SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 22 June 1916, Page 13

SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

; :- GENERAL. Mr. H. J. O'Beirne, C. 8., C.V. 0., D. L. for, County Leitrim, who was lost in the wreck of the Hampshire, was educated at the - Jesuit College, Beaumont, and Balliol College, Oxford. He was 49 years of age, and entered the Diplomatic Service in 1889. He was Charge d'Affaires at St. Petersburg in 1908, was created C.B. for his services while serving as Secretary of Legation at Paris during the Commission of Inquiry into the firing on British trawlers in the North Sea in 1905, and C.V.O. on the occasion of the King's visit to the Tsar in 1908. Several well-known Adelaide doctors have gone to the front, and the latest to offer his services is Dr. A. P. Evelyn O'Leary, of Glenelg. He will enlist in the A.M.C. in" England (says the Adelaide Southern Cross). An Irishman, Dr. O'Leary was educated and took his degrees in London. He arrived in Adelaide fourteen years ago, and has a practice at Glenelg, where he is widely respected. His eldest brother, Brigadier-General W. E. O'Leary, is in command of a brigade in France his second brother, BrigadierGeneral T. E. O'Leary, C. 8., C.M.G., is D.A.G. to the Mediterranean forces, and is stationed at Alexandria. Another brother, Dr. E. G. E. O'Leary, is fleet surgeon on the flagship Queen. COMMANDER SILVERTOP. Commander Silvertop, who was killed in the recent naval engagement, was commander of the Defence, one of the cruisers sunk. He was a brother-in-law of Mr. A. A. Dalglish, of Pomeroy, Goulburn, having married Miss Dorothy Dalglish, third daughter of the late J. Campsie Dalglish. Commander Silvertop, who leaves three children (one son and two daughters), had never visited Australia. He was the eldest son of Henry C. Silvertop, D.L., of Minster Acres, England, by his second wife, Caroline Philomena, daughter of Edward Joseph Weld, of Lulworth. He was born in 1877, and educated by the Jesuit Fathers at Beaumont. For service in the Philippines he was specially promoted Lieutenant in 1899; he served in China in 1900, and Somaliland in 1903 ; and was appointed Commander in 1910. He lived at 45 Egerton Gardens, London. He was a member of one of the best-known Catholic families in England. TRENCH 'FROST-BITE.' An article in the Lancet discusses the so-called ' frost-bite' from which many soldiers suffered while fighting in the trenches in Flanders last winter. It is characterised by swelling, pain, and disturbance of sensation in the part affected, but not by the necrosis or death of the tissues which occurs in true frost-bite. The names ' f rigorism ' and ' frigidism' have been suggested for it. The conditions causing it are cold, wet, and interference with the circulation in the leg and foot by tight puttees and- boots. A very thin layer of moderately dry air between the skin and the external cold water or ice enables the heat of the circulating part to keep the parts free from ' frigorism,' and this can be secured by wearing bags of very soft, thin oilskin on the lower limbs, in conjunction with woollen socks. Nothing tight must be worn around the leg. CHOPPING CONTESTS. The correspondent of the London Times at British headquarters on the Western front says that the Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, and Frenchmen participated in a woodmanship competition, for which elaborate arrangements were made, and special programmes were printed. A regimental band played appropriate selections. General Bird w00d,.. understands and is understood by -the oversea forces, distributed the prizes. The trees were tied with the competitors' colors. _ There was. a huge enthusiastic audi-., enee, the soldiers cheering their favorites. - The results

