WOMAN'S WORLD.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 142, 5 March 1918, Page 2

WOMAN'S WORLD.

MATTERS OF INTEREST FROM FAR AND NEAR

(By Imogen.)

SOCIAL AND PERSONAL

Countess of. Liverpool Fund. The monthly meeting of the Mayoress's Countess of Liverpool Fund Committee was held in the Mayoress's room in the Town Hull yesterday morning. There were present: Mrs. Luke (in the chair), Mesdames M'assey, Tripp, Fordhain, Thompson, Aston, Laing, ll'ice, Stott, Nathan, M'Arthur, Murphy,' Findlay, A. Crawford (hoi), secretary). A letter was rend by the secretary from the O.C. :it Samoa, in which he thankee] the fund for the Christmas gifts which had been received for the men. Letters which had been received from the War Reliof Association were read, and it was proposed by Mrs. Massey, seconded by Mrs. J- Findlay, that the committee should appeal to the Wellington public for regimental funds which apparently aro urgently needed. This tho committee resolved to do later on, and to make all possible efforts to assist this fund. It was decided to assist the Y.M.C.A. Red Triangle Day by holding a flower stall in Kolburn Avenuo on the clay fixed upon for tho big street effort, and a committee, consisting of Mesdames Purely, Brice, Thompson, and Stott, was appointed to deal with tin's .matter.

Gifts for Soldiers in Hospital. . The matron of tho hospital acknowledges the following gifts received during February for the patients in tho military ward:—Soldiers' Comforts Guild: -9 cases fruit, cigarettes, chocolates; Ladies.' Guild Natives' Association: buns and cakes (weekly), tomatoes, cucumbers, smokes, chocolates; llcwors and cigarettes: Daphne Dennison, Kathleen Bright, May Bolton, Mrs. M'Menamin; eggs: Mrs. M'Menamm (weekly supply), Brooklyn schoolchildren; Hutt Ladies' Patriotic Guild: (per Mrs. Cameron), eggs, fruit, sweets, flowers (weekly); vegetables: Mrs. Thompson; scones and pickles: Mrs. Millar; jam: Mrs. Eekford (1 case), Miss M'Gowan; fruit: tho Mayor {'Ah. i. P. Luke)_, Mrs. Martin Ren-' l'edy (grapes), Mr. Rodda (G cases peaches), Mrs. Newlands (1 case). Colonel Collins (blackberries), Mrs. Muir Vgrapes); Hutt ladies (grapes); cornHour: Mrs. Luke; Red Cross Comforts Guild: b' eases fruit, (i bed tables, chocolates, smokes, cakes, papers, looks, cigarettes, buns, cakes, flowers; Salvation Army (weekly supply of articles) : slings, dumb-hells, fomentation cloths, table-covers, four tray sets (for officers); books: News Agency 1 case, ■•Anonymous"; shoes: per Miss Gibbs; Hewers': Mrs. Hills (Daniel Streets (weekly), Mrs. Thompson,; tomatoes, cucumbers, chocolates: Miss M'Gregur; papers: Mr. Norris; Government Farm, Hastings: 12 cases fruit"; old linen: Mrs. Horn (46 Pipitea Street). Tim matron also acknowledges a gift of flowers from the girls of Wellington College for the Children's Hqspital-

Miss Jessie Milne has returned to Mastertoii from a visit to Plinimerton.

Miss Bulk-ley, of Wellington, has returned from a holiday visit to Australia.

Contributions of hospital equipment have been received at the Mercer Street Red Cross Depot from.tho following:— Ladies' Guild, Takapau (H. 8.); Foxton Girls' Guild; Chilton House School; Makuri Red Cross Guild; Countess of Liverpool Fund and Red Cross Guild, liuutemlle; Ngaio Working Bee; Mrs. F. R, Russell; Miss Dalziel; Turakiiia Red Cross Guild ; Waipukurnu and TJistiicts Red Cross Society; Ohau Red Cross Society.

"In connection with Wadestown Cake Day at the Wellington Red Gross Shop to-da.y, a most original guessing competition is causing some amusement. The window decoration is to be quite a feature, and was designed by a Wadestown lady. Thero will be also on sale quantities of good home-made cakes, sweets, flowers, and produce. Everyone is asked to come, and buy, and so help the Red Cross Fund.

Contributions to the Countess of Lherpool Mavoi'ess's Fund have, been received at the Town Hall from the following districts during tho month of February:—Carterton, Keilding, I'almerston North. Foxton, Hastings, Raot,ihi. Wallaceville, Waipukurau, Stratford. Lower Hutt, Paliiahta. Gisbi;rw>, Oban, Waverley, Ormondville, Wairoa, ; l''cilding, Lcviii, ' Hawcra, Jla.sterl.on, '■■ Opuiiake, Ohnkune, and at the Town ' II all during the past week from the I following:—Pahiatua Patriotic Lcnguc i (per Mrs. Crewe); Ohaknnc Palmitic ■ League, (per Mrs. R. L- Christ;^; ■ : Opimakc Women's ' Patriotic Guild ; ■ Mis. A. 0. Baggott; Roseueatb School; i Kaotihi Ladies' Patriotic Guild; Waii lutara Ladies' Sowing Guild.

i Manv friends' will greatly regret to . hear of the dsath of Mrs. Pyemont, of ' Wellington Terrace, which took nlacu at a private hospital early yesterday morning.

