Series 01 Part 02: Hughes family correspondence, 3 April 1917-22 September 1918 - Page 477
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[Page 477]
4.
he is collecting for Cardinal Mercier's Relief Fund. He got about £70 at each convent by a collection from the audience.
I believe he did very well in Victoria, where Dr Mannix gave him full permission to collect, & he got about £3000, but here Dr. Kelly has not given him permission to make a public appeal, & hence he can only speak at gatherings at which he is invited to speak. The ways of Archbishops are strange & curious. If one had ventured to prophesy, he would have reversed the attitudes of the two Archbishops.
I had to go to Katoomba the other day on business, & the night I spent at the Carrington was cold enough to compare with what you fellows have gone through night after night for four winters on the French & other fronts. I have a lot of things to keep me busy in these days, & I suppose it is as well to keep working hard in spite of our anxiety about you all, & about the war itself. Things seem going better on the Italian front, & it seems as if the Austrians, without German stiffening, are going to fail, just as the Italians – without British & French stiffening – failed last time. The West front is however the deciding ground, & there are many anxious hours ahead before danger in that quarter is past.
The Italian renaissance in a military sense during the past few weeks has bucked up the prospects of their Red Cross collection here next Friday. I am enclosing an amusing criticism from