SHOALS OF WOUNDED

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 66, 18 March 1915, Page 5

SHOALS OF WOUNDED

IK OERMAW HOBFTTAI.S. PSYCHOLOGY OF SICK BOOM. (Times and Sydney Snn Services.) LONDON, March 17. A "Times" correspondent, who has returned from Germany,- says that despite manifest preparations against most contingencies, Germany was not prepared for the vast number of wounded. Already 700,000 have been treated and every available public building, incinding the Royal villas, has been utilised. The correspondent ■ visited ■ a Royal - residence, where iron bedsteads < -were crowded against the great mirrors of the ballroom, among the resplendent gold mountingsand Venetian chandeliers. • AIDS TO CONVALESCENCE. Wolfhounds are extensively used by the Germans in .finding the fwounaed, who instinctively seek shelter, and the stretcherbearers frequently do not notice their grey uniforms. The Red Cross trains comprise 50 carriages with" 16 beds in each,, and they travel at a snail's pace. Doctors, discussing the j>sychologv of the, sick room, declared that the man'who has received the Iron Cross never dies if he can help it. ■. ■ . The nurses are pretty giris, in neat costumes, giving them an air of coquetry, which is deemed helpful to the patients. .The death-rates, are less than two per cent, and 60 per cent of "the early wounded have rejoined the ranks.-- * ' C MISERABLE PRISONERS. \ The Russian slim-nosed, speedy bullets are considered the most humane. Gan-. grene after they have struck is almost unknown. Shrapnel causes the greatest, lacerations. v.< . " --■-?. wounded prisoners are treated in. dreary hospitals, where they know they are not wanted, and where the cheerful' atmosphere of the other hospitals is painfully wanting, and where all are male I nurses. / When a prisoner dies, he is buried with Military honours. Upon the coffin there' Jis a ribbon inscribed "To a brave warrior." A wooden cross of identification and a wreath are placed on the grave, and a volley is fired over it in exactly the I same manner as in the burial of Gerihans.