As efforts to induce, the Federal Government to create a women's army auxiliary corps on the lines of the British W.A.A.C. have failed, an attempt is being made to form an association and to organise a corns privately, states the "Herald." The intention is, when the 'numbers justify it, to approach the Government again, and urge the organisation of the corps for service behind the lines on the Western front, or elsewhere, as the • military authorities may decide. There are many women in Victoria who would be willing to join.

Naval Men's Apnrcciation of U.Z. Gifts. Mrs. Bradney-Williams, lion, secretary of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the iNavy League, lias received the lolluwing letter of appreciation lrom Commander Armstrong, o£ the Motor Boat Patrol, acknowledging receipt of a:'cousiguuieu of wonlien clothing for the •men, received early in December, lie writes:—"On behalf of the crews of the motor boats attached to this base, I beg to thank you and the members of the Ladies' Auxiliary Branch of the Navy League most heartily for your kindness in sending me such a useful consignment of woollen clothing. The case arrived hero a few days and its contents, which wero in perfect condition, have been greatly appreciated by tho men. In the small craft in which they work they are exposed to great. cold, and your niemuers may rest assured that tlieso gifts, not merely diminish the hardships which the men must necessarily endure at this time of the year, but also increase their efficiency as a lighting force." Many letters of thanks have also been received from the crews of the H.M.S. Doris and the H.M.S. the greatest appreciation being expressed for the parcels which they had received from New Zealand. Everything had arrived in excellent order, including tho cakes, which were thoroughly enjoyed. These and other gifts were supplied by the Citizens' Gift Fund for the men of the Doris and the Hermione, ana were forwarded through tho Ladies' Auxiliary. Mrs. Gibbons packed the woollen goods for tho motor boat patrol, the mine-sweopc-is, and the prisoners of war. Australian Women to Replace Orderlies. Owing to the inadequate enlistments of men for war service and the necessity that has arisen for every availablo soldier to be serit o.veiseas at the earliest possible'moment, the authorities are arranging for the employment of women orderlies in the big ntmy hospitals in Australia, in place of Army Medical Corps orderlies enlisted for service in the A.1.F., states the ".Melbourne Age." It has been the practice in the past to give all i A.M.C. men a certain amount of training in Australian military hospitals before sending thein overseas. Recently, however, the authorities decided that in view of the small number of volunteers now coming forward the training of men in Australia for distinctive arms of the Army such as tho Army Medical Corps should be disoontjnueci. In future, therefore, volunteers will be enlisted for general service only, and it will be for the authorities overseas to decide whether they should bo allotted to the Army Medical Corps, the Light Horse or the infantry. Thus the Army medical authorities in Australia have been compelled to look elsewhere than to the A.1..F. training ca'mps for hospital orderlies. In consequence they have deoided to avail themselves of the services of women for general hospital work. This ctanot mean that all the military hospitals will shortly be entirely_ staffed by women. There is certain work to be dune in these big hospitals for which men are better suited than women. Male orderlies will, therefore, still bo employed, but only men physically unfit for war service will be engaged. The women orderlies will act principally as wards maids, and some may be allotted as cooks. Members of voluntary aid detachments-who some time ago placed their services at the disposal of tho military authorities will in ali probability be given the first opportunity of accepting hospital appointments. They will not, however, be itcjuired to perform nursing duties.

For Overstaying Their Leave,

War's Wraok. Dr. Charles Horsi'ail Armitage (brother-in-law of Mrs. \V. Armitage, of Shell Cove, llosman), who left Syd-r-ey in. 1915, has returned from America. Two years were spent by him in Northern France with the E.A.M.C., r:id the remaining year in post-gradu-ate work in England and America Dr. Armitage gives many interesting and even thrilling accounts of his varvioci experiences, states the "Herald." He records the merciless fire of the guns when they open their brazen throats, the death-dealing shells and shrapnel, machine-guns, and rifles, and' the grenish-yellow gas cloud swept by a sighing breeze and seen in the distance like a curtain' of fairy gauze. Uui that other side of the dreadful picture—the desolation and the shattered homes, the ruin of life and hope, the houses cut in halves with, perhaps, one wall remaining with its hangings and its pictures; tho children torn from their parents, and tlu\ women of France, all in mourning, it is impossible to describe. "Like an emblem of hopo upspringing, however, are the meadows behind the lines, bright with cornflowers, daisies, and buttercups, the indomitable heart of 'la belle patric.' These are depicted by Dr. Armitage in graphic language. The women of England, he says., arc working to their utmost'. The women of America have not yet realised, but ate being surely organised. Their great preachers inveigh against waste and luxury. Unless these are fought like the foe himself, a great Nonconformist preacher prophesies that next year will bring food riots. Stirred by his thundering condemnations of the sins of luxury, his audience even applaud in church. America is now in not only for the great military struggle, but for the years ahead, after the war, when Prussian kultur will try to win back its old prestige. There is a constant urging of organised opportunity, education, ami equipment, particularly for the youth of the nation, so that in the years to come Germany will have nothing givo America.

