WAR IN SPAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23050, 30 May 1938, Page 11

WAR IN SPAIN

NEW ZEALAND NUESES ~ # •» •_>« » t A ' MANY NARROW ESCAPES FREQUENT BOMBING RAIDS MONTH'S LEAVE IN ENGLAND The experiences of New Zealand nurses in the Spanish war are related, in a cablegram received from Barcelona yesterday by Mr. G. E. Jackson, of Otahuhu, secretary of the New Zealand Spanish Medical Aid Committee.: The nurses are Sister Rene Shadbolt, of Auckland, and Nurse Isabel Dodds, of Levin, two of three who were sent overseas by the committee last year to assist in the ambulance and hospital service for the Spanish Government forces.

"We feel that, with the holding up' of the Fascist offensive, the turning point of the war has come,"* said Sister Shadbolt and. Nurse Dodds on their way through Barcelona, "and 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 very cheerful, the cablegram continues. They have been in Spain since last July and for the entire time hava been working at high pressure in hoapitals, first in central Spain and mora recently ip Catalonia. "We are coming back in order to nurse the Spanish.,soldiers until tha final victory over tne Italian and Ger«man invaders has been achieved," the nurses continued. "If only the people of New Zealand could see how much medical equipment is needed to relieve the suffering am,ong. the soldiers and the civilian population they would come in a body to the aid of tha Spanish people. " Italian and German aeroplanes yesterday bombed Alicante and killed. 250 civilians, the majority of them, women and children. It is wholesal* murder."

Sister Shadbolt told of her own experiences. "We have narrowly escaped with out lives on several occasions, she said. "On our way out Barcelona was severely bombed the night after weleft. Had we gone by rail we would hare been bombed on our arrival m Valencia station, but we changed our plans at the last moment and travelled by road. "In Tarragona a few weeks ago the cafe in which we were staying was bombed 10 minutes after we, had left. Dodging bombs is part, of a nurse's job in this war, which Hitler and Mussolini are trying to wrn through terror. But these methods only strengthen the morale of the Spanish people and-the invaders .are bound to fail."