“In submitting the two floor plans of the hotel, it is requested that the Ambassador take such steps as may be necessary for obtaining her Majesty’s sanction for the use of her name for the hotel. “It is only intended to build a two-story structure, having about eighty-four rooms available for guests, and a dining-room and its accessories amply large for about two hundred at one time. “Since we have been at work about the hotel site, several persons have approached me about undertaking to manage the hotel when completed. My reply has been that I should refer all such questions to the Ambassador, as I did not feel myself in a position to decide any matter not connected strictly with the construction. The interest in the hotel is spreading.” The sixth of April was a red-letter day. In the morning the King came to the Camp; in the afternoon Mr. Roosevelt and the Ambassador made their long expected visit, and in the evening J. was summoned on board the Italian man-of-war, to show his plans of the hospital to the Queen. _Extract from Mr. Elliott’s Diary_ “The Camp, Messina, April 7. “Yesterday the King arrived unexpectedly at the Camp at 9 A.M. Buchanan, Brofferio and I accompanied him and his staff through the village. They came into my small office. I showed the King my designs for the hospital and the cottages we are to build at Villaggio Regina Elena, a model village the Queen has built on the other side of Messina. He liked the plans very much. When I spoke of the great disaster the King said that the American duty put on lemons was almost as great a disaster for Sicily as the earthquake. Though, he added, ‘America is perfectly right.’ At 7 P.M. I was taken on board the ‘Umberto I’ by the steam pinnace of the ‘Dandolo.’ I was received by the Queen, a most fascinating lady. She thanked me many times, till I felt quite embarrassed. She was really very enthusiastic about the plans for the hospital and the cottages. The subject of the allotment of the houses came [Illustration: VIALE GRISCOM, AMERICAN VILLAGE, MESSINA. _Page 431._] up. I said I thought the plan the King had spoken of as his idea--the drawing of the cottages by lots--was the only way, in spite of the fact that some undeserving people might be housed while people of higher grade, really the greatest sufferers, might get nothing.”