The Flaming Sword in Serbia and Elsewhere — John Shaqi
The Flaming Sword in Serbia and ElsewhereStobart, M. A. (Mabel Annie)
History
The Flaming Sword in Serbia and Elsewhere
Stobart, M. A. (Mabel Annie)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
We had no commissioned officers in our hospital, but forty Austrian
so-called prisoners helped us in the rough work of the camp, as trench
diggers, stretcher bearers and ward orderlies, etc. These men were
working in a camp hospital controlled by women; they were working
for the enemies of their country, yet they were quite unguarded, and
slept at night, in tents, like the rest of us. But after the first
wonder had evaporated, thoughts of the possible mischief they might
do, never entered our minds. It showed the artificiality of war. These
men--forty thousand or more--were told that by the rules of the game,
they were prisoners, and therefore must keep off Tom Tiddler's ground,
and they obeyed the rules with scarcely any supervision.
There were Serbian Austrians, and Austrian Austrians. The latter spoke
only German, and were less to be trusted politically than the former,
who talked only Serbian. The Serbian Austrians were to all intents
Serbians, and dreaded nothing so much as the prospect of being retaken
by the Austrians--their former masters.
The main distinction between the two is that of religion, Croats or
Serbian Austrians are Catholics, whereas the others belong to the Greek
Church. But all alike were excellent workers, and very happy in their
work. Both they and we grieved terribly when later, owing to political
causes, all our Catholic prisoners were removed from their positions of
freedom, and happy work in our hospital, and were sent, under strict
escort, to dig tunnels on the railway to Roumania, or to other work in
which supervision was feasible.
Amongst these orderlies working for us, was a funny old man called
Jan. He had a wife and children somewhere in Serbia, and he developed
a chronic habit of coming to ask for leave to go and see them. On one
occasion when he came to say good-bye to "Maika" (mother), I noticed
that he was hugging two bottles, which were carefully wrapped in paper.
I asked him what he was carrying, and he answered proudly, "Medicine
for my little ones." "Dear! dear! are they ill?" I asked with some
concern; "I am sorry." "Oh! no. They're not ill. I am only taking
them the medicine as a treat." He had apparently explained his idea
to our dispenser, and she had given him something harmless to satisfy
his fatherly instinct of giving joy. A side-light on the scarcity of
medicines.
Our hospital received several visits from German and Austrian
aeroplanes. Kragujevatz was one of their main objectives, on account of
the arsenal and the Crown Prince.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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