NEWS FROM EGYPT

Southland Times, Issue 17659, 17 February 1916, Page 5

NEWS FROM EGYPT

LIFE AT THE NEW ZEALAND HEADQUARTERS. The following extracts are taken front letters written by Chaplain-Captain Grigg (formerly of Invercargill) to members of his family at Leeston. The writer is stationed at the Military Headquarters, Zeitoun, Cairo, where he is discharging the duties of Methodist chaplain among a force of 30,000 men, besides acting as visiting chaplain to the New Zealand General HospitalCaptain Grigg says : “A week or so ago twelve voluntary workers to aid the nurses in hospital work came out and to-day they were Invited to Headquarters for afternoon tea. Surgeon-Colonel Fenwick made the arrangements and took special care that several padres were present. There is much strengthening of Egypt for some reason, and some think that the real ■test of strength, so far as Britain is concerned in the East, will be in this , old land. As yon know, there have already been two skirmishes.. “The lull in the actual fighting on the Peninsula has reduced the rush of work in the hospitals, and at the same time the hospitals are more numerous and better staffed and equipped. The consequence is that the voluntary workers sent out from New Zealand are not needed. General Maxwell said they must return, though some of us think that in a short time we shall be glad of them. I hope" they will have a chance to do their * hit ’ like the rest. The difficulty is that the natives do the verv rough work in the hospitals, and every hospital has a staff of trained Ambulance and Medical Corps men. A number of these act as orderlies, and when wounded and sick arrive they act as stretcher-bearers, etc. So really the nurses have their proper work to do, and the women who are needed or who fit in their places are the trained qualified nurses. I frequently see the wounded and sick being brought in when T am at the hospitals. Many of them arriving are suffering from frostbite. It is surprising how much as a matter of course the arrival of wounded and sick is taken here. But the poor fellows do look pleased when they get into bed. It is like coming home, they say. I am in the hospital very regularly, through the forenoon till twelve o’clock. I like to do this work first thing in the morning while I am fresh, and. whatever happens, the important work is done. Chaplain-Captain Burridge came into this camp yesterday and his tent is in line with mine. He has been to Salonika and back. He is one of the survivors of the Marquette, and was in the water for seven hours, but has now quite recovered. •T called upon Colonel R. Heaton Rhodes aud was fortunate enough to find him at his hotel with Mr Crowe, his private secretary. Colonel Rhodes gave me a hearty welcome and invited me to stay to lunch, but I had my programme of work mapped out and could not stay. He gave me some illustrated New Zealand papers and asked me to come back and lunch with him on some other day that would suit me. Two vessels are in Suez with the Eighth Reinforcements on board. They will be up here in a day or two. Surgeon-Captain McKlbbin left by train this morning to take charge of the -medicals’ on board.”