VOLUNTEER SISTERS ABROAD.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 167, 20 April 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

VOLUNTEER SISTERS ABROAD.

(Contributed by E. A. Rout, hon. sec) CAIRO, 17 Feb., 1916. I arrived at Port Said en Feb. 9, stayed thore a day making arrangements to get out of the Canal Zone, and then, passing through Cairo, went to Alexandria. There were some difficulties to overcome in landing and •avelrn;, but with the loyal support accorded mo these were overcome. By good fortune I arrived at Alexandria on the very day Miss Higgens' soldier students were cooking "The Examination Dinner." It was first-class, and all prepared and served by men who knew nothing of cooking a month before. Miss Higgens taught 33 men in the first month, and the second month she begins with 77. These 130 men arc from all sorts of regiments, .and they will spread the knowledge of good cooking and good health broadcast. Miss Higgens is ably assisted by Staff-Sergeant Coop, who is an expert in field cookery and was most enthusiastic in showinf us round tho field ovens and cookery school bivldings. Miss Higgens is writing full reports to the New Zealand news. pap-M'J .ihout her work, so I need not say more. -

Sister Kerr and Miss Sale arc working at present in Kasr-el-Aim Hospital, but have been promised work in the Canal Zone shortly. Sister Kerr is rlso anxious to go to Salonika; but before deciding we are going tc consult Lady Godley, to whom 1 have introductions, ana whom 1 hope to ste in a few days. I had luncheon yesterday with Mrs. Bapty (wife of Surgeon-General of Hospitals here), and she tells me Ladv Codley is doing a fine work at Helou-r-.n, where there are some hot springs. These are being found very efficacious for the rheumatic patients. Miss Sylvia Wilson, one of the Volunteer Sisters, is working at Helouan, and Mrs. Knudsen and Miss Neilson at Giza Hospital. Mrs. Bapty has been working f/om the beginning of the Y.M.C.A. canteen, serving out cofi'ee mid cakes, etc., to the men: it was large'y through her advice that the Volunteer Sisters decided en this work. She thinks the v omen are doing far mere for the health of the men than they <_ould possibly do in any other way. "They are simply splendid, and we could not have done w'thout them." is what many women connected with the canteen have told me. Of course there are many hundreds of women unemployed in Egypt, but they can't work and won't ■work like the Volunteer Sisters. Our women downright sensible, capati? Colonials, and such women are always at a premium.

The next thing I am most anxious they should do is help with a very 'urge Soldiers' Rest and Hostel that is Icing established. The scheme was suggested to the Y.M.C.A. by the military authorities, who are realising more and more the need tor a e'ean. wholesome place for the soldiers to stay, during leave and holidays. The Convalescent Homes do not altogether bridge the gap between the hospital and the tiring line: and there are thousands of colonials who are granted 24 hours leave in Cairo (the colonials are comparatively close to Cairo now), and have no decent suitable place to stay in. This Rest "Hostel will accommodate up to 100U soldiers, and it would be a grand work for the Volunteer Sisters to help run this. Of course, in case of urgency, the Volunteers would go to the ordinary hospitals, or they would not need "to do that for the Hostel itself, and the services of the women wouM be commandeered by the military authorities. The Y.M.C.A. have asked me to suggest on what terms the women should be engaged, and we are arranging these suitably. The Y.M - C A. are doing a great work here — work which is now being recognised as of the greatest possible value in conserving the health and discipline of the army; and we all feel that it is an honour and a privilege to help in this work.

Every afternoon and evening, but particularly on Sundays, this canteen at the Esbekiah Gardens is crowded with thousands and thousands of soldiers. All the boys appreciate the Volunteer Sisters, but the Main Body men who came here just at Christmas —well, it brought tears to all eyes n see how they greeted the Volunteer Sisters. They were not simply respectful; they were almost reverential. "Let us hear you talk," they v.ould say. "we've not seen a good woman for seven months. fhe New Zealand people couldn't have • r.t us a tetter Christmas present.' said ethers. And if all those in New Zealand who have worked for us and encouraged us and contributed to us or Id have seen bronzed men turnim; away to gulp down a tear when our women offered them fresh hot scones. or striving one with another to get the pudding dish to scrape as they did at home —well, they would know that their labours had not been in vain. Time and time again, men would say. "My mother v.ill be glad whei she hears about this:" And mn':y and many a lad has come in.

munched his cane and drunk his tea ;:p; ireutly unthinking, and then just on leaving said hali'-appealingly: • You'll stop on here, won't you? 1 can keep straight so long as there's 'his place to come to —us just like h Mil' .'

Oh, there's heaps of work for our women to do here —women's work — but work that only the best of all women can do in a place like Cairo. "Reverting to myself, 1 have promised to help Mr. James Hay in \va enquiry work among New Zealand soldiers. Every day letters arc being received from heart-broken women who can got little or no information about their sons and husbands and brothers through the ordinary channels. Now the Y..M.C.A. have tents and secretaries wherever there are New Zealand soldiers, and our New Zealand

men are here now. and will bo gone shortly; perhaps go into action and vanish in annihilat'on's waste, and thus all chance of getting news as to their comrados at the Dardanelles is lost for ever. I am going to devote myself to the work of helping to gather up the full stories of now our lads fell, and sending on the news to the men and women hack in our homeland who are imploring the Y.M.C.A. socrotarifts to send along anything—anything—they can learn of the dear dead ones' fate. Perhaps not always could we rescue much more than is known officially, but in hundreds and hundreds of cases we can and will draw back the curtain of the past, and send home some personal details that would otherwise become a mere infinitesimal part of yesterday's ten thousand years.