OCR Text |
Show MERCY WORKERS IN WAR DOING GREAT SERVICES All Countries Striving to Improve Conditions Surrounding Wounded. WORK OF AMERICANS LAUDED Motor Ambulance Service Does Invaluable Inval-uable Work in Transporting Wounded Wound-ed Soldiers French People Touched by Volunteer Work of Americans. London. To no one race In this war belongs exclusively the work of mercy. France, Russia, England, Germany and Austria have each striven hard to improve the conditions surrounding the wounded in their armies. In the Ottoman Red Crescent, a Ma-hommedan Ma-hommedan equivalent of the Red Cross, even the Turks have a corps of mercy workers, to render aid to those Injured in battle. But not only the belligerent nations are occupied in the field of mercy toward fallen fighters. America, with all the cheerful optimism optim-ism which characterizes her people, has worked vigorously to alleviate the sufferings of the wounded soldiers in France. Distant Abyssinia, too, was one of the first neutral countries to establish a place of succor for the injured near the firing line. Indeed, the Anglo-Ethiopian Anglo-Ethiopian hospital at Frevent, provided pro-vided with funds supplied by the Abys-sian Abys-sian crown prince, did great service early In the war. Japan, representing the far East, also sent a wonderfully equipped ambulance corps which hus since occupied the Hotel Astoria, Paris. Dainty women and intellectual intellectu-al men have given their time and their services eagerly In the cause of humanity. hu-manity. The Indies of the Russian court, self-sacrificing in the extreme, have been trained for hospital work in the field. They have performed duties at which men might shudder and they have performed them well. So it is In France and Englnnd and In the other countries, both in and out of the war. That the majority of the workers have been volunteers Is to the credit of civilization. civ-ilization. Mercy, so often beaten under un-der in the actunl conflict of the belligerents, bellig-erents, has survived gloriously among those whose function has been to relieve, re-lieve, where possible, the victims of shot and shell. Automobile Great Help. Like the aeroplane, the automobile is a new departure, a very Important one, In warfare. Since August, 1914, it has played many parts. Armored cars, transport lorries and other vehicles vehi-cles directly and indirectly contributing contribut-ing to the success of the different armies arm-ies in the field, have established a fresh reputation for the motor Industry. Indus-try. But it Is largely owing to the motor ambulance that the noble work of mercy has been possible. So far as Great Britain Is concerned, the motor ambulance service owes Its existence and Its triumph to Lord Derby's brother, Hon. Arthur Stank'y, M. P., chairman of the British Red Cross society, and also to the Royal Automobile club. Soon after the outbreak out-break of war, in September, 1914, Mr. Stanley, quick to see the possibilities of the mentor ambulance, was given a permit to send one or two out to the front by the late Lord Kitchener. "The actual permit," said Mr. Stan-Icy, Stan-Icy, "was in Lord Kitchener's own handwriting on half a sheet of note-paper. note-paper. It is now one of the most-treasured most-treasured possessions If not the most treasured, In tlie archives of the Red Cross society. "One of the first things I did on receiving re-ceiving the necessary permission," continued Mr. Stanley, "was to get together to-gether hnlf a dozen volunteer motorists, motor-ists, all members of the Royal Automobile Auto-mobile club, to drive' the ambulance cars which we were sending to France. Our position was curious. The motor-ambulance motor-ambulance was then practically an unknown un-known quantity so far as actual warfare war-fare went, and the military authorities authori-ties stipulated that our drivers were not to wear uniform, nor, under any circumstances, to go near the firing line. There was to be no Red Cross on the cars. Truly, the mission of the motor ambulance was to be extremely limited. They were simply to go about far behind the firing line and pick up wounded men who could not be carried car-ried to the field hospitals; men, for example, who had crawled for safety into abandoned cottages and barns. Proves Its Worth. "With the possible exception of the American ambulance cars at Neullly, ours were the first motor ambulances used In France. But the value of a rapid service for the transport of wounded soldiers was quickly recognized, recog-nized, and now, of course, wherever there Is fighting there are motor ambulances." am-bulances." Here Is a typical instance, as told by Mr. Stanley, how the motor ambulance ambu-lance proved its worth in the early days of the war: "Late one evening one of our ambulances ambu-lances crept up close to the firing line. They met an officer, who turned tbera back 'because,' as he said, 'It Is so dark, it Is no use going further.' "They went back to a farmhouse and to bed. In the middle of the night they were awakened by the same officer, offi-cer, who told them that a wounded soldier, shot through both legs, was lying almost in the German lines. It was so dangerous a mission that the officer wouldn't order the ambulance to go ! He just told them where the man was, and left them to decide. They went. They crawled, without lights, along an unknown road In the darkness; got almost within the German Ger-man lines, where they found the man and brought him back to safety. That wounded soldier had lain there for days and would most certainly have died had he not been rescued that night. "In this modest and voluntary