may assume that you have so far been unable to do anything about my American rights, I take the liberty to reclaim them and entrust Rank to represent my interests in America.
When Rank returns he will probably be elected in my place as president of the Vienna Society. I am no longer capable of attending the evening sessions and must therefore relinquish this part of my activity as well.
I express the hope that the dissolution of the intimate Committee will reduce the points of controversy and conflict between its members, and that they regain the necessary empathy of being colleagues in the same cause, their