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diff --git a/11086-0.txt b/11086-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dafeb92 --- /dev/null +++ b/11086-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4639 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11086 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 11086-h.htm or 11086-h.zip: + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/0/8/11086/11086-h/11086-h.htm) + or + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/0/8/11086/11086-h.zip) + + + + + +A SURGEON IN BELGIUM + +by H. S. Souttar, F.R.C.S. +Assistant Surgeon, West London Hospital +Late Surgeon-in-Chief, Belgian Field Hospital + + + + + + + +Preface + +To write the true story of three months' work in a hospital is a task +before which the boldest man might quail. Let my very dear friends of +the Belgian Field Hospital breathe again, for I have attempted nothing +of the sort. I would sooner throw aside my last claim to self-respect, +and write my autobiography. It would at least be safer. But there were +events which happened around us, there was an atmosphere in which +we lived, so different from those of our lives at home that one felt +compelled to try to picture them before they merged into the shadowy +memories of the past. And this is all that I have attempted. To all who +worked with me through those months I owe a deep debt of gratitude. +That they would do everything in their power to make the hospital a +success went without saying, but it was quite another matter that they +should all have conspired to make the time for me one of the happiest +upon which I shall ever look back. Where all have been so kind, it is +almost invidious to mention names, and yet there are two which must +stand by themselves. To the genius and the invincible resource of +Madame Sindici the hospital owes an incalculable debt. Her +friendship is one of my most delightful memories. The sterling powers +of Dr. Beavis brought us safely many a time through deep water, and +but for his enterprise the hospital would have come to an abrupt +conclusion with Antwerp. There could have been no more delightful +colleague, and without his aid much of this book would never have +been written. + +For the Belgian Field Hospital I can wish nothing better than that its +star may continue to shine in the future as it has always done in the +past, and that a sensible British public may generously support the +most enterprising hospital in the war. + +H. S. S. + + + + +Contents + +To Antwerp +The Hospital +The Day's Work +Antwerp +Termonde +The Chateau +Malines +Lierre +A Pause +The Siege +Contich +The Bombardment--Night +The Bombardment--Day +The Night Journey +Furnes +Poperinghe +Furnes Again +Work At Furnes +Furnes--The Town +A Journey +The Ambulance Corps +Pervyse--The Trenches +Ypres +Some Conclusions + + + + + +A SURGEON IN BELGIUM + + +I. To Antwerp + + + +When, one Saturday afternoon in September, we stepped on board +the boat for Ostend, it was with a thrill of expectation. For weeks we +had read and spoken of one thing only--the War--and now we +were to see it for ourselves, we were even in some way to be a part of +it. The curtain was rising for us upon the greatest drama in all the +lurid history of strife. We should see the armies as they went out to +fight, and we should care for the wounded when their work was done. +We might hear the roar of the guns and the scream of the shells. To +us, that was War. + +And, indeed, we have seen more of war in these few weeks than has +fallen to the lot of many an old campaigner. We have been through +the siege of Antwerp, we have lived and worked always close to the +firing-line, and I have seen a great cruiser roll over and sink, the +victim of a submarine. But these are not the things which will live in +our minds. These things are the mere framing of the grim picture. The +cruiser has been blotted out by the weary faces of an endless stream +of fugitives, and the scream of the shells has been drowned by the cry +of a child. For, though the soldiers may fight, it is the people who +suffer, and the toll of war is not the life which it takes, but the life +which it destroys. + +I suppose, and I hope, that there is not a man amongst us who has +not in his heart wished to go to the front, and to do what he could. +The thought may have been only transitory, and may soon have been +blotted out by self-interest; and there is many a strong man who has +thrust it from him because he knew that his duty lay at home. But to +everyone the wish must have come, though only to a few can come +the opportunity. We all want to do our share, but it is only human that +we should at the same time long to be there in the great business of +the hour, to see war as it really is, to feel the thrill of its supreme +moments, perhaps in our heart of hearts to make quite certain that we +are not cowards. And when we return, what do we bring with us? We +all bring a few bits of shell, pictures of ruined churches, perhaps a +German helmet--and our friends are full of envy. And some of us +return with scenes burnt into our brain of horror and of pathos such as +no human pen can describe. Yet it is only when we sit down in the +quiet of our homes that we realize the deeper meaning of all that we +have seen, that we grasp the secret of the strange aspects of +humanity which have passed before us. What we have seen is a +world in which the social conventions under which we live, and which +form a great part or the whole of most of our lives, have been torn +down. Men and women are no longer limited by the close barriers of +convention. They must think and act for themselves, and for once it is +the men and women that we see, and not the mere symbols which +pass as coin in a world at peace. To the student of men and women, +the field of war is the greatest opportunity in the world. It is a +veritable dissecting-room, where all the queer machinery that +goes to the making of us lies open to our view. On the whole, +I am very glad that I am a mere surgeon, and that I can limit my +dissections to men's bodies. Human Anatomy is bad enough, +but after the last three months the mere thought of an analysis +of Human Motives fills me with terror. + +Our boat was one of the older paddle steamers. We were so fortunate +as to have a friend at Court, and the best cabins on the ship were +placed at our disposal. I was very grateful to that friend, for it was +very rough, and our paddle-boxes were often under water. We +consoled ourselves by the thought that at least in a rough sea we +were safe from submarines, but the consolation became somewhat +threadbare as time went on. Gradually the tall white cliffs of Dover +sank behind us, splendid symbols of the quiet power which guards +them. But for those great white cliffs, and the waves which wash their +base, how different the history of England would have been! They +broke the power of Spain in her proudest days, Napoleon gazed at +them in vain as at the walls of a fortress beyond his grasp, and +against them Germany will fling herself to her own destruction. +Germany has yet to learn the strength which lies concealed behind +those cliffs, the energy and resource which have earned for England +the command of the sea. It was a bad day for Germany when she +ventured to question that command. She will receive a convincing +answer to her question. + +We reached Ostend, and put up for the night at the Hotel Terminus. +Ostend was empty, and many of the hotels were closed. A few bombs +had been dropped upon the town some days before, and caused +considerable excitement--about all that most bombs ever succeed +in doing, as we afterwards discovered. But it had been enough to +cause an exodus. No one dreamt that in less than three weeks' time +the town would be packed with refugees, and that to get either a bed +or a meal would be for many of them almost impossible. Everywhere +we found an absolute confidence as to the course of the war, and the +general opinion was that the Germans would be driven out of Belgium +in less than six weeks. + +Two of our friends in Antwerp had come down to meet us by motor, +and we decided to go back with them by road, as trains, though still +running, were slow and uncertain. It was a terrible day, pouring in +torrents and blowing a hurricane. Our route lay through Bruges and +Ghent, but the direct road to Bruges was in a bad condition, and we +chose the indirect road through Blankenberghe. We left Ostend by +the magnificent bridge, with its four tall columns, which opens the way +towards the north-east, and as we crossed it I met the first symbol of +war. A soldier stepped forward, and held his rifle across our path. My +companion leaned forward and murmured, "Namur," the soldier +saluted, and we passed on. It was all very simple, and, but for the one +word, silent; but it was the first time I had heard a password, and it +made an immense impression on my mind. We had crossed the +threshold of War. I very soon had other things to think about. The +road from Ostend to Blankenberghe is about the one good motor road +in Belgium, and my companion evidently intended to demonstrate the +fact to me beyond all possibility of doubt. We were driving into the +teeth of a squall, but there seemed to be no limits to the power of his +engine. I watched the hand of his speedometer rise till it touched sixty +miles per hour. On the splendid asphalt surface of the road there was +no vibration, but a north-east wind across the sand-dunes is no trifle, +and I was grateful when we turned south-eastwards at Blankenberghe, +and I could breathe again. + +As I said, that road by the dunes is unique. The roads of Belgium, for +the most part, conform to one regular pattern. In the centre is a paved +causeway, set with small stone blocks, whilst on each side is a couple +of yards of loose sand, or in wet weather of deep mud. The causeway +is usually only just wide enough for the passing of two motors, and on +the smaller roads it is not sufficient even for this. As there is no speed +limit, and everyone drives at the top power of his engine, the skill +required to drive without mishap is considerable. After a little rain the +stone is covered with a layer of greasy mud, and to keep a car upon it +at a high speed is positively a gymnastic feat. In spite of every +precaution, an occasional descent into the mud at the roadside is +inevitable, and from that only a very powerful car can extricate itself +with any ease. A small car will often have to slowly push its way out +backwards. In dry weather the conditions are almost as bad, for often +the roadside is merely loose sand, which gives no hold for a wheel. +For a country so damp and low-lying as Belgium, there is probably +nothing to equal a paved road, but it is a pity that the paving was not +made a little wider. Every now and then we met one of the huge, +unwieldy carts which seem to be relics of a prehistoric age--rough +plank affairs of enormous strength and a design so primitive as to be +a constant source of wonder. They could only be pulled along at a +slow walk and with vast effort by a couple of huge horses, and the +load the cart was carrying never seemed to bear any proportion to the +mechanism of its transport. The roads are bad, but they will not +account for those carts. The little front wheels are a stroke of +mechanical ineptitude positively amounting to genius, and when they +are replaced by a single wheel, and the whole affair resembles a +huge tricycle, one instinctively looks round for a Dinosaur. Time after +time we met them stuck in the mud or partially overturned, but the +drivers seemed in no way disconcerted; it was evidently all part of the +regular business of the day. When one thinks of the Brussels +coachwork which adorns our most expensive motors, and of the great +engineering works of Liege, those carts are a really wonderful +example of persistence of type. + +We passed through Bruges at a pace positively disrespectful to that +fine old town. There is no town in Belgium so uniform in the +magnificence of its antiquity, and it is good to think that--so far, at +any rate--it has escaped destruction. As we crossed the square, the +clock in the belfry struck the hour, and began to play its chimes. It is a +wonderful old clock, and every quarter of an hour it plays a tune--a +very attractive performance, unless you happen to live opposite. I +remember once thinking very hard things about the maker of that +clock, but perhaps it was not his fault that one of the bells was a +quarter of a tone flat. At the gates our passports were examined, and +we travelled on to Ghent by the Ecloo Road, one of the main +thoroughfares of Belgium. Beyond an occasional sentry, there was +nothing to indicate that we were passing through a country at war, +except that we rarely saw a man of military age. All were women, old +men, or children. Certainly the men of Belgium had risen to the +occasion. The women were doing everything--working in the fields, +tending the cattle, driving the market-carts and the milk-carts with +their polished brass cans. After leaving Ghent, the men came into +view, for at Lokeren and St. Nicholas were important military stations, +whilst nearer to Antwerp very extensive entrenchments and wire +entanglements were being constructed. The trenches were most +elaborate, carefully constructed and covered in; and I believe that all +the main approaches to the city were defended in the same way. +Antwerp could never have been taken by assault, but with modern +artillery it would have been quite easy to destroy it over the heads of +its defenders. The Germans have probably by now rendered it +impregnable, for though in modern war it is impossible to defend +one's own cities, the same does not apply to the enemy. In future, +forts will presumably be placed at points of strategic importance only, +and as far as possible from towns. + +Passing through the western fortifications, we came upon the long +bridge of boats which had been thrown across the Scheldt. The river +is here more than a quarter of a mile wide, and the long row of sailing +barges was most picturesque. The roadway was of wooden planks, +and only just wide enough to allow one vehicle to pass at a time, the +tall spars of the barges rising on each side. It is strange that a city of +such wealth as Antwerp should not have bridged a river which, after +all, is not wider than the Thames. We were told that a tunnel was in +contemplation. The bridge of boats was only a tribute to the +necessities of war. We did not dream that a fortnight later it would be +our one hope of escape. + + + + +II. The Hospital + + + +Antwerp is one of the richest cities in Europe, and our hospital was +placed in its wealthiest quarter. The Boulevard Leopold is a +magnificent avenue, with a wide roadway in the centre flanked by +broad paths planted with trees. Beyond these, again, on each side is +a paved road with a tram-line, whilst a wide pavement runs along the +houses. There are many such boulevards in Antwerp, and they give +to the city an air of spaciousness and opulence in striking contrast to +the more utilitarian plan of London or of most of our large towns. We +talk a great deal about fresh air, but we are not always ready to pay +for it. + +Our hospital occupied one of the largest houses on the south-east +side. A huge doorway led into an outer hall through which the garden +was directly reached behind the house. On the right-hand side of this +outer hall a wide flight of steps led to inner glass doors and the great +central hall of the building. As a private house it must have been +magnificent; as a hospital it was as spacious and airy as one could +desire. The hall was paved with marble, and on either side opened +lofty reception rooms, whilst in front wide marble staircases led to the +first floor. This first floor and another above it were occupied entirely +by wards, each containing from six to twelve beds. On the ground +floor on the right-hand side were two large wards, really magnificent +rooms, and one smaller, all these overlooking the Boulevard. On the +left were the office, the common room, and the operating theatre. +Behind the house was a large paved courtyard, flanked on the right +by a garden border and on the left by a wide glass-roofed corridor. +The house had previously been used as a school, and on the +opposite side of the courtyard was the gymnasium, with dormitories +above. The gymnasium furnished our dining-hall, whilst several of the +staff slept in the rooms