| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, 7 Via Venti Settembre, Rome, to her relatives, regarding an uninteresting week; thanks for post from Aunt Amy; there is still some censorship of foreign mails; mention of public condemnation of General Maurice for going behind Lloyd George's back to the press; her patient Mathieu has been given a steel sole and marked as fit for army service, so they must be desperate for healthy men; she is anxious to get away and if no reply comes from Paris soon she will go to France anyway; Uncle is tired but will not discuss plans for the summer; he had wanted to go away to the sea, but every arrangement is rejected; Mrs. Benton has invited him to Nettuno but he will not go; he will not go to Sorrento as Miller, the Morning Post correspondent, and the American ambassador are there; he does not like the Adriatic, and Rapallo and Viareggio are too far; he needs the change but will not move; visit of Mr. Huston and a Y.M.C.A. congregational minister from England named Smith; he is like a sparrow; Mr. Huston is to return home, invalided by a bad bout of influenza; his lungs are affected; Uncle's visit to Mrs. D. Rose, whose jaundice gave her terrible biliousness and the doctor gave her a narcotic - he says there are 'calcoli' on the liver; he has wired to Annie in Switzerland, which is not wise as it is a difficult journey with all the paperwork -Annie is unlikely to make it on time if Mrs. Rose is really dying, and if she is not it is a wasted effort; everything is in order for her in Rome anyway and the granddaughters will be looked after; Aunt has visited Mrs. Genetouse (Beatrice) who has still not received her money for her villa from the government; her plans for doing so; she cannot use her lawyer as the minister concerned has threatened the lawyer with ruin if he acts in the case; the taxes on the manse are now to be raised, and in turn Miss Jazdowska's rent will have to go up [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]; Uncle wants the backing of the Board of Management for the purpose; Miss Jazdowska may leave, or she may find that the proximity to the soldiers' club outweighs the increase in rent; she has a good income from Canadian bonds; an average of 116 to 140 men are attending the club and she is thrilled by it; they eat 400 eggs a day; the women helpers are exhausted; she tried to get Amelia to volunteer but the work does not appeal to her; 'I like men when suffering and stripped of all their airs of masculine superiority'; she would regulate the facilities of the club more, and not pander to the whims of the men; Nurse Annandale's account of the men on the Serbian retreat, who collapsed exhausted when they reached safety but expected the nurses who had retreated with them to set to and make meals and beds; price rises in butter and milk; Ernesta is to leave at the end of the month so all the cleaning must be finished; Maria's sister is ill again and in for another operation. |