1939

Printed: GEO. H. McFADDEN & BRO.

Printed: 1606-1611 PACKARD BUILDING

Printed: Cable Address Macfadden

Handwritten: signature

September 18th, 1939 Philadelphia

B. H. Hill, Esq., 9 Plutarch Street, Athens, Greece.

Dear Mr. Hill:

As you know, I was to come back with my sister and brother-in-law on the Europa sailing from Cherbourg on the 2nd of September. I was in Berchtesgaden waiting to hear from them to find out what their plans were in view of the sudden crisis. As I got no answer from them I thought it was probably impossible to receive any wire from abroad so I hurried to Switzerland just in time to get out of Germany before it was too late. I cabled again from Switzerland and on the afternoon of the thirty-first got an answer from them at Zurich saying that they were sailing on the "Il de France" next day, the first of September; so I boarded a train that night and met them at their hotel and then hurried off the next morning and reached Paris early to the French Line to see if I could get a passage at the last moment as I had only one hour before the train left for the "Il de France." By a great piece of luck they managed to get me a single outside cabin although a few wires had to be pulled to achieve this, so I came along with them on the ship at Havre before we received permission from the French Government to sail. War broke out just as we sailed, and there were blackouts of course every night during the whole voyage, which was very depressing.

Unfortunately, I had my squeeze[handwritten: s] of all my inscriptions in Munich and had no time to get them; as it was, I had to motor to Innsbruck and from Innsbruck I managed to get a train going into Switzerland. There were no trains, and searched it thoroughly and then they proceeded to search me and stripped me in the customs office. I think I was the only one stripped on the whole train. They apparently thought I was a very suspicious character. I imagine this was because of the miscellaneous lot of unusual things I carried in my luggage, such as photographs, inscriptions, catalogue cards and so on. I have written the hotel in Munich, where the squeezes are to send them through the American Consulate, and to explain what they are so as to raise no suspicion. I have photographs of practically all of the inscriptions so I can work with these for the time being if I stay over here.

Whether I sail or not of course will depend upon the situation and whether you will be free to go to Cyprus yourself. As things are at present I should think there would be nothing to impede our work there. I could sail on an Italian ship to Naples and proceed to Cyprus