| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, 7 Via Venti Settembre, Rome, to her relatives, regarding visit from Mr. Davies, secretary of the Y.M.C.A., who is based in Geneva; he has been at Sardinia; he is prepossessing and gave an amusing account of his travels; problems with customs officials wrongly translating his title; further problems with customs officials spending so much time admiring his postcards that he almost missed a train; Mrs. Brock agitated that Queen Elena had gone north with Princesses Jolanda and Mafalda to visit the King and attacks on their train on their return; the train's narrow escape via Venice and Padua; Mrs. Brock had also lost her temper with an American woman who accused Britain of going into the war for selfish reasons; Dr. Brock sent a special messenger with her papers, but the messenger would not accept Mrs. Brock's word that she was who she said she was; Mrs. Brock's maid has complained to Maria that Mrs. Brock and Miss Jazdowska combined produce an atmosphere that is 'devilish'; she told Maria that Miss Jazdowska has left all her money to Muriel Brock [There were Jazdowskis associated with teaching and art in Aberdeen: James Bronislas Jazdowski, son of John, teacher in Aberdeen, graduated from Marischal College in 1856 and according to an annotation of the Search Room student list died in Rome in 1902]; Mrs. Brock had been pestering Uncle to find out what was being done for British sailors at Brindisi, but it turns out that the Y.M.C.A. is already in motion on the subject; Mrs. Brock bullies men into co-operating with her; Mrs. Brock is being used by Miss Howard, daughter of the Roman Catholic representative to the Vatican, to wreck evangelical schemes in Rome and Uncle warned her of this, saying that if the soldiers' club in Rome were to be re-opened it should be run by a proper committee; Miss Jazdowska refused to agree, saying that it had been run perfectly well before; Mrs. Brock is now gone north via Florence and Bologna, then will return to take Miss Jazdowska home and spend the summer with Muriel; she will do little Red Cross work; the Austrians are reinforced and the Italian morale is low; Dr. Rossi is upset that both Paul and Guido are off to the front; Guido is now a 2nd. Lieutenant; Dr. Rossi feels that the Russians are not pulling their weight; there is no end in sight; Mr. Sutherland, engaged to work in the Y.M.C.A. in France, has offered to come back; the Government has chartered hotels at Lausanne for the wounded British, and Aunt wonders if Amelia might find work there; Chamonix still has no wounded; Uncle and Aunt still wish to go there; she could go there with them and then on to Lausanne by Martigny and the Simplon route; she does not enjoy being unemployed; Ernesta is leaving for the country where she has work to do in the fields; the house is nearly spring-cleaned; Dr. Fairweather has changed his plans; Uncle has thought of staying in Rome all summer for the benefit of soldiers passing through on the way to Salonika; Mrs. Brock's maid was disappointed that Mrs. Brock could not use her influence to move her brother from the front to the Red Cross, but Maria is dismissive of Mrs. Brock's real powers; Miss Forster Walker departed for the summer with 18 pieces of luggage, 14 of which she insisted on keeping in the compartment with her; Uncle asked the guard to look after her; Aunt had to buy her bananas and cookies as she had forgotten her lunch, but Miss Forster Walker looked on the gift as the Lord's providence. |