Dearest J A.
I suppose that you will be back from Mexico before this reaches you. I hope you had a thoroughly satisfactory & enjoyable trip. We have had a beautiful journey in North Africa. We left Tunis only day before yesterday and all that I regret is that we are getting on to the W.I.L. chapter of our journey so late in the season. I don't [page 2] believe we shall get to Bucharest -- where everything closes up for the season & people scatter very early -- nor so far as Warsaw though our friends there are most cordial. Bulgaria sounds pretty disturbed but it may be quieter by the time we should be going there. Both Madame Karavéloff & little Mlle Théodorova, our Secy there whom you may remember from Vienna, have written most cordially. So have our friends [page 3] in Constantinople. I hope to get there before Miss Sheepshanks leaves.
I am hoping very much that the plan of my attending an Ex. Com. meeting will not fall through but [illegible] V. Gs proposal of a meeting [illegible] July 13-20 does not suit my book at all as Miss Hayward must be in Boston some days before Aug 1 and I had run things as close as I could in suggesting the first half of July. Of course it is not V. G.'s fault [page 4] that other members of the Com. cannot come till later.
Will you please let me know what you want me to lay before the Com, or what action or policy to pursue in any respect.
What does the item of business "appointment of an acting Secretary for Geneva" mean? Does V. G. want to leave? [illegible] Do others want to have her go? [illegible] of Or is she suspecting that she is not satisfying the British? or others? and with her [illegible] and wanting to test out [page 5] the situation? What is your own feeling about her staying on? About a successor in case she went?
Is there any point I ought to make about finances?
We are just about to sail for the Piraeus having landed yesterday at Palermo from Tunis. Due Athens April 21. I suppose we shall stay there at least a fortnight & then go on to [page 6] Constantinople for about the same length of time.
This is as definite as my plans are yet.
We both are well and enjoying our experiences. I sometimes get upset with indigestion or a cold but all quite trivial and in general much more vigorous than last fall though with somewhat limited endurance, especially nervously.
I am writing now with a sense of hurry as we want to go ashore for various bits [page 7] of business before our boat starts. So no more now.
Yours always as you know
Emily G Balch
If the question arose of my going back to Geneva I do not feel that I ought to consider it for personal reasons nor that, above all, it would be a good thing for the W.I.L.
Address in care Maison Internationale
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