ON THE WAY TO SERBIA

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2604, 28 October 1915, Page 3

ON THE WAY TO SERBIA

LETTER FROM DR. JESSIE SCOTT. In the course of a long letter, dated September 5, from Dr. Jessie Scott (who left Auckland recently • for Scrvia) to.Miss Rout, hon. secretary of the Volunteer Sisterhood, Dr. Scott gives an interesting description of her crossing from Egypt to Greece. She says:— "At Alexandria I caught a 6teamer for Greece. Wo reached Piraeus, the port of Athens, two days later. The iirst one and a half days were very rough, and in the small Greek steamer I suffered, too much to bo able to write. The last day when wo got into the Greek Arcliipelago, was delightful, but I was resting after the strenuous time I liad had, and the intense heat of Egypt. Twice this day wo were stopped by French torpedo boats. My ticket was to take mo, round from Piraeus, close to the Dardanelles, calling at Mityleno and Lemnos Islands, also Knvalla on the mainland, before finally reaching Salonika. I felt when I got to Piraeus that I deserved several days' rest, so_l disembarked, and spent four days in Athens, coming on by a steamer of the same company by a moro direct route close to the coast. It was' very beautiful, but frightfully trying, as'the steamer smelt like a sewer, and 1 was crowded with Greeks, wlio are not so fastidious as English people. ; "We arrived! at Salonika, and I go on by rail to Serbia early, to-morrow morning. Salonika is the most cosmopolitan city I have'ever visited. I hope on my return to have time to visit- its ancient wall, battlements, and mosque. There arc many Turks here, also Macedonians, and men of other nationalities. French is tho international language of the Orient, and one can go anywhere with a working knowledge of this language. Several papers, both here and in Athens, aro published in Frer.cli, so one is not lost for want of war news. All sorts of rumours are afloat here about the Dardanelles and the Balkans, but if anything eventuates you will have tho cable before you get my letter. . ... I .shall 'write to you again from Serbia. To-morrow I have to be up at cockcrow to get my train, and to-night I am going. to enjoy a sleep in a decent bed. The next two nights I shall spend on Serbian trains. I am to have a day at Nish, and am to look up some Serbian officials there. Sir 11. Paget, the British Commissioner at Kisli, is expected hero this evening, so I may see him. I .met here to-day a vonng medical man who .used to work with me at University College Bacteriological 1 Laboratory, London. He is 011 his way back to Colombo, where lio has been- located for several years. 11© spent four months of his leave on Red Cross work in Belgrade. One does run across old ,acquaintances. in surprising ways. Ho says there is much malaria in Serbia at present, so I am providing myself with, prophylactics,"' :