were:—Tree-felling.—Teams of three New Zealand men (including two Maoris), 1; Australia, 2. Logchopping.—Australia, 1; New Zealand, 2. Cross-cut Sawing.— 1; New Zealand, 2. Best Axemanship,A Maori, 1; a Canadian, 2. A NURSE'S LETTER FROM EGYPT. (From our Christchurch correspondent.) Writing to her relatives in this city, under date April 21, from the Empire Nurses' Red Cross Club, Matson Nubar Pasha, Cairo, Nurse Rose Fanning (formerly on the staff of the Christchurch General Hospital), who left. on the first trip of the hospital ship Maheno, and has been on active service in the Egyptian hospitals ever since, gives interesting particulars of her experiences. ' This is Good Friday (she writes), and I have just come from the solemnities at St. Joseph's Cathedral. I have the day off, so I shall go back for the devotion of the Stations of the Cross at 3 o'clock. On Holy Thursday afternoon I visited five churches. Some of the altars were glorious. I drove to them with two Syrian girls, who visit the hospital. They are very good Catholics, and are always delighted to meet a Catholic nurse. N They are also very wealthy, and so can do a lot for the patients. I had afternoon tea at their home. I am delighted to have the chance of spending Easter in Egypt, and "only hope to have the opportunity of getting to Palestine before leaving the East. There is still mention of our leaving Egypt, now that our troops are gone. We expect to go either to England or France, but in the Army one seldom gets what one expects.' • Mentioning the return of two nurses by the transport then just left for New Zealand, she says there was a dreadful sand storm on the day of their departure, one of the worst experienced for many years, and it took days to get the place clean again. Nurse Fanning mentions Captain-Chaplain Brennan's good work in the hospitals arid among the Catholic men of the forces. She relates how interested she was in the papers illustrating the ceremonies in connection with the consecration of his Lordship Bishop Brodie, and how forcibly the remembrance of the late Bishop Grimes came back to her that day in the Cairo Cathedral. At night the number of hospital tents among the trees, attached to the main building, * look very pretty, when lit up. . They are rather warm in the day time, and insect pests are most trying. One is reminded, however, that it is active service, and we should consider ourselves lucky to have tents. Discussing a donkey ride through the date plantations, outside the city by moonlight, she says: 'lt was glorious; I think we have the most beautiful moonlight nights in the world here, and there is always one magnificent star to be seen—it must be the Star of Bethlehem, at least I always love to think of it as such.' PROMPT JUSTICE. From a book entitled Impressions de Guerre de Pretres Soldats, we find that the monks and priests who have written their impressions therein do not fail to give generous testimony to the humanity, to the consideration, and to the kindness of German chaplains, both Protestant and Catholic. Also to that of German officers. But it is clear that the state of things which made this testimony possible endured but a very little while, scarcely indeed beyond the first month of war; and the less pleasant fact also emerges that this kindly attitude to the French priests and wounded was largely the outcome of good-natured contempt (says the Universe). The Germans, one and chaplains, officers, and men—believed that the French would be conquered at once, and some went so far as to think that France, as a nation, would not put up any serious fight at all. No more vivid account of the first invasion of Belgium (August 4-24, 1914) has been written than that here contributed by a French priest whose mother happened to be at Spa, and who joined her there in the first days of war. v Brought accident-

ally in contact with a German military . chaplain, who was also a priest, ho invited him to lunch. Questioning him concerning the German objective, he.asked, Are you now marching on. Antwerp and Lille'?’ ‘Wo are making for Paris,’ at once answered the other, ‘ and we shall be there in twelve days.’ He was an intelligent man, and he had edited a soldiers’ prayer-book which excited the admiration and envy of his French colleague. Among other things it contained an excellent collection of Scripture texts, of prayers before victory, after victory, and after defeat; and in an appendix was a kind of little Franco-German dictionary which made it possible for a German, even not knowing French, to go to confession • with a French priest. ‘He was certainly a zealous, a cultivated, an edifying priest, but now and then the Teuton pierced through the priest, and tact was not his dominating quality,’ says the Frenchman drily. As they walked about after their luncheon, respectfully saluted by the German soldiery, the chaplain kept repeating in a jovial tone, ‘Yes, in twelve days We shall be in Paris. God is protecting us. Prompt justice! It won’t be long. Prompt-^—! ’