above. + +It will be seen that the building was in many ways well adapted to the +needs of a hospital and to the accommodation of the large staff +required. We had in all 150 beds, and a staff of about 50. The latter +included 8 doctors, 20 nurses, 5 dressers, lay assistants, and motor +drivers. In addition to these there was a kitchen staff of Belgians, so +that the management of the whole was quite a large undertaking, +especially in a town where ordinary provisions were becoming more +and more difficult to obtain. In the later days of the siege, when milk +was not to be had and the only available water was salt, the lot of our +housekeeper was anything but happy. Providing meals for over 200 +people in a besieged town is no small matter. But it was managed +somehow, and our cuisine was positively astonishing, to which I think +we largely owe the fact that none of the staff was ever ill. Soldiers are +not the only people who fight on their stomachs. + +The management of the hospital centred in the office, and it was so +typical of Belgium as to be really worth a few words of description. It +was quite a small room, and it was always crowded. Four of us had +seats round a table in the centre, and at another table in the window +sat our Belgian secretary, Monsieur Herman, and his two clerks. But +that was only the beginning of it. All day long there was a constant +stream of men, women, and children pouring into that room, bringing +letters, asking questions, always talking volubly to us and amongst +themselves. At first we thought that this extraordinary turmoil was due +to our want of space, but we soon found that it was one of the +institutions of the country. In England an official's room is the very +home of silence, and is by no means easy of access. If he is a high +official, a series of ante-rooms is interposed between his sacred +person and an inquisitive world. But in Belgium everyone walks +straight in without removing his cigar. The great man sits at his desk +surrounded by a perfect Babel, but he is always polite, always ready +to hear what you have to say and to do what he can to help. He +appears to be able to deal with half a dozen different problems at the +same time without ever being ruffled or confused. There is an +immense amount of talking and shaking of hands, and at first the +brain of a mere Englishman is apt to whirl; but the business is done +rapidly and completely. Belgium is above all things democratic, and +our office was a good introduction to it. + +The common room was large and airy, overlooking the courtyard, and +a few rugs and armchairs made it a very comfortable place when the +work of the day was done. Anyone who has worked in a hospital will +know what a difference such a room makes to the work--work that +must be carried on at all hours of the day or night; nor will he need to +be told of the constant supply of tea and coffee that will be found +there. We go about telling our patients of the evils of excessive tea- +drinking, and we set them an example they would find it hard to +follow. We do not mention how often tea and a hot bath have been +our substitute for a night's sleep.' A good common room and an +unlimited supply of tea will do much to oil the wheels of hospital life. + +But to myself the all-important room was the operating theatre, for +upon its resources depended entirely our opportunities for surgical +work. It was in every way admirable, and I know plenty of hospitals in +London whose theatres would not bear comparison with ours. Three +long windows faced the courtyard; there was a great bunch of electric +lights in the ceiling, and there was a constant supply of boiling water. +What more could the heart of surgeon desire? There were two +operating tables and an equipment of instruments to vie with any in a +London hospital. Somebody must have been very extravagant over +those instruments, I thought as I looked at them; but he was right and +I was wrong, for there were very few of those instruments for which I +was not grateful before long. The surgery of war is a very different +thing from the surgery of home. + +The wards were full when we arrived, and I had a wonderful +opportunity of studying the effects of rifle and shell fire. Most of the +wounds were fortunately slight, but some of them were terrible, and, +indeed, in some cases it seemed little short of miraculous that the +men had survived. But on every side one saw nothing but cheerful +faces, and one would never have dreamt what some of those men +had gone through. They were all smoking cigarettes, laughing, and +chatting, as cheery a set of fellows as one could meet. You would +never have suspected that a few days before those same men had +been carried into the hospital in most cases at their last gasp from +loss of blood and exposure, for none but serious cases were +admitted. The cheeriest man in the place was called Rasquinet, a +wounded officer who had been christened "Ragtime" for short, and for +affection. A week before he had been struck by a shell in the left side, +and a large piece of the shell had gone clean through, wounding the +kidney behind and the bowel in front. That man crawled across +several fields, a distance of nearly a mile, on his hands and knees, +dragging with him to a place of safety a wounded companion. When +from loss of blood he could drag him along no longer, he left him +under a hedge, and dragged himself another half-mile till he could get +help. When he was brought into the hospital, he was so exhausted +from pain and loss of blood that no one thought that he could live for +more than a few hours, but by sheer pluck he had pulled through. +Even now he was desperately ill with as horrible a wound as a man +could have, but nothing was going to depress him. I am glad to say +that what is known in surgery as a short circuit was an immediate +success, and when we left him three weeks later in Ghent he was to +all intents perfectly well. + +There were plenty of other serious cases, some of them with ghastly +injuries, and many of them must have suffered agonizing pain; but +they were all doing their best to make light of their troubles, whilst +their gratitude for what was done for them was extraordinary. The +Belgians are by nature a cheerful race, but these were brave men, +and we felt glad that we had come out to do what we could for them. + +But if we give them credit for their courage and cheerfulness, we must +not forget how largely they owed it to the devoted attention--yes, +and to the courage and cheerfulness--of the nurses. I wonder how +many of us realize what Britain owes to her nurses. We take them as +a matter of course, we regard nursing as a very suitable profession +for a woman to take up--if she can find nothing better to do; perhaps +we may have been ill, and we were grateful for a nurse's kindness. +But how many of us realize all the long years of drudgery that have +given the skill we appreciated, the devotion to her work that has made +the British nurse what she is? And how many of us realize that we +English-speaking nations alone in the world have such nurses? +Except in small groups, they are unknown in France, Belgium, +Germany, Russia, or any other country in the world. In no other land +will women leave homes of ease and often of luxury to do work that +no servant would touch, for wages that no servant would take--work +for which there will be very little reward but the unmeasured gratitude +of the very few. They stand to-day as an unanswerable proof that as +nations we have risen higher in the level of civilization than any of our +neighbours. To their influence on medicine and surgery I shall refer +again. Here I only wish to acknowledge our debt. As a mere patient I +would rather have a good nurse than a good physician, if I were so +unfortunate as to have to make the choice. A surgeon is a dangerous +fellow, and must be treated with respect. But as a rule the physician +gives his blessing, the surgeon does his operation, but it is the nurse +who does the work. + + + + +III. The Day's Work + + + +In any hospital at home or abroad there is a large amount of routine +work, which must be carried on in an orderly and systematic manner, +and upon the thoroughness with which this is done will largely depend +the effectiveness of the hospital. Patients must be fed and washed, +beds must be made and the wards swept and tidied, wounds must be +dressed and splints adjusted. In an English hospital everything is +arranged to facilitate this routine work. Close to every ward is a sink- +room with an adequate supply of hot and cold water, dinner arrives in +hot tins from the kitchens as if by magic, whilst each ward has its own +arrangements for preparing the smaller meals. The beds are of a +convenient height, and there is an ample supply of sheets and pillow- +cases, and of dressing materials of all kinds arranged on tables which +run noiselessly up and down the wards. At home all these things are +a matter of course; abroad they simply did not exist. Four or five gas- +rings represented our hot-water supply and our ward-kitchens for our +150 patients, and the dinners had to be carried up from the large +kitchens in the basement. The beds were so low as to break one's +back, and had iron sides which were always in the way; and when we +came to the end of our sheets--well, we came to the end of them, +and that was all. In every way the work was heavier and more difficult +than at home, for all our patients were heavy men, and every wound +was septic, and had, in many cases, to be dressed several times a +day. Everyone had to work hard, sometimes very hard; but as a rule +we got through the drudgery in the morning, and in the afternoon +everything was in order, and we should, I think, have compared very +favourably in appearance with most hospitals at home. + +But we had to meet one set of conditions which would, I think, baffle +many hospitals at home. Every now and then, without any warning, +from 50 to 100, even in one case 150, wounded would be brought to +our door. There was no use in putting up a notice "House Full"; the +men were wounded and they must be attended to. In such a case our +arrangement was a simple one: all who could walk went straight +upstairs, the gravest cases went straight to the theatre or waited their +turn in the great hall, the others were accommodated on the ground +floor. We had a number of folding beds for emergency, and we had +no rules as to overcrowding. In the morning the authorities would +clear out as many patients as we wished. Sometimes we were hard +put to it to find room for them all, but we always managed somehow, +and we never refused admission to a single patient on the score of +want of room. The authorities soon discovered the capacity of the +hospital for dealing with really serious cases, and as a result our beds +were crowded with injuries of the gravest kind. What appealed to us +far more was the appreciation of the men themselves. We felt that we +had not worked in vain when we heard that the soldiers in the +trenches begged to be taken "a l'Hopital Anglais." + +The condition of the men when they reached us was often pitiable in +the extreme. Most of them had been living in the trenches for weeks +exposed to all kinds of weather, their clothes were often sodden and +caked with dirt, and the men themselves showed clear traces of +exposure and insecure sleep. In most cases they had lain in the +trenches for hours after being wounded, for as a rule it is impossible +to remove the wounded at once with any degree of safety. Indeed, +when the fighting is at all severe they must lie till dark before it is +safe for the stretcher-bearers to go for them. This was so at Furnes, +but at Antwerp we were usually able to get them in within a few hours. +Even a few hours' delay with a bad wound may be a serious matter, +and in every serious case our attention was first directed to the +condition of the patient himself and not to his wound. Probably +he had lost blood, his injury had produced more or less shock, +he had certainly been lying for hours in pain. He had to be got +warm, his circulation had to be restored, he had to be saved +from pain and protected from further shock. Hot bottles, blankets, +brandy, and morphia worked wonders in a very short time, and +one could then proceed to deal with wounds. Our patients +were young and vigorous, and their rate of recovery was extraordinary. + +When a rush came we all had to work our hardest, and the scenes in +any part of the hospital required steady nerves; but perhaps the +centre of interest was the theatre. Here all the worst cases were +brought--men with ghastly injuries from which the most hardened +might well turn away in horror; men almost dead from loss of blood, +or, worst of all, with a tiny puncture in the wall of the abdomen which +looks so innocent, but which, in this war at least, means, apart from a +difficult and dangerous operation, a terrible death. With all these we +had to deal as rapidly and completely as possible, reducing each +case to a form which it would be practicable to nurse, where the +patient would be free from unnecessary pain, and where he would +have the greatest possible chance of ultimate recovery. Of course, all +this was done under anaesthesia. What a field hospital must have +been before the days of anaesthesia is too horrible to contemplate. +Even in civil hospitals the surgeons must have reached a degree of +"Kultur" beside which its present exponents are mere children. It is +not so many years since a famous surgeon, who was fond of walking +back from his work at the London Hospital along the Whitechapel +Road, used to be pointed to with horror by the Aldgate butchers, +whose opinion on such a subject was probably worth consideration. +But now all that is changed. The surgeon can be a human being +again, and indeed, except when he goes round his wards, his patients +may never know, of his existence. They go to sleep in a quiet +anteroom, and they waken up in the ward. Of the operation and all its +difficulties they know no more than their friends at home. Perhaps +even more wonderful is the newer method of spinal anaesthesia, +which we used largely for the difficult abdominal cases. With the +injection of a minute quantity of fluid into the spine all sensation +disappears up to the level of the arms, and, provided he cannot see +what is going on, any operation below that level can be carried out +without the patient knowing anything about it at all. It is rather +uncanny at first to see a patient lying smoking a cigarette and reading +the paper whilst on the other side of a screen a big operation is in +progress. But for many cases this method is unsuitable, and without +chloroform we should indeed have been at a loss. The Belgians are +an abstemious race, and they took it beautifully. I am afraid they were +a striking contrast to their brothers on this side of the water. +Chloroform does not mix well with alcohol in the human body, and the +British working man is rather fond of demonstrating the fact. + +With surgery on rather bold lines it was extraordinary how much could +be done, especially in the way of saving limbs. During the whole of +our stay in Antwerp we never once had to resort to an amputation. +We were dealing with healthy and vigorous men, and once they had +got over the shock of injury they had wonderful powers of recovery. +We very soon found that we were dealing with cases to which the +ordinary rules of surgery did not apply. The fundamental principles of +the art must always be the same, but here the conditions of their +application were essentially different from those of civil practice. Two +of these conditions were of general interest: the great destruction of +the tissues in most wounds, and the infection of the wounds, which +was almost universal. + +Where a wound has been produced by a large fragment of shell, one +expects to see considerable damage; in fact, a whole limb may be +torn off, or death may be instant from some terrible injury to the body. +But where the object of the enemy is the injury of individuals, and not +the destruction of buildings, they often use shrapnel, and the resulting +wounds resemble those from the old smooth-bore guns of our +ancestors. Shrapnel consists of a large number of bullets about half +an inch in diameter packed together in a case, which carries also a +charge of explosive timed to burst at the moment when it reaches its +object. The balls are small and round, and if they go straight through +soft tissues they do not