TWO YEARS IN SPAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 40, 17 February 1939, Page 10

TWO YEARS IN SPAIN

NEW ZEALAND SURGEON

WORK ON ALL FRONTS

[By Air Mail, from "Tha Post's" London

Representative.)

LONDON, January 26,

After two years in Spain, during which he became Division Command-ant-Surgeon of the medical services of the International Brigade, Dr. Douglas Jolly (Dunedin) is returning to New Zealand by the Arawa, due at Wellington on March 9. Dr. Jolly worked on all fronts, operated on wounded m caves and tents as well as at field stations, and was bombed out of hospitals on three occasions. Since he left Spain on the disbanding of the International Brigade, Dr. Jolly has addressed nearly 60 public meetings in England, and he has also spoken in France, on behalf of some 200 international doctors and 500 international nurses, including Germans, Austrians ,and Czechs. These men and women, evacuated from Spain, are now unable to re-enter their own countries. Many of them are in need of some assistance to find new billets. D.r. Jolly also intends to speak for them in New Zealand.

FRONT LINE SURGERY,

Discussing some of his experiences, the New Zealander said that most important work in "front line" abdominal surgery had been successful during the Spanish war. Blood transfusions had been given to the wounded at the front with the co-operation of civilians in the towns and areas in the nonfighting zones

The blood donated was taken to the front line in refrigerated wagons and stored in refrigerators run by stationary petrol motors. It was used for blood transfusions for serious cases within eighteen days. Very gobd results were secured when the treatment of these cases was compared with those in the Great War.

The use of plaster casts became general when the wounded had to be removed from the front line to base hospitals. Materials such as Thomas's splints, generally used in the Great War for evacuation cases, gave place to the plaster casts. These, while they had disadvantages from the surgical point of view, were preferred to the methods formerly in use.

At the outbreak of the war at least 90 per cent, of the medical corps went over to Franco's army, leaving the Government in a difficult position for caring for the wounded. The International Brigade formed the first field hospital unit to go into action. Later the medical organisation improved tremendously.

OPERATIONS IN TUNNELS.

Some of the worst periods experienced by the corps were in the fighting on the Ebro last July, when Dr. Jolly accompanied the Government forces as a field hospital surgeon. Aeroplanes were bombing continually, and it was often necessary to operate in railway tunnels, caves, or any places affording some sort of shelter. The wounded could not be treated near villages or houses, since these were targets. It was also impossible to work in tents, particularly at night when the lights could be spotted by bombers.

All Franco's aeroplanes were German and Italian. Dr. Jolly said that he, operated upon a number of the pilots brought down during the fighting on the Ebro. With the exception of about one in ten all the men were Italians or Germans. The worst wounds were caused by bombs and also by trench mortars.

On three occasions Dr. Jolly had to leave hospitals with the rest of the staff when they were bombed. One building, at Azila, in Aragon, was marked with a Red Cross, but the other two were not.

Dr. Jolly said that he met three other New Zealanders in Spain, one cf whom, McClure, a former mining student at Otago, was killed at Fuentes de Ebro in October, 1937. The other two, Mac Donald (Wellington) and Gray (Wairarapa), were driving ambulances. He also met five New Zealand nurses.

He was much impressed by the airraid precautions in Barcelona, where shelters 50 feet deep were provided for the civilian population. Sooner or later, he was convinced that the same would have to be done in Britain. What Barcelona could do in war time, London and other cities could do in peace time.

Dr. Jolly said that he admired the spirit of the Spaniards fighting against Italians, Germans, and Moors. He felt that if they were allowed to buy arms they could hold out. but that if they continued to be stopped, under international law. then a Franco victory might ultimately be expected.