WOES OF THE WAR

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 27 January 1913, Page 6

WOES OF THE WAR

MISERY OF NON-FIGHTERS. THE UNTENDED WOUNDED. TERRIBLE AERIAL REARGUARD. •No tongue and no "pen will ever tell the full tiilo of woes which the .Balkan war has cauwxl bo individuals. Rut day by day glimpses of "tlie ineirnos iiiTbraee "and Mawlonia. come slowly in, and some of the.se wo give here. THE TALE OF WOE. "Jt is not- only that the •war in the Balkans'lias many oi the ancient cruelties with practically none of the modern alleviations" says the London' Telegraph, "it is not only that a spirit of revengeful hatred 16 unchained >siieh as armed Europe has not known for many generations; not only that the fate oftliovuso.nds of uatehded wounded on. liot-li sides has been .an unimaginable agony before death. We have to contemplate the -facts of massacre and pestilence. We iiave alfio to remember that these "hostilities have .involvod more misery and .ruin among the non-oombatant population, than Jhave been suffered in any war of our time's.' The poverty of tlie.se half-eivilised TP°- a snnts, their fears and their helplessness have given to. this conflict a special character; the fugitives'bivouacked among t.v. tombs outsid'o Constantinople are only a part of this great army of homeless wretchedness." HORiRORS. OF THE ROADS.

Here ie an appalling picture drawr by a "Times" correspondent: — "Intermingled with this motley throng, of: homeless fugitives wounded soldiers trudge painfully ; along, : weary, sad, wiui, kliaki-clsd ftgui es» who .have dragged their ruined bodies through the long and bitt-ei* v nieht. One bare-footed, yellow-faced soldier with ft bullot in his shoulder leads an ass upon which is'huddled "his brother with a shattered thigh! The pitiable spectacle arrests me and I offered him a few piastres ; they ask but for bread 1 bread, and devour the sparse repast cf bread and ohpesb. "I could write without end of such sights and repeat a hundred stories of the woe and suffering; T could tell of the stiff, cald bodies of wounded .soldiers who had succumbed to their ml juries cjn route, arid lay with- the j brown earth for ft bier. Further along ■ tho highway are the corpses ci two women who, driven from their sick beds, had breathed-their last during the cold of the bitter November night: and anon I passed fl t a eanter. for I. dared not stay to look, the small frail body of a child, its-lifeless eyes gating wistfully up to the heavens. These poor martyred creatures received but a shrug of the shoulders from the fug- ; itive throng which passed by. But the very repetition of such incidents, more tragic than the batch of red bodies I have seen fresh from tho battlefield, fills; me with horror, and I hesitate to give fuller particulars." MUTILATION AND TORTURE. "Only those-who have been brought into close contact with the terrible realities of the war can estimate the . extent of the sacrifices," says .auotber"Times" correspondent at *3oi&. ; * "Here in Sofia the wounded are ar-

living literally in thousands; all the larger public buildings have been transformed into -hospitals, as well as many private houses. In the Military School, which I visited to-day, beds cannot bo provided for all the patients and many are laid on the bare floors. ] noticed that all tho Turkish patients have bods. Tho wounded from the last gr«at battle, both Bulgarians and Turks, have yet to arrive, and howarrangements can be made to accommodate them it is 'hard to say.'

"There can be little doubt, however. that the path of tho retreating Turkish armies is marked by murder, pillage, and devastation. To?day two Servian officers arrived here from Egri Palanka and Knmanova. They state that the roads by which the Turkish, army retired wero stream with the corpses of Christian peasants. In. many cases tho bodies not only- of men but also of women and children, had been mutilated, aiid bore evidence of torture . Charred corpses were found of persons who had been tied, .to trees and burned alive or impaled, and then roasted." A TERRIBLE AERIAL BODYGUARD. "It is always pathetic to be, behind an army while fighting, but rarely have I been so moved as by the groups of wounded painfullv toiling on their way back to the railway line," writes a "Times" correspondent after the battle of Lule Burgas. "Almost without intermission for Nearly thirty miles- w-e ove'rtook these unfortunate victims of this straggle of nations. Tn some casc« the wounded were lying down, in others they were in bullockcarts, and the agonies that these poor fellows suffored were readable in their lack-lustre ©yes, for to be in bullockcarts over Turkish roads must be one ujnending agony for those unforiun-

•ates nursing their shattered limbs." I Here is a terrible picture by Mr ! Donohoe, of the "Daily Chronicle" "The broken army is crawling—it | can no longer run. Days and nights 'of awful suffering have reduced its .1 gaint to a mere trot. , "The track of the fleeing Turkish i army is paved witli dead and dying, and as aln aerial rearguard great ! flocks of black crows, which caw a hideous requiem, ever hover near, ' waiting for .some weary soldier staggering to his end. j "Pariah dogs of vulpine bi'oed, scenting carrion, have gathered from : far and near, their dismal .howling resounding throughout the night. They and the rroivs are the only gravediggers for the,dead, j - - the way from Teliorlu, while still daylight. I o;;me across the half-de-voured bodies of many horsey which could not have succumbed more than two hours. J Juddered to think of the fate of hapless men who had fallen dving bv the wav«'"dv" A BIG MAN BREAKS DOWN.

H«ro is a different kind of story—a pathetic iiu ,: dent in th-o surrender of-Salonika. as described ''by the " "Morning 'Post's" correspondent':'— ".Ttist before dark Halil Bey, comma ndnifr Hassan cavalry, came riding up ivit.li a, Mil-all -escort, one of whom had a white flag furled. Before his arrival we were watching Mtihyddim .Bey. a great big, fierce man, giving his orders for the night, his men simply jlumping to the sound of his great voice. Halil Bey galloped up, stopped, spoke a few words to Muhyddim Bey, and galloped on. Muhyddim, instead of returning to ,6|>eak to us, walked over to his guns and sat down on the gun trail . I wondered what had happened, and went to inquire. This great, strong, brave man had completely broken down, and was sobbing like a little child. Knowing the range of every blade of grass, every conspicuous object, and with unlimited nmunition, he had received I the news that the Pasha a creed to [surrender not only the town, but hirnl«elf and 2-5,000 men. Lieutenant I Watso'n and T were greatly touched, land giving Muhyddim Bey a, silent ! i handshake, we returned to Salonika, ! which wo reached .after dark. "Shortly after the Greeks entered Salonika—the haven cf their desire—and the town swelled to the martial tread of men who. Phoenix-like, have lisen from the poor stuff of 1897. Among the '.are thousands of Americans domiciled in Greece on toba-oco work. They stiffened the army and made the infantry incomparable. But at the back of the gallant march there remained in my mind the sad picture of Hassan defying fate, yet yielding to entreaty; he had wished to die . fighting. And the other figure of that brave artillery Pasha weeping oft the trial of a gun. Kismet."