AFTER-WAR EFFECTS "IN POLAND
1 TERRIBLE. CONDITIONS, . A. terriblo' description of the condition of affairs., existing ..in. Poland is given, by Miss .Powicke, an Englishwoman, in tho course.of a letter written ,by her a'tWarsaw shortly before her death .from typhus, - and published in the-"llanchestpr Guardian." Miss Powicke took service with the War Victims Relief Expedition, of the Society of. Friends.. For mtfiiy..months 6he travelled through tho most distressed regions ofwliat.was till recently, Russian Poland. It was a continuous 6trongle against - poverty, famine, cold,- and dircase, a struggle carried out with rare cheerfulness and wisdom. In the course of this letter Mis? .Powicke writes.:— "Coal is terribly short round 'liere. The machine for disinfecting all tho Ukrainian prisoners and refugees who are pouring oVdr the frontier isn't able to work for lack of coal; it's a. very grave thing, as they' are nil of them in need of disinfection, and many of them have typhus; already. It means that they will spread typhus everywhere they go. ■ Tarnopol is one of the biggest centres for receiving these, icfugees. I think it's . one of tho sjddest sisrhte TV aver seen; for they have come in in hundreds, some-. times in thousands, and there is no wood , or coal to heat the 'barracks where they • are- put. , ; "There's no soap to wash them, or their clothes, or tho rooms ttiey are in, and they're in a filthy condition; there's no clothing for them, and most of them have no underclothing at all; they, are all huddled together for warmth, aiid 'lie on a. sort'of wooden bed built in along the two opposite sides of tho'rooms, and there are no 1 blankets at. all. \ ,"I3ut. the Worst of it.'ii that the typhus cases have had to. romain with' the otl ors, as till yesterday there -was^- no hosjital -for them, and although I'there was s.omc Bttfting 1 dono, '<ihany stajrid/'in with tho rest. One man died while"we were taero yesterday; ho was huddled up with tho vest, and nobody knew 'lie was ill. 1.• • '■"The tragic 1 part of tho whole thing is that .transport ,js so bad that you can't hopo to get things along for wteks, and by that time the stream of refugees may l'mve finished. They havo moat of them eomo in to bo oilt of tile wa,/ of Denikin's army, as the Ukrainian army is -entirely broken up anil ho is overrunning Ukraine. "There is a society hero to deal with therfe refugees, but they just .-hnven't linen or soup or food for invalids. They, aro now trying to; tackle the prob/em, but I don't know how they'll manage.' If only poopja in. England knew how terriblo it is out here, I'm sure they would be running head over heels to help; "Wo were taken by car' to KamienicePodolski, one of tho former Ukrainian capitals, taken by' the Poles about ten days ago. Wo went round ono of tho military hospitals there—and it was tho best. There were 400 men thero, with tvhpus chielly, and other infectious (lis-; eases, ajid I shan't easily forget the state in which they were. The whole building reeked, and the atmosphere in the wants was so poisonous I don't know. why they didn't nil die. There they had no clothing or linen at nil.' and: tho men just lav in the clothes they'd como in with.. ''We saw tho Avi! Hospital there. That was bettor, Wthero was the same lack; and in all the" other smaller hospitals we've scon in other places the patients have had only one blanket, no .sheets, no .clothing, there's .been no soap, and of I course no coinfort*. in ftny snftpo ov "If only Poland wore not-at-war there would be a chance for her, but as long ■ns" tho 'war. has >to bo kopt on and. the men have, to be fed-aiid clothed and housed there is Ixmnd to ba acute distress in the' war areas. All the area round Taniopoh and eastwards is destroyed, most of the towns have been pillaged and burnt threo times-in 1915 by tho Russians, in 1917 by tho Germans and Anstrians, and this year m May bv tho Ukrainians. Some have been lootetl as many as four 'times.
In the 1 course of a debate on the out-of-work donation in the House ot .Commons a member said, referring to domestic work as an occupation for women: "If you have a system of trainiu<r that, makes young women ashamed of this very .jioble' occupation-it is lust a« noble' to Kttond to a house as to he a- nurse or to follow any other vocation -mid makes them unwilling to follow the occupation—then I say your education is not.education at all, but is corrupting your population." Had a domcfltic worker been present in the House at the time of the debate she: probably would have, felt tempted to say: "Maw the work more attractive, my dear man, Better the conditions of work and you will find many girls ready to take it up." It' is little things like that that show -how much men, when discussing woman's affairs, need to hoar her point of view expresesd.
The subjcct of -the 'ntevchange of teachers is'again being tnion up (writes a London correspondent),, the London County Council living authorised tho British Empire League to recommend twenty Canadian teachers to their services each year, for one year's \expcr'.eiico in the schools. A generous raw or salaries for oversea teachers Ims been arranged bv the council. London teachers wishing to take up Vork oversell are also granted a yca.r's leave of absencc. Four Ontario teachers havo already taken up work in London under the ccheme, iiul several London teachers are interchanging. with teachers in Canada and Australia, where similar arrangements arc in operation.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19200308.2.7.2
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 139, 8 March 1920, Page 4
Word count
Tapeke kupu
964AFTER-WAR EFFECTS "IN POLAND Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 139, 8 March 1920, Page 4
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.