WITH OUR ALLIES IN THE BALKANS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 137, 27 February 1918, Page 3

WITH OUR ALLIES IN THE BALKANS

0 ~ WORK OF THE WOMEN'S HOSPITAL UNITS LECTURE BY DR. AGNES BENNETT The Concert Chamber of the Town Hall was crowded to the doors and more with an audience that eagerly awaited Dr. Agnes Bennett's lecture dealing with the work of tho Scottish Women's Hospital units in tho Balkans. For many of the people who wero present in the hall it was the first opportunity of welcoming Dr. Bennett back to; Wellington on a brief recuperating visit from her war work, and needless to.say it was.the warmest of welcomes that greeted her. Dr. Newman, M.P., presided. In his opening remarks Dr. Newman apologised for Sir Robert Stout, who was to have taken the chair,"'but was prevented from doing so at the last moment. In Dr. Bennett, said the speaker, they had one who was not only a credit to New Zealand, hut ono who was a credit to the profession. During the course of this war women had set a fino example and had clone absolutely wonderful work._ It was probably the first war in which women doctors had taken part, and of those women Dr. Bennott had been one. Wherever she had been, in Egypt, in the Balkans, and elsewhere, she had done fine work. She had mado great sacrifices, had faced cold, hardship, plague and dangers of all kinds, rnd on all hands her work had been excellently spoken of. Unfortunately from her they would not hear her own share in it all. , Dr. Bennett, who was received with great applause, began her lecture by outlining the way in which sTv- first became connected with the Scottish Women's Hospitals through the meeting with the late Dr. Elsie- Inglifi, and of the equipment and setting forth of the unit for Salonika. It was a matter of intense interest to all concernedthat they wero a ,part of the great army in the Mediterranean and that their work was amonest so_ many different nationalities—Bulgarians, Rumanians. Serbs, Moroccans, Russians, French.'ltalians, etc. From the time that she decided to take charge of ono of the hospital units two months were spent in getting equipment and staff, two months in which tho admirable organising powers of the Scottish Women's Hospital Committee were seen fully displayed. Women of twentyfive years of age and over formed the porsonnel of the staff, and to her it was most interesting to hear them talk of rotary pumps, boring apparatus for securing water, etc., etc., in a thoroughly familiar fashion. 'After Salonika was reached, the first destination of Dr. Bennett' s unit, which was attached to the 3rd Division of the Serbian Army, was Ostrovo, but as fierce shelling was going on thero at that time they .were detained at Salonika for three weeks. The Serbian Army had just recently been re-formed alter its bitter fighting of the previous year, but even then it had no hospital unit and no medical appliances. The first big battle to take place after this re-formation was the mountain battle of Kaymakchalen. The wounded from this battle wero conveyed to Dr. Bennett's hospital by very primitive means, sometimes in donkey litters, sometimes in springless carts over te'r.nbly rough' roads. The work in the hospital, Dr. Bennett told her auditnco, was very severe. All tho time that it was being set up, the wounded were waiting for admittance, and men .were.,dying.on -, il, e.. hillsides. For. -weeks--there .was-not an empty bed, and most 1 of the- wounded'.were double, •cases, ■ one/man having as many-as thirty-nine wounds. As. soon as the meii were fit thoj were moved fro in' that hospital to another by an ambulance train, and although the distance was not very.great, it.sometimes took tiiem as many as thirty-six hours to get there, because of ammunition trains coming along, for which they had to give priority of place. If tbeso men got so much as a drink of water, a ration of bread, or some bully beef, they thought themselves very lucky indeed.

The terrible roads over which the ambulances had to travel, with hairpin bends, were described. Of these 'ambulances there were thirteen, light Ford vehicles, which carried two patients at a time. Sometimes the men had to lie under a shelter ' of boughs until the weather made it possible for them to be brought in, when they were taken . to the reception teiit, ..cleaned and then taken to the'wards.

The Serbians Dr. Bennett described as being intensely religious. They were closely allied to the Russians, and had many of their customs. In their, regiments were sometimes to be found women soldiers, and they made good soldiers, too. Lator on the hospital was divided tip, the dressing station and transport camp going on to tho Ccrno Eiver, where further severe fighting took place, and the main station remaining at Ostrovo. At tho dressing station, they had 40 beds, tnd as the valley' in which they wero encamped was sacred to hospitals they were practically' immune' from the bombing of aeroplanes. The transport camp moved up'into tlie hills 2000 feet higher than the Cema Valley and carried the art of camouflage to a high degree in regard to their tents. ...

As the winter advanced and work became a little lighter, Dr. Bennett described another work which was undertaken by her unit, that of fighting a typhus outbreak in the Italian lines which was successfully overcome, and that of feeding the civilian population in answer to the request made by the Serbian Minister for the Interior. The condition of the civilians was pitiable in the extreme, and so morning and evening for some considerable time they distributed food to 200 women and children until a Serbian Relief Committee, formed in England for that purpose, took over the work. Being a voluntary hospital they were able to undertake this work. Had it been military it could not have been done.

Living among eo primitive a people brought home to Dr. Bennett and bur associates all that civilisation stood for. There was no gold circulating, and buying and selling was dono by means of bartering for which they had not been prepared. Tlie people had never heard of the marvels of modern surgery, and five out of every six individuals suffered from malaria, even children of less than nine months being victims. The people had never heard of quinine, and they got a great reputation for their cures at the hospital •During their timo together two members .of tho staff were lost,' one from malaria and one from appendicitis.

In concluding her lecture Dr. Bennett pointed out that it was for all that civilisation : stood for that our lads were fighting at the front, and only those who had seen the want of it could realise all it meant. No ono man or woman should grudgo their going but should feel that they wore fulfiling their highest duty in going to fight for their women, their children, and their country. When wo who were left behind saw them broken in liodv we should never forget to correlate with those maimed bodies all the pence, the protection, and the liberty that wo enjoyed through their sacrifice.

Dr. Valintine proposed a vote of thanks to Dr. Bennett for her most able and illuminating lecture, and referred to all that had been omitted of Dr. Reiinett's own part in the work she had described to them. Its oxcc|]pnco was endorsed by the members of her profession here, and all tho doctors who had been in the. various

arenas of the war and had seen her work. What she had dono was a splendid incentive to all, men and women alike, and when they were told of tho typhus epidemic and other things of a similar nature, those who know Dr. Bennett knew something of what that noble woman had gone through. Those who had the privilege of knowing her knew how-modestly she had spoken of all that had been done, and could understand to some extent how much she had left untold. (Applause.) The Hon. .1. G. W. Aitken seconded the vote of thanks and said how proud they should feel of the fact that Dr. Bennett belonged to Wellinston. The support of the Hospital Unit work financially was also urged by the speaker.