AMBULANCES IN WAR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9916, 16 December 1899, Page 1

AMBULANCES IN WAR.

Tho London correspondent of the Lyttelton Times, writing on October 27, says :— "The promptitude with which the Australasian colonies (New Zealand in particular) have despatched their Contingents to South Africa haa excited universal commendation. klt only remains for your boys to show that, like. Fuzzy-Wuzzy, they are 'first-rate- fighting men,' and that their ambulance and commissariat arrangements will stand pressure. There are already sad private growls from privato sources anent the Imperial Ambulance Corps. They seem to have been hopelessly demoralised by the unexpected number of wounded at Glcncoe, and, owing to their dilatoriness at Elands Laagte, numbers of poor, writhing wretches, British as woll as Boers, fay out on the wind-swept veldt in icy rama all night. Captain Peyton, of tho Manchesters, relates that one faithful trooper of his regiment 'remained throughout tlio bitterly cold night with his anus round him to give him such warmth as possible from his own body, both having been drenched by the heavy rain just before assaulting the position, with no better covering than their wot kharkec uniforms.' Another Eoor wretch, hidden in the darkness beind a rock, let off his rifle fruitlessly again and again to attract the attention of his comrades to his whereabouts. But he, 100, had to lio where he waa till dawn. Doctors appear to be badly wanted at all the points of active fighting, and if you wish to back up your corps even more effectively than at present, you cannot do better than send a few well supplied with medical stores. I can never iorget Burlcigh's account of the hospital in the Soudan after Tel-el-Kebir (I think it was), when the mortally wounded had?" to die in untold torment because, through someone's blundering, thero was no morphia. It had been sent to the front, and cartridges to tho hospital.