| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Metz, to her relatives, starting the letter on Saturday night as 'there is no Sunday here' and she does not know if she will be able to get to church, sympathy now for factory workers, Chauvel's comment about volunteers not being appreciated applies here, glad to be away from Dr. Job, as Mlle. Chiry is exhausted tonight, she and Mme. Poilevey have 84 patients, including 20 new arrivals, probably with Spanish influenza, Dr. Job is more demanding than the Czar, he is the consulting physician for the Northern Army Corps, he takes up too much of his nurses' time with attending to him, military nurses have hours on and off duty and are not treated in this way, Mme. Poilevey will not hear a word against him - Amelia wonders if he is married, as Mme. Poilevey is a widow, Mme. Poilevey is annoying Mlle. Chiry because she is trying to impress the doctor by taking credit for all the work, Amelia is Mlle. Chiry's safety valve, good for Mlle. Chiry, but not restful for Amelia, Mlle. Chiry may well leave soon, Amelia is quiet just now but Mme. Remy has leave planned, there is a plot afoot, for Mlle. Guyard had the nursing of the nervous diseases, but took leave to nurse a brother who died of tubercular meningitis and the work wore Mlle. Guyard out; Mme. Remy took advantage of her absence to replace her, and now fears that Amelia will do the same, so she is taking a shorter leave than planned so that Amelia cannot take over, but in hopes that Amelia will prevent Mlle. Guyard from returning, sorry not to have worked with Mlle. Guyard and Dr. Pasteur, the previous doctor, a great expert now at the Val de Grace military hospital in Paris, Dr. Belbieze knows nothing of massage or the machines, Mlle. Guyard thinks that good masseuses are so rare that Amelia should be in a private clinic on a high salary, she would probably be paid five times what she receives at Metz, paying for a metal wreath in memory of an infirmier 'murdered the other night as he left our Foyer du Soldat', the organisation is good but one must keep one's place or there is trouble, Mme. Carnot in Paris wants the nurses to be able to go out more, and this means that Mlle. Stoufflet wants Mlle. Chiry and Amelia to go to a military ball this evening along with her and Mlle. Manivoire, reflection on the very mixed guests as the officers are allowed to invite their wife, family or mistress, 'men and women of every rank of society including the present-day corrupt war-developed officers', row ensues between Mlle. Chiry and Mlle. Stoufflet, apparently there is a box reserved at the theatre for A.D.F. nurses, but none of them has time to use it so the other nurses do, perpetual warfare between the military nurses and the Red Cross nurses, Metz is good for now but will also be a stepping stone to somewhere else, Mlle. Guyard is looking out for an appropriate post for her 'with scientific and professional conditions', the doctors here use the patients to advance their own studies, she has no respect for Dr. Bellieze, fortunately he only pays flying visits to Amelia. |