WOUNDED HUNS
THEIR UN-BRITISH MENTALITY
(By One Who Nurses Thein.)
In a remoto corner of England, nestling in the fold of downs that in prewar days" saw nothing more warliko than a flock of sheep and their shepherd, is to be found a group of tin huts. Very small and unimportant tlioy look in the distanco; almost like some stranded farm buildings. On closer inspection tliey appear more spacious, and aro found to be surrounded with a high, unfamiliar fence of barbed wire. Outside tho fence is a constant guard. For this is a war hospital—not suoli as is familiar, too familiar, to all British mothers and sisters, but 0110 to which wounded prisoners of war are brought, and where they are nursed hack into such health and well-being as can remain to them.
They come in convoys of one or two hundred, brought hither by train and ambulance from a seaport somo miles away. ' , . • •' Sometimes they arrive in their German uniforms, with the clay of the tronobes thiclc upon thorn. More of ton they come sweet and clean in the kit provided at the base hospital. In the early days, when we were first notified that we were to look after the Huns, the whole staff was somewhat horrified. Later, whon the stretchors arrived with their mutilated burdens, the most censorious became the most pitiful, and the gentleness with which the gallant-hearted members of the R.A.M.O. handled those stretchers, the untiring zeal with which they tended these wounded enemies, is to me one of tho wonders of the war. lam afraid that the Germans, and the officers in particular, attribute our kindness to fear of them.
Quickly the long wards of thirty-four beds • are filled, stretcher following stretcher in quiet orderliness; and in an incredibly short timo each Hun is fed and washed and his wounds dressed, until by midnight the place assumes the normal appearance of a hospital ward. Two Pictures. These men sleep in beds as soft as our own men have, between sheets as given the same food as the rgulation military hospital diet. No mattefhow short-banded the staff may bo, their wounds are dressed as often as thoy require. They can write homo twice a week, and in all respects are well cared for. They arc treated with the greatest tenderness and care. Wounded, and in captivity, how does the soul of tho Hun appear? The first impression is that of an almost servile gratefulness—the gratefulness of one who, expecting the lash, is received with the greatest kindness. It is a gratitude tinged with suspicion. "This kindness is this ambush for " (Who knows tho horrors that the Hun mind can conceive ?) This attitudo tells ono of two stories: either they have been filled with stories of British cruelty to the wounded, or their own treatment of wounded onemios is sticli that thoy themselves dread the like. Presently one gets to know, them, in spite of the language difficulty (few "sisters" or orderlies havo a great knowledge of German), for one quickly gets quite clever at carrying on a conversation in a language which is neither German nor English, but a weird mix-, tiiro of both, and no matter how one hates the German nation one cannot movo and dress individual Germans without getting to know little personal traits about them. There is a boy of sixteen, a Prussian, who on his arrival seemed frightened | out of his life ,of tho "English," andwho later followed "sister" everywhere,: his i.watohfur eyes anticipating' a hundred little services she might require, and who was, heard to remark, "English sisters, good I English people kind, nix bad I" Another Prussian, after tho first grateful fooling wore off, forgot lie was a prisoner, forgo Englishwomen were not Gentians, and thought to display his Prussian arrogance in an English ward. The eyes of tho guard are ever watchful,, but ono was horrified at this revelation of a brutal-soul. Many of tho men are peasants .from little northern villages, with little or nor idea of why they fought, their greatest anxie),y being if they could correspond with their own people. These, when qutstioncd ; repeated with blind faith tho story £f England's aggression, trying meanwhile, ono could Bee, to reconcile tho England of which they had hoard with the England they were beginning to know. Ono of these wished to give "sister" his Iron Cross, and when she refused was so hurt that she had to compromise by accepting the ribbon thereof I A souvenir! A Hun "joke." . One finds these peasants the most courageous undor tho-suffering which dressing often entails. The urban lower middle class typo is by far the most truculent, beating pain badly, lull of petty complaints, and with a good idea of his own importance. His manners are appalling, and on the wliole he is tho comploto Hun.
One man, a- Hanoverian, wounded nigh unto death, lies in a special ward enduring tortures beyondothe conception of even the most pitiful. The vibration, although it is deadened by means of blankets spread upon the floor, is agony to him, and tlio footSteps of his comrades in tho corridor without bring forth heart-rending moans. This man is quiot and grateful, gazing with weeping eyes into what unknownP A tragedy of loneliness, homc-sickness, and pain.
On the whole, however, one is forcibly reminded that those Huns are of a lower race, nearer the ape 011 the tree. Tliey have very little tenderness to 0110 another, and tho sight of a comrade's pain finds and leaves them callous. I have known them to <mll a blind comrade across tile ward, putting an obstacle in his path, and yell with delight when he fell over it!
They are often amusing when thoy least know it. Their attempts to sain information about our Army and Navy aro particularly funny, for tliey invariably forget that a woman may havo brains and may see the trend of all these questions. When thoy were forced to believe tho news of the Cuffloy Zeppelin their rage was almost comical. Tliey got together and talked it over, most excitedly, mid then viciously shook their lists at 0110 of our machines which just then was passing overhead. If wishes could make aeroplanes drop, that mnchine"'an(l its pilot would have stood no chance. One returned with an evei-increasing gratitude to the thought of our own men. Their gaiety (no German knows the meaning of that word), their courage, and their bigness of soul contrast so strongly with the ways of the Huns, who lire pitiless, stupid, and small. — "Daily-Mail."
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Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2962, 28 December 1916, Page 9
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1,096WOUNDED HUNS Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2962, 28 December 1916, Page 9
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