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- II9 -

and our nerves are in bad state. Everyone is asking why the English fail to rout the few Germans still stationed on the hills near Florence. But it is easier to put military affairs to the question than to answer them, especially when war bulletins are lacking. The English say that it is useless to expose their men, as the war is to be over in a month or two. Now do they say this to give heart before facing the terrific battles to come, wherein will be used those new weapons and inventions, the efficacy of which the Germans have been vaunting for so long, or are we to believe that this is nothing more than bluffing; that an easy invasion of Germany can be expected. Yet judging from the obstinate stand taken by the Germans even here, it would seem that far greater obstinacy will be shown nearer the Fatherland.
September 3rd Our unfortunate "Sfollata' who was the first to lose her home at the beginning of the American bombing raids, and who lately saw her husband being take away by the English Secret Service, has now found that the cabin built in her garden to house retrieved belongings and coating some ten thousand lire has been broken into by the Reds and her things stolen including a bicycle. 'Mal chance, maladdresse', says N. and indeed one wonders how she could have expected her little cabin, with none to protect it, to remain intact in a street next to the Via Bolognese, the chosen quarters of the turbulent elements. She who hates the Germans, has received her blows