WOES OF THE WAR.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1652, 20 January 1913, Page 4

WOES OF THE WAR.

MISERY OF NON-FIGHTERS.

THE; UNTENOED WOUNDED. "It is not only that the war in tho Balkans lias many of the ancient cruelties with practically none of the modern alleviations," says the London "Telegraph," ''it, is not only that a spirit of revengeful hatred is unchained such as armed .Europe has not known for many generations; not only that the fate of thousands of uhtended wounded on both sides has been an Unimaginable agony bol'oro death. "VVe have to contemplate tho facts of massacre and pestilence. Wo have also to remember that these hostilities havo involved more misery and ruin among the.. non-combatant population than liavo been suffered in any, war of our times. The' poverty of these halfcivilised peasants, their fears and .their helplessness have given to this conflict a special-character; the fugitives bivouacked among the tombs ontsido Constantinople are only a part of this great army of homeless wretchedness." . 1 Horrors of the Roads. Here is an appalling picture drawn by a "Times" correspondent:— "Intermingled with this motley throng of homeless fugitives,, wounded Soldiers trudge painfuly along, weary,. sad, wan khaki-clad figures who,have dragged their ruined bodies, through the long and bitter night'. One bare-footed, yellotf-faced soldier with a.) bullet in his shoulder, leads an ass upon .w'hich is huddled his brother With a shattered thigh. The pitiable spectacle attests mo, and I offer, him a few piastres; they ask but for bread, and devour the sparse repast of bread and Oheeso. . 1 ~ -; • '

"I could write, without end ofsuch sights, and repeat a hhndred stories of the woe and suffering; I could tell of tho stiff, cold bodies of wounded soldiers who had'succumbed to their injuries en route, and lay" with the brown earth for a bier. Further along the highway are tho corpses of two women, i who, driven from their sick beds, had breathed their last during tho cold of the bitter November night; and anon I passed at -ft caiifor, fdr ; I dared, not stay to look, the smalt frail body of a child, its lifeless eyes'gazing wistfully-up to the heavens. These poor martyred - creatures received but a shrug of the shoulders from the fugitive' throng which passed by. . But the . Very repetition of such incidents, more tragic than the batch of red bodies I have seen fresh from tho battlefield, fills mo with horror, and I hesitate to giyo fuller particulars. ■ ■' >' < Mutilation and Torture. . "Only those who have been brought into close contact with tho terriblo realities of the_ war can cstimafo tho eitent of the sacrifices/' says another ."Times]" correspondent at' Sofia. "Here in Sofia the tvouh'ded are arriving , literally in thousands; all tho larger public buildings have been transformed . into hispitais, as well as many private houses. 'In the Military School, which I visited today, beds cannot be provided for all the patients, and many are laid on the bare floors. I noticed , thai all Turkish'pati-' ents havo beds.' The wounded from the last: great battle, both Bulgarians ' and Turks, have yet to arrive, and how arrangements can be made to: acconimodato thera it is hard to say. . "There can be<little doubt, however, that the path of tho retreating Turkish armies is marked by murder, pillage, and devastation. To-day two_ Servian officers arrived hero from Egri Palftaka find KumanovoV They isiato -that tho roads by which the Turkish arniv retired lvcro strewn with tho'corpses of Christian peasants. In many eases the bodies not only of men, but also of women and children, had been mutilated, and bore evidence of torture. .Charred. corpses were found of persons who had been tied to tree 6 and burnt alive, or / impaled, and then .roasted." '• • A Terrible Rearguard. / - ' "It 19 always pathetic to bo behind an army while fightinj?, but rarely_ have I been so moved as by. the groups of wounded painfully toiling oh their way back to tho. railway line," writes a Times correspondent after tho battle of Lille Burgas. , "Almost without intermission for nearly, thirty miles we overtook these unfortunate victims of this struggle of nations. In'sopie cases the wounded were lying down, in others they wore in_ bul-lock-carts, - and the agonies . that these poor fellows suffered were readable in their 'lack-lustre eyes, for to lio in bul-lock-carte over Turkish roads must,be one unending ajjony. for those unfortunates nursing their shattered'limbs." . Here is a terrible picture by Mr. Donohoe, of tho TDaily Chroniclo":— • "The broken army is crawling—it can no longer run. iDays and nights of awful suffering have reduced' its gait to a mere totter. The track iof the fleeing Turkish army is paved with dead and dying, and ns:'an aerial rearguard' great flocks of black crows, which caw a hideous requiem, ever hover near, marking down some weary soldier, staggering to his end. 'Pariah ,dogs of. vulpine .breed, scenting carrion,'have gathered from, afar, their dismal-howling resounding throughout the night. They and the croWs are the !only gravodigjers .- for tho dead. •On the way from Chorlu, while still daylight, I oame across thd half-devOured bodies of ; many horses whicK ,;could not have succumbed moro than, two hours.' I shuddered to think of the'fate of hapless moii who h(id fallen dying,by the wayside.",, .

' A Bla Man Breaks Down.. ■ Hero is a different kind of story—a pathetic incident in tho surrender of' Salonika, as described by the "Morning Post's'' correspondent:—' ■ "Just'beforo dark Halil. Bey, commanding Hassan Pasha's cavalry, came riding up with a small escort, one of whom had a whito flag furled. Before his arrival we ivere watching Muhyddim Bey, a great big, fierce man, giving his orders for the, night, his men simply jumping to the sound ,of his great voice. Ilalil Bey galloped up, stopped, spoke a few words to Muhyddim Boy, and galloped on. Muhyddim, instead of returning to speak to us, walked over to his guns'and sat dowii on a guntrail; '■ I wondered what had happened, and went to.inquire. This great, strong, bravo man had completely broken down, and was sobbing like a little child. Knowing the range of every blado of grass, overy conspicuous object, and with unlimited ammunition, ho had received tho news that the Pasha agreed/to surrender not only the town, but himsi'lf and twenty-five thousand men. I.'ciiteuant Watson and I wero greatly touched, and giving Muhyddim Bey a silent handshake, wo returned to Salonikn, which wo reached after'dark.

"Shortly afterwards the Greeks entered Salonika—the haven to their desire—and tHo "town swelled to the martial tread of men who, Phoenix-like, havo risen from tho poor stuff of 1897. Among; them are thousands of Americans domiciled in Greece on tobacco work.- They Stiffened the army and mado the infantry incomparable. But at the back of the gallant niarch ( thera remained in my mind' (ho sad picture of Hassan defying fate, yet yielding to entreaty; he hnd wished to die fighting. And that other figure of that brave artillery Pasha weeping on tho trail of a gun. ICismot."