THE WOUNDED AT SALONIKA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 123, 11 February 1918, Page 2

THE WOUNDED AT SALONIKA

HOW THEY ARE CARED FOR. I In some of the more isolated theatres of war the' difficulties of transport of comforts and even of necessaries for the- wounded cause the most pathetic conditions to prevail. The following letter from Miss Gertrude Fisher, of Christchurch, is a revelation of- the disoomfort and misery that exist in some parts of the Salonika front. Writing from a French hospital near Salonika to a friend in Christchurch, Miss Fisher says:— ; . "I arrived here on October 30, in deluges of rain, and found my 'ears, nose and throat' service and my room a. foot deep in mud and water. It was something of a welcome, and gave me at once a foretaste of what life can he in these parts. But now I have climbed down to Eastern ways, and n6 longer expect to find European conditions, although it does grieve me to lack necessaries for my men, and to sec my operated cases unable to eat their eggs, which have been preserved too long, and to have nothing else to give them in their stead. . . "I have a wonderfully interesting service, working, sole nurse with a big Paris specialist, Dr. Le Lamette. (The light -was cut off then for a Zeppelin visit, so I had to finish my night duty in the dark, and do my rounds with an electric torch.) I have 150 beds in my wards, and they are building mo a new barrack, so I shall have 200. I have to do my own night duty as well as my dny duty, and to-day (ninth), I am played out, as I did my night duty three nights running, and did my day as well. Howover, I have just had ten minutes' nap in my hammock, and feel better. This is a 'specialist'- hospital, eyes, nerve maladies, fractures, etc., but there is no general medical service. Living is distinctly rough. I wado in mud and water (in gum boots) from pavilion to pavilion, on wot days. It fortunately dries up quickly, even with this day soil. I have two barracks with mud floors and no manner of means to get them cemented. The other has hoards—it is my operated cases ward. The new one will also have boards. But I cannot get linoleum to cover my 'onorated' floor, and it badly needs it. But then I can't get fresh eggs either. Every day they present me with at least six bad eggs. And then my poor fellow have no socks, or drawers, six handkerchiefs to a ward of fifty beds, holes in their nants, vests, etc. Such a ragamuffin lot. and no means of doing anything to tidy them up. for I have not time to mend as well as to nurse from 150 to 200 men. "We have no petrol, not enough to sterilise, and consequently I cannot have a -petrol lamp to dry my room. I took cold in the mud and wot the day I arrived, and my bed was damp. So ! I got a real good cold, which won't leave mo, and my chest is beginning to hurt me badly.; It is hard going to do day and night duty 'with a heavy cold on you. "This town is a misery—hollow shells of burnt houses—nothing more. Some shops have buttressed their walls, and are carrying dn business with trembling roofs that will fall on them some fine morning. But it is the Eastern Lahit, so thore is nothing to say. 'Kismet' the firo, 'Kismet' the roof which topples in after. I have little time to_ write with my heavy days, so beg you to share the news. And if your working parties want to do real good work let them make pyjamas and socks and shirts and send them here to me in my 'Annexe,' which gets served last in everything." During the month of February we will remodel and reline your last year's fur coat. Our experts have Continental experience. A. J. Coleman, Ladies' Fashion Tailor, 117 Customhouse Quay—Advt.