WAR NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1915, Page 9

WAR NEWS.

KITCHENER'S MEN AT THE DARDANELLES. Lance-corporal Clarence Umber, writing to hia father from Headquarters, Mexa-ndjia, on July 11, says;—ln regard to the position of things at Gallipoli. our troops are holding their own until the arrival of a large body of Kitchener's Army, consisting of six divisions, each 20,000 strong. The divisions are now arriving daily, and it is interesting to note what a great body of men they are. Their physique is splendid. They look as fine a, body of men as one could see anywhere. Yesterday morning 172 Turkish, prisoners reached here from Gallipoli and the Asiatic shore, and were sent to Cairo. Two officers (Turkish) were with them. A pleasing little incident was enacted in connection with their arrival. One of the officers, a certain Kerim Effendi, was known to have picked up and brought safely into our lines at Gallipoli a wounded" British officer. When Kerim arrived here yesterday, by special order of the General Officer Com', minding, ihe was allowed to travel from the docks to the railway station by motor-car, the same privilege being granted to him on his arrival at Cairo, where he proceeded to the prison camp at Mardi, the other prisoners, of course having to "foot it." SERBIA'S MEDICAL MORTALITY. The need for British medical help in Serbia 16 i argely due to the h mor _ tality among the military and civilian doctors. Statistics obtained by Dr. James Berry, the head of an English hospital mission at Vrnjachka Banya, from official sources show that ninety-three Serbian doctors have died out of a total of JB7 at the beginning of the war. Of these no fewer than eighty-two have fallen victims to typhus fever, only one surgeon having been killed in battle. The figures are the more remarkable when contrasted with the Turkish war of 191213, when Serbia lost only two doctors one native and one Greek, out of a total of 303—and this at a time when the need for medical attendance was far less and the extent of Serbian territory considerably smaller than at present. Thus Serbia, having lost nearly a quarter of her qualified medical men, is dependent upon the help whidi comes to her from friendly nations. Since last summer foreign doctors have come to her aid. They, too were exposed to the attacks of typhus and enteric, and thirty-five died, including three British, four American, two Belgian, several Greek doctors, and six Austrian subjects who were practising in the Serbian hospitals. These figures do not include medical students, nurses, and other helpers, among whom the mortality has been very high. REMARKABLE SURGERY. The great use that is being made of artillery m this war, and particularly of high explosive shells, has resulted in injuries of an appalling nature being inflicted on some of the men hit by shells. Some of these wounds present new problems to surgery. A citizen of a neutral country, writing in the Daily Mail of a visit to the hospital of Professor Christian Bruhn, at Dusseldorf (Germany), where some remarkable surgical operations have been performed on wounded soldiers states:— "I went through the hospital recently, those patients who were able were 'at attention'—as well as 'attention' could be done—in their clean, blue-striped hospital suits. Flowers from the fields stood on the tables between the beds beside little trinkets, these, as well as the flowers, being presents from friends, and the nurses went quietly to and fro, doing their good work. "I looked upon a tall, light-haired man, with half a face, the other half having been torn away by a piece of shell. The mouth was nearly closed, and when I asked him a question he stuttcrc-d and answered with great difficulty. His ri»ht eye was still intact. I asked him if "he was still able to read, but he answered 'No,' and the tears came. He himself camo from the Carpathian Mountains When he arrived at the hospital he had practically no face. But the doctors had taken pieces of skin from his back, and laid them on those parts of the face that were gone. And the pieces of bone which had been blown away were replaced by silver substitutes. "He looks splendid now," said the professor, and patted the patient's shoulder and the poor fellow tried to smile. In one bed lay a young Bavarian. He smiled a bright smile and put out a large hand. On the bedstead hung the Iron Cross and the Bavarian medal for bravery. "I feel fine, thank you," he said. "And I have not been in "much pain—hardly any. A fortnight ago 1 was at the front in Flanders, and in short while I am going back there again. Tho worst period was before the ambulance men found me on the battlefield. Six dead comrades lay on top of me. and I was too weak to push them away. And when I moved my bead the faces of the deud ones touched mine. It was horrible to lie in such a position for twenty-four hours. But then I have got those," lie said, and pointed to his medals. "Look here," said the professor, and showed me a young Englishman. "He came here with the whole lower part of the face shot away almost from ear to oar. I took out pieces of his shinbone and made new lower jaws of them; the softer parts of the gums arc'of rubber. The skin is taken from his own back. The only pity is that he will never be able to grow' a beard again." "I used' always to be. clean shaven, anyhow," said the Englishman, and smiled.

In the glorious record of the scrvaes rendered by the daughter-dominions to the British Empire in the great war, there is danger o fthe line work of one colony being owrlooki.i (say* the London Express. This is New Zealand, who early in the war conquered German Samoa—the first time that a force from one of the overseas Dominions had sailed the seas and taken possession of a foreign territory. Tt was New Zealand, again, who contributed the famous cruiser of that name, which was engaged in the historic "Batle of Sunday Mo/ruing," when the Blueher was .'.cut to the bottom of the North Sea. \s if this was not enough, the New Zealand lorees have helped to' garrison Egypt, to guard the Suez Canal, and repel a Turkish invasion, and last, but by no means least, Lave played a truly magnificent pait in the offensive operations in the Dardanelles. The Daily Express understands that captured Turco-Geniian officers have freely boasted that bait they possess the slightest inkling of the tenacity and resource of the gallant New Zealanders, these men from under the Southern Cross would noyhave been permitted to effect a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula—a landing which the enemy fondly believed would prove a death-trap for the New Zealand invaders, .