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Correspondence from Raoul Loveday to His Parents
11 February 1923
Forgive me for not having written before but I have had a very sharp bout of malaria which has left behind it a persistent diarrhoea. I have had this for about ten days now and it has left me as weak as water. As you see I have had to get Betty [Betty May] to write this letter for me. The doctor here is giving me various things but I do not seem to be making much headway. I trust, however, that by the time you get this letter I shall be quite well.
Betty, herself, has been unable to keep anything in her stomach for the last week but I think she is just on the turn now. I believe that the air or the water or something here, perhaps the place, does not agree with me. If I can earn enough without having to spend it on the doctor or on the other million extras which surround one in a foreign country if one wants any comfort, if I can do this I think I shall come back.
[On the back of this letter, Betty had appended her own note:]
Dear Mrs. Loveday,
Raoul doesn’t know I am writing and I hope you will not tell him anything I have written on this page to you. I really think Raoul is very very ill and if he doesn’t come home soon he will be too weak to be moved.
He is laying down all sorts of rules, rules that could not possibly be kept. I have never worked so hard in my life as I have here. I am very ill, myself, but I am looking after Raoul as best I can. He wants a good warm bed and nourishment which we cannot get here. If Raoul gets better Crowley thinks of parting us and what can we do. We have got no money and are dependent upon him for our food.
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