Letter (copy) : S.M.A.C.

              4, Aberdare Gardens,
Hampstead, London, N.W.6.
27th. February, 1941.
Lt. G. Jeger, R.A.P.C., 
Prince of Wales Hotel, 
SOUTHPORT, Lancs.
Dear Jeger,
S.M.A.C.
I received your note of the 18th February making comments on three matters.
(1) Gustav Au Beck. I agree with you that this bill is too large and extortionate. What happened in this case was this. In the terminal stage of his illness Mrs. Manning telephoned to me and explained that he was in hospital very ill; the Hospital had given a bad prognosis; they could not keep him in the hospital any longer, and it was a question of his either going home to his wife, Miss Eileen Sparling, or going to a Sanatorium. The doctor did not advise the sanatorium, and I could not understand at the time why, and tried to make arrangements to have him admitted to an L.C.C. Sanatorium. The doctor, however, was right, because he was on his last legs, and it would have been simply sending him to a sanatorium to die. Anyway, he died before anything could be done, though I had said to Mrs. Manning that if he had been sent to the Sanatorium we would have undertaken responsibility for the cost of his treatment for the short time. His wife telephoned to me on his death and asked me about his funeral expenses. He apparently died in a Nursing Home, and she telephoned to me to know whether she could let the Matron of the Nursing Home undertake the Funeral arrangements. I replied that if it were left in the hands of the Nursing Home the expenses would probably be heavy. I said I had no experience personally of funeral expenses, but said that the S.M.A.C. would be prepared to pay a reasonable charge for an ordinary burial, but I made it quite clear to her that the Committee would not stand for anything extravagant or showy, and told her to have it done as reasonably as possible. I was not really well informed over the way in which he got here, but Mrs. Manning took a great interest in the case, and seeing that he was the husband of one of the Nurses we recruited through the S.M.A.C., I thought that however dubious or indiscreet in getting him over here, yet after all he was her husband, and she had worked for the S.M.A.C., and he was over here and ill, and therefore in my view he ought to have some attention from us.
P.T.O.