Norah Halligan and Ethel Davis, typists at Aldershot Headquarters (England), having overstayed their leive in London, were, recently on tl'/iir return handed on by the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps authorities to flic civil police for neglect of pnblio duty. They spent two nights in the cells, and were fined one guinea oach by Aldershot Magistrates.

AT THE SERBIAN FRONT

HOSPITAL WORK IN MACEDONIA

Of special interest to very many people will be the book which has been written by E. P. Stebbing (of which as yet only a gift copy lias reached New ZealandY, iu which he relates the work and adventures of the Scottish Women's Hospital unit attached to the Third Division of the new Serbian Army, of which Dr. Agnes Bennett was in charge, and to which he was attached as transport officer. Those who heard Dr. Bennett lecture upoii the work achieved by the unit with which shoj was associated, until malaria forced her to rest for a while, will have formed.some slight conception of the difficulties which the women of that unit faced and the strenuous work which they accomplished, but after all it could only be but a faint realisation in which the personal element was entirely left out. In the course of this book, "At the Serbian Front in Macedonia," it needs but little imagination to realise the indomitable spirit, the resource, the abnegation of self which animated every one of them and showed them to he women who were the inheritors of the finest traditions of the race. Of the difficulties which beset the unit in getting its equipment landed at Salonika and finally sent up to Ostrovo, which was to be its headquarters' for some time, Dr. Bennett gave some idea, but in a lecture which was to summarise so much only a faint idea could be given, necessarily. That, howevor. was only the preliminary to a still greater difficulty—that of getting the whole camp pitched, hospital and all. ' / The writer describes those days (in which tho camp was hoiug pitched) as being hard, hut extremely interesting. "Awake at dawn; breakfast, 6.30; dinner, 12; siesta, till 2 (if possible); tea, 3.30; and supper, 6.30. "How those women did work at this period!" he goes on to say. '"We had barely got two Wards np and one half fitted when Colonel Sondermeyer appeared in the camp, accompanied by.i Colonel Milosavlovitch, from Ostrava, and asked Dr. Bennett whether she could take in wounded at once. When questioned upon the subject I most strongly opposed the idea. If wounded men came in at this stage the work would not only be greatly hampered and delayed, but tho camp would be badly put up, havo a slovenly appearance, and really good work would he an impossibility. The C.M.O. resisted the pressure put upon her, and we had two days' grace. Those two days are an interesting nightmare to look back upon. The first wounded commenced to arrive at the end of the period of grace. We had then two wards complete, out of the whole number, and a thir'd up, hut not fitted. This fitting of the wards was the nurses', part of the job. With tho operation and the sterlising tents up, the camp became a casualty clearing station in being. "Tho first operation was performed by Dr. Jessie Scott, and within the next week over 30. operations were carried out in this tent. . .< . I looked in one night, and once only .Round the operation table stood five people, a nurse and four doctors, three of our own and the X-ray R.A.M.G. specialist, who had been invited to be present. The light of a strong enthusiasm shone upon the faces of the five: a light born of tho knowledge that this was the work they had come so far to perform, tho work in which they had made themselves proficient, and that here was a life to be saved by their skill. "The matron and the nurses on day and night shifts from the day they, started the work of fitting up their ■department had no time free from the wards. Ten clays after tho arrival of those last eight wagons at the camp 160 beds wore occupied, and a day or two later the hospital was full. Had we had 500 beds they could have been filled with equal ease." A further description of the work is given in another chapter. He writes: "As would be expected, the work in tho wards went on all day and late into the niglit during that first month when the wounded poured into the hospital. I scarcely eaw tho doctors during that : strenuous time save at meals or when anything was wanted either for tho wards or tho operating theatre. Supper over, they, went back to their wards or the theatre, to both of which their devotion was unflagging and untiring, a devotion which secured my whole-heart-ed admiration. The wounded coming' in required this constant care and supervision. As a rule only the very bad cases were sent to the hospital. The others went down as occasion and room offered by rail to the hospitals in the plain. The Scottish women had to deal with men terribly shattered and broken by the fighting undertaken on the exnosed and rocky mountain sides, and it was a marvel, not that some died; but that the percentage was not far hinrher than it was." _ , . Tho writer is a mail who is gifted with a keen sense of humour and' is quick to seize the lighter side of an existence in which at times tragedy must have been most insistent. And this lighter side to which all those engaged in this dark and dreadful business cling so eagerly, he takes care to nresent, so that the hook is a fascinating mingling of light and shade of the heroic and of tho littlo frailties to which even the best of us are subject. Miss Audrey Kettle (Napier) left last week for Dunedin to atend University courses in that city. The weekly dance of the Sydney Street Soldiers' Club wil'. be held as usual in the club on Wednesday ingThe ißev. Mr. Hodge (Masterton) and Mrs. Hodge left yesterday en route for Christchurch, where Mr. Hodge is to attend a conference.