MISSING.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 January 1917, Page 6

MISSING.

THE SEARCHER'S IXSTIXCT. STRANGE BATTLE VOCATION. (Sydney Sun Correspondent). London, October 2.5. Among the many creations of the present war is the position of the searcher. The. searcher is a worker apart. He solves the problem of the "missing." Many aching hearts are lightened or deadened as the result of his labors. Willi quick perception, keen eye and silent tread, he moves about the hospitals, convalescent eayjps. bases and detail camps, containing in his hand a slip containing perhaps such a query as this."Private , No. 24,537, missing at I'o/.icrQS?" The searcher is always a male—at least, the Australian searcher is. I asked the lady secretary of the Wounded and Missing Bureau, attached to the Australian Branch of the British P.'d Cross, the reason for this. I suggested that a woman would be better than a man for the job, because usually a woman makes up for her lack of reasoning power with a- most deadly instinct. "Xo-o," she replied, with some hesitancy, clinging to the Insi-to.loyalty for her sex. "You see you'want reason and instinct, too. The men who are internewed about missing comrades are less likely to prevaricate when questioned liv a man. These men do not like giving details to a woman. Besides." she lidded with a most amazing revelation of a trait hitherto unsuspected in womankind, ''women are apt to waste too iiijk-Ii time in talking."

■ I learned from the same source that a 'lawyer possesses the best qualification for a searcher. He must have a keen analytical mind, and some acquaintance with human psychology. lie must know immediately whether a man is lying or not. .Messrs Bav Moulden and Wilieox, of Adelaide, who are among' the searchers, are both legal men. Many Australians in London act as temporary searchers, giving up a day here and a day there in the work. Some soon relinquish their task. They excuse tliemS':'.\e3 by saying. "We do not like the morbid details." Others, who are searchers true to spirit and instinct, gain a passion for their business. Once 011 the trail they do not lit'!, their noses until tiiev have succeeded. Their great-

est joy is to hear a man ejaculate indignantly from a bed. '"I am not missing. Who says I am?" This, the searcher has achieved, and now will many an anxious heart in Australia be throbbing anew.

The searcher is the scout of the chase, but the hard, intricate executive business is carried out by a most efficient coips of Australian women workers at Victoria street. On one recent day this branch of the Red Cross received t.o fewer than 5.">0 enquiries about the missing and progress of the wounded from the various Australian bureaux.

Every casualty is carded at the h?adquarters of the Red Cross, and it is possible sometimes to reply the same day. Tlie magnitude of this task will he realised when it is said that in England alone there are 1400 hospitals to which Australians are admitted. The English searchers co-operate with the Australian. Obviously, it would be wrong for one of our searchers to pass a bed just because the inmate was a Britisher. I askecl the secretary what generally happened to the "missing"' men. "Dead;' she said sadly. "They are mostly 'lead. Headquarters wait about ,ix months before they are officially dead, and during that period we keep the relatives posted with the results of the work of our searchers. Often we find a man. "nd he is most annoyed when we tell him he is 'missing.' At first he is rather inclined to blamo us for the posting." Many ars the grateful acknowledgments that come in.

One little old mother enquired every day about her two boys from We-jt Aus-'tr.-ilia, >vho had been stretcher-bearers, and who bad been posted as '-missing'' on the same day. The searchers learned at length that both boys had died while heroically bringing in the wounded wliiie under a heavy shell-fire.

The officer wrote in his report: "They died as few men can, die."

What a splendid eqitaph for all our Australian soldiers! The little old mother came in the next day. She climbed the same stairs, in the sinie way and at the same time as usual. "At least,'-' she said, and her face was strangely immobile, "it is a comfort to me to 'earn that they died like that."

No less important is the Prisoners of War Bureau, which is attached to the Australian branch of the Australian Red Cross in Victoria street. This, also, is presided over bv a most efficient Australian lady. She sees that every prisoner in Germany and Turkey is supplied with food, some of 'the toilet comforts, and an abundance of clothing. •'What I would like to point out to relatives," said the directress, "is that they should write to these poor fellows as often as possible. It is a mistaken idea to think that the Germans will not permit of letters. As long as they are short, clearly written, and do not contain news of the war, they will be admitted."'