SPAIN STILL GOES DANCING BY NIGHTS

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 33, 27 January 1939, Page 3

SPAIN STILL GOES DANCING BY NIGHTS

Torn By The Civil War, It Yet A Brave Front Qn Existence In spite of civil war, and terrible lack of food among the civilian population, Spain still goes dancing by nights, and cabarets in Madrid and Barcelona still send sounds of revelry into the night of a country wracked with war.

THUS said the two New Zealand nurses-Sisters Isabel Dodds, of . Wellington, and Rene Shadbolt, of Auckland, who returned to New . Zealand last week after 21 months’ service in Spain. This was revealed over Station 1ZB. during an interview with ": "Marina" .on Monday last week. "Marina" herself knew something . Of wartime nursing, was a British Red Cross nurse during the Great War, ~She nursed Australian and New Zealand soldiers near Birmingham at Joseph Chamberlain’s palatial .;. home, famous for its immense conservatories of priceless orchids. *. Sisters Shadbolt and Dodds-went to "Spain -through the Spanish Medical "Aid Committee; were at‘tached to the International Brigade. They nursed both at the ’ Front and in base hospitals, starting at a field hospital near Madrid, before being attached to the International base at Barcelona. Salient points brought out in the ‘broadcast were: The great beauty of the Spanish women, the majority of whom in Barcelona, at any rate, were blondes! The smartness of the Spanish women, in spite of the war, and the large amount of very heavy make-up used. Even small girls of sixteen carried their own . make-up sets, spoke of them as "the doings." Fact that, in spite of this precocity among Spanish feminine

youth, most of the girls were illiterate, had to be taught to read and write at the same time as they had practical training in nursing. That even soldiers in hospitals were given reading and writing: lessons sometimes. That there were only 200 nurses in the whole of Spain at the beginning of the war-most of the nursing having been done in the past by sisters of religion. That the whole of the Spanish hospital system had been reorganised and centralised by the Government. That there was a great shortage of medical supplies. That sanitation conditions were awful, That the civilian population was in an appalling plight. That the Spanish peasants lived under conditions existing from the Middle Ages.

That in spite of war there was a blood transfusion clinic in Barcelona — which preserved blood for transfusions-just as vaccine and serum are. preserved. This was one of the most advanced things in medical practice to-day! That Spain was still in a state of civil war which seemed likely to continue as long as there were any Spaniards or other interested parties! That it is all a great pity for Spain.