THE OTHER SIDE OF WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8342, 31 January 1913, Page 10

THE OTHER SIDE OF WAR

FIGHTING DISEASE IN THE

HOSPITALS.

\ snerial correspondent of til© London “Daily Chronicle," writing from Podgoritza on November 27th, said: Now it seems hardly possible that it is but eight weeks ago that that first gun thundered towards Planimtza and the Balkan war began, and the Montenegrin army hurled itself with mad fury .at Detchich Montenegrins and Albanian tribesmen competing wildly as to which should be first to plunge over tbe stony ramparts. Nor to this day can it ho told to whom the honour is due. Roth sides claim it jealously. One frontier fortress after another fell in quick succession. Elated and flushed with victory, the conquering army hurried forward. And when it had once left its base it became apparent that, though Montenegro had expected and intended war since the spring of 1911, she had organised neither commissariat nor hospitals. The weather broke, too. Such weather as in not remembered for 90 years has raged. Storms of icy rain that have poured ceaselessly for five days and nights, and paused only to recommence; rainless days rendered, terrible by a wind, piercing, shrieking and whirling with such force that it earned tents, roofs, and all things portable before it—a wind that cut the lungs and cramped the limbs. And the great coats were not yet available—and tho tents of the Montenegrin army are mere little dog kennels of thin canvas soaked by the first storm. . , In the mountains all this ram and wind was enow and frost. Men plunged breast-deep through snow. Fighting there has been little for some three weeks on this side. fleations cannot be rushed. And "rushing” is the favourite Montenegrin tactic. Siege work is what Montenegro was not prepared for, and bitterly it has cost. A crowd of foreign Red Crosses, with elaborate equipment, came out, after the first great fights were over. But none wish to ho encumbered with infectious diseases. Most are half or almost wholly empty. But meanwhile the Montenegrin Red Cross is crowded with miserable victims of disease. AN ARMY’S WORST ENEMY.

Disease is an army’s worst enemy. And disease, it appears, was not expected. For no preparation was made for it. I saw the arrival—typical of a motor 'bus full of wretched beings. Some doctors rushed. “ Wounded?" they wenready to struggle for them. > “Sick? Oh, don’t let them come here!" They sat helpless, collapsed, gasping on the doorstep. A Montenegrin doctor inspected. “Sick, not wounded. Send them to the isolation hospital." It is a barrack built without the town last year, when there was a cholera scare. And thither went the miserable little band.

“Dysentery—infectious," was the report. Some days passed, and no more was heard. Then a rumour spread of horrible doings at tho “isolation" hospital, and a Serb doctor invited me to go with him to inspect. IC was a horrible scene. About 15 patients were sitting on a wall outside. The misery and horror within drove them out. They were haggard, wild-eyed, and rushed on us appealing for release and helpThey were in quarantine. Within it was worse. One lay moaning and yowling, covered thick with smallpox pustules. Fully dressed in his ragged uniform, he writhed on a filthy mattress. All beds were sheetless. Enteric, typhus, smallpox and —alas! —a number of cases of rheumatism were all boxed up together in this awful den. As they were all supposed to have dysentery they were receiving nothing at all,but tea and opiates, and the men who were suffering from cold, rheumatism and bronchitis were all skin and bono. Without wasting time over Government rations we hastened at once back ,to the market, and brought a /supply of milk, eggs,, cheese, and rakia. A glass all round of the latter at onoe cheered the poor wretches, and made them feel they were not auite abandoned. This was for the sufferers from c-Jd. Tho next thing was to vaccinate them all. And aver this there was a terrible noise. Most consented in the end. All have to be quarantined, however. But other quarters have been found for tho (so far) uon-infectious eases. THE HORROR OF SICKNESS.

In a house hard by were fourteen typhus cases. And the beds of all filthy and verminous.

Three days of rushing backwards and forwards have, however, obtained from the Montenegrin Ked Cross mattress covers —a sheet apiece and a thin blanket : All the thick ones are used up. And two cartloads of hay this morning served as mattress fillings. A bonfire of the dirty straw that filled the former mattresses followed, and plenteous carbolic powder on the floor made things a hit cleaner. This is the other side of war. Gunshot wounds from modern rifles —unless they strike a vital organ —are no sucsi great honors. A little hole, clean and partly cicatrised by the rapidity of the bullet. If it be dressed cleanly from the beginning it heals in a fortnight. But to lie and hoylr covered with pustules. To writhe land starve with typhus. To cough and choke with blood. To ache and freeze with rheumatism. That is the true horror. There is always a certain amount of credit —oven fame — attached to a wound. The sick man has none. He has broken down: ne has failed. Nobody wants him. To-day I have been to tbe sick wares at the barracks. They are as yet not in order, but another day or two should get them all cleaned. In the two upper every man is the victim of cold and want. And not -one has warm clothing or covering. With ice-cold feet they ooil, wretched, in a cotton shirt, under one blanket, in a great chill ward. And not even a pair of socks can bo bought in the town. Every garment is wanted for the active army. We are told garments will be sent from Cetiuje, and hope it is true. The French Red Cross has many hundred spare blankets; but won’t give one. It “expects wounded,” and won’t give to disease. A gallant Bosnian doctor is struggling with the problem, and hopes to get a stove put up in a day or two. He hopes, and so do I, to get the dysentery and typhus ward below cleaned out. At present the stench—but I spare you. This is the dark side of war. War news we have none. All wo know is that if an assault be made on Scutari, we may expect 500 or 600 wounded on top of the sick.