World War, 1914-1918 -- Anecdotes; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
The men of France are taking deep interest in the splendid manner in
which the women of all the different nations are responding to the call
to service. I described to General Petain the work of the Scottish
Women's Hospitals. These magnificent hospitals are organised and staffed
entirely by women, and started, in the first instance, by the National
Union of Women's Suffrage (Scottish Branch). He was deeply interested to
learn that what had been before the war a political society, had, with
that splendid spirit of patriotism which had from the first day of the
war animated every man, woman, and child of Great Britain, drawn upon
its funds and founded the hospital units. I explained to him that it was
no longer a question of politics, but simply a case of serving humanity
and serving it to the best possible advantage. The National Union had
realised that this was a time for organised effort on the part of all
women for the benefit of the human race and the alleviation of
suffering.
I spoke of the bravery of our girls in Siberia; how many of them had
laid down their lives during the typhus epidemic; how cheerfully they
had borne hardships, our doctors writing home that their tent hospitals
were like "great white birds spreading their wings under the trees,"
whereas really they had often been up all night hanging on to the
tent-poles to prevent the tents collapsing over their patients.
A member of the Etat-Major asked how we overcame the language
difficulty. I pointed out that to diagnose typhus and watch the progress
of the patient it was not necessary to speak to him, and that by the
magic language of sympathy we managed to establish some form of
"understanding" between the patients, the doctors, and the nurses.
The members of our staff were chosen as far as possible with a knowledge
of French or German, and it was possible to find many Serbians speaking
either one of these languages. We also found interpreters amongst the
Austrian prisoner orderlies. These prisoner orderlies had really proved
useful and had done their best to help us. Naturally they had their
faults. One of our lady doctors had as orderly a Viennese professor,
willing, but somewhat absent-minded. One morning she sent for him and
asked him, "Herr Karl, can you tell me what was wrong with my bath water
this morning?" "I really don't know, Fraeulein, but I will endeavour to
find out."
Ten minutes later he returned, looking decidedly guilty, and stammered
out: "I do not know how to tell you what happened to that bath water."
"Nonsense!--it can't be very terrible," replied Doctor X; "what was
wrong?" "Well, Fraeulein, when I went into the camp kitchen this morning
there were two cauldrons there--one was your bath water, and the other
was the camp soup; to you, Fraeulein, I brought the camp soup."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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