DOCTORS' REPORTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 153, 2 December 1938, Page 9

DOCTORS' REPORTS

FROM THE FAR EAST

WORK AMONG REFUGEES

Reports from Dr. G. Maaka and Dr. T. Watson, who are working in China, were received at the last meeting of the Far East Relief Committee.

Writing from Ichang on October 26, Dr. Maaka said: —

"We are still exceedingly busy here and taking in more civilians as the soldier patients are being transferred to some unknown destination up river. The wounded from Hankow are being sent up here in small batches and are distributed among the various military hospitals here and also to us at the Rankine Hospital. The other day a party of five Indian doctors turned up. They are living on our compound. They have been pushed from pillar to post all over the' country and are now stationed at a small military hospital down the road. Ichang is totally.cut off from Hankow now and, as far as I can ascertain, the place is pretty well deserted except for a few pig-headed ones who appear to be more full of valour than discretion. The Chinese troops are burning and dynamiting as much of the city as they can, and we hear all sorts of rumours of drastic happenings round there, but very little can be actually verified. This place is a seething mass of humanity and chock-a-block with troops of all descriptions. . . ."

Writing from Chengchow on October 17, Dr. Watson said:—

"We are very busy s in the hospital here and are getting busier every day.

We have 170 in-patients, of whom about 100^, are refugees. Most of our cases are surgical, many being injured by bombing round about. We are not having many bombs these days, but have three or four air-raid alarms every day. Eight days ago they bombed us two days running when the sky ,was black and a fairly heavy shower of rain was falling. The line between here and Hankow has been cut by the Japanese for over a week now, consequently we get no mails and I doubt' whether there are any mails leaving here. I shall remain here if the Japanese come, because it is practically impossible to leave here now, except through Japanese territory. I am enclosing a copy of a pamphlet dropped from Japanese planes some" time ago. Half of it was in English."

In the pamphlet enclosed by Dr. Watson, foreigners were warned to leave the area of hostilities or remain at their own risk, because Japan, though anxious to avoid loss of life and property, could not assume responsibility for it.