WITH THE TSAR'S ARMY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 267, 21 April 1915, Page 6

WITH THE TSAR'S ARMY.

NEW ZEALANDER'S STORY. NO BAYONET WOUNDS. London, March 'I. After a rather circuitous journey from Russia, Licut.-Colonel H. C. Barclay, Waimate, New Zealand, has readied London. Colonel Barclay was 011 his way to EnglaixJ by the Siberian railway when war was declared, and he off cud liis services in Russia as the most di.'ect way of helping the eau.se of the all;, s. He was surgeon in the sth Kaufmanski hospital, at Lcmberg, for four months, during which time lie saw a great deal of the Russian army under war conditions, and of the character of the Russian soldier.

In an interview, Colonel Barclay said lie had had very great pleasure since he came to London in assuring the many people who had asked him with regard to the temper of Russia and the Russian troops, that there was absolutely no reason to fear their failure. lie had noticed that there was considerable alarm at the recent retreat on the Vistula. Personally, that gave him 110 concern at all, because he understood the I difficulties under which the Russians 'were fighting on German soil, and nisi; the well-recognised Russian tactics of the strategical retreat which the Gland Duke Nicholas was still adopting. It was the same method of warfare that defeated Napoleon. [ ARISTOCRATIC RUSSIAN NURSES.

"The Cossack is a Russian with more initiative than the others," Colonel Barclay went on. "The average Russian is very ready to make friends, and liisgratitude for small kindnesses knows no bounds. The other side of the picture is that with his blood up lie rushes with 110 other view than to avenge the fallen. They pray a little to St Nicholas, and for the rest they trust to luck. '"Once 40,000 Austrians broke through the Russian lines—or, rather, dodged through where the line was not. Oi.r hospital was very well fitted up, and it was out of the question to leave it behind, with its accommodation for 400 patients. So we waited. But the Austrians never came. Our nurses were all aristocrats, drawn from the best families of Russia. Sonic of them spoke fivi> or six languages; but even so, we had patients whom nobody could understand. Whatever may be said against an autocraey, it must be stated that in an emergency each takes his or her pUiv.f. There is no waste. A Russian lady, like the Russian soldier, takes her place, and obeys orders without question.

FORTITUDE OF WOUNDED SOLDIERS, ''l never saw a bayonet wound," said Lieutenant-Colonel Barclay. "The on!y forces against our men were Austrians, and they never waited. Mostly it was shrapnel bullets. A small proportion of the wounds healed primarily, but there was not that asepticity which one would have expected from the reports of surgeons in other modern wars. But an amputation from wounds never went further than the fingers. ''The Russian soldier goes to the operating table without a word. There is no preparation. And it is curious that ill all the cases I saw there was no sickness following the anaesthetic. After his leg, say, had been amputated, 'lie patient recovers from the anaesthetic, and kisses the back of the surgeon's hand, saying, 'Neechivo, lieechivo---spascbo'—'lt is nothing, thank you.' And it is no passing idea, for mouths after they will write back to thank (he surgeon who has lopped oil' a limb. "Ihe Russian soldier minds neither wet nor fatigue nor p:iin can make him grumble. His shooting lias improved f() per cent, since the Japanese war. Still the bayonet is his best weapon. He likes it, and the fact that he never asks questions, and is regardless of consequences, makes him what he is.

FREQUENT CASES OF TKTANU.S. '•ln the Lcmburg Hospital we tree ted all sorts of cases of tetanus, in all stages. Before the use of anti-tetanic serum the eases were invariably fatal. With the use of the serum all recovered. On the whole, the treatment was entirely satisfactory. The Russian camp Knew neither typhus nor typhoid. There Uas no trouble with the cases which might have been mistaken for cholera or cholerine. They were intestinal influenza. The Kussian army as 1 saw it is healthy. Of frostbite there were definite eases, each marked by blackness of the toes, swelling, and a line of demarcation. In some cases amputation ot the toes was necessary, and in two cases_ amputation of the foot.

Wi! saw prisoners, all Austrians. llicie wort 1 lioujhs of thoni. Thoy .soomod to be haggard and worn out, and had interest in the war. In Russia the prisoners of war had only one complaint that 1 heard of—their railway carriages had not been heated."