TREATING THE WOUNDED.

Northern Advocate, 14 October 1916, Page 1

TREATING THE WOUNDED.

A SPLENDID ORGANISATION,

Referring to the treatment of wounded men at the front .Captain Ross, the New Zealand War Correspondent, pays a tribute to the wonderful organisation of the arm}-. He says that when wounded it is not long before a man is in the hands of the doctor. He is first of all taken to a regimental aid post just behind the front line. From there he is carried by the stretcher-bearers to an advanced dressing station behind the communication trench, and thence in vehicles to a field ambulance which lias some hors e and some motor transport—generally about half and half. The next stage of his journey is to a casualty clearing station which has no transport. The wounded are brought thither and taken away by the hospital motor ambulance convoys, long strings of which, when there is a big fight on, wend their slow and easy ways co the railway station or canal, leading to one or other of the French seaports from which our sick and wounded are evacuated to England. At thes e French ports <there are big general hospitals, but by far the greater numbers of patients are put direct into the hospital ships. From these seaports the ships make for some port in England where our hospital trains are ready waiting for their daily loads. If you happen to be passing Charing Cross station when a hospital train is due you will generally see a curious crowd waiting—mainly made ap of elderly men and women and girls. The motor ambulances and the motor cars in which wounded officers drive off have flowers thrown into them by the women, many of whom have tears in their eyes. The old flower women do a brisk trade, and in moments of special excitement they themselves shower their flowers upon the wounded, who smilingly receive the gifts. All this seems a far cry from the battlefield, but in reality the •irrangements are so perfect that with every possible comfort and attention the men have come from beyond the shell-pitted downs of the Somme, from shattered Armentieres, and from die deadly Ypres salient in an incredibly short space of time. And as the wounded are coming in the fit are going out. And so it will be until the German eagle has bitten the dust of the desolation he himself has created.