RED CROSS RESPECTED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16007, 27 August 1915, Page 8

RED CROSS RESPECTED.

TREATMENT OF WOUNDED. . TURKISH HUMANITY. ANZAC HOSPITAL MOVED. Reports that stretcher-bearers have been deliberately phot down by the Turks 'are discounted by Private T. K. Hutvhin- i son, Field Ambulance. Writing from j Anzac (Jove on July 1 to his wife, who : resides in Dominion Road, he states that both Rides treat the wounded of their j enemies with every consideration. I The first few days were certainly pretty j '■ad, and miners got several of our bear- I ers," Private Hutchinson writes. "Since I then our men have learned the art of takJ ing cover, although it is not e-asy to d . so when carrying a loaded stretcher. I ! ' do not think the Turks deliberately fire j at us now. In fact, on at least one oc-ca- I sion, after an attack, their own l*-arers j I brought most of our wounded as near to I 'our trenches as they dared, and the rest ' I they left with biscuits and water, and we treat th'-ir wounded well, so every ' one is satisfied. * ' "Some of the ambulance men have . been hit with shrapnel, but that ear.not be I helped—it Lb all in the pan:'-. We had J a quiet, time here on th»» beach for vme ! time, but last week shrapnel was bursting j all round, but a.* the hospital is bom'o proof we were all right so long as we I stayed in it. One of our corporals, who i had been recommended for the D.C.M., ! was hit in the back while in his bivouac, and died a few hours later. So on Sunday we had to move about a mile to a gully where our bearers have a dressing tent. A few days later a captain, sergeant, and four orderlies, of whom I was one, had orders to return here to attend to any who were wounded on the beach. We now live in the hospital, as it is safer. It was lucky we came round, as shortly after we arrived shrapnel bezan to fly. and we had a busy time for half an hour or so. "Last niirht we had a thunderstorm. Every few seconds a flash of forked light--1 ning would rip across the sky. and every- ! thing for miles around would be plainly

visible. Down at Cape Helles. the artillery got going, and the thunder and lightning and the rumble and fla.-h of our guns made tho nicht something to remember. There was not much rain, which was fortunate, as we had a number of wounded to carry to the boat about midnight, and it was quite bad enough dodging mules and transport carts without being drenched." Private Hutchinson relates several humorous incidents. Sergeant Ben Cox, Auckland Infantry, was responsible for one of them. He says that in a portion of the line where the trenches were very (lose, the Turks started a gramaphone. ''They had hand pieces, whi'-h our boys did not mind,'' he writes, but when some Turkish songs were put on. our boys jibbed. Ben shouted to them to shut up. and, a.* they did not, he threw a bomb at the trramaphone. There was silence for half-an-hour. and then they set it jroinj again, so Ben pave them uti as a bad job. About five o'clock this morning we were awakened bv. shrapnel bursting close handy. A man rushed into the hospital for a stretcher, and said someone was seriously hurt. We got lotions and dressings ready, hut in a few minutes the seriously wounded man walked in to have a dab of iodine put on the bridge of his nose. The shell had burst near him. and given him such a scare that he flopped down and knocked the skin off his nose, and this was his only injury."

WITH THE BLACK WATCH.

LIFE IN THE TRENCHES. SENTRY DUTY BY NIGHT. A brief letter from the trenches has been received by Mr. T. Wagstaff from one of his sons on active service. Private B*B- Wagstaff. of the Black Watch. Private Wagstaff was trained on the Amokura. and was in London when war was declared. "I am writing this to the crackle of rifle fire and the occasional door-slamming effect of heavy artillery," he savs "Warfare is a silly game.' but I am not tired of it yet. It is terrible, though, to see one's best chums being struck dawn It was only last night, after I had been talkinsr to him. that Sergeant ——. of the — was shot through the head. He lived for on five minutes after being struck. "It is very funny, in a way, to live underground, and it makes one feel like some sort of animaL We boh out of our burrows m the morning and wish each other good-day, hope we have slept well and all the rest of it. Large spiders and ants keep us company, and frogs keen up a continual croaking all night; one can hear them above the noise of the rifle fire. Sentry duty by night is an eerie business, "iou stand in the trench all night peering into the darkness, and watching the star-shells, watching and waiting for a sign of the enemy making an attack AJe sometimes get a little sleep during the day. but none at all bv nigot A* for washing and shaving. I have not had n wash for same considerable time, and I have a short beard like bristles on a pig >ou would have a hard job to me. -We are less than a hundred yards from the German trenches here so we are getting it a bit hot. Trench mortars and grenades are coming over here in grand style. To-day being Sunday they are givine us an extra dose. We will be getting relieved soon, so I will write you again when we get down to the base.""