ON A HOSPITAL SHIP.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15130, 26 January 1917, Page 7

ON A HOSPITAL SHIP.

THE NEW ZEALAND SOLDIER. An Imperial Army medical officer, in command of a hospital ship crossing the English channel, writes to Mr W. G. Foster, of Wellington, in the following terms of his experiences and of the New Zealand soldier:— ' “We have ferried over 19,000 sick and wounded in four months without any mishap, and, so far as I know, without a single complaint. You will guess that I take a special interest in the New Zealanders, of whom we have carried large numbers, and I can 'say without the least prejudice that a. more splendid lot of men no country on earth could show. Of all the colonial troops, the average type of New Zealanders in this war stands highest in my experience, and speaking of them as men. What I hear from others of their courage and endurance in the field confirms my own impressions. New; Zealand seems to have sent only her best. Sometimes, when I have seen some of these splendid young fellows, sons of freedom in every sense of the word, crippled, mutilated beyond all hope of a future, it has hurt me almost as if they were of my own blood. It is so much worse for those who havo lived only in a young country, where health and strength and activity count, for everything, than for Homefolk, whose lives have been so much fettered and confined—or as it seems to me, the one has many things to turn to and look for; the other nothing. I brought over a * grand young fellow from Auckland some time ,ago, whose mother held land in the Thames district, and who had managed it since his father’s death—• a chap any mother must have been proud to have borne and any man might .envy; paralysed, hopeless. It made me feel bad for days after. However, I must not dwell on the sad side of things, As I see them,for there is another side, and no one could go through what I have done without feeling better for th© insight into a higher aspect, of humanity that one sees in every-day life. “No one could believe, without seeing, th© wonderful courage and unselfishness of these poor fellows. I have never met a grumbler among them. No matter what they suffer, what hardships or hurt they have to bear, there is never a murmur. Grateful for every attention, pleased with whatever poor thing one can do for them; never doleful, but ready to laugh and sing, when one could only expect groans and moans, they surprise me afresh every day, and make one feel that, after such an example, there can never be any excuse for repining. All one can do is to try and make the short time they spend with us aa comfortable as may be.”