EXPERIENCES IN SPAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 125, 30 May 1938, Page 10

EXPERIENCES IN SPAIN

NEW ZEALAND NURSES

"TURNING POINT OF WAR"

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) , AUCKLAND, This Day. "We feel that with the holding up of (he Fascist offensive the turning point of thfr war has come," said Sister Shadbolt, -of Auckland, and Nurse Dodds, of Levin, when passing through Barcelona for, England, according to a cablegram received from Barcelona by Mr. G. E. Jackson, Otahuhu, secretary of the New Zealand Spanish Medical Aid Committee. "That is why we are at last able to take a month's leave in England with a clear conscience." Both girls looked tired but cheerful, the cablegram continues. Since last July they' have lpeen working ,at high pressure in hospitals, first in Central Spain and recently in Catalonia. "We are coming back to nurse. Spanish soldiers until the final victory ovdr the invaders," the nurses continued. "If only people in New Zealand could see how much medical equipment is needed to relieve suffering soldiers and civilians, they would come in a body to aid the Spanish people. Aeroplanes yesterday bombed Alicante and killed 250 civilians, the majority being women and children. It is wholesale murder." Relating her own experiences, Sister Shadbolt said: "We narrowly escaped with pur lives on several occasions. Barcelona was severely bombed the night after we left. Had we gone by rail we would have been bombed on our arrival at Valencia station, but we changed our plans at the last moment, and travelled by road. In Tarragona, a few weeks ago, a cafe in which we were staying was bombed ten minutes after we left. Dodging bombs is party of a nurse's job in this war. The terrorist • methods only strengthen the morale of the Spanish people and the invaders are bound to falL"