NOT ENOUGH DOCTORS.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 July 1915, Page 3

NOT ENOUGH DOCTORS.

THK WORST WOUNDS. STOMACH SHOTS FATAL. Sergeant H. A. Lee, well-known in Salvation Army circles in New Zealand, was killed in action last week. In a letter dated the end"' of April he wrote: "Our .ship started to unload about four o'clock on Sunday afternoon. About six., four barges came, alongside with SI) wounded. Wo were supposed to unload stores and join the troops. Hospital sliipa bad gone invar full up with wounded men, so we had to start to get the poor beggars on board. We signalled r.he warships for doctors and obtained three and two assistants. These were soon worked to it standstill. The barges continued to come alongside with wound d m"ii. We had only four ship's officers (tlie crew were black) to help, and they worked like Trojans. Had no sleep and little to eat from Sunday to Tuesday morning, and others were the. same. The only thing lacking was ability to attend wounded, as we possessed neither me.li-. cine nor equipment. A lot of poor beggars lay there, and nothing could be done to relieve them. We wore obliged to send for more doctors, and three more came from the warships. Later on three army doctors and sixteen lied Cross men arrived, ami soon got things going better, and the wounded made more comfortable. We now have M wounded men aboard. Left (hillipoli for Alexandria on Tuesday evening l . So far we have had '2O deaths on board, and these were buried at sea. Three were new Zealand boys, but 1 did not know them. T helped to cany several dead men to the room and search them for personal belongings. It was an awful time for me to have to attend to tiie poor chaps. My heart used to nearly stop at some of the sights when we took the dressings off and commenced to dre.-s them again. The men who died wve nearly all wounded in the stomach—few in tlie head. There seems little hope for n man hit in the stomach. Our men are doing grand work on the. boat here, as well as the medical men, only we don't know enough. We were trained for fighting not Vied Cross work. We h.il a good trip, and arrived Friday morning. Cot most of the wounded nidi oli' by midnight, and now coaling, and oxp-H to take back reinforcements. We had a big win. and T think can claim that '" have done all that can be expected.