BACK FROM BELGIUM.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 August 1916, Page 6

BACK FROM BELGIUM.

AN AUSTRALIAN GIRL AT MONS. Sydney, July 26. Miss Pauline Sullivan, daughter of a resident of Lavender Bay, Sydney, who >vas at school at Mons when the war

broke out, returned to Sydney on Tues- ' day by the San Francisco mail steamer n Ventura. Talking of her experiences on the ter- j riblo August 2, when blood flowed and wounded and dead lay in nil directions, Miss Sullivan says that her most vivid \ impression is of confused masse.-, of men b fighting almost hand to hand, the tcrri- '. fie dash of steil, and the rattle of shell. . She was a student at the Convent of J the Assumption, where she arrived on } July 22, 1914, and had scarcely settled down to work before the invasion of the city. The people of Mens were enjoy- s nig a sense of false security, she says, ■ and no fear was entertained of invasion, - all the soldiers having gone to the north

of Belgium, where the fight was in operation. The British soldiers, fortunately, 1 reached the city ahead of the German ' hordes. The convent grounds, as well as ' the neighbouring country, were the scene. [ of the- battle, and the terrified nuns arid i their scholars were witnesses of the ' most awful carnage. Later in the day— . Hie battle began on Sunday morning— i they fled to the cellars for refuge, and remained there without food or light all S.mday, Sunday night and Monday, while overhead and around their the thunders of battle raged. They met with no insult or personal injury, however, and by this time the listers had transformed the convent into an impromptu hospital, which they filled with the wounded. For days after the bombardment, Miss Sullivan says, she and her companions were deaf from the noise of the conflict, and their nerves were worn to shreds. For eight months after the invasion, she remained in Mons. which was then under German rile. She and her party were put on rations, comprising black bread and potatoes, a monotony of fare which they varied by sometimes converting the potatoes into bread. They were permitted to visit the military hospitals frequently, and as she was the only member of the company who spoke English, she was in great demand amongst the British wounded. The hospitals were filled with pitiable eases. Tn one instance a man had lost his eyes, both legs and both arms, yet in this agonising condition lingered on for weeks. . Through the instrumentality of the American Consul in Brussels. Miss Sullivan and her, party repaired to Liege, though it took them two Weeks to get that far. Liege, she says, was a heartbreaking ruin after the bombardment, and in Brussels the American flag, which they had donned for protection, was torn from their dresses with a contemptuous "Aeh" by the German soldiers. From Liege they were taken across to Rotterdam by train, and no passenger boats mnniug from that port, tliey were at length forunate enough to obtain accommodation on a small cargo boat bound for Tilbury. Miss Sullivan almost immediately proceeded to America, where she has been with relatives ever since. Looking back on her Belgian experiences, she says she can lnser quite forget the awful sights and sound of those first days of iu- , •, asion.