bed. Addision argued that Rothermere was a psychologically troubled man with his maniacal mood swings; an inability to have lasting relationships; and a tendency towards hysteria. Rothermere's pessimism led him to make repeated phone calls in the dead of night to his corporate officers, Sir George Sutton, to demand information about the precise amount of his wealth as Rothermere suffered nightly anxiety attacks about the prospect of waking up less wealthy the next day. Any fall in the stock-market prices in the City or reports of economic trouble anywhere in the world induced a frantic reaction from Rothermere who believed he was going to be impoverished despite his status as one of Britain's richest men, and he demanded immediate reassurances from Sutton that steps were being taken to save his fortune. Sutton would tell him that he was taking such steps, that his fortune was secure and then go back to sleep. In a letter to Beaverbrook in November 1921, Rothermere wrote: "My own opinion is that we are on the threshold of the world slump. In its momentous consequences it is I am sure going to dwarf even the Great War. In the economic collapse of Russia, Austria, Hungary, the Balkan states, Turkey, Europe, and Asia-and the approaching collapse of Germany we see steadily being unfolded before our eyes a drama fraught with more perilous consequences for the human race than anything recorded in history". The letter was typical Rothermere's views where a recurring theme was his belief in the coming collapse of civilization, which he believed would happen sometime in the near-future. Typical of the 'national degeneration' narrative promoted by the Rothermere newspapers was a story in the Evening Standard whose headline in capital letters was "WHITE GIRLS 'HYPNOTIESED BY YELLOW MEN". The story about the "alarming facts" of London's Chinatown warned in lucid details about "the degradation of young white girls" at the hands of Chinese men. The story claimed: "Englishwomen are selling themselves to Chinamen; they are seeking out Asiatics in the streets where before the war no white women walked. The evil is baffling to the police and social workers. Women who have been 'rescued' and given a fresh start have relapsed and returned to their foreign masters, and have sunk even lower than before. The unmarried mother with a half-caste child is only one of the several problems arising. And obviously this cheapening of