WAR HOSPITALS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12707, 31 July 1919, Page 3

WAR HOSPITALS.

WORK OF SCOTTISH WOMEN BOWLING. In the course of an interview with a representative of the " Sydney Morning Herald,'' Mrs Abbott, who was touring Australasia in the interests of the Scottish Women's Hospital Units, told the following facts of the work accomplished By these units:— j " Dr Elsie Inglis, who was practically the founder of the Scottish Women's Hospitals, is a very great friend of mine, and that will exnlain how I came to mate this tour. 'To every man his work'—and to every woman her work. That is what they said'after the war broke out in Scotland and all over the Empire; and one of the first things that was done by the Scottish women was to establish these hospitals. They were started with some trepidation. One wasn't certain that women's war hospitals would succeed j but they have succeeded—splendidly. Before the end of 1914 Dr Alice Hutchison was lighting the typhus epidemic in Calais, and tho First French Unit, under Dr Frances Ivens, was busy with a hundred beds in the old Abbaye de Royaumont, near Chantilly, showing the- way in surgical equipment with its travelling X-ray vehicle, devised under the supervision of Mdmes. Curie and Ayrton. * Since that time the work at the old Abbev has quadrupled. Another unit of 300 beds is attached to the French expeditionary fc-rce in Salonika. We have 200 beds, with field dressing station of -40 beds and motor transport column, in Macedonia; we have two field hospitals, 100 beds each and motor transport column, on the Rumanian frontier, and we have a Serbian refugee hospital, caring for 2000 Serbians, in Corsica. Latterly we have added a 200-bed hospital in the French _ firing line and an orthopedic centre in Salonika —a Calcutta unit. The upkeep of all these units costs about £BOOO a month. We have a number of Australian ladies assisting us in our work, among them being Dr Agnes Bennett, of Sydney, and Dr Lilian Cooper and Miss Bedford, of Brisbane. Miss Bedford has organised the motor transport in Macedonia. " IHe story of these hospitals is one of the finest stories of the war. When Serbia's agony was upon her live of our women doctors, with a complete staff of nurses and orderlies, went to Ivragujevatz. Typhus was raging, doctors and nurses were dying •«rith their patients, and the country was described as ' a. seething mass of misery and pestilence.' It was enough to put fear into any heart, but these Scottish hospital women feared nothing. Taking their courage in both hands, they threw themselves into that terrible, yet glorious work. Three of them died, and nine were attacked with typhus, and later Sister Sutherland was laid to rest in the little graveyard above Valjevo town. But reinforcements came, and the work went on. Then began the historic retreat before the Austrians over the Montenegrin mountains. With the starving, dying crowds of refugees went the Noble Scottish women, spreading their last wraps over the wounded, giving their last coins to the starving. Dr Courcin, Supervisor of the Foreign Missions in Serbia, said of this march through Albania; 'The Scottish women bore silently all the hardships, and, hardly able to walk sometimes, they would stop with a joke on their lips, each trying to outdo the others in selfsacrifices.' "Do you wonder." said Mrs Abbott, "that I am proud of these women? Another party, under Dr Alice Hutchison, remained at their posts with wounded Serbians, and were taken prisoners by tiie Austrians, the entire hospital equipment being seized. They were sent to Southern Hungary, and treated as common prisoners, but after six weeks were sent to Switzerland, and finally reached England, prepared to return to Serbia at the first opportunity. It would take too long to tell you of all the work at the other centres, but I think that I have said enough to show that the Scottish Women's Hospitals are worthy of ' all support. They are working for our I Allies, but the call of our Allies harj monises with the appeal of our own I Army. The work of all is one, is it | not? I think I cannot do better than make miy appeal on that ground. Few j have given to the degree of self-denial, j probably none to the point of privation, ' and till that point is reached the claim | of the Scottish Women's Hospitals ean- | not be denied. At one l of my meetings lin India—it was m Calcutta—one of ! the cheques handed in was for £IOOO, ' and I hope to find some large-hearted : patriot in Sydney who will do the same. ;' Tell me, do you think I will ? .. . Ah! well, that sets my mind at rest. That will'leave £19,000 to get, will it not? I suppose the English population of India is not much more than 750,000, and if they could give me £28,000 —for I did not appeal to the Indian princes, who have been doing so magnificently ! in other ways—l should be able to get I £50,000 in Australia, with its population of 5,000,000."