Item 01: Eric Susman war diary, 1 January 1915-4 April 1916 - Page 103
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[Page 103]
Saturday 20 March 1915
Guard at the Hospital is the easiest, sweetest job I have done so far. Three good, nourishing meals and plenty of nice warm blankets made this usually irksome task really pleasant, and even enjoyable. To begin with, there was the novelty of guarding what is probably the finest hotel in the world. Also, all the surroundings were novel, the nursing sisters in their attractive uniform; the ever present badge of the Geneva Convention, the scrupulous cleanliness of a well-run institution. How different from dusty Heliopolis!
I had the opportunity of seeing the interior of this most beautiful edifice by daylight. Everything was evidently worked out on a grand scale, immense and imposing, stately and splendid. All is of the best throughout the whole three floors – from the beautiful cielings and the elaborate, oriental light fittings, to the fine slabs of marble of which the floor is composed, the beautiful marble pillars, the exquisitely colored designs of the walls. All is Arabic in style though the work of the French architect, Jasper [Ernest Jaspar]. Truly a wonderful building. There were three burials to-day, all with full military honours. It is this that brings you down to Earth again from this wonderful hall of "Demi-paradise".