THE LATE DR. ELSIE INGLIS

Mrs. Abbott, of tlio Scottish Women's Hospital Unit Commitleo, writes as follows regarding tlio work and death of Dr. Elsie Inglis, founder and commissioner of the hospitals, and hie and soul of them likewise. Mrs. Abbott writes:— _ "With the indomitable spirit winch characterised her, sho overcame all tho preliminary difficulties inseparably from the initiation of such a novel venture as women's war hospitals, and left ns C.M.O. for Serbia in 1915. Heavy work and dire responsibilities were her lot during the typhus epidemic, and tho terrible Serbian retreat. Sonic or her units returned to England early in 1916; others, herself included, wero held in Serbia during the German occupation. But by April, 1916, all save those who had laid down their lives in Serbia—were safely back on English soil. ''By September, 1916, she was once more journeying to the aid of Serbia 'with two large units in her charge. A perilous journey up to Archangel, and down through the length of Russia to minister to 20,000 Sorbs in the Dobrudjal The tragedy of the Dobrudjn is known. Elsie Inglis and her units shared it, and suffered in it. But wo can only guess dimly at the terrible anxiety awl uncertainty of these last months after the Russian collapse— with no road open to tho south, and the northern road fraught with peril since it lay through a. country in the tliroes of revolution. But Dr. Inglis brought her units home to the homeland. She could be trusted to do that. They were in her care, and sho did not fail'them. But I scarcely dare imagine what trials of body find spirit alio must have passed through, when I lenrn that that iron woman only set foot oncft more in her heloved country to die or exhaustion. But, knowing her, I k' low that to the end, and at the end, neither courage nor good cheer failed her, and that she died as she lived, looking forward, and with a smile. "Australians would have loved her for her strength, her pluck, her unfailing good humour whatever the odds pitted against her; and ■ they would have her as a splendid surgoon, and ? magnificent organiser, one was. too, a patriot of natriotsi awl. in dving for "Serbia, slio has died for the Empire's cause. A stone fountain wns erected in Serbia in memory ot her work there in 1915, hut she has a better momorial in the hearts of those in Serbia nnd elsewhere who loved and honoured her. These hospitals were, m a very special sense, hers.'