THE CRIPPLES

NZ Truth, Issue 604, 13 January 1917, Page 6

THE CRIPPLES

In Continental Armies A Brisbane medico, Dr. Starr Jordan, has received the following from a friend m Sweden: "I went lately to Hallsberg, four hours' train from Stockholm, to see the exchange of prisoners of war. ... The first train that arrived was from Russia, sixteen cars, bringing back German prisoners of war. When the long train pulled into ' the station, every doorway was filled with broken, mutilated men. These got out as well as they coukC most of them with only one leg, some without arms, many with distorted faces; all of them crippled and^ ruined for life. "But the'; worst of all was the look m their faces. Their spirit was broken. They were only husks of men. They' seemed as if they had been created and the breath of life had not been given them. We had quantities of ; cigars, cigarettes, chocolates for them, but they wanted •postcards, and we bought dozens and dozens on which they might write to relatives or friends. . "ENOUGH OF WAR." "The car with tuberculosis patients was a dreadful sight. It eeezned as if all the sorrows of the world were m that train and yet three times a week it goes down to Hailsberg— three times each way loaded down to the last bed with broken men. Wnen I would lean over them and say, "Ich glaube dass Frieden bald Kommt," their faces would light up as If they saw a. vision, and they would whisper back m German, "That is good, we have had en-^ ough of war." Poor souls, their day of peace is very near. "Next I went into a locked car, full of poor crazy creatures with a Red Cross nurse and a Swedish prince /who was distributing bags of chocolate. The prince could speak but little English. He wished to say that the men were insane, but could not think of the right word, so he said, . haltingly, "The men are all— fools." EVERT INCH A PRINCE, "The next morning a train-load of Russian prisoners, sixteen long cars full, came from Austria through Germany. .These men all had artificial limbs. They were cheerful and hopeful, for they hacl been better fed and nursed. They had brought back all their ringß and were m fine physical condition so far as 'mutilated men can. be. The faces of some of them will haunt me for ever. One tall, handsome Russian, full of dash and fire, looking every Inch a prince— -both hands gone— end never, again to draw a line or to strike a musical note. To say that war 1b h«H gives too much grace to warl"