Army Nurses in New Caledonia

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 151, 28 June 1943, Page 6

Army Nurses in New Caledonia

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) NEW CALEDONIA.

Three young ladies dressed in the white off-duty uniform- of Army Nursing sisters formed a strange contrast in streets crammed with soldiers, civilians, natives and congested vehicles. Their arms were filled with parcels—small packets of cosmetics, big unwrapped podgy dolls with wobbly eyes, a few towels, linen, a trinket or two—which they dumped into the back of a waiting jeep. Then off down the read to their holiday camp. That was shopping day over. The day before it had been a* hair-aet, the day before that a swim and sunbath. To-morrow

beach, launch trip or another visit to the simps. Who cared? Next week the girls would be back in the bush country, clad in grey duty uniforms, tending the sick and injured, caring for ten, twenty, or thirty New Zealand soldiers in their particular ward of the General Hospital. Can’t they have a holiday once in a while? Don’t they earn it? To see new faces, sleep in different tents, wear their best uniforms, get away from the solitude of familiar surroundings. Yes, even to be bitten by a new mosquito. Doesn’t it help these girls to regain vitality and to carry on their arduous duties? The hospital authorities think so, and that is why they like to get the nurses away to some other part of the island for at least, a week every three months, and away from the hospital a day a week as well.

The story of the New Zealand Army nursing sisters in New Caledonia is an amazing one. A “unique beginning” is how Matron N. Hall, who went through it all herself, describes the initial w.eeks of operation. “Uniquely atrocious” would have expressed things more forcibly, if less modestly. Fifty New Zealand sisters came here with the main body of the division. A hospital site had been selected which had no more than its share of mosquitoes, and was well sited according to the strategic needs of that time. A picturesque valley, a river flowing past, and niaouli tre.es to provide fuel and structural and roofing needs, were added attractions. The New Zealand girls then moved in. So did the rain and the floods and the mosquitoes. Week after week these sisters existed in fiendish conditions. They were wet to the skin N They wore long gaiters or gumboots to squelch through a foot of mud. They were never froe from mud. They were never clean, never tidy, never dry. They wore headnets to keep off the mosquitoes even when on duty. At meals they grabbed their plates and walked into the open air, eating and drinking as they walked lest their faces and hands be bitten by hordes of hovering m-osquitoes. They slept, as everyone did not this island, under netting. When they climbed out in the morning, mosquitoes blackened their arms, legs and faces as they dressed. In three minutes sometimes eyes were closed by the swelling from bites. Wind and rain squalls* hit their tents during the nights. More than once the tents were blown over, and medical officers lent a hand in their recreation. Hurricane warnings came now and again, but fortunately no real hurricane hit the site, or many of the tents would have been blown beyond hope of recovery. That sort of thiug went on for weeks, until slowly, roads took shape, wards were erected, draining eliminated some of the mud, uniforms could be kept a little cleaner and clothes a little drier. Patients were now taken in, but the troubles of the staff were not yet over. Nor were they over for the patients. When nets round the patients’ beds were opened for dressing, feeding, and massage, in came the mosquitoes, making the cure sometimes worse than the illness. But as the days and nights became less stifling, and the rain less frequent, the mosquito menace diminished —just a little, for it has not yet gone altogether. There were chances now for the nurses to wash and iron uniforms to better effect. Flat irons heated on primus stoves were the order. Three sisters now have petrol heated irons. There are four showers available. Many girls have taken up gardening, growing vegetables and flowers round their tents. They go for walks, picnics and to a beach in their off-duty hours. A car has been placed at their disposal. One girl has bought a horse; several enjoy riding when they get the cbanco. So their lot becomes better as the days pass. Having stuck to their tasks without protest in the early privations, the girls deserve all the comforts they can gather together. And when all is said and done, sueli comforts arc still few and far between. If no shells have fallen in their area, remember that nature can supply even worse trials. Shells might even be a relief sometimes from the mosquitoes and the ants. You can dodge a shell, if you’re lucky, but you can’t dodge millions of ants. The nurses come up muling through it all, ns did those thro*} on their shopping expedition. More power to them. So think of these sisters sometimes, New Zealanders, and spare a good luck wish for them now and again.