THE WAR IN EUROPE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 901, 24 December 1870, Page 2

THE WAR IN EUROPE.

Sad Neglect of the Wounded, I feae greatly (says a correspondent with the Prussian armies) that in the application of the immeuse subscriptions raised by the International Society for the Sick and Wounded, the European benevolent public is being somewhat led astray. In every town and at every hotel of every town I have visited during the last two months, there are many of the ambulance gentlemen taking their ease, and doing nothing whatever of the work which they volunteered to do, If I have seen one member of the International Society hanging about the hotels at Sedan, Charleville, Buuillon, Francheville, and other places, during the last few days, I must have seen a round hundred. At Givonne the wounded are all in the church. . They are lying upon damp straw. They have nothing to eat, no medicine, no medical comforts, no beds, nothing that can help in any way to their recovery. The only medical assistance the French wounded get is from the already overworked zealous and anxious Prussian doctors, and from the two still more overworked medical men, civilians, of Bouillon. A more painful and, considering the immense amount of money subscribed for this charity, a more unnecessary scene I never witnessed. lam but a bird of passage, and twenty-four hours from this I shall be many miles from Bouillon ; but I would, and I do; most earnestly recommend the International Society to send out some person in whom they have full confidence, to investigate what their ambulances are really doing. To me, and to all to whom I have spoken on the subject, these gentlemen seem to be " loafing" too much about the land, passing their time as agreeably as they can, fussing in the hotels, singing their own praises, but doing very little. Nor is this my own solitary opinion. To-day, as three special correspondents of English papers, and one Englishman who represents the leading New York paper, were breakfasting together, some French gentleman approached them, and begged them to write and make known to their several emptoyers how backward the ambulances of t: e International Society were in their work—ror rather how entirely they seem to think that the end and aim of their business out here is to travel from town to town and talk about the work before them, French and Prussian military men agree in this. The Sisters of Charity, whether French or German, are, as usual, all that can be desired. What wonderful women the*} are J They indeed do, and talk not. I am thankful that few of those mixed up with the management of the concern here are Englishmen. The International Society in Aid of the Wounded in no doubt an excellent charity, but, like many other charities, it has been greatly abused. I don't say that none of the ambulances that have been sent out have done their duty, but I am quite certain, and every one who has wandered much about the French lines will tell you the same, that there is a vast amount of mismanagement in many of them; and although money enough to meet every possible want oi the wounded has been subscribed twice over, hundreds of them are literally dying from actual neglect, dying from hunger and thirst—whilst suffering from open wounds and amputated limbs. What I would urge that the International society should do is to try and organise in Belgium, or in France, something like practical, useful hospitals, and to keep out of these establishments every person who comes to help as an amateur. The sick men want neither well-dressed men in elegant gaiters, nor strong-minded women from the British islands. Send out, if they can be had, good English surgeons, pay them wei), and make it worth their while to do the work well,