Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XX. War sufferers
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Gradually these relations developed. People wrote to
us from Russia for news of those who were supposed
to be prisoners, and sent us letters to send on to
them, and then provisions and money. The accounts of
Russian travellers who had actually seen our work
had made this popular in Russia. It soon became
necessary to increase the number of assistants to
the committee, to enlarge its offices, to regulate its
various duties, which were: the correspondence with
the prisoners of war—officers and men; the transfer
of the correspondence addressed to prisoners in Russia
and vice-versâ; the purchase of presents—provisions
and indispensable necessaries—for the prisoners and
the dispatching of the same.
On all questions relative to the situation of our
prisoners, civil and military, in enemy countries, we
had perpetually to have recourse to the kind help of
the Spanish Minister, because it was the Ambassadors
of His Catholic Majesty who protected the interests
of the Russians in Berlin and Vienna. The daily
intercourse which ensued between me and the Duke
of Amalfi will remain one of the happy memories of
my long career. All Russians who had occasion to
apply to him received a charming and cordial welcome;
and anything that the Spanish Legation could do for
them was promptly done by the Minister himself or
by his amiable secretaries. It was just the same with
any service that the Russian Legation asked of them;
moreover, we were for ever troubling them by demands
for information, entreaties for protection, claims in
favour of our unfortunate compatriots.
Having served a long term at the Foreign Office
in Madrid as general secretary, the Duke of Amalfi,
historian, writer, and delightful poet, in accepting the
post in Stockholm foresaw pleasant leisure moments
which he would be able to devote to his literary
pursuits. And now instead—hardly installed in his
new post and surprised like all of us by the storm of
war—he was drawn into the business of the protection
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