Letter from Pierre Dubaut to Jacques Lipchitz

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Full text in translation:

'My Dear Friend,
The events are following one another at an accelerated pace. Paris is threatened, maybe already taken as you are not responding to me! We didn't believe in a disaster of this magnitude; I've always feared it would happen knowing the military powers of the Germans and their domination at all costs. But wasn't it seen, in certain environments, as being a Hitlerite to voice these fears out loud when to the contrary it was showing some clarity?
We are appalled here. Some repatriated from Paris and the areas around are coming in to continue here and I'm wondering how and who will lodge them. Their stories sometimes make the skin crawl.
How right were you to leave! It was the right timing, but you had to leave your studio and everything in it so what will happen to all of that? I have the feeling that if the Germans enter Paris they won't stay very long and will push on as soon as possible to get to the south and the east to cover most of France and to destroy all our armies, the most dangerous for them, one at a time. And the famous 'Guerre-Eclair' [Blitzkrieg] will be finished. Hitler will be able to drive under the Arc de Triomphe!
I will accept with fervor the French army taking on the Germans from behind like Gallieni did in 1914. But nothing seems to get in the way of these bastards? torrents of steel, and all the abandoned equipment under the mills is lacking.
I still have faith, you are probably the same as me, still with hope despite everything!
Give me some news, you?ve written so little I don't even know which town you are staying in. Maybe we need, for yourself and for me, to go south again. I asked one of my uncles for advice six months ago and he said ?Go to Saint-Jean-de-Luz' [Southwest France?s Basque country] he is there himself. But at last, everyone must follow their own destiny.
What about Blot and Chaux? And your other friends? Give me some news that you might have received from people that I know. I know nothing about anyone. I think I?ve already told you that it seems that Picasso is at Royan [south-west of France].
In the hope to speak to you soon'.

Postscript written on one side, could be finishing a sentence:
'My friend Paul [illegible surname] has a propriety near Agen [southwestern France] that is called 'The Magistere' the family must be there.

Postscript written on both sides of the letter:
'My sister is begging me to ask you if there is anything that she could rent in your studio, to go with artworks and luggage because you are lower than us. If possible, she could sing and cook [illegibles] three beds anyhow. My health is better, and I hope that it is also the case for yours and that Mrs. Lipchitz is well.
You and I are still among the lucky ones, let's not forget. Your brother, your cousin, have they left? Think of us when you write to them'.

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