Autograph letter signed : Southwater, to Samuel C. Chew, 1920 August 25.

Discussing Egypt's freedom, his poetry and his long life; thanking him for his article in the "New Republic" "...which shows me that I have not cried wholly in a wilderness, either in verse or prose these many years. Indeed, today I am reaping an unexpectedly full harvest in the land I have worked for most - Egypt has been at last accorded her freedom and an army of occupation is to be withdrawn. I had almost ceased to hope to live to see such a fulfilment of my dreams - and now even the Times, my old enemy of forty years is converted to the better view of that friendly alliance which Arabia offered England on Egypt's part in 1882. It is very wonderful and I rub my eyes in doubt whether it can indeed be true - Mesopotamia also seems on the way to her independence. The Gov't is withdrawing the wild headed soldiers they had entrusted with reorganizing an administration at Bagdad and is sending more reasonable men to withdraw the garrison & make friends once [illegible] with the Arabs they have failed to rule by martial law, if indeed it is not too late. As to my verse I leave it to take care of itself & to your kind help beyond the Atlantic - My faith has always been that verse may be trusted to find its own level. If good it will survive, if less than good it will be forgotten - and after all it matters little. I spent my 80th birthday with a contented mind. My long life has been a happier one than that of most. But I have had enough of it & I do not echo the wish of 'many returns' my friends offer me. I think them all the same & I thank you for your kindness in regard to me."