THE ARMY NURSING SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 279, 14 August 1918, Page 2

THE ARMY NURSING SERVICE

OVERSEAS MATRONS RECEIVED BY THE QUEEN. In tho Court circular a short time ago announcement, was made, states *'Koi Tiafci," that tho Queen had received Miss. Margaret Al'Donald, R.R.C., Mat-ron-in-chier of the Canadian Nursing Sen-ice, Miss. Evelyn Conyers, R.R.C., Matron-in-chief of tho Australian Nursing Service, and Miss Mabel Thurston, E.R.C., Matron-in-chief Nurses of the Now Zealand Expeditionary Force. It was a gracious. and spontaneous thought on tlie part of Her Majesty, and it has behind it a significance far greater than might at first sight appear. All tlie nursing of the war has been carried out with a quiet reticence that has concealed the magnitude of the task performed with such splendid efficiency; and if those at-home know little indeed of the actual work of our own army seivice, and that of the territorial iorcts nursing service, with the reserves they have built up, still less are they aware of tho noble help that tlie daughters of the Dominions have brought to the wounded, For tliis recoenition, truly queenly as it was, of the mercy of womanhood throughout the Empire has afforded to every nurse from overseas a sense of personal distinction. Canada, tho first; of (he younger nations to send its highly-train-ed nurses, has contributed no fewer, than 1900 members to tho servico of the Allies. Tlie contingents from Australia have numbered 1500, and uono will havo forgotten tho devoted services that they rendered at tho time that the wounded | from Gallipoli were needine all tho care that gentleness and love could give them. From New Zealand have como 500, these being the round figures which represent a fine response in relation to the population of tlie Southern Dominion. The matrons-in-chief have shown themselves to bo women of liigh powers of organisation and control, and have insisted throughout upon a lofty standard of qualifications on the part of .those whom tliev havo accepted for service. ller Majesty accorded to the ladies the rare distinction of receiving them in her private apartments at.Windsor Castle, and Princess Mary was also present. Specially in attendanco was the Countess of -Minto, whoso knowledgo of and sym-| pathy with'all that pertains to nursing . lias been so forcibly shown in tho service which bears her name in India. The Queen was not only exceedingly interested in the 'details that each matron could give in regard to tho contingents for which she was responsible, but asked for any suggestions that might be desirable in improving the conditions and status of tho nurses' important labours. Before the ladies left, the Queen showed them some of the specially'notable and valuable things that' she had acquired in the course of her travels, and delighted the guests with some of her reminiscences of their own homelands. It was indeed the intimate and homelike character of the reception that has made bo strong an appeal to the nurses generally as a proof of tho Queen's comprehension of the attitude of mind and the love of things domestic among the women of the daughterlands. This is- the point that is being cmpbnsised in tlie hundreds of letters/ dwelling. on the reception that aro going to family circles, whether in Anstralia or Saskatchewan, New Zealand, or Newfoundland. .