THE MARQUETTE NURSES.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15567, 17 April 1916, Page 2

THE MARQUETTE NURSES.

♦ , A STATEMENT DENIED. (special to "the press.") "WELLINGTON, April 15. Referring to statements made eoncorning the attitude of tho New Zealand nurses on board the Marquette, torpedoed and sunk in tho Gulf of Salonica, on October 23rd, 1915. LieutenantColonel McGavin, O.C. No. 1 New Zealand Stationary Hospital, forwards the following letter to the Hon. James Allen, Minister for Defence. Lieutenant-Colonel McGavin points out that the author of t-hp statements referred to did not disclose his, or her, identity. Tlio statement referred to was to the effect that tho nurses refused to leave the sinking ship until most of the soldiers had been saved, and that they stayed on the jlecks chcering the "Tommies." "Tho implication that the men i)©g-~ lee ted the nurses and permitted them to remain on the ship while endeavouring to save themselves is in direct opposition to tho faQts,-many men imperilled and some possibly actually lost their lives', in gallant attempts to assist the nurses. This statement lias naturally caused no little indignation amongst the members of my company. 'Hie nurses did not refuse to go to the boats. Had they done so they would have been placed in the boats by force. They did not cheer the 'Tommies.' I myself saw that all the nurses were clear of the ship, and then signalled to the men of my company who wero standing at their alarm posts on the forward main deck to come aft in the hope that they might be able to get into the remaining boats. I then went down to th c hospital cabins, two decks below, to ascertain that the patients had been brought up, and that my men posted there had come on deck. This must have occupied some four or five minutes, as the"groat list to port and the downward inclination of the head of the ship, which dived a few minutes later, rendered descent and ascent of the companion ways difficult and slower than usual. Tho nurses were therefore all off the vessel some little while before she sank."