N.Z. WOUNDED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1942, Page 4

N.Z. WOUNDED

TREATMENT IN GREEK HOSPITALS PATIENTS WELL CARED FOR. LETTER FROM NEW ZEALAND DOCTOR. In the rapidly changing scene of the major clashes in the war, Greece and Crete have receded in many memories. Some vivid impressions of those very full days have just come to hand from Lieutenant John Borrie, N.Z.M.C. Writing early in August he tells of some of the strange things which hapto him up to the time when he became a prisoner of war on the staff of a 1800-bed British prisoner-of-war hospital in Piraeus, “with the classical outline of the Parthenon, clear and white, especially in the late afternoon, a few miles away.” “I came with No. 1 N.Z. General Hospital to Greece very early in March,” writes Dr. Borrie, “and after a delightful week's freedom in Athens we went further north to establish our hospital. But the fortunes of war were against us for we were soon retreating south again. I was left behind with four other medical officers of our unit, and 30 men, to staff a convalescent hospital near Athens.” Dr. Borrie was taken prisoner under very exciting circumstances by German parachutists who attacked Corinth on April 20. “After treating the British wounded in Corinth for two weeks in the lonian Palace Hotel,” says Dr. Borrie. “on May 10 we were brought to Athens, and along with the 26th General Hospital R.A.M.C., sth Australian General Hospital, who had been left in Greece at the time of the evacuation, formed the British Prisoner of War Hospital in a magnificent building capable of taking 900 patients. With the Crete episode our numbers rapidly rose to about 2000, necessitating the opening of a large walking-wounded hospital nearby. All these casualties were trans--ported by air in German troop car- . riers.” It is interesting to note that Dr. Borrie adds: “With our good theatres, laboratory, dispensary, X-ray department and dental parlours, we are as well equipped as any large civilian hospital in New Zealand.” Following some personal details he says: “We entertain the patients with a concert about every two weeks, have an attractive little stage to produce it on, have managed to secure musical instruments from outside, besides costumes, so that the standard of entertainment is reasonably high. “The Greek Red Cross visit us once a week, these last two visits bringing letters for the R.A.M.C., one dated as late as July 25. There have also been two letters (from New-Zealand for some dental officers—dated May 28. The Red Cross are certainly a fine organisation. “On the whole our captors have treated we medical personnel extraordinarily well. Their higher officials frequently come to visit us, taking a keen interest in our methods of treatment, etc. We are paid according to rank. I receive 80 marks a month—approximately £B. We have a canteen, but food is scarce and dear. 7£d is the price of an egg at present.”