do much damage. If, however, they strike a +bone, they are so soft that their shape becomes irregular, and the +injury they can produce in their further course is almost without limit. +On the whole, they do not as a rule produce great damage, for in +many cases they are nearly spent when they reach their mark. Pieces +of the case will, of course, have much the same effect as an ordinary +shell. + +The effects of rifle-fire, particularly at short ranges, have led to a +great deal of discussion, and each side has accused the other of +using dum-dum bullets. The ordinary bullet consists of a lead core +with a casing of nickel, since the soft lead would soon choke rifling. +Such a bullet under ordinary circumstances makes a clean +perforation, piercing the soft tissues, and sometimes the bones, with +very little damage. In a dum-dum bullet the casing at the tip is cut or +removed, with the result that, on striking, the casing spreads out and +forms a rough, irregular missile, which does terrific damage. Such +bullets were forbidden by the Geneva Convention. But the German +bullet is much more subtle than this. It is short and pointed, and when +it strikes it turns completely over and goes through backwards. The +base of the bullet has no cover, and consequently spreads in a +manner precisely similar to that in a dum-dum, with equally deadly +results. There could be no greater contrast than that between the +wounds with which we had to deal in South Africa, produced by +ordinary bullets, and those which our soldiers are now receiving from +German rifles. The former were often so slight that it was quite a +common occurrence for a soldier to discover accidentally that he had +been wounded some time previously. In the present war rifle wounds +have been amongst the most deadly with which we have had to deal. + +It will thus be seen that in most cases the wounds were anything but +clean-cut; with very few exceptions, they were never surgically clean. +By surgically clean we mean that no bacteria are present which can +interfere with the healing of the tissues, and only those who are +familiar with surgical work can realize the importance of this condition. +Its maintenance is implied in the term "aseptic surgery," and upon this +depends the whole distinction between the surgery of the present and +the surgery of the past. Without it the great advances of modern +surgery would be entirely impossible. When we say, then, that every +wound with which we had to deal was infected with bacteria, it will be +realized how different were the problems which we had to face +compared with those of work at home. But the difference was even +more striking, for the bacteria which had infected the wounds were +not those commonly met with in England. These wounds were for the +most part received in the open country, and they were soiled by earth, +manure, fragments of cloth covered with mud. They were therefore +infected by the organisms which flourish on such soil, and not by the +far more deadly denizens of our great cities. It is true that in soil one +may meet with tetanus and other virulent bacteria, but in our +experience these were rare. Now, there is one way in which all such +infections may be defeated--by plenty of fresh air, or, better still, by +oxygen. We had some very striking proofs of this, for in several cases +the wounds were so horribly foul that it was impossible to tolerate +their presence in the wards; and in these cases we made it a practice +to put the patient in the open air, of course suitably protected, and to +leave the wound exposed to the winds of heaven, with only a thin +piece of gauze to protect it. The results were almost magical, for in +two or three days the wounds lost their odour and began to look +clean, whilst the patients lost all signs of the poisoning which had +been so marked before. It may be partly to this that we owe the fact +that we never had a case of tetanus. In all cases we treated our +wounds with solutions of oxygen, and we avoided covering them up +with heavy dressings; and we found that this plan was successful as +well as economical. + +Though any detailed description of surgical treatment would be out of +place, there was one which in these surroundings was novel, and +which was perhaps of general interest. Amongst all the cases which +came to us, certainly the most awkward were the fractured thighs. It +was not a question of a broken leg in the ordinary sense of the term. +In every case there was a large infected wound to deal with, and as a +rule several inches of the bone had been blown clean away. At first +we regarded these cases with horror, for anything more hopeless +than a thigh with 6 inches missing it is difficult to imagine. Splints +presented almost insuperable difficulties, for the wounds had to be +dressed two or three times, and however skilfully the splint was +arranged, the least movement meant for the patient unendurable +agony. After some hesitation we attempted the method of fixation by +means of steel plates, which was introduced with such success by Sir +Arbuthnot Lane in the case of simple fractures. The missing portion of +the bone is replaced by a long steel plate, screwed by means of small +steel screws to the portions which remain, "demonstrating," as a +colleague put it, "the triumph of mind over the absence of matter." +The result was a brilliant success, for not only could the limb now be +handled as if there were no fracture at all, to the infinite comfort of +the patient, but the wounds themselves cleared up with great rapidity. +We were told that the plates would break loose, that the screws would +come out, that the patient would come to a bad end through the +violent sepsis induced by the presence of a "foreign body" in the +shape of the steel plate. But none of these disasters happened, the +cases did extremely well, and one of our most indignant critics +returned to his own hospital after seeing them with his pockets full of +plates. The only difficulty with some of them was to induce them to +stop in bed, and it is a fact that on the night of our bombardment I met +one of them walking downstairs, leaning on a dresser's arm, ten days +after the operation. + +And this brings me to a subject on which I feel very strongly, the folly +of removing bullets. If a bullet is doing any harm, pressing on some +nerve, interfering with a joint, or in any way causing pain or +inconvenience, by all means let it be removed, though even then it +should in most cases never be touched until the wound is completely +healed. But the mere presence of a bullet inside the body will of itself +do no harm at all. The old idea that it will cause infection died long +ago. It may have brought infection with it; but the removal of the bullet +will not remove the infection, but rather in most cases make it fire up. +We now know that, provided they are clean, we can introduce steel +plates, silver wires, silver nets, into the body without causing any +trouble at all, and a bullet is no worse than any of these. It is a matter +in which the public are very largely to blame, for they consider that +unless the bullet has been removed the surgeon has not done his job. +Unless he has some specific reason for it, I know that the surgeon +who removes a bullet does not know his work. It may be the mark of a +Scotch ancestry, but if I ever get a bullet in my own anatomy, I shall +keep it. + + + + +IV. Antwerp + + + +There is no port in Europe which holds such a dominant position as +Antwerp, and there is none whose history has involved such amazing +changes of fortune. In the middle of the sixteenth century she was the +foremost city in Europe, at its close she was ruined. For two hundred +years she lay prostrate under the blighting influence of Spain and +Austria, and throttled by the commercial jealousy of England and +Holland. A few weeks ago she was the foremost port on the +Continent, the third in the world; now her wharves stand idle, and she +herself is a prisoner in the hands of the enemy. Who can tell what the +next turn of the wheel will bring? + +Placed centrally between north and south, on a deep and wide river, +Antwerp is the natural outlet of Central Europe towards the West, and +it is no wonder that four hundred years ago she gathered to herself +the commerce of the Netherlands, in which Ypres, Bruges, and Ghent +had been her forerunners. For fifty years she was the Queen of the +North, and the centre of a vast ocean trade with England, France, +Spain, Portugal, and Italy, till the religious bigotry of Philip II of +Spain and the awful scenes of the Spanish Fury reduced her to +ruin. For two hundred years the Scheldt was blocked by Holland, +and the ocean trade of Antwerp obliterated. Her population disappeared, +her wharves rotted, and her canals were choked with mud. It is +hard to apportion the share of wickedness between a monarch +who destroys men and women to satisfy his own religious lust, +and a nation which drains the life-blood of another to satisfy its +lust for gold. One wonders in what category the instigator of the +present war should appear. + +At the very beginning of last century Napoleon visited Antwerp, and +asserted that it was "little better than a heap of ruins." He recognized +its incomparable position as a port and as a fortress, and he +determined to raise it to its former prosperity, and to make it the +strongest fortress in Europe. He spent large sums of money upon it, +and his refusal to part with Antwerp is said to have broken off the +negotiations of Chatillon, and to have been the chief cause of his +exile to St. Helena. Alas his enemies did not profit by his genius. We +are the allies of his armies now, but we have lost Antwerp. Germany +will be utterly and completely crushed before she parts with that +incomparable prize. A mere glance at the map of Europe is sufficient +to convince anyone that in a war between England and Germany it is +a point of the first strategical importance. That our access to it should +be hampered by the control of Holland over the Scheldt is one of the +eccentricities of diplomacy which are unintelligible to the plain man. +The blame for its loss must rest equally between Britain and Belgium, +for Belgium, the richest country in Europe for her size, attempted to +defend her greatest stronghold with obsolete guns; whilst we, who +claim the mastery of the seas, sacrificed the greatest seaport in +Europe to the arrangements of an obsolete diplomacy. If we are to +retain our great position on the seas, Antwerp must be regained. She +is the European outpost of Britain, and, as has so often been pointed +out, the mouth of the Scheldt is opposite to the mouth of the Thames. + +In Antwerp, as we saw her, it was almost impossible to realize the +vicissitudes through which she had passed, or to remember that her +present prosperity was of little more than fifty years' growth. On all +sides we were surrounded by wide boulevards, lined by magnificent +houses and public buildings. There are few streets in Europe to +eclipse the great Avenue des Arts, which, with its continuations, +extends the whole length of the city from north to south. The theatres, +the Central Station, the banks, would adorn any city, and the shops +everywhere spoke of a wealth not restricted to the few. The wide +streets, the trees, the roomy white houses, many of them great +palaces, made a deep impression upon us after the darkness and dirt +of London. Even in the poorer quarters there was plenty of light and +air, and on no occasion did we find the slums which surround the +wealthiest streets all over London. In the older parts of the city the +streets were, of course, narrower; but even here one had the +compensation of wonderful bits of architecture at unexpected corners, +splendid relics of an illustrious past. They are only remnants, but they +speak of a time when men worked for love rather than for wages, and +when an artisan took a pride in the labour of his hands. If it had not +been for the hand of the destroyer, what a marvellous city Antwerp +would have been! One likes to think that the great creations of the +past are not all lost, and that in the land to which the souls of the +Masters have passed we may find still living the mighty thoughts to +which their love gave birth. Are our cathedrals only stones and +mortar, and are our paintings only dust and oil? + +The inhabitants of Antwerp were as delightful as their city. On all +sides we were welcomed with a kindness and a consideration not +always accorded to those who are so bold as to wish to help their +fellow-men. Everywhere we met with a courtesy and a generosity by +which, in the tragedy of their country, we were deeply touched. They +all seemed genuinely delighted to see us, from the Queen herself to +the children in the streets. Our medical confreres treated us royally, +and the mere thought of professional jealousy with such men is simply +ludicrous. They constantly visited our hospital, and they always +showed the keenest interest in our work and in any novelties in +treatment we were able to show them; and when we went to see +them, we were shown all the best that they had, and we brought away +many an ingenious idea which it was worth while going far to obtain. +Wherever we moved amongst the Belgians, we always found the +same simplicity of purpose, the same generosity of impulse. +Everywhere we met the same gratitude for what England was doing +for Belgium; no one ever referred to the sacrifices which Belgium has +made for England. + +The one thing which so impressed us in the character of the Belgians +whom we met was its simplicity, and the men who had risen to high +rank did not seem to have lost it in their climb to fame. But it was just +this, the most delightful of their characteristics, which must have +made war for them supremely difficult. For strict discipline and +simplicity are almost incompatible. None of us tower so far above our +fellows that we can command instant obedience for our own sakes. +We have to cover ourselves with gold lace, to entrench ourselves in +rank, and to provide ourselves with all sorts of artificial aids before we +can rely on being obeyed. These things are foreign to the Belgian +mind, and as a result one noticed in their soldiers a certain lack of the +stern discipline which war demands. Individually they are brave men +and magnificent fighters. They only lacked the organization which has +made the little British Army the envy of the world. The fact is that they +are in no sense a warlike nation, in spite of their turbulent history of +the past, and, indeed, few things could be more incompatible than +turbulence and modern warfare. It demands on the part of the masses +of combatants an obedience and a disregard of life which are +repellent to human nature, and the Belgians are above all things +human. Germany is governed by soldiers, and France by officials. +Unlike the frogs in the fable, the Belgians are content to govern +themselves. + +It was our great regret that we had so little time in which to see the +work of the Antwerp hospitals, but we made use of what opportunities +we had. There are many of them, and those we saw were magnificent +buildings, equipped in a way which filled us with envy. The great city +hospital, the Stuivenberg, was a model of what a modern hospital +ought to be. The wards were large and airy and spotlessly clean, and +the nurses seemed to be extremely competent. The kitchens were +equipped with all the latest appliances, steam boilers, and gas and +electric cookers. But the show part of the hospital was the suite of +operating theatres. I have always felt the pardonable pride of a son in +the theatres of the London Hospital, but they were certainly eclipsed +here. Each theatre was equipped with its own anaesthetizing room, its +own surgeon's room, and its own sterilizing rooms and stores, all +furnished with a lavishness beyond the financial capacity of any +hospital in London. Perhaps some of the equipment was unnecessary, +but it was abundantly evident that the State appreciated +the value of first-class surgery, and that it was prepared to pay for it. +I have never heard the same accusation levelled at Great Britain. + +At St. Camille we had the good fortune to see M. Xambotte at work. +His reputation as a surgeon is worldwide, and it was pleasant to find +that his dexterity as an operator was equal to his reputation. It is not +always the case. He is an expert mechanic, and himself makes most +of the very ingenious instruments which he uses. He was fixing a +fractured femur with silver wires, and one could see the skilled +workman in all that he did. There is no training-ground for one's +hands like a carpenter's bench, and the embryo surgeon might do +much worse with his time than spend six months of it in a workshop. +When medical training emerges from its medieval traditions, manual +training will certainly form a part, and no one will be allowed to +attempt to mend a bone till he has shown his capacity to mend a +chair-leg. Here, again, the surgeon was surrounded by all the +appliances, and even the luxuries, that he could desire. The lot of the +great surgeon abroad is indeed a happy one. + +But there is one thing in which we in England are far better off--in +our nursing staffs. In most of the hospitals we visited the nursing was +carried on by Sisterhoods, and though some of them were evidently +good nurses, most of them had no idea whatever of nursing as it is +practised in our country. Fresh air, for example, is to them full of +dangers. One would almost think that it savoured of the powers of +evil. We went into one huge hospital of the most modern type, and +equipped lavishly, and such wag the atmosphere that in ten minutes I +had to make a rush for the door. One large ward was full of wounded +soldiers, many of them with terrible wounds, gangrenous and horrible, +and every window was tightly shut. How they could live in such an +atmosphere is beyond my comprehension, but the Sisters did not +seem to notice it at all. + +Some of the surgeons have their specially trained nurses, but nursing +as a profession for the classes who are alone competent to undertake +it is a conception which has yet to dawn upon the Continent, for only +a woman of education and refinement can really be a nurse. + +The absence on the Continent of a nursing profession such as ours is +not without its influence on medicine and surgery abroad. The +individual patient meets with far less consideration than would be the +case in this country, and is apt to be regarded as so much raw +material. In Belgium this tendency is counteracted by the natural +kindliness of the Belgian, but in other countries patients are often +treated with a callousness which is amazing. There is in many of the +great clinics a disregard of the patient's feelings, of his sufferings, +and even of his life, which would be impossible in an English hospital. +The contact of a surgeon with his hospital patients as individuals is +largely through the nursing staff, and his point of view will be largely +influenced by them. There is no one in our profession, from the +youngest dresser to the oldest physician, who does not owe a great +part of his education to Sister. + + + + +V. Termonde + + + +Anyone who has worked in hospitals will realize how important it is for +the health of the staff, nurses and doctors, that they should get out +into the fresh air for at least some part of every day. It is still more +necessary in a war hospital, for not only is the work more exacting, +but the cases themselves involve certain risks which can only be +safely taken in perfect health. Practically every one is septic, and to +anyone in the least run down the danger of infection is considerable; +and infection with some of the organisms with which one meets in war +is a very serious thing indeed. We had four large motors in Antwerp +belonging to the members of our hospital, and always at its service, +and every afternoon parties were made up to drive out into the +country. As a rule calls were made at various Croix Rouge posts on +the way, and in that way we kept in contact with the medical service of +the army in the field, and gave them what help we could. We were +always provided with the password, and the whole country was open +to us--a privilege we very greatly appreciated; for after a hard +morning's work in the wards there are few things more delightful than +a motor drive. And it gave us an opportunity of seeing war as very few +but staff officers ever can see it. We learnt more about the condition +of the country and of the results of German methods in one afternoon +than all the literature in the world could ever teach. If only it were +possible to bring home to the people of Britain one-hundredth part of +what we saw with our own eyes, stringent laws would have to be +passed to stop men and women from enlisting. No man who deserved +the name of man, and no woman who deserved to be the mother of a +child, would rest day or night till the earth had been freed from the +fiends who have ravaged Belgium and made the name of German +vile. + +One afternoon towards the end of September we visited Termonde. +We heard that the Germans, having burnt the town, had retired, +leaving it in the hands of the Belgian troops. It was a rare opportunity +to see the handiwork of the enemy at close quarters, and we did not +wish to miss it. Termonde is about twenty-two miles from Antwerp, +and a powerful car made short work of the distance. Starting directly +southwards through Boom, we reached Willebroeck and the road +which runs east and west from Malines through Termonde to Ghent, +and along it we turned to the right. We were now running parallel to +the German lines, which at some points were only a couple of miles +away on the other side of the Termonde-Malines railway. We passed +numerous Belgian outposts along the road, and for a few miles +between Lippeloo and Baesrode they begged us to travel as fast as +possible, as at this point we came within a mile of the railway. We did +travel, and it would have taken a smart marksman to hit us at fifty +miles an hour; but we felt much happier when we passed under the +railway bridge of a loop line at Briel and placed it between ourselves +and the enemy. The entrance to Termonde was blocked by a rough +barricade of bricks and branches guarded by a squad of soldiers. +They told us that no one was allowed to pass, and we were about to +return disappointed, when one of us happened to mention the +password. As without it we could not possibly have got so far, it had +never occurred to us that they might think we had not got it; and as +we had no possible business in the town, we had no arguments to +oppose to their refusal to let us in. However, all was now open to us, +and the cheery fellows ran forward to remove the barrier they had put +up. + +Termonde is, or rather was, a well-to-do town of 10,000 inhabitants +lying on the Scheldt at the point where the Dendre, coming up from +the south, runs into it. A river in Belgium means a route for traffic, and +the town must have derived some advantage from its position as a +trade junction. But it possesses an even greater one in the bridge +which here crosses the Scheldt, the first road bridge above the mouth +of the river, for there is none at Antwerp. At least six main roads +converge upon this bridge, and they must have brought a great deal +of traffic through the town. When we mention that a corresponding +number of railways meet at the same spot, it will be seen Termonde +was an important centre, and that it must have been a wealthy town. +The Dendre runs right through the centre of the town to the point +where it joins the Scheldt, and on each side runs a long stone quay +planted with trees, with old-fashioned houses facing the river. With +the little wooden bridges and the barges on the river it must have +been a very pretty picture. Now it was little better than a heap of +ruins. + +The destruction of the town was extraordinarily complete, and +evidently carefully organized. The whole thing had been arranged +beforehand at headquarters, and these particular troops supplied with +special incendiary apparatus. There is strong evidence to show that +the destruction of Louvain, Termonde, and of several smaller towns, +was all part of a definite plan of "frightfulness," the real object +being to terrorize Holland and Denmark, and to prevent any +possibility of their joining with the Allies. It is strictly scientific +warfare, it produces a strictly scientific hell upon this world, +and I think that one may have every reasonable hope that it +leads to a strictly scientific hell in the next. After a town has +been shelled, its occupants driven out, and its buildings to a +large extent broken down, the soldiers enter, each provided +with a number of incendiary bombs, filled with a very inflammable + compound. They set light to these and throw them into +the houses, and in a very few minutes each house is blazing. In half +an hour the town is a roaring furnace, and by the next day nothing is +left but the bare walls. And that is almost all that there was left of +Termonde. We walked along the quay beside a row of charred and +blackened ruins, a twisted iron bedstead or a battered lamp being all +there was to tell of the homes which these had been. A few houses +were still standing untouched, and on the door of each of these was +scrawled in chalk the inscription: + + + "GUTE LEUTE, + NICHT ANZUNDEN, + BREITFUSS, Lt." + + +One wondered at what cost the approval of Lieutenant Breitfuss had +been obtained. His request to the soldiers not to set fire to the houses +of these "good people" had been respected, but I think that if the +Belgians ever return to Termonde those houses are likely to be +empty. There are things worse than having your house burnt down, +and one would be to win the approval of Lieutenant Breitfuss. + +We crossed the Dendre and wandered up the town towards the +Square. For a few moments I stood alone in a long curving street with +not a soul in sight, and the utter desolation of the whole thing made +me shiver. Houses, shops, banks, churches, all gutted by the flames +and destroyed. The smell of burning from the smouldering ruins was +sickening. Every now and then the silence was broken by the fall of +bricks or plaster. Except a very few houses with that ominous +inscription on their doors, there was nothing left; everything was +destroyed. A little farther on I went into the remains of a large factory +equipped with elaborate machinery, but so complete was the +destruction that I could not discover what had been made there. +There was a large gas engine and extensive shafting, all hanging in +dismal chaos, and I recognized the remains of machines for making +tin boxes, in which the products of the factory had, I suppose, been +packed. A large pile of glass stoppers in one corner was fused up into +a solid mass, and I chipped a bit off as a memento. + +In the Square in front of the church of Notre Dame the German +soldiers had evidently celebrated their achievement by a revel. In the +centre were the remains of a bonfire, and all around were broken +bottles and packs of cheap cards in confusion. Think of the scene. A +blazing town around them, and every now and then the crash of +falling buildings; behind them Notre Dame in flames towering up to +heaven; the ancient Town Hall and the Guard House burning across +the Square; and in the centre a crowd of drunken soldiers round a +bonfire, playing cards. And miles away across the fields ten thousand +homeless wanderers watching the destruction of all for which they +had spent their lives in toil. + +Of the ancient church of Notre Dame only the walls remained. The +roof had fallen, all the woodwork had perished in the flames, and the +stonework was calcined by the heat. Above the arch of a door was a +little row of angels' heads carved in stone, but when we touched them +they fell to powder. The heat inside must have been terrific, for all the +features of the church had disappeared, and we were surrounded by +merely a mass of debris. In the apse a few fragments of old gold +brocade buried beneath masses of brick and mortar were all that +remained to show where the altar had been. + +The Town Hall was once a beautiful gabled building with a tall square +tower ending in four little turrets. I have a drawing of it, and it must +have formed quite a pleasing picture, the entrance reached by the +double flight of steps of which Belgium is so fond, and from which +public proclamations were read. It had been only recently restored, +and it was now to all intents and purposes a heap of smoking bricks. +The upper part of the tower had fallen into the roof, and the whole +place was burnt out. + +But no words can ever convey any idea of the utter destruction of the +whole town, or of the awful loneliness by which one was surrounded. +One felt that one was in the presence of wickedness such as the +world has rarely seen, that the powers of darkness were very near, +and that behind those blackened walls there lurked evil forms. +Twilight was coming on as we turned back to our car, and a cold mist +was slowly rising from the river. I am not superstitious, and in broad +daylight I will scoff at ghosts with anyone, but I should not care to +spend a night alone in Termonde. One could almost hear the Devil +laughing at the handiwork of his children. + + + + +VI. The Chateau + + + +One of the most astounding features of the war is the way in which +the Germans, from the highest to the lowest, have given themselves +up to loot. In all previous wars between civilized countries anything in +the nature of loot has been checked with a stern hand, and there are +cases on record when a soldier has been shot for stealing a pair of +boots. But now the Crown Prince of the German Empire sends back +to his palaces all the loot that he can collect, on innumerable +transport waggons, amid the applause of his proud father's subjects. +He is of course carrying out the new gospel of the Fatherland that +everyone has a perfect right to whatever he is strong enough to take. +But some day that doctrine may spread from the exalted and sacred +circle in which it is now the guiding star to the "cannon fodder." Some +day the common people will have learnt the lesson which is being so +sedulously taught to them both by example and by precept, and then +the day of reckoning will have come. + +Loot and destruction have always gone hand in hand. The private +soldier cannot carry loot, and it is one of the most primitive +instincts of animal nature to destroy rather than to leave that by +which others may profit. Even the pavement artist will destroy +his work rather than allow some poor wretch to sit beside his +pictures and collect an alms. And there is great joy in destroying +that which men are too coarse to appreciate, in feeling that +they have in their power that which, something tells them, +belongs to a refinement they cannot attain. That was the keynote + of the excesses of the French Revolution, for nothing +arouses the fury of the unclean so much as cleanliness, and a man +has been killed before now for daring to wash his hands. And it is this +elemental love of destroying that has raged through Belgium in the +last few months, for though destruction has been the policy of their +commanders, the German soldier has done it for love. No order could +ever comprehend the ingenious detail of much that we saw, for it bore +at every turn the marks of individuality. It is interesting to ponder on a +future Germany of which these men, or rather these wild beasts, will +be the sons. Germany has destroyed more than the cities of Belgium; +she has destroyed her own soul. + +It is not in the ruined towns or the battered cathedrals of Belgium that +one sees most clearly the wholehearted way in which the German +soldiers have carried out the commands of their lord and made his +desires their own. Louvain, Termonde, Dinant, and a hundred other +towns have been uprooted by order. If you wish to see what the +German soldier can do for love, you have to visit the chateaux which +are dotted so thickly all over the Belgian countryside. Here he has +had a free hand, and the destruction he1 wrought had no political +object and served no mere utilitarian purpose. It was the work of pure +affection, and it showed Germany at her best. One would like to have +brought one of those chateaux over to England, to be kept for all time +as an example of German culture, that our children might turn from it +in horror, and that our country might be saved from the hypocrisy and +the selfishness of which this is the fruit. + +Among our many good friends in Antwerp there were few whom we +valued more than the Baron d'O. He was always ready to undertake +any service for us, from the most difficult to the most trivial. A man of +birth and of fortune, he stood high in the service of the Belgian +Government, and he was often able to do much to facilitate our +arrangements with them. So when he asked us to take him out in one +of our cars to see the chateau of one of his greatest friends, we were +glad to be in a position to repay him in a small way for his kindness. +The chateau had been occupied by the Germans, who had now +retired--though only temporarily, alas!