way the motor ambulance came Into Its own without one penny of cost to the government ! "Today," went on Mr. Stanley, "there are about 1,(500 motor ambulances and cars at the French front alone. Another An-other 1,000 are scattered about with the troops in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Salonika Sa-lonika Malta, East Africa, etc. We have three ambulance convoys each one consisting of some sixty cars and a radiographing convoy working In Italy. We have a number of enrs In Petrograd and on the western Russian front, while we recently sent a smnll convoy as a present to Grand Duke Nicholas in the Caucasus." "Up to the present," said Mr. Stanley, Stan-ley, "we have collected over $20,000,000 for the Red Cross and St. John's Ambulance Am-bulance society. The money comes In at the rate of about $5,000,000 every six months. This shows the public appreciation of the work. Our support comes from all sections of society." "As an Instance of the diversity of our work, it may be Interesting to note that we arranged the other day to send motor boats to Mesopotamia and 'Charlie Chaplin' films to Malta, this latter for the amusement of the convalescent con-valescent soldiers! "One of the outstanding features of our organization has been the splendid work done by the women." Mr. Stanley mentioned, by the way, the excellent artificial limbs for maimed soldiers produced by Amerl-man Amerl-man manufacturers, both in the United Unit-ed States and especially at a factory established near London, where many disabled men are themselves employed. While the women of all nations at war have been working courageously in aid of their men, American women also have come out brilliantly In the labor of mercy. At the commencement of the war a group of American women, wom-en, nearly all married to Englishmen met together to consider how thej might best render assistance to th soldiers of the king. The result was the birth of the American Woman's War Relief fund, of which Lady Pagel became president, with Mrs. John As-tor As-tor as vice-president, the duchess ol Marlborough as chairmnn and Ladj Lowther and Mrs. Harcourt as honorary honor-ary secretary. Other women closelj identified with the work were Ladj Randolph Churchill, Mrs. Whitelaw Rcid and Hon. Mrs. John Ward. Work of American Women. The American Women's War Rellel fund began by sending a motor ambulance ambu-lance out to the front. "Friends 1b Boston" subscribed for another 11 was actually the seventh which was duly presented to the war office ic London. Down in Devonshire, at Paighton, nenr Torquay, there Is ac American woman's war hospital, whert thousands of wounded soldiers hav been nursed back to health. Not contented con-tented with these activities the American Amer-ican women in question have opened workrooms In various parts of th British capital to enable girls thrown out of work to learn other trades, and so to become self-supporting. In spite of the war. Americans are busy helping Id France as well as In England, and the American Relief Clearing house, in Paris, is also an institution of vers considerable value and Importance. It represents the American Red Cross, and Its distributing committee has already al-ready apportioned more than 4,0O0,0OC parcels, from bales of cotton, clothes for men, women and children shoes hospital accessories, surgical instruments instru-ments and countless other useful things. No less than 2,000 hospitals in France have been fitted from th American Relief Clearing house, which hns Joseph H. Choate for Its presi dent. Modeled somewhat on the lines of the organization over which Mr. Stanley Stan-ley presides, is the American Volunteer Volun-teer Motor Ambulance corps, yet another an-other body of mercy-workers. In September, Sep-tember, 1914, Prof. Richard Norton of Harvard university saw for himself the plight of the wounded French soldiers, sol-diers, who suffered additionally through Inadequate means of transportation. trans-portation. Consequently, with the cooperation co-operation of some of his friends, he started the American Volunteer Ambulance Am-bulance corps, which quickly widened its field from two cars to seventy-five. Originally composed of American and British members, the corps has, while always working in conjunction with the French army, been placed under the British Red Cross owing to questions ques-tions of American neutrality. The volunteers of the American Motor Mo-tor Ambulance corps have given their time and their services uncomplainingly uncomplaining-ly to the attainment of an excellent object. Under the chairmanship of the late Henry James, the novelist, who directed matters from London, many young college graduates freely entered the corps to work strenuously, without pay or preferment. Professor Norton, Ridgely Carter, Sir John Wolfe Berry, Jordan L. Nott. John Dixon Morrison and many other well-known men are members of the London council. coun-cil. Mr. Norton and several of the men have been awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Croix d'Armee, the former for-mer ranking high in the honors of warring war-ring and republican France. Working Work-ing close up to the firing line, the American Motor Ambulance men have brought relief to many thousands of wounded and sick soldiers. Sometimes Some-times dashing about In country exposed ex-posed to German artillery fire, the cars have not infrequently come through a hail of bursting shells, but, so far, without the loss of a single life. The American Motor Ambulance corps has been "mentioned" for its discipline as well as for the high standard stand-ard of its members generally. |