Loan MS 129/2/7

Material relating to the Cussen Report on P.G. Wodehouse following an investigation on his actions in 1941, 28 Sept 1944, including:

• photocopy of the Cussen Report 'Re Wodehouse, Pelham Grenville', 28 Sept 1944;
• photocopies of formal statements by P.G. Wodehouse, 9, 14 and 15 Sept 1944, Ethel Wodehouse, 12 and 15 Sept 1944, Dorothy Bess (correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post), 11 Sept 1944, Marcel Vidal (manager at the Hotel Bristol, Paris), 13 Sept 1944, Aage Lonholt-Ipsen (a Dane residing in Paris), undated, and Gustav Elm (a Swede journalist residing in Paris), 14 Sept 1944 (26 pages);
• photocopies of documents comprising a report of an interview between Wodehouse and Angus Thuermer, 12 Dec 1940; a BBC report of a Radio Interview between Wodehouse and Flannery, 29 Jun 1941; the scripts of five broadcasts by Wodehouse from Berlin, Jun/Aug 1941; a letter from Wodehouse to the Foreign Office, 21 Nov 1942; and a letter from Wodehouse to the Home Secretary, 4 Sept 1944;
• photocopies of minutes relating to the Home Office’s consideration of Major Cussen report, along with a statement by Freddie Kraus, an Austrian who had met Wodehouse in Berlin, which was made on 10 Jan 1945, too late to be referred to by Major Cussen, 1944-1945.

The file also contains correspondence between Richard Usborne and people to whom he asked to provide clarification of certain matters for use in his biography of Wodehouse, 29 Aug 1956-28 Sept 1966, with a note by Usborne about his communications with Major Cussen, 13 Mar 1978.