BACK FROM VIENNA.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLII, Issue 84, 28 April 1916, Page 2

BACK FROM VIENNA.

"GAYER" THAN LONDON. NURSES IN HANDS OF ENEMY. After internment in Hungary and Austria detachments of the Scottish and English women doctors and Red Cross nurses, who performed such devoted services in Serbia, reached London on Saturday] (stated an English paper lately). Among the women who returned were Miss Chaplin, daughter of Mr Henry C'haplin, M.P., Dr Alice Hutchinson, Dr Elsie. Ingles, Dr Lewis, Dr Georgina Davidson and J)r MacDougall. All who returned spoke with bitter sorrow of the devastation of Serbia. "While in hospital." said Sister Hiney, "wo were told that the British, and French had arrived at Nish. We whispered the news to the wounded men and they clasped our hands with fervor. But when it turned out to be untrue we could only say —well, just nothing. Poor Serbia!

Miss B. L. Madan, of Manchester, served as a chauffeur. "When the big retreat began," she said, "the car was destroyed by the Serbians. At Waidhoi'en where we were under a sort of imprisonment, the old hotel .proprietor asked me if 1 was married. When I replied that none of us was, he said, 'Then what on earth do you want to go back to England for? Surely this is a nicer place than England!' "I am bouml to say that, the Awstrians were nico enough. On Christmas Day our guards arranged a concert for us. About five of them played—and played very well—nearly everything we asked for, including bits of' The Mikado,' 'The Merry Widow,' 'Tales of Hoffman,' Serbian folk-songs, and, of course, Hungarian czardas and the Racockzy March.

GIRL IN SERB SOLDIER'S GARB. "On the way from Semlin, under guard, wo were joined by another detachment of British Ked"Cross nurses, and amoivg tliem was Miss Whitehead, who is about 21 years old. Having lost all her clothes she wore a Serbian soldier's uniform-—Serbsky cap., tunic, breeches and puttees, with our own motoring overcoat over ail. By a mischance slio happened to open lier overcoat while were were under inspection. Seeing her trousers tho Austriaus arrested her aa a spy and took her to Belgrade between two soldiers with fixed bayonets. We heard afterwards that they kept her in a cell for 18 days. She had fever and was then released. 1 had a photograph of her in her soldier's uniform (very dashing she looked in it), but that was taken from me, together with all the rest of my papers, by the enemy."' Miss Florence Chaplin l had been in Serbia for a year, most of the timo as matron of the military hospital at Vrangatcbka Banja, the "Carlsbad" of Serbia. "Wo heard fighting for about 10 days; the nearest it came to us was seven miles off. On November 11 tho Anstrians occupied the town. They looked tired and did not sing. They ordered the wounded Serbs out of my hospital but asked the staff to stay on' to treat wounded Anstrians.

TWELFTH OF A LOAF A DAW "On December 1 a new commander. Prince Lobkowitz (a Czech), was appointed. I think we had- met 10 years ago in Vienna. He prevented a. lot of "requisitioning' of food and other things, ho would have no pillaging, and 1 never saw a drunken Austrian soldier in tho place. With the appearance of thy troops food became, very short. We were cut down to a twelfth of a loaf a day, a very little meat (not good), a very small amount of meal. There wa.s not the remotest chance of getting sugar, milk, eggs, tea, or coffee.'' Ultimately she and others were taken to Hungary) and told they would ho interned as a reprisal for the arrest of tho German and Austrian Consuls at Salonica.

"J wrote to .several people in Vienna —my letters, of course, being handed open to tho police. "Whether as tho result of that or not I do not know, but in seven days we were ordered to Vienna. Sixty of us were herded together under guard, including two unfortunate men, a doetor and a -narson. We were under guard and had to do what we were told, to ride in the compartments indicated, to carry our own luggage, and to pay our fares —and very dear they were. NO SHORTAGE IN VIENNA. "We got to Vienna and there I saw friends. I was practically free to do what I. liked there. Vienna is as gay and bright as ever— infinitelyi brighter than London, theatre and "town life just as usual, plenty of gaiety. But for tho soldiers and the restrictions ot hours as to the supply of milk you would scarcely guess with the naked eye, that a war was on. Hotel prices were just the same as usual and there was no shortage of food, "Germans were everywhere, in Serbia and Austria—not in groups, but permeating the place. They have complete control of the rolling-stock from Berliu to Constantinople. They are tremendously confident. They say the war is practically finished, and that we are beaten. Of course they say, 'The English will put a million or two more men in the field, but it is perfectly futile. However many you piit in .you can do nothing; you have wasted your chance. You can't starve us, because now wo can get as much stuff as we want from Asia. Our munitions are far better than jours and your air service its footling.' "Tho 'permeation policy' has been very thorough. Nearly every neutralI have met. however friendly, doubts whether tho Allies can win a real victory. The most cheering thing I heard was from a neutral friend, a doctor who had been serving in a military hospital in Vienna. He told me that several Austrian officers had confessed to him that Austria could not go on for more than seven or eight mouths, owing to the lack of men." CONTRAST OF HUN k AUSTRIAN. Dr Alice Hutchinson, of Edinburgh, the head of the Second Scottish Women's Hospital in Serbia, gives a spirited account of the two months which she and the members of her unit spent as interned prisoners. She likes Austrian soldiers and does not like German soldiers. "At Stal atch," she says, "the German troops jeered at us and made vulgar remarks, and even worso than vulgar. No officer checked them. How different in Kevavara, where we were under the Austrians. The wooden hut to which we were tak«n was full of Austeieo orderlies, The? gar?* tm bum of

their bread (we were famishing) and we all slept in that hut. On the table, on the floor, anywhere. I awoke from time to time, and it was amusing to see Austrian soldiers and: Scottisti women sleeping side by side, anyhow, on the straw, lir the morning we washed in the Danube.

"Three soldiers were on guard over us. They were told not to fix their bayonets, because we were ladies, so different from the German soldiers, who rioted because they said we were getting better rations than them. 'After ail,' said one of our Austrian guards, 'you are human beings liko us, even if you are English!'

"Christmas day was the jolliest we ever spent. We, bought live geese in the market, killed them and cooked them—and also ate them, all of them. We drank toasts. Wo had never previously dared to sing 'God Save the King,' but this night- we risked it, pianissimo, while the guards were out of the room.

A KAISER CHARADE. "It was not difficult to arrange that. They were fine decent fellows; they lent us their uniforms for our charades and tableaux vivants. We represented the Kaiser and tho Emperor Franz Josef clasping each other by the hand. lam a 1 raid our Kaiser's uniform was Austrian—it was tho nearest we could get to thy real thing. The moustache was cotton wool, blackened with something or other.

We were allowed walking exercise by the side of the Danube. After the first march one of our guards complained to his officer that we walked too fast. 'They ily like geese over the mud,' he said. 1 was told that this insurgent practice must not continue, I laughed and said that surely great bijr Austrian soldiers could walk faster than meek little British women. But they took it quite seriously. They changed tile gnard and gav-e us two of the longestlegged soldiers, 1 suppose, in all the Austrian Army. One went out with us shopping in. the morning. The other rested in preparation to accompany, us on our afternoon walk!"