AN EPIC FLIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1916, Page 6

AN EPIC FLIGHT.

.EXCITING EXPERIENCES BRITISH NURSES' SUFFERINGS. TWO NEW ZEALAND LADY DOCTORS. London, December 31. The refugee -English nurses from Serbia, who have just reached London after a terrible journey across the 7000 ft high mountains into Montenegro, bring word of the women doctors left behind, ineluding two New Zealanders. ' Dr. Jessie Scott (Auckland), is in Krnzevatz, presumably a prisoner in the hands of the Austrians. Dr. Scott, it will be remembered, recently left New Zealand tc. join one of the Scottish Women's Hospital units, at Lazarevatz, where she was in charge of a small hospital near the. railway station, an annexe to" the main hospital. When the Austrians were within a few hours of the town these hospitals were evacuated, and doctors and nurses left bv the last train for Kruzevatz. The last train, for which the party waited seventeen hours, wa s entirely composed of cattle-trucks, and into these half the little town was crammed for a most uncomfortable journey. After three miserable, days they reached Kruzevatz, to find at first that there was no place where they could shelter. At last they were taken to a hospital, where most of the party were crammed into a single room, in which they slept, lived, and did their cooking. The doctors worked at the hospital, treating over 500 cases in three weeks. At the end of that time the women were advised to take the desperate journey to Montenegro, and, influenced very largely by the fact that food had become very scarce, most of them set out. Several of the doctors, however, remained behind, among them Dr. Elsie Inglis, who is responsible for the establishment of all the Scottish Women's Hospitals, and Dr. Jessie Scott decided to remain with her. Probably by this time they are caring for prisoners. Another of the Scottish Women's units had gone forward with the British troops from Salonika, and afterwards accompanied their retreat. This was the unit of Dr. Mary Blair (Wellington). Previous to this advance she had reported that valuable work could be done by Her party in or near Salonika until such time as they were able to proceed up country to join their respective units. The Servian authorities highly approved Dr. Mary Blair's suggestion, and said they would be grateful for such assistance as she and her helpers were able to give. The British Consul and the representatives of the British Red Cross medical missions supported this course. The latest news received in London is that Dr. Mary Blair has now gone to Aaccio in Corsica, where the French Government has established a colony for Servian women and children refugees. Dr. Blair is to have charge of the hospital. Already the Scottish women here have sent her out great quantities of supplies. They hope that when it is possible to return to Servia, Dr. Blair will take a new hospital unit back with her. The French Government has made Arrangements to give refuge to between two and three thousand. Mrs. Blair received one postcard from her daughter, dated from Salonika, when she was' about to leave for Ghevgeli with a truekload of provisions for the Servian refugees, but, of course, the news of her having left for Corsica is much more recent.

IX DREAD OF STARVATION. Miss Norah Tempest, of Dundalk, one .of the Scottish party, gives the following account of her adventures:— "We rode from Kragujevatz to Kraijevo, where we remained ten days, in motor ambulances and lorries. Then we. went to Easka, where we were crowded into one room, which was our sole dwelling for a week. After that we trekked over the mountains to the coast, sleeping in huts so crowded together that we could not all lie down. Of course, we did not have even these to ourselves. Men, wome-\ and children were all herded together. The Albanian mule-drivers and fugitive soldiers, and men, women, and children refugees came in, too.- We tried to cover the distances between the villages at each stage, but as our party was so large, and we did not wish "to separate, we often found that there was not even shelter for all of us when we arrived. Only once did we fail to reach a village, the night Sir Ralph Paget was with us. Several days we had nothing but bread to eat, and the villagers had nothing else to sell us. I suppose they thought they could not get any more from anywhere, and hoarded what food they had. Our most exciting adventure, apart from the climbing along rough paths on the sides of precipices, to which we became almost accustomed, was perhaps at Levercka, two days' short of Podgoritza, where we were given the living-room of a coarse and squalid little cafe, but found it perpetually invaded by all sorts of men, who smoked and drank, making the room intolerable, and who refused to go away. The Headquarters Medical Staff of the Servian Army was at that time travelling with us, and first a captain, and then a major, came and asked the Turks, hillsmen, and Albanians to leave us. But the men refused, and j there was such an uproar that we thought it best at last to clear out ourselves, and we went and lay on the bare j floor of a stable some way off. As the first room had been over a dirtier stable, and the atmosphere was putrid, perhaps we were rot really so much the worse. We were especially warned not to go into the Albanian mountains, as the tribesmen -\ould probably molest us. We had no cause to complain of any direct insult from anybody. But so many of our pack-ponies were 'lost,' particularly those that carried the most food, that we rather suspected our Albanian drivers of stealing or selling them.

A YEARNING FOR CHOCOLATE. "Most of our conversation at last was abouf the food we would eat wlien we reached England, if we ever did. One gets so tired of tea and dry bread. We dared not drink the water us, sometimes, n:.d the vine, which ',vas the only alternative, was intensely nasty. For two whole days we had no bread at all, and very nearly starved. We used to stop now and again and try to ease e,aeh other's feet by lending spare boots, bandaging, and bathing. We had a failstock of soap when we started, bnt soon used it up for washing clothes. The vermin were a perpetual tribulation, and we had to wash our garments in Ihe mountain streams with toilet soap We smoked cigarettes to appease our hunger a* long as wo had any. The li'cuiurt'n traces and Hie hitter cold were v..-// trying, but on wet days I think J" r'oiii'.il the muddy *w;.inps ot the lowlands most in.V.arable. We had to lead our ponies, and (h.v was Mich a scram!)!,- '.<" -tt at the start f.roru. iiraVevo. wb.cn tho

French and Rus=ian Red Cross -missions were also on the move, that we had to put up wit), what we could get. One of our ponies was lame, am! another had only one eye: we. lost cur donkey the first night, with a lot of our food. I wa s one of a parly of forty women who went out la>t September, and only three of us have conic away—Sister Have, Sister Cross, and I—so 1 iiippose all Urn vest are prisoners. There were food riots in Scutari when we were there. We had to wait for two days at the other end of Ihc lake lo get a vessel to Scutari, and were crowded into a small courtyard. We had no bread, and the only available food was sonic bully beef which Sir Ralph Paget procured, and some little fish, which were grilled on .sticks, and fell to pieces before they were done Chocolate was one or the things we yearned for most of all, and we all agreed." A TERRIBLE SPECTACLE. One of the most terrible episodes of the flight was related by Mr. E. F, Stone, of Exeter, who reached London a week ago. "We were standing on a hill waiting for certain members of our party to come up when we observed a procession coming from the valley. In the centre were sis.' men, who were handcuffed. They were, we understood, accused of being spies, and they were marched to graves which had been previously dug. An officer read the verdict of the couvt-mimial, and the men, struggling voilently, were forced into the graves and held in a kneeling position. Their hands were then tied behind them to stakes driven into the ground, they were blindfolded, and then shot by firing parties. Any number of people came up from the village to see the ex-: editions, for human life is to them of n>« value at all. It was a terrible spectacle." Along the route *of the retreat, Mr. Stone added, the peasantry and soldiers were confused in a struggling, starving, mass of humanity, striving to reach safety. Men, women, and children fell out exhausted, and stricken, in many eases, with disease, and where they fell they died, the living passing on heedless of the nnburied bodies of human beings and animals. All the nurses and men suffered terrible privations, and they all tell painful, yet heroic, stories of the retreat.