A DISTRESSING LOSS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2609, 3 November 1915, Page 4

A DISTRESSING LOSS

It is sad nows_ indeed that wo publish this morning concerning the torpedoing of the steamer Marquette with the loss of a number of the personnel of the New Zealand No ; 1 Stationary Hospital Staff, including ten women nurses. _ Amidst all tho tragic events' associated with the battlefields of this terrible war, nothing can lay a stronger hold on our admiration and respect than the heroic manner in which the various branches of the Army Medical Service have risked and too frequently given up their lives in the performance of their humanitarian task of seeking to save the lives and alleviate the sufferings of the men stricken down in the fighting lines. In this war, probably as in ho other, the medical men associated with the field hospitals and the members of the Ambulance Corps have been called on to risk their lives in the- daily conduct of their duties almost "to the same extent as the soldiers engaged in battle, and this moreover without that stimulus to deeds of heroism and sacrifice which comes to men in the heat of conflict. Those associated with the N.Z. No. 1 Stationary Hospital may or may not have been engaged in- duties which took them within range of the enemies' guns, but it is safe to sav that equally with those associated with the Field Hospitals, they have been ready to do their duty wherever they could best serve their country and tho cause it is fighting for. Now a number of them have made the great sacrifice; and it is doubly distressing to learn that, included in the list of those lost 011 _,th-& transport Marquette arc several v of those noble women who have laboured so heroically ministering to our sick and wounded soldiers. The full list of those lost in the sinking of the steamer is not yet available, and the total, to all 'appearances, will he small compared with tho heavy lists of casualties which have from time to time reached us from the fighting lines; but tho shock of the loss of these non-combatants, whoso noble work has been one of tho most inspiring features of "this ghastly war, will stir deeply the hearts of all.