SICK OF IT.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 864, 16 November 1916, Page 8

SICK OF IT.

GERMANS GLAD TO BE CAPTURED AMERICAN AMBULANCE MAN'S STORY. Letters received in New York from William Gorham Rice, jr., who is in the American Field Ambulance Service "somewhere" near the Verdun front, tell of conditions where the fighting has been hottest. In writing of German prisoners he says: '"I know from talking with German wounded that they are glad honorably to be taken." A letter -dated August 30 reads: "We are still on duty nt the same post, each man working three nights and one day out of every four, and the section carrying about two hundred wounded a day a distance of about nine miles. . . .

"The Germans seem delighted to be taken prisoners. One Frenchman told me he thought many would surrender if not prevented by their own and the French tirs de barrage. I doubt this, but I know from talking witli German wounded that they are glad honourably to be taken. One pleasant fellow who sat beside me in my ambulance the other evening told me that lie had never served militarily (being in the Lippe street-car service) till he was called out last March. ... I stopped to change a spark plug and a gendarme came along and said to my wounded man 'Sind Sie zufrieden'?' and he said Ma,' perhaps on the general principle that acquiescence is the best policy, but I think with the entire honesty, for he seemed contented to be in his enemy's hands instead of under his fire. He also said to me, referring to Germany, (if I understood correctly) 'Der Krieg ist wahrscheinlieh fur uns vorbei.' . . . No First-Line Trenches.

"A captain who had been deafened by a shell which killed all his companions said the front was like the ocean, the whole terrain torn and ploughed by high explosives. There are no first line trenches, the men being in the temporary troughs of this brown-waved ocean. The line is, therefore, quite irregular, and many are killed and wounded by their own artillery shots. "The stretchermen are chosen, so far as I can learn, because of their profession—medical students and priests—or because of their responsibility—peres de famille. The work is less dangerous than fighting, of course, but they have ro cinch. The wounded are carried four or five kilometres by them before they reach the poste d' evacuation from which we take them. Another letter, dated September 7, reads:

We are still on post duty, and today is the fourth day on which I have day duty (after twenty-four hours of no duty). All the cars are getting Verdunitis, from constant wear and frequent accidents. . . . "It's five weeks yesterday that I have been near the front, and three weeks day before yesterday that I've been here, at what is generally thought the finest job an American section has ever had to do. We'll soon be leaving now, and will get a period of rest, such as we had before coming here, before we get any more active service. . . .

Our work is sad, not so much because of the horrible wounds—they are already dressed before the men are brought to this post—as because of the deadening of life by constant contact with destruction and terrific physical shocks. The men are deadened, stupefied. No one gesticulates; I used to think a

Frenchman could not talk without using his hands. But the infantry is worn to the point where all joy has left life for the moment. Naturally, the wounded, if not in greater pain, are happy by comparison. They are going to be quite away from the war for a few days at least. The prisoners, of course," are in a similar situation. Many of them are working even right behind the front, harvesting, etc. But they are much relieved to be free of the strain of trench life or even shell-hole life, for such it is in this fierce vicinity. I rejoice more at the taking of prisoners than anything else; it is happiness for all, and it saves a little of the youth of Europe. Every one thinks more of the loss of life than anything else. "La jeunesse de France est fauchee" (mowed down), said Mine Bersier in Paris to me. The man with Nasal Catarrh hasn't given "NAZOL" a fair chance or ho wouldn't have the trouble! "Nazol" cures catarrh, sore throats, colds, and coughs. Sixty dozes for 1/6. .6 SAD ACCIDENT to nutomobile resulted in painful injuries to occupants, but Dr Sheldon's Magnetic Liniment quickly healed all wounds. Price, 1/6 and 3-. Obtainable everywhere.