Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws to her relatives Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, 7 Via Venti Settembre, Rome, to her relatives, regarding Communion Sunday; feeling ill because of the scirocco; busy week made worse by repairing of Church curtains; description of work involved; they bought new cloth last season for pulpit mourning and went to Peyron to order cord to match; trouble making new shade for dining room lamp as cardboard is so thin now it does not stand up; other repairs should be finished this week; the dining room table cover has stood up for 25 years without being darned but now needs a good deal of work; organ lessons begin this week; she has been developing the ability to read music and work it out without an instrument; her hands are very supple after her summer's work; more difficulties with working for the Red Cross - she has certificates which cover the first two years' work, and if she completes the third she will be obliged to be mobilised in the event of a national calamity, to which Uncle and Aunt object; Uncle is now thinking of making enquiries of Baroness Sonnino who worked at S. Croce last year with Mrs. Gibson and Miss Stewart; Amelia is reluctant to work with them but would do it to help the wounded; Aunt, Mrs. Benton and she went to he see the hospital for the mutilated at the Villa Mirafiore, granted by the American Academy; Dottore Giraldi did not turn up, but Hale Benton has made an appointment for next week; she has asked Dr. Jacod (the doctor from Aix), still at Lyon, for a letter of recommendation, and has received it; Amelia reproduces it and the letter in full (in English); her praise for his attitude to her; the French doctoress has written to say that Amelia's successor is being thwarted in her work and the administration may succeed in throwing her out; there is a possibility that most of the Aix hospitals will be closed for the winter and militarised in the spring, which will dispose of the jealous nurses; Mme. Brouard has been asking for Amelia's address; Amelia has received lots of cards and letters from her patients; visit from Mr. Irving of Naples; Mary Irving is still with the Duchess of Hamilton as companion to the Duke, who is delicate, and nurse-governess to the children; she is not the Duchess' secretary, as that is Miss Lindsay, but they are great friends; visit from the Rev. Mr. Platt of Malta Y.M.C.A., on his way home after dysentery; he wanted to go to Switzerland but it is easier to get in than to get out 'for no country wishes to receive people from Switzerland'; he is to go to Chamonix instead; his wife is Nelly Leith whom Aunt knew in Aberdeen; he was successor to Jowett in Newcastle but could not cope with the spirit of hatred against Germany; he hopes to settle in Scotland; there are 21,000 ill with dysentery in Malta because of overcrowded soldiers at Salonika; he and his wife were in Stuttgart when war broke out, and they were stripped and beaten as he was taken for a Russian spy; the Germans were more than apologetic when their mistake was discovered; Aunt's visit to Miss van Deman; Hale Benton's foot making a good recovery; many drifters are on their way home for their first leave in two years. 5 November 1916