--and he was anxious to see +what damage had been done and to make arrangements for putting it +in order again if it should be possible. + +A perfect autumn afternoon found us tearing southwards on the road +to Boom in Mrs. W.'s powerful Minerva. We were going to a point +rather close to the German lines, and our safety might depend on a +fast car and a cool hand on the wheel. We had both, for though the +hand was a lady's, its owner had earned the reputation of being the +most dangerous and the safest driver in Antwerp, and that is no mean +achievement. We called, as was our custom, at the Croix Rouge +stations we passed, and at one of them we were told that there were +some wounded in Termonde, and that, as the Germans were +attacking it, they were in great danger. So we turned off to the right, +and jolted for the next twenty minutes over a deplorable paved road. + +The roar of artillery fire gradually grew louder and louder, and we +were soon watching an interesting little duel between the forts of +Termonde, under whose shelter we were creeping along, on the one +side, and the Germans on the other. The latter were endeavouring to +destroy one of the bridges which span the Scheldt at this point, one +for the railway and one for the road; but so far they had not +succeeded in hitting either. It was a week since our last visit to +Termonde, and it seemed even more desolate and forsaken than +before. The Germans had shelled it again, and most of the remaining +walls had been knocked down, so that the streets were blocked at +many points and the whole town was little more than a heap of bricks +and mortar. There was not a living creature to be seen, and even the +birds had gone. The only sound that broke the utter silence was the +shriek of the shells and the crash of their explosion. We were +constantly checked by piles of fallen debris, and from one street we +had to back the car out and go round by another way. At the end of a +long street of ruined houses, many bearing the inscription of some +braggart, "I did this," we found our wounded men. They were in a +monastery near the bridge at which the Germans were directing their +shells, several of which had already fallen into the building. There +had been four wounded men there, but two of them, badly hurt, were +so terrified at the bombardment that they had crawled away in the +night. The priest thought that they were probably dead. Think of the +poor wounded wretches, unable to stand, crawling away in the +darkness to find some spot where they could die in peace. Two +remained, and these we took with us on the car. The priest and the +two nuns, the sole occupants of the monastery, absolutely refused to +leave. They wished to protect the monastery from sacrilege, and in +that cause they held their lives of small account. I have often thought +of those gentle nuns and the fearless priest standing in the doorway +as our car moved away. I hope that it went well with them, and that +they did not stay at their post in vain. + +By the bridge stood a company of Belgian soldiers, on guard in case, +under cover of the fire of their artillery, the Germans might attempt to +capture it. There was very little shelter for them, and it was positively +raining shells; but they had been told to hold the bridge, and they did +so until there was no longer a bridge to hold. It was as fine a piece of +quiet heroism as I shall ever see, and it was typical of the Belgian +soldier wherever we saw him. They never made any fuss about it, +they were always quiet and self-contained, and always cheerful. But if +they were given a position to hold, they held it. And that is the secret +of the wonderful losing battle they have fought across Belgium. Some +day they will advance and not retreat, and then I think that the Belgian +Army will astonish their opponents, and perhaps their friends too. + +We were soon out of Termonde and on the open road again, to our +very great relief, and at the nearest dressing-station we handed over +our patients, who were not badly wounded, to the surgeon, who was +hard at work in a little cottage about a mile back along the road. We +drove on due east, and forty minutes later found ourselves at the +entrance of the lodge of our friend's house. It lay on the very edge of +the Belgian front, and would have been unapproachable had there +been any activity in this section of the line. Fortunately for us, the +Germans were concentrating their energies around Termonde, and +the mitrailleuse standing on the path amongst the trees at the end of +the garden seemed to have gone asleep. We turned the car in the +drive, and, in case things should happen, pointed its nose +homewards. That is always a wise precaution, for turning a car under +fire in a narrow road is one of the most trying experiences imaginable. +The coolest hand may fumble with the gears at such a moment, and it +is surprising how difficult it is to work them neatly when every second +may be a matter of life or death, when a stopped engine may settle +the fate of everyone in the car. It is foolish to take unnecessary risks, +and we left the car pointing the right way, with its engine running, +ready to start on the instant, while we went to have a look at the +house. + +It was a large country-house standing in well-timbered grounds, +evidently the home of a man of wealth and taste. The front-door stood +wide open, as if inviting us to enter, and as we passed into the large +hall I could not help glancing at our friend's face to see what he was +thinking as the obvious destruction met us on the very threshold. So +thorough was it that it was impossible to believe that it had not been +carried out under definite orders. Chairs, sofas, settees lay scattered +about in every conceivable attitude, and in every case as far as I can +recollect minus legs and backs. In a small room at the end of the hall +a table had been overturned, and on the floor and around lay broken +glass, crockery, knives and forks, mixed up in utter confusion, while +the wall was freely splashed with ink. One fact was very striking and +very suggestive: none of the pictures had been defaced, and there +were many fine oil-paintings and engravings hanging on the walls of +the reception-rooms. After the destruction of the treasures of Louvain, +it is absurd to imagine that the controlling motive could have been any +reverence for works of art. The explanation was obvious enough. The +pictures were of value, and were the loot of some superior officer. A +large cabinet had evidently been smashed with the butt-end of a +musket, but the beautiful china it contained was intact. The grand +piano stood uninjured, presumably because it afforded entertainment. +The floor was thick with playing cards. + +But it was upstairs that real chaos reigned. Every wardrobe and +receptacle had been burst open and the contents dragged out. Piles +of dresses and clothing of every kind lay heaped upon the floor, many +of them torn, as though the harsh note produced by the mere act of +tearing appealed to the passion for destruction which seemed to +animate these fighting men. In the housekeeper's room a sewing- +machine stood on the table, its needle threaded, and a strip of cloth in +position, waiting for the stitch it was destined never to receive. There +were many other things to which one cannot refer, but it would have +been better to have had one's house occupied by a crowd of wild +beasts than by these apostles of culture. + +Our friend had said very little while we walked through the deserted +rooms in this splendid country-house in which he had so often stayed. +Inside the house he could not speak, and it was not until we got out +into the sunshine that he could relieve his overwrought feelings. Deep +and bitter were the curses which he poured upon those vandals; but I +stood beside him, and I did not hear half that he said, for my eyes +were fixed on the mitrailleuse standing on the garden path under the +trees. My fingers itched to pull the lever and to scatter withering death +among them. It slowly came into my mind how good it would be to kill +these defilers. I suppose that somewhere deep down in us there +remains an elemental lust for blood, and though in the protected lives +we live it rarely sees the light, when the bonds of civilization are +broken it rises up and dominates. And who shall say that it is not right? +There are things in Belgium for which blood alone can atone. Woe +to us if when our interests are satisfied we sheath the sword, and +forget the ruined homes, the murdered children of Belgium, the +desecrated altars of the God in whose name we fight! He has placed +the sword in our hands for vengeance, and not for peace. + +I no longer wonder at the dogged courage of the Belgian soldiers, at +their steady disregard of their lives, when I think of the many such +pictures of wanton outrage which are burned into their memories, and +which can never be effaced so long as a single German remains in +their beloved land. I no longer wonder, but I do not cease to admire. +Let anyone who from the depths of an armchair at home thinks that I +have spoken too strongly, stimulate his imagination to the pitch of +visualizing the town in which he lives destroyed, his own house a +smoking heap, his wife profaned, his children murdered, and himself +ruined, for these are the things of which we know. Then, and then +only, will he be able to judge the bravery of the nation which, +preferring death to dishonour, has in all likelihood saved both France +and ourselves from sharing its terrible but glorious fate. + + + + +VII. Malines + + + +We were frequently requested by the Belgian doctors to assist them +in the various Red Cross dressing-stations around Antwerp, and it +was our custom to visit several of these stations each day to give +what assistance we could. One of the most important of the stations +was at Malines, and one of our cars called there every day. I went out +there myself on an afternoon late in September. It was a glorious day, +and after a heavy morning in the wards the fresh breeze and the +brilliant sunshine were delightful. Our road led almost straight south +through Vieux Dieu and Contich, crossing the little River Nethe at +Waelhem. The Nethe encircles Antwerp on the south and south-east, +and it was here that the Belgians, and in the end the British, made +their chief stand against the Germans. We crossed the bridge, and +passed on to Malines under the guns of Fort Waelhem, with the great +fortress of Wavre St. Catharine standing away to the left, impregnable +to anything but the huge guns of to-day. + +Malines is a large town of 60,000 inhabitants, and is the cathedral city +of the Archbishop of Belgium, the brave Cardinal Mercier. To-day it is +important as a railway centre, and for its extensive railway workshops, +but the interest of the town lies in the past. It was of importance as +early as the eighth century, and since then it has changed hands on +an amazing number of occasions. Yet it is said that few of the cities of +Europe contain so many fine old houses in such good preservation. +The cathedral church of St. Rombold dates back to the thirteenth +century, and in the fifteenth century was begun the huge tower which +can be seen for many miles around. It was intended that it should be +550 feet high--the highest in the world--and though it has reached +little more than half that height, it is a very conspicuous landmark. +The Germans evidently found it a very tempting mark, for they began +shelling it at an early stage. When we were there the tower had not +been damaged, but a large hole in the roof of the church showed +where a shell had entered. Inside everything was in chaos. Every +window was broken, and of the fine stained glass hardly a fragment +was left. A large portion of the roof was destroyed, and the floor was a +confusion of chairs and debris. The wonderful carved wooden pulpit, +with its almost life-size figures, was damaged. When the shell +entered, the preacher's notes from the previous Sunday lay on the +desk, and they were perforated by a fragment. + +The Croix Rouge was established in a large school on the south side +of the town. We drove into the large courtyard, and went in to see if +there was anything for us to do. The doctor in charge, a distinguished +oculist, was an old friend and was very cordial, but he said there was +no fighting near, and that no cases had come in. We stood talking for +a few minutes, and were just going, when one of our other cars came +in with a man very badly wounded. He was a cyclist scout, and had +been shot while crossing a field a few miles away. He had been +picked up at considerable risk by our people:--for the Germans +rarely respected a Red Cross--and brought in on the ambulance. +He was wounded in the abdomen, and his right arm was shattered. +He was in a desperate state, but the doctor begged me to do what I +could for him, and, indeed, the power of recovery of these fellows was +so remarkable that it was always worth a trial. As rapidly as possible +we got ready stimulants and hot saline solution to inject into his veins. +We had not come prepared for actual operating, and the local +equipment was meagre, but we succeeded in improvising a +transfusion apparatus out of various odds and ends. It did not take +long to get it to work, and in a few minutes he began to respond to the +hot salt and water running into his vessels. Alas it was only for a +moment. He was bleeding internally, and nothing could be done. I +went over to the priest, who had just come, and said: "C'est a vous, +monsieur." He bowed, and came forward holding in his hands the holy +oil. A few murmured words were spoken, the priest's finger traced the +sign of the Cross, a few moments of silence, and all was over. Death +is always impressive, but I shall never forget that scene. The large +schoolroom, with its improvised equipment, ourselves, a crowd of +nurses and doctors standing round, in the centre the sandalled priest +bending downwards in his brown mantle, and the dying man, his lips +moving to frame the last words he would speak on earth. It was in +silence that we stole out into the sunlight of the courtyard. + +We went on to Sempst, a small village at the extreme limit of the +Belgian lines. A little stream ran under the road beside a farm, and a +rough breastwork had been thrown across the road to defend the +bridge. German soldiers could be seen a mile down the road moving +behind the trees. It was only a small Belgian outpost, but it was a +good enough position to hold, so long as the enemy did not bring up +artillery. A machine gun was hidden beside the bridge, and would +have made short work of anyone advancing up the road. My friends +were talking to the men, whom we knew quite well; and for a moment I +was standing alone, when one of the soldiers came up and asked +about the man whom we had just left, and who had come from near +by. I told him what had happened, and for a moment he did not speak. +At last he looked up at me with tears in his eyes, and said simply: "He +was my brother, and this morning we were laughing together." I held +his hand for a moment, and then he turned away and went back to his +post. + +Our way home led past a villa where an encounter had taken place +three days before between the Belgians and an advanced detachment +of German troops, and we stopped to see the scene of the fighting. +It was a large country-house standing back in its own grounds, +and during the night a party of Germans had succeeded in concealing +themselves inside. In the morning, by a ruse, they induced a +Belgian detachment to come up the drive towards the house, never +suspecting that it was not empty. Suddenly the Germans opened fire, +and I believe that scarcely a single Belgian escaped. Next day, +however, having surrounded the villa, the Belgians opened fire upon +it with their 3-inch guns. The Germans made a bolt for it, and the +whole of them were killed. As we walked up the drive we saw on the +left-hand side a little row of graves with fresh flowers laid on them. +They were the graves of the Belgian soldiers who had been +entrapped. An officer was standing by them with bared head, and, +seeing us, he came over and walked on with us to the house, which +he was then occupying with his soldiers. It