OUR NURSES IN EGYPT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2545, 20 August 1915, Page 3

OUR NURSES IN EGYPT

TRIBUTE TO THEIR WORK. In a letter which has been received by Mr. C. R. C. Robieson, general mailRger of the Stato Fire Insurance, from Corporal A. Berry, 2nd Battalion, N.Z.F.A., the writer describes tho Egyptian Government Hospital in Alexandria, in which Mr, Robieson's brother lay -wounded, as a building not large and having accommodation for 2UO patients. The wards were light, airy, and well appointed. "Your brother," he goes on to say, "is in a room containing only four beds, and as the hospital is away from the roads, is nice and quiet. It is in peace time' the Government Hospital for the natives and others, and has an efficient staff of Egyptian surgeons and physicians. Upon the outbreak c-f war it was cleared of patients and prepared for our wounded. The superintendent is an English surgeon, and he now has a • R.A.M.C. lieutenant and a staff of English nurses, as tvell as the Egyptian surgeons and physicians. The only thing lacking is nice grounds, but wo are now used to taking things as. they come and are content with very little. "The self-sacrifice of the Egyptian, French, English, and other ladies -here in Egypt is most commendable. Many give up their whole time, some nursing, others-.visiting and cheering up the boys, writing Tetters for those who are unable .to do so for themselves, cooking delicacies,' and in a hundred ■ and one ways doing their very best, working day and night.' The nurses and other lady helpers "are indeed angels in a very real sense, and one requires to bo here and see to believe and understand. A neat little linen bag marked with a_ Red Cross is .provided for the patients' letters and other odds and ends: I am happy to say there is a good chance of your, brother pulling through, and he i 6 getting the best attention and skill. He is bearing up manfully, although very ill. . "The New Zealand nurses are going to be the means of very considerably helping _ our chaps back to be themselves again. You can only have an idea— some idea—of the splendid influence the bravo New Zealand girls have over our Wounded. I liad not been with your brother fifteen minutes, Sister Taylor being with him reading to him letters from New Zealand, before another Now Zealand Sister called to inquire after him, ' and mark you neither of these girls are on the staff of tho hospital he is in. It was their afternoon off duty, and they were making their usual round of visits at their own expense in their own all-too-short respite from the hard nerve-racking work they so cheerfully and .skilfully carry out— always in becoming uniforms, spotlessly clean, moving here and there quietly and gracefully, cheering up spirits, firm, but patient and tactful. I cannot say too much for them, and I only wish there were more to lighten their, labours—they have far too much to do. LieutenantColonel Charters and Lieutenant-Colonel Esson are frequent visitors, to say no-' thing of the residents here. You' can see from this that your brother is receiving the best of care and attention, and is fortunate in having so many New Zealand friends to see him.

"I Vfcnfc with ■ the battery' to Gallipoli, but -we could not land the horses, or rather it was no; use doing so, as they could not be -used, so tlio horses and drivers and a few non-coms tvore- sent back to Alexandria, and I had to go with them. The guns and gunners landed and are still thero.: They had to haul tho guns up the cliffs and into position by means of a block and tackle, so you can imagine the nature of the country. Our infantry have behaved magnificently. ' -They- have made a Jiamo for the Empire, for New Zealand, and for themselves. They have done their duty. "It is. a sad sceno that meets the eye when one enters the hospitals here; but what" an admirationv you • feel' for the pale-faood cut-about, fellows who are nevertheless so bright and cheerful, who have come through and are still fighting through ordeals impossible to imagine." Since the time of writing Lance-Cor-poral Robieson has undergone a successful operation to remove the' shrapnel bullet, in the neck, and also a small piece of the skull, and according to recent advice he will probably be returning to New -Zealand oy the first hospital ship—probably; the Tahiti —but that-is not yet known for certain. ; News has been received of the death at Pretoria, Transvaal, of Mrs. Maria O'Brien, at the advanced age of 84 years. The deceased lady was tho widow of Franuis O'Brien, R.A., a veteran of the Maori wars, and who also served the Empire in the. Indies and elsewhere.' She arrived from- England in the ship Motaka about 1859,' forming one .'of the party that settled at Mongottui. After her marriage the family settled 'at New Plymouth, and subsequently Waitara, having to desert the 'farm 'on the outbreak of the second Maori war, and going to Auckland, where she resided for many years. At the close of the Boer war, Mrs!' O'Brien removed to the Transvaal, where both 'her sons had settled. She is survived by two sons, Major Lucius O'Brien, of Pretoria, Transvaal, and Air.. Maurice O'Brien, Assistant New Zealand Commissioner, San Francisco, and one' daughter, who is at present residing in England. I