STRANDED?

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 37, 14 February 1916, Page 6

STRANDED?

No doubt the recent messages from official sources about the unhappy position „,,of. New Zealand's unauthorised " Volunteer Sisters "in Egypt must have given much anxiety to relatives and friends. Only two of the first party are trained - nurses, and these-'are the only ones who are needed. The others, who are not required for nursing or other hospital work, have extreme difficulty in obtaining any employment whatever. The cost of sending some of these enthusiasts to Egypt was borne by various organisations which will, presumably, exert themselves to arrange for a safe return of women who were led into a mistake.'. Those who have not relatives or friends of means to help them homeward should be assisted by the Government. These women persisted in making the trip against well-informed advice, military and civil, but it would be disgraceful, un-British, to callously allow them to suffer the penalty of impetuous zeal. They believed that they .were being opposed by unimaginative officialdom, and they were confident that they could be very useful in Egypt. The disappointment and disillusionment must have been painful; they have suffered enough for the impulse of warm-hearted womanliness which took thero overseas. .