FRENCH FLAG NURSING CORPS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 174, 17 April 1919, Page 4

FRENCH FLAG NURSING CORPS

"FOU DAUNTLESS FRANCE." In speaking of the work of the British nurses 'in. France, illl-.' Jiinyoii 'jwys .« warm tribute'to"the''/French Miip ; Niirs. ins Corps. This oral-its-.origin--to-an English woman..'.;]!: arose out rif tlie hiirroi's nf those' early-days,'during the great retreat, the and iiattloof Ihe Maine, when the means of destruction far ex-ceeded*-the .nieiiiw. of.tnitigiUiou, and the wouiided, sometimes jolled for fifty and sixty lioiirs'.in cattle trucks--without food or medical attention; suffcfed'-siich-tor-ments that oven now we can hardly bear tu lead of them.

This English'lady went lb'the he<ul of llie']''roiich Ariiiy Medical Corps, aiul olteral to {jet - fully (rained British' i'.uifps to work iii thi! French .military. I'icspit.als; '-'L'lifi' offer was accepted,.-"and ai'flii (i steady" jstrifriiir ol" nurses;''ppiircd "across'to-l:'raiice)"a sieter who had. been ui 'chnrKo' at Kouen being appointed' iiiafroii-in-chief of tho imrses, who. fijvihed Svhat'was'knqw:!' as the Ji'rench. Flag Nursing Corps ....'.'■■'.. ■ ■ Ehelish : SiiirsPF, ijsed to ;a '/'settled ■'Hfiitiiie.-'an'd, to . _hnviii{j all' appliances, necessary at their liaii.l,.must .have-found themsplvos iii-inany (itrohge straits, in a •foreign ' Iniid, :confr6ntc-'d with. i-n'orrnftiis: pressure' of work, iiniiccustoine.d methods, li'ml 'obliged often .to work.'iji .hiirntdly iinprovised ond insti.fiicipiith'-eji.uiji-ped hospitals ; Remember, (06/ that, in the first'lew •.veeks' of. Ihe wr.r fliie-'Ger-nmns, in their invading march had.cap-tr-red .many hospitals, with greats stores of'chloroform, gauze,' drugs, and other surgical needs nnd .appliances,' and that the French, witli so mnch of their coun-Irf-iii.tho linncls of Ihe enemy, had not (hi! menus of replenish:nj; these stores. If, at first, there was. a. trifle of friction in making the'.two standards of Vrench and British methods agree, especial Iv when neither sido, was familiar with tho other's language and ways, it would not be at all, surprising; but .011 the whole, things seem to have gone irilh surprising smoothness. Certainly the sisters had a fine opportunity of studying tho methods of. tho skilled French doctors, and'surgeons tinder whom they worked, and on, their pa'rt, to quote Mr. Binyon. "Tho sisters won their way by the excellence, of their work." He. also' quotes passages from hiu'h French authorities, showing that his opinion was also theirs. "Their well-directed energy, . their self-sacrifice liiive never wavered, , ' wrote .one French doctor, and another high nliidal said, "The nurses of the French FJag Nursing Corns lire considered- by Ihe doctors of our armies as asisistiuits of. tho first class, and they presence in France, in n number rf the insulticieney_ of which we lentet. is 0110 of tho most'touching eviddices o'f the sympathy of the English nation towards our country." . The author also draws attention . to the vajue of those, miwas .in.fever hospitals: fbr in fever cmsm the nurse counts for more than the doctor; and hero the .trained skill of tlie .Unglish nurse saved many a life.