was a fine house, with +polished parquet floors and wide staircases. The dining-room was +ornamented with delicate frescoes in gilt frames. In the drawing-room +stood a new grand pianoforte, and light gilt chairs and sofas, looking +strangely out of place on the field of war. By the front-door, sticking in +the wall, was a shell which had failed to burst. I wonder if it is still +there, or if anyone has ventured to shift it. It was half inside and half +outside, and if it had exploded there would not have been much of the +entrance of the house left. Upstairs the rooms were in glorious +confusion. Apparently the Germans had opened all the drawers, and +flung their contents on the floor, with the idea, I suppose, of taking +anything they wanted. One room was plainly the nursery, for the floor +was covered with children's toys of all descriptions, all broken. It may +be very unreasonable, but that room made me more angry than all the +rest of the house. There is something so utterly wanton in trampling +on a child's toys. They may be of no value, but I have a small opinion +of a man who does not treat them with respect. They are the symbols +of an innocence that once was ours, the tokens of a contact with the +unseen world for which we in our blindness grope longingly in vain. + + + + +VIII. Lierre + + + +When, years hence, some historian looks back upon the present war, +and from the confusion of its battles tries to frame before his mind a +picture of the whole, one grim conclusion will be forced upon his +mind. He will note, perhaps, vast alterations in the map of Europe; he +will lament a loss of life such as only the hand of Heaven has dealt +before; he will point to the folly of the wealth destroyed. But beneath +all these he will hear one insistent note from which he cannot escape, +the deep keynote of the whole, the note on which the war was based, +the secret of its ghastly chords, and the foundation of its dark +conclusion. And he will write that in the year 1914 one of the great +nations of civilized Europe relapsed into barbarism. + +In the large sense a nation becomes civilized as its members +recognize the advantages of sinking their personal desires and gain +in the general good of the State. The fact that an individual can read +and write and play the piano has nothing at all to do with the degree +of his civilization, an elementary axiom of which some of our rulers +seem strangely ignorant. To be of use to the State, and to train others +to be of use to the State (and not only of use to themselves), should +be, and indeed is, the aim of every truly civilized man. Unless it be so, +his civilization is a mere veneer, ready to wear off at the first rub, and +he himself a parasite upon the civilized world. + +As time has gone on, the State has laid down certain rules by means +of which the men who formed it could serve it better, and these are +our laws which we obey not for our own good directly, but for the +good of the State. From the point of view of the plain man in the +street, it is all utterly illogical, for it would be logical to go and take +from your neighbour whatever you wished, so long as you were +strong enough to hold it. But, let us thank Heaven, no sane man is +logical, and only a Professor would dare to make the claim. It is one +of the prerogatives of his office, and should be treated with tolerance. + +And as our views of life are small and limited by our surroundings, +when States grew large they took from the shoulders of the individual +his responsibilities in the great State which the world has now +become; and the States of which the world was composed agreed +together on certain rules which should control their relations to one +another, not for the good of each, but for the good of the greater State +of which they were members. They are not so accurately laid down as +the laws of our separate States, but they are broad, general principles +for the use of statesmen and not of legalists. They are the Charter of +Civilization among the nations of the world, and the nation which +disregards them does so at her peril, and has handed in the +abnegation of her position as a civilized State. Like the laws of each +State, they are utterly illogical--at least, to those who have made up +their minds that they are strong enough to hold what they can take +from their neighbours. + +I am often told, in half-defence of what they have done, that the +Germans are conducting the war in a strictly logical manner. At first, I +must admit, I was rather taken with the idea, and, indeed, one felt +almost sorry for a noble nation sacrificing its feelings on the +uncompromising altar of Logic. For the object of war is obviously to +defeat your enemy, and it may be argued that anything which will +accelerate that result is not only justifiable, but almost humane, for it +will shorten the unavoidable horrors of war. I should like to mention a +few of the features of logical warfare, all of which have at one time or +another been adopted by our opponents, and I shall then describe as +far as I can an example which I myself saw. + +When an army wishes to pass through a country, the civil population +is in the way. To get rid of them, the best plan, and the quickest, is to +annihilate the first town of a suitable size to which the army comes. If +the town is wiped out, and men, women, and children slaughtered +indiscriminately, it will make such an impression in the rest of the +country that the whole population will clear out and there will be no +further trouble. The country will then be free for the passage of +troops, and there will be no troublesome civil population to feed or +govern. The conduct of the war will be greatly facilitated. Of course, it +will be necessary at intervals to repeat the process, but this presents +the further advantage that it advertises to other nations what they may +expect if war enters their borders. This, one of the most elementary +rules of logical warfare, has been strictly observed by Germany. The +sack of Louvain and the slaughter of its inhabitants met with an +immediate success. Wherever the German army arrived, they entered +with few exceptions empty towns. Termonde, Malines, Antwerp, had +everything swept and garnished for their reception. It would, of +course, be absurdly illogical to confine one's attack to persons +capable of defence. To kill a hundred women and children makes far +more impression than to kill a thousand men, and it is far safer, +unless, of course, it is preferred to use them as a screen to protect +your own advancing troops from the enemy's fire. + +It is a mistake to burden your transport with the enemy's wounded, or, +indeed--low be it spoken--with your own. The former should +always be killed, and the latter so far as the degree of culture of your +country will allow. It is one of the regrettable points, logically, of +Germany's warfare that she appears to pay some attention to her +wounded, but our information on this point is deficient, and it is +possible that she limits it to those who may again be useful. + +To kill the Medical Staff of the enemy is obviously most desirable. +Without them a large number of the wounded would die. If, therefore, +it is possible to kill both the doctors and the wounded together, it is a +great advantage, and of all possible objectives for artillery a hospital +is the most valuable. So complete was our confidence in the German +observance of this rule that when we heard that they were likely to +bombard Antwerp, we were strongly advised to remove our Red +Cross from the sight of prying aeroplanes, and we took the advice. +Several other hospitals were hit, but we escaped. + +There are many other rules of logical warfare, such as ignoring +treaties, engagements, and, indeed, the truth in any form. But these +are those with which I myself came in contact, and which therefore +interested me the most. There is only one unfortunate objection to +logical warfare, and that is that it is the duty of the whole civilized +world, as it values its eternal salvation, to blot out from the face of the +earth they have defiled the nation which practises it. + +I do not wish to be unfair to those with whom we are fighting, or to +arouse against them an unjust resentment. I am merely attempting to +express succinctly the doctrines which have been proclaimed +throughout Germany for years, of which this war is the logical +outcome, and in the light of which alone its incidents can be +understood. She is the home of logic, the temple where material +progress is worshipped as a god. For her there is no meaning in +those dim yearnings of the human mind, in which logic has no part, +since their foundations are hidden in depths beneath our ken, but +which alone separate us from the beasts that perish. And, above all +things, I would not be thought to include in such a sweeping +statement all those who call themselves German. There are many in +Germany who are not of this Germany, and in the end it may be for +them as much as for ourselves that we shall have fought this war. + +It is only when viewed in this setting that a scene such as that we saw +at Lierre can be understood. By itself it would stand naked, +meaningless, and merely horrible. Clothed in these thoughts, it is +pregnant with meaning, and forms a real epitome of the whole +German conception of war; for horror is their dearest ally, and that +scene has left on my mind a feeling of horror which I do not think that +time will ever eradicate. + +Lierre is an old-world town on the River Nethe, nine miles south of +Antwerp, prosperous, and thoroughly Flemish. Its 20,000 inhabitants +weave silk and brew beer, as they did when London was a village. +Without the physical advantages of Antwerp, and without the +turbulence of Ghent, Lierre has escaped their strange vicissitudes, +and for hundreds of years has enjoyed the prosperity of a quiet and +industrious town. Its church of St. Gommarius is renowned for its +magnificent proportions, its superb window tracery, and its wonderful +rood-loft--features in which it has eclipsed in glory even the great +cathedrals of Belgium, and which place it alone as a unique +achievement of the art of the fifteenth century. It is in no sense a +military town, and has no defences, though there is a fort of the same +name at no great distance from it. + +Into this town, without warning of any kind, the Germans one morning +dropped two of their largest shells. One fell near the church, but +fortunately did no harm. One fell in the Hospital of St. Elizabeth. We +heard in Antwerp that several people had been wounded, and in the +afternoon two of us went out in one of our cars to see if we could be +of any service. We found the town in the greatest excitement, and the +streets crowded with families preparing to leave, for they rightly +regarded these shells as the prelude of others. In the square was +drawn up a large body of recruits just called up--rather late in the +day, it seemed to us. We slowly made our way through the crowds, +and, turning to the right along the Malines road, we drew up in front of +the hospital on our right-hand side. The shell had fallen almost +vertically on to a large wing, and as we walked across the garden we +could see that all the windows had been broken, and that most of the +roof had been blown off. The nuns met us, and took us down into the +cellars to see the patients. It was an infirmary, and crowded together +in those cellars lay a strange medley of people. There were bedridden +old women huddled up on mattresses, almost dead with terror. +Wounded soldiers lay propped up against the walls; and women and +little children, wounded in the fighting around, lay on straw and +sacking. Apparently it is not enough to wound women and children; it +is even necessary to destroy the harbour of refuge into which they +have crept. The nuns were doing for them everything that was +possible, under conditions of indescribable difficulty. They may not be +trained nurses, but in the records of this war the names of the nuns of +Belgium ought to be written in gold. Utterly careless of their own lives, +absolutely without fear, they have cared for the sick, the wounded, +and the dying, and they have faced any hardship and any danger +rather than abandon those who turned to them for help. + +The nuns led us upstairs to the wards where the shell had burst. The +dead had been removed, but the scene that morning must have been +horrible beyond description. In the upper ward six wounded soldiers +had been killed, and in the lower two old women. As we stood in the +upper ward, it was difficult to believe that so much damage could +have been caused by a single shell. It had struck almost vertically on +the tiled roof, and, exploding in the attic, had blown in the ceiling into +the upper ward. I had not realized before the explosion of a large +shell is not absolutely instantaneous, but, in consequence of the +speed of the shell, is spread over a certain distance. Here the shell +had continued to explode as it passed down through the building, +blowing the floor of the upper ward down into the ward below. A great +oak beam, a foot square, was cut clean in two, the walls of both wards +were pitted and pierced by fragments, and the tiled floor of the lower +ward was broken up. The beds lay as they were when the dead were +taken from them, the mattresses riddled with fragments and soaked +with blood. Obviously no living thing could have survived in that awful +hail. When the shell came the soldiers were eating walnuts, and on +the bed of one lay a walnut half opened and the little penknife he was +using, and both were stained. We turned away sickened at the sight, +and retraced the passage with the nuns. As we walked along, they +pointed out to us marks we had not noticed before--red finger-marks +and splashes of blood on the pale blue distemper of the wall. All down +the passage and the staircase we could trace them, and even in the +hall below. Four men had been standing in the doorway of the upper +ward. Two were killed; the others, bleeding and blinded by the +explosion, had groped their way along that wall and down the stair. I +have seen many terrible sights, but for utter and concentrated horror I +have never seen anything to equal those finger-marks, the very sign- +manual of Death. When I think of them, I see, in the dim light of the +early autumn morning, the four men talking; I hear the wild shriek of +the shell and the deafening crash of its explosion; and then silence, +and two bleeding men groping in darkness and terror for the air. + + + + +IX. A Pause + + + +The life of a hospital at the front is a curious mixture of excitement +and dullness. One week cases will be pouring in, the operating theatre +will be working day and night, and everyone will have to do their +utmost to keep abreast of the rush; next week there will be nothing to +do, and everyone will mope about the building, and wonder why they +were ever so foolish as to embark on such a futile undertaking. For it +is all emergency work, and there is none of the dull routine of the +ordinary hospital waiting list, which we are always trying to clear off, +but which is in reality the backbone of the hospital's work. + +When we first started in Antwerp, the rush of cases was so great as to +be positively overwhelming. For more than twenty-four hours the +surgeons in the theatre were doing double work, two tables being +kept going at the same time. During that time a hundred and fifty +wounded were admitted, all of them serious cases, and the hospital +was full to overflowing. For the next ten days we were kept busy, but +then our patients began to recover, and many of them had to go away +to military convalescent hospitals. The wards began to look deserted, +and yet no more patients arrived. We began to think that it was all a +mistake that we had come, that there would be no more fighting round +Antwerp, and that we were not wanted. Indeed, we canvassed the +possibilities of work in other directions, and in the meantime we drew +up elaborate arrangements to occupy our time. There were to be +courses of lectures and demonstrations in the wards, and supplies of +books and papers were to be obtained. Alas for the vanity of human +schemes, the wounded began to pour in again, and not a lecture was +given. + +During that slack week we took the opportunity to see a certain +amount of Antwerp, and to call on many officials and the many friends +who did so much to make our work there a success and our stay a +pleasure. To one lady