GREY SISTERS OF THE RED CROSS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 24, 26 March 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

GREY SISTERS OF THE RED CROSS.

THE MOTOR-CAR AS THE HANDMAID OF MERCY.

(By Alice and Claude Askew.) Tt is difficult, almost impossible, to realise till one is actually at the front what an extraordinary part motor-cars are playing in this war; how they have been pressed into the service of all the aimies. Day after day, night after night, the long, broken road that leads from Dunkirk to Furnes is crowded by motor vehicles of all descriptions. Great lumbering motor-omnibuses hailing from Paris convey convoys of French troops. These omnibuses splash on stolidly through the grey mud, taking up more than half the road. They follow each other in a long line; soldiers hang out of the windows, soldiers crowd together on the steps, staring eagerly at the strange new country through which they are passing, gesticulating, talking, laughing, as keen as mustard to get right up to the trenches —a fine type of men, as hard as nails ("write Alice and Claude Askew from Flanders to the "Daily Express"). Cars containing officers either going to or coming from the front tear up and down the long road at breathless

me, but for the peace of future generations. I/et us be thankful for the existence of the motor-car —once the rich man H cherished possession and most expensive luxury, now the faithful and loyal servant of the wounded. Bespattered with mud, discoloured by tragic stains, its costly fittings a tiling of tho past, its lining scratched and tr.rn, its Sybarite days over, tho motor has become a nursing sister. She carries the sign of the Rerl Cross. She races fearlessly into the thick of tho battle and emerges with her load of broken and shattered humanity. The , wounded bless her in their torment as I she conveys them to the hospital. I This war has brought about the apotheosis of the motor-car. Tho hand of the idle rich has steered her straight to 1 the battlefield, and it is the rich men and the rich women of the Empire who ' in ust keep these motors running, these triev sisters of the Red Cross, i '

ANOTHER PLACE IN THE SUN.—JOHN BULL: Here I am—here I stay

speed. Every now and then one comes across a car'stuck so hopelessly in the mud-bank at the side of the road that it will be hours before it can be extricated. ~ Cars often race along two or three abreast, and it is nil the Belgian peasants on the towpath can do to get out of the way as the cars sweep by. Over and over again these quiet, drab men and women, who bend themselves almost to the ground as they tow the boats ui) the canal, stand the greatest risk of falling into the water as they swerve aside to allow a motor to pass. But they never grumble.

THE TaNG'S CAB. They stare at the car as it dashes on, (he ear that has spattered them so freely with mud, and they realise that the officers sen ted in it had no wish .0 affront tor annoy them. They know that this is war time—that the road belongs to the army, and to the army alone. Sometimes Kins Albert's car is seen on the road that lends to Fumes, that is a "reat moment. Every man salutes; the whole air becomes electric, for there never was a kins who could arouse such enthusiasm as King Albert. Up at the Belgian Field Hospital at Femes the surgeons and the doctors would he in despair if it were not for the motor-cars and motor-ambulances that they have at their command, for thev know that it cars were not running straight from the trenches to J'urnes manv and manv a wounded soldier s life would he lost. It would he impossible, in a great ninny cases, to try to transport some of the wounded even as far as Dunkirk: the patients would merely die in cruel agony on the way. It is useless, for example, to operate or abdominal cases twelve hours after the wound has been received. If it has been impossible within that time to ennvev the patient to a hospital for treatment there is no chance for the poor fellow-he just dies. It is a fair|v easv matter, bv speedv attention, to sue manv an iniured limb that would have become gangrenous, and in all probability would have had to be amputated, if the patient had been conveyed bv train to a hnse hospital: it is the immediate attention that saves life.

HONOn? THE BIUVE! Let all honour he nnid to the bravo men who go out in those motor-ain nlances and snatch tho wounded av..y, vcrv often under heavy shell fire, toi those volunteer chauffeurs-young men, imperil their lives day after day in the n.ost of iheni, driving their own ears- "„ service of the w deer, and ir.-.u* lij.l.t of iI, P risks they run. [t is easv to undersv.ind that the < < pense of keeping un these cru ' s ,s : !. x - vy orious and a very heavy one. (wing to (!,■ almost stale of the ronf |V ,v„-l, tvres are constiintly heing i a . „.i :. iiwiiiiie exceedingly

;■ j, l| ■ ol ::il : - at Yt:iJ* r\ > ■ T1 , ~,„„ r the ears for waul lives- riskmg them . g.adK J■; ■ ,l:,v. ili-ilt ailer nigh,. «..en •< ;' ~r . {n (, s thev torn out prepaied to dn o „v,. r mile: an.l miles ol ruugn, Ino. n , i r i„i,t into tie dnnirrr :-one law k.;;:;, .via,, th r i ~■.- si,,i when ■! collie? « ni//:e ~ _o. . ]„.,,].: |i;,.v hive s (M .:i s. L ;hts ahou! H-'hicli it is no! i:ood to write. XKi'.ri FOTI lIFM'. V,,, of the K.'-ire. «1.0 r„;-!add.ll l.v ir.-l'V fease.l, togotn Hal 1,,,.,, „,-.. ii'l rlri'.iiv at li' M.m. in veil - T':,'':tK.';::/,--;v„.„„1,..1-want In lifllJ fheni-intonl t<. helti them. , ~ . I i.- lir i,,s sinn.l- only a few miles from 11,0 trendies, l,ut think what tho short- <-.';* drive must mean to men in tlm •trip of ncony, the soldiers who havo been fighting not only for you and for