we can never be sufficiently grateful. She +placed at our disposal her magnificent house, a perfect palace in the +finest quarter of the city. Several of our nurses lived there, we had a +standing invitation to dinner, and, what we valued still more, there +were five bathrooms ready for our use at any hour of the day. Their +drawing-room had been converted into a ward for wounded officers, +and held about twenty beds. One of the daughters had trained as a +nurse, and under her charge it was being run in thoroughly up-to-date +style. The superb tapestries with which the walls were decorated had +been covered with linen, and but for the gilded panelling it might have +been a ward in a particularly finished hospital. I often wonder what +has happened to that house. The family had to fly to England, and +unless it was destroyed by the shells, it is occupied by the Germans. + +Calling in Antwerp on our professional brethren was very delightful for +one's mind, but not a little trying for one's body. Their ideas of +entertainment were so lavish, and it was so difficult to refuse their +generosity, that it was a decided mistake to attempt two calls in the +same afternoon. To be greeted at one house with claret of a rare +vintage, and at the next with sweet champagne, especially when it is +plain that your host will be deeply pained if a drop is left, is rather +trying to a tea-drinking Briton. They were very good to us, and we +owed a great deal to their help. Most of all we owed to Dr. Morlet, for +he had taken radiographs of all our fractures, and of many others of +our cases. We went to see him one Sunday afternoon at his beautiful +house in the Avenue Plantin. He also had partly converted his house +into a hospital for the wounded, and we saw twenty or thirty of them in +a large drawing-room. The rest of the house was given up to the most +magnificent electro-therapeutical equipment I have ever seen or +heard of. We wandered through room after room filled with superb +apparatus for X-ray examinations, X-ray treatment, diathermy, and +electrical treatment of every known kind. It was not merely that +apparatus for all these methods was there. Whole rooms full of +apparatus were given up to each subject. It was the home of a genius +and an enthusiast, who thought no sum too great if it were to advance +his science. Little did we think that ten days later we should pick its +owner up upon the road from Antwerp, a homeless wanderer, +struggling along with his wife and his family, leaving behind +everything he possessed in the world, in the hope that he might save +them from the Germans. We heard from him not long ago that they +had carried off to Germany all the wonderful machinery on which he +had spent his life. + +The very next morning, while we were still at breakfast, the wounded +began to arrive, and we never had another day in Antwerp that was +not crowded with incident. The wounded almost always came in large +batches, and the reason of this was the method of distribution +adopted by the authorities. All the injured out at the front were +collected as far as possible to one centre, where a train was waiting +to receive them. There they remained until the train was sufficiently +filled, when it brought them into the Central Station of Antwerp. At this +point was established the distributing station, with a staff of medical +officers, who arranged the destination of each man. Antwerp has a +very complete system of electric trams, scarcely a street being without +one, and of these full use was made for the transport of the wounded. +Those who could sit went in ordinary cars, but for the stretcher cases +there were cars specially fitted to take ordinary stretchers. A car was +filled up with cases for one hospital, and in most cases it could +deposit them at the door. It was an admirable method of dealing with +them, simple and expeditious, and it involved far less pain and injury +to the men than a long journey on an ambulance. In fact, we were +only allowed in exceptional circumstances to bring in wounded on our +cars, and it is obvious that it was a wise plan, for endless confusion +would have been the result if anyone could have picked up the +wounded and carried them off where they liked. Our cars were limited +for the most part to carrying the injured to the various dressing- +stations and to the train, and for these purposes they were always +welcomed. They were soon well known at the trenches, and wherever +the fighting was heaviest you might be sure to find one of them. Many +were the hairbreadth escapes of which they had to tell, for if there +were wounded they brought them out of danger, shells or no shells. +And it says as much for the coolness of the drivers as for their good +luck that no one was ever injured; for danger is halved by cool +judgment, and a bold driver will come safely through where timidity +would fail. + + + + +X. The Siege + + + +It is difficult to say exactly when the Siege of Antwerp began. For +weeks we heard the distant boom of the guns steadily drawing nearer +day by day, and all night the sky was lit up by distant flashes. But so +peculiar was the position of Antwerp that it was not till the last ten +days that our life was seriously affected, and not till the very end that +communication with our friends and the getting of supplies became +difficult. Our first real domestic tragedy was the destruction of the +waterworks on the 30th of September. They lay just behind Waelhem, +some six miles south of Antwerp, and into them the Germans poured +from the other side of Malines a stream of 28-centimetre shells, with +the result that the great reservoir burst. Until one has had to do +without a water-supply in a large city it is impossible to realize to what +a degree we are dependent upon it. In Antwerp, fortunately, a water- +supply has been regarded as somewhat of an innovation, and almost +every house, in the better class quarters at least, has its own wells +and pumps. It was, however, the end of the summer, and the wells +were low; our own pumps would give us barely enough water for +drinking purposes. The authorities did all they could, and pumped up +water from the Scheldt for a few hours each day, enabling us, with +considerable difficulty, to keep the drainage system clear. But this +water was tidal and brackish, whilst as to the number of bacteria it +contained it was better not to inquire. We boiled and drank it when we +could get nothing else, but of all the nauseous draughts I have ever +consumed, not excluding certain hospital mixtures of high repute, tea +made with really salt water is the worst. Coffee was a little better, +though not much, and upon that we chiefly relied. But I really think +that that was one of the most unpleasant of our experiences. A more +serious matter from the point of view of our work was the absence of +water in the operating theatre. We stored it as well as we could in +jugs, but in a rush that was inadequate, and we began to realize what +the difficulties were with which surgeons had to contend in South +Africa. + +We were really driven out of Antwerp at a very fortunate moment, and +I have often wondered what we should have done if we had stopped +there for another week. Such a very large proportion of the +inhabitants of Antwerp had already disappeared that there was never +any great shortage of supplies. Milk and butter were the first things to +go, and fresh vegetables followed soon after. It was always a mystery +to me that with the country in such a condition they went on for as +long as they did. The peasants must have worked their farms until +they were absolutely driven out, and indeed in our expeditions into +the country we often saw fields being ploughed and cattle being fed +when shells were falling only a few fields away. However, margarine +and condensed milk are not bad substitutes for the real articles, and +the supply of bread held out to the very end. A greater difficulty was +with our kitchen staff of Belgian women, for a good many of them took +fright and left us, and it was not at all easy to get their places filled. +As the week went on the pressure of the enemy became steadily +greater. On Tuesday, the 29th of September, the great fortress of +Wavre St. Catherine fell, blown up, it is believed, by the accidental +explosion of a shell inside the galleries. It had been seriously +battered by the big German howitzers, and it could not in any +case have held out for another day. But the results of the +explosion were terrible. Many of the wounded came to us, +and they were the worst cases we had so far seen. + +On Thursday Fort Waelhem succumbed after a magnificent +resistance. The garrison held it until it was a mere heap of ruins, and, +indeed, they had the greatest difficulty in making their way out. I think +that there is very little doubt that the Germans were using against +these forts their largest guns, the great 42-centimetre howitzers. It is +known that two of these were brought northwards past Brussels after +the fall of Maubeuge, and a fragment which was given to us was +almost conclusive. It was brought to us one morning as an offering by +a grateful patient, and it came from the neighbourhood of Fort +Waelhem. It was a mass of polished steel two feet long, a foot wide, +and three inches thick, and it weighed about fifty pounds. It was very +irregular in shape, with edges sharp as razors, without a particle of +rust upon it. It had been picked up where it fell still hot, and it was by +far the finest fragment of shell I have ever seen. Alas we had to +leave it behind, and it lies buried in a back-garden beside our +hospital. Some day it will be dug up, and will be exhibited as +conclusive evidence that the Germans did use their big guns in +shelling the town. + +The destruction produced by such a shell is almost past belief. I have +seen a large house struck by a single shell of a much smaller size +than this, and it simply crumpled up like a pack of cards. As a house it +disappeared, and all that was left was a heap of bricks and mortar. +When one considers that these guns have a range of some ten miles, +giving Mont Blanc considerable clearance on the way, and that one of +them out at Harrow could drop shells neatly into Charing Cross, some +idea of their power can be obtained. + +Every day we had visits from the enemy's aeroplanes, dropping +bombs or literature, or merely giving the range of hospitals and other +suitable objectives to the German gunners. From the roof of the +hospital one could get a magnificent view of their evolutions, and a +few kindred spirits always made a rush for a door on to the roof, the +secret of which was carefully preserved, as the accommodation was +limited. It was a very pretty sight to watch the Taube soaring +overhead, followed by the puffs of smoke from the explosion of shells +fired from the forts. The puffs would come nearer and nearer as the +gunners found the range, until one felt that the next must bring the +Taube down. Then suddenly the airman would turn his machine off in +another direction, and the shells would fall wider than ever. One's +feelings were torn between admiration for the airman's daring and an +unholy desire to see him fall. + +It was evident that Antwerp could not withstand much longer the +pressure of the enemy's guns, and we were not surprised when on +Friday we received an official notice from the British Consul-General, +Sir Cecil Herstlet, that the Government were about to leave for +Ostend, and advising all British subjects to leave by a boat which had +been provided for them on Saturday. On Saturday morning came an +order from the Belgian Army Medical Service instructing us to place +on tramcars all our wounded, and to send them to the railway station. +It appeared evident that Antwerp was to be evacuated, and we took +the order to clear out our wounded as an intimation that our services +would be no longer required. We got all our men ready for transport, +and proceeded to pack up the hospital. The tramcars arrived, and we +bade good-bye to our patients, and saw them off, some in ordinary +trams and some in specially equipped stretcher-cars. It was a dismal +scene. + +The hall of the hospital was still covered with stretchers on which lay +patients waiting their turn for the cars to take them, and the whole +hospital was in process of being dismantled, when tramcars began to +arrive back from the station with the patients we had just packed off. +They told us that the whole of Antwerp was covered with tramloads of +wounded soldiers, that there were five thousand in the square in front +of the railway station, and that two trains had been provided to take +them away! It was evident that some extraordinary blunder had been +made; and while we were in doubt as to what to do, a second order +came to us cancelling entirely the evacuation order which we and all +the other hospitals in Antwerp had received a few hours before. It was +all so perplexing that we felt that the only satisfactory plan was to go +round to the British Consul and find out what it all meant. We came +back with the great news that British Marines were coming to hold +Antwerp. That was good enough for us. In less than an hour the +hospital was in working order again, and the patients were back in +their beds, and a more jubilant set of patients I have never seen. It +was the most joyful day in the history of the hospital, and if we had +had a case of champagne, it should have been opened. As it was, we +had to be content with salt coffee. + +But there was one dreadful tragedy. Some of our patients had not +returned. In the confusion at the station one tramcar loaded with our +patients had been sent off to another hospital by mistake. And the +worst of it was that some of these were our favourite patients. There +was nothing for it but to start next morning and make a tour of the +hospitals in search of them. We were not long in finding them, for +most of them were in a large hospital close by. I do not think we shall +ever forget the reception we got when we found them. They had left +us on stretchers, but they tried to get out of bed to come away with +us, and one of them was a septic factured thigh with a hole in his leg +into which you could put your fist, and another had recently had a +serious abdominal operation. + +They seized our hands and would scarcely let us go until we had +promised that as soon as we had arranged with the authorities they +should come back to our hospital. It was managed after a little +diplomacy, and they all came back next day, and we were again a +united family. + + + + +XI. Contich + + + +Sunday, the 4th of October, dawned with an extraordinary feeling of +relief and expectancy in the air. The invincible British had arrived, +huge guns were on their way, a vast body of French and British +troops was advancing by forced marches, and would attack our +besiegers in the rear, and beyond all possibility of doubt crush them +utterly. But perhaps the most convincing proof of all was the round +head of the First Lord of the Admiralty calmly having his lunch in the +Hotel St. Antoine. Surely nothing can inspire such confidence as the +sight of an Englishman eating. It is one of the most substantial +phenomena in nature, and certainly on this occasion I found the sight +more convincing than a political speech. Obviously we were saved, +and one felt a momentary pang of pity for the misguided Germans +who had taken on such an impossible task. The sight of British troops +in the streets and of three armoured cars carrying machine guns +settled the question, and we went home to spread the good news and +to follow the noble example of the First Lord. + +In the afternoon three of us went off in one of the motors for a short +run, partly to see if we could be of any use at the front with the +wounded, and partly to see, if possible, the British troops. We took a +stretcher with us, in case there should be any wounded to bring in +from outlying posts. Everywhere we found signs of the confidence +which the British had brought. It was visible in the face of every +Belgian soldier, and even the children cheered our khaki uniforms as +we passed. Everywhere there were signs of a new activity and of a +new hope. The trenches and wire entanglements around the town, +already very extensive, were being perfected, and to our eyes they +looked impregnable. We did not then realize how useless it is to +attempt to defend a town, and, unfortunately, our ignorance was not +limited to civilians. It is a curious freak of modern war that a ploughed +field should be stronger than any citadel. But, as I say, these things +were hidden from us, and our allies gave the finishing touches to their +trenches, to the high entertainment of the Angels, as Stevenson +would have told us. If only those miles of trench and acres of barbed +wire had been placed ten miles away, and backed by British guns, the +story of Antwerp might have been a very different one. + +The road to Boom is like all the main roads of Belgium. The central +causeway was becoming worn by the constant passage of heavy +motor lorries tearing backwards and forwards at racing speed. The +sides were deep in dust, for there had been little rain. On each side +rose poplars in ordered succession, and the long, straight stretches of +the road were framed in the endless vista of their tall trunks. And in +that frame moved a picture too utterly piteous for any words to +describe--a whole country fleeing before the Huns. The huge +unwieldy carts of the Belgian farmer crept slowly along, drawn by +great Flemish horses. In front walked the men, plodding along beside +the splendid animals, with whose help they had ploughed their fields +--fields they would never see again. In the carts was piled up all that +they possessed in the world, all that they could carry of their homes +wrecked and blasted by the Vandals, a tawdry ornament or a child's +toy looking out pitifully from the heap of clothes and bedding. And +seated on the top of the heap were the woman and the children. + +But these were the well-to-do. There were other little groups who had +no cart and no horse. The father and a son would walk in front +carrying all that a man could lift on their strong backs; then came the +children, boys and girls, each with a little white bundle over their +shoulder done up in a towel or a pillowslip, tiny mites of four or five +doing all they could to save the home; and last came the mother with +a baby at her breast, trudging wearily through the dust. They came in +an endless stream, over and over again, for mile after mile, always in +the same pathetic little groups, going away, only going away. + +At last, with a sigh of relief, we reached Boom, and the end of the +lines of refugees, for the Germans themselves were not far beyond. +At the Croix Rouge we asked for instructions as to where we were +likely to be useful. Boom had been shelled in the morning, but it was +now quiet, and there was no fighting in the neighbourhood. We could +hear the roar of guns in the distance on the east, and we were told +that severe fighting was in progress in that direction. The British had +reinforced the Belgian troops in the trenches at Duffel, and the +Germans were attacking the position in force. Taking the road to the +left, we passed the great brick-fields which provide one of the chief +industries of Boom, and we drove through the poorer portion of the +town which lies amongst them. It was utterly deserted. It was in this +part of the town that the shelling had been most severe, but a large +number of the shells must have fallen harmlessly in the brickfields, as +only a house here and there was damaged. If, however, the object of +the Germans was to clear the town of inhabitants, they had certainly +succeeded, for there was not a man, woman, or child to be seen +anywhere. It is a strange and uncanny thing to drive through a +deserted town. Only a few days before we had driven the same way, +and we had to go quite slowly to avoid the crowd in the streets. This +time we crept along slowly, but for a very different reason. We +distrusted those empty houses. We never knew what might be hiding +round the next corner, but we did know that a false turning would take +us straight into the German lines. It was the only way by which we +could reach our destination, but we were beyond the main Belgian +lines, and our road was only held by a few isolated outposts. After a +mile or so we came upon a small outpost, and they told us that we +should be safe as far as Rumps, about three miles farther, where their +main outpost was placed. An occasional shell sailed over our heads +to reassure us, some from our own batteries, and some from the +enemy's. We only hoped that neither side would fire short. + +At Rumps we found the headquarters of the regiment, and several +hundred troops. At the sight of our khaki uniforms they at once raised +a cheer, and we had quite an ovation as we passed down the street. +At the Etat Majeur the Colonel himself came out to see us, and his +officers crowded round as he asked us anxiously about the British +arrivals. He pulled out his orders for the day, and told us the general +disposition of the British and Belgian troops. He told us that the road +to Duffel was too dangerous, and that we must turn northwards to +Contich, but that there might be some wounded in the Croix Rouge +station there. He and his men were typical of the Belgian Army-- +brave, simple men, defending their country as best they could, without +fuss or show. I hope they have come to no harm. If only that army had +been trained and equipped like ours, the Germans would have had a +hard struggle to get through Belgium. + +We turned away from the German lines northwards towards Contich. +Our road lay across the open country, between the farms which mean +so much of Belgium's wealth. In one field a man was ploughing with +three big horses. He was too old to fight, but he could do this much +for his country. Surely that man deserves a place in his country's Roll +of Honour. Shells were falling not four fields away, but he never even +looked up. It must take more nerve to plough a straight furrow when +the shells are falling than to aim a gun. I like to think of that man, and +I hope that he will be left to reap his harvest in peace. A little farther +on we came upon the objective of the German shells--a battery so +skilfully concealed that it was only when we were close to it that we +realized where it was. The ammunition-carts were drawn up in a long +line behind a hedge, while the guns themselves were buried in piles +of brushwood. They must have been invisible from the captive balloon +which hung over the German lines in the distance. They were not +firing when we passed, and we were not sorry, as we had no desire to +be there when the replies came. An occasional shell gives a certain +spice to the situation, but in quantity they are better avoided. + +As we approached Contich a soldier came running up and told us that +two people had just been injured by a shell, and begged us to come to +see them. He stood on the step of the car, and directed us to a little +row of cottages half a mile farther on. At the roadside was a large +hole in the ground where a shell had fallen some minutes before, and +beside it an unfortunate cow with its hind-quarters shattered. In the +garden of the first cottage a poor woman lay on her back. She was +dead, and her worn hands were already cold. As I rose from my knees +a young soldier flung himself down beside her, sobbing as though his +heart would break. She was his mother. + +Behind the cottage we found a soldier with his left leg torn to +fragments. He had lost a great deal of blood, and he was still bleeding +from a large artery, in spite of the efforts of a number of soldiers +round who were applying tourniquets without much success. The +ordinary tourniquet is probably the most inefficient instrument that the +mind of man could devise--at least, for dealing with wounds of the +thigh out in the field. It might stop haemorrhage in an infant, but for a +burly soldier it is absurd. I tried two of the most approved patterns, +and both broke in my hands. In the end I managed to stop it with a +handkerchief and a stick. I would suggest the elimination of all +tourniquets, and the substitution of the humble pocket-handkerchief. +It, at least, does not pretend to be what it is not. Between shock and +loss of blood our soldier was pretty bad, and we did not lose much +time in transferring him to our car on a stretcher. The Croix Rouge +dressing-station was more than a mile farther on, established in a +large villa in its own grounds. We carried our man in, and laid him on +a table with the object of dressing his leg properly, and of getting the +man himself into such condition as would enable him to stand the +journey back to Antwerp. + +Alas! the dressing-station was destitute of any of the most elementary +appliances for the treatment of a seriously wounded man. There was +not even a fire, and the room was icy cold. There was no hot water, +no brandy, no morphia, no splints, and only a minute quantity of +dressing material. A cupboard with some prehistoric instruments in it +was the only evidence of surgery that we could find. The Belgian +doctor in charge was doing the best he could, but what he could be +expected to do in such surroundings I do not know. He seemed +greatly relieved to hear that I was a surgeon, and he was most kind in +trying to find me everything for which I asked. From somewhere we +managed to raise some brandy and hot water, and a couple of +blankets, and with the dressings we had brought with us we made the +best of a bad job, and started for home with our patient. Antwerp was +eight miles away. It was a bitterly cold evening, and darkness was +coming on. It seemed improbable that we could get our patient home +alive, but it was perfectly certain that he would die if we left him where +he was. It seemed such a pity that a little more forethought and +common sense could not have been expended on that dressing- +station, and yet we found that with rare exceptions this was the +regular state of affairs, whether in. Belgium or France. It seems to be +impossible for our professional brethren on the Continent to imagine +any treatment apart from a completely equipped hospital. Their one +idea seems to be to get the wounded back to a base hospital, and if +they die on the way it cannot be helped. The dressing-stations are +mere offices for their redirection, where they are carefully ticketed, but +where little else is done. Of course, it is true that the combatant forces +are the first consideration, and that from their point of view the +wounded are simply in the way, and the sooner they are carried +beyond the region of the fighting the better; but if this argument were +carried to its logical conclusion, there should be no medical services +at the front at all, except what might be absolutely necessary for the +actual transport of the wounded. I am glad to say that our later +experiences showed that the British influence was beginning to make +itself felt, and that the idea of the wounded as a mere useless +encumbrance was being modified by more humanitarian considerations. +And in a long war it must be obvious to the most hardened militarist +that by the early treatment of a wound many of its more severe +consequences may be averted, and that many a man may thus +be saved for further service. In a war of exhaustion, the ultimate +result might well depend on how the wounded were treated in the field. + +The road was crowded with traffic, and it was quite dark before we +reached Antwerp. Our patient did not seem much the worse for his +journey, though that is perhaps faint praise. We soon had him in our +theatre, which was always warm and ready for cases such as this. +With energetic treatment his condition rapidly improved, and when we +left him to go to dinner we felt that our afternoon had not been entirely +wasted. + + + + +XII. The Bombardment--Night + + + +We had had plenty of notice that we might expect a bombardment. On +Saturday a boat had left with most of the English Colony. On Tuesday +morning the Germans sent in official notice that they intended to +bombard the city, and in the evening the Government and the +Legations left by boat with the remainder of our countrymen who lived +in Antwerp. We had faced the prospect and made every preparation +for it, and yet when it did come it came upon us as a surprise. It is +sometimes fortunate that our capacities for anticipation are so limited. + +It was almost midnight on Wednesday, the 7th of October, and two of +us were sitting in the office writing despatches home. The whole +building was in absolute silence, and lit only by the subdued light of +an occasional candle. In the distance we could hear the dull booming +of the guns. Suddenly above our heads sounded a soft whistle, which +was not the wind, followed by a dull thud in the distance. We looked +at one another. + +Again it came, this time a little louder. We ran up to the roof and +stood there for some moments, fascinated by the scene. From the dull +grey sky came just sufficient light to show the city laying in darkness +around us, its tall spires outlined as dim shadows against the clouds. +Not a sound arose from streets and houses around, but every few +seconds there came from the south-east a distant boom, followed by +the whistle of a shell overhead and the dull thud of its explosion. The +whole scene was eerie and uncanny in the extreme. The whistle +changed to a shriek and the dull thud to a crash close at hand, +followed by the clatter of falling bricks cutting sharply into the +stillness of the night. Plainly this was going to be a serious business, +and we must take instant measures for the safety of our patients. +At any moment a shell might enter one of the wards, and--well, +we had seen the hospital at Lierre. We ran downstairs and told +the night nurses to get the patients ready for removal, whilst +we went across to the gymnasium to arouse those of the staff +who slept there. We collected all our stretchers, and began +the methodical removal of all our patients to the basement. +In a few minutes there was a clang at the front-door bell, and our +nurses and assistants who lived outside began to arrive. Two of +the dressers had to come half a mile along the Malines road, +where the shells were falling thickest, and every few yards they +had had to shelter in doorways from the flying shrapnel. The +bombardment had begun in earnest now, and shells were fairly +pouring over our heads. We started with the top floor, helping +down those patients who could walk, and carrying the rest on +stretchers. When that was cleared we took the second, and I think we +all breathed a sigh of relief when we heard that the top floor was +empty. We were fortunate in having a basement large enough to +accommodate all our patients, and wide staircases down which the +stretchers could be carried without difficulty; but the patients were all +full-grown men, and as most of them had to be carried it was hard +work. + + +I shall never forget the scene on the great staircase, crowded with a +long train of nurses, doctors, and dressers carrying the wounded +down as gently and as carefully as if they were in a London hospital. I +saw no sign of fear in any face, only smiles and laughter. And yet +overhead was a large glass roof, and there was no one there who did +not realize that a shell might come through that roof at any moment, +and that it would not leave a single living person beneath it. It made +one proud to have English blood running in one's veins. We had 113 +wounded, and within an hour they were all in places of safety; +mattresses and blankets were brought, and they were all made as +comfortable as possible for the night. Four were grave intestinal +cases. Seven had terrible fractures of the thigh, but fortunately five of +these had been already repaired with steel plates, and their transport +was easy; in fact, I met one of them on the staircase, walking with the +support of a dresser's arm, a week after the operation! Some of the +patients must have suffered excruciating pain in being moved, but +one never heard a murmur, and if a groan could not be kept back, it +was passed over with a jest for fear we should notice it. It was a +magnificent basement, with heavy arched roofs everywhere, and +practically shell-proof. The long passages and the large kitchens +were all tiled and painted white, and as the electric light was still +running and the whole building was well warmed, it would have been +difficult to find a more cheerful and comfortable place. Coffee was +provided for everyone, and when I took a last look round the night +nurses were taking charge as if nothing had happened, and the whole +place was in the regular routine of an ordinary everyday hospital. + +Upstairs there was an improvised meal in progress in the office, and +after our two hours' hard work we were glad of it. It is really wonderful +how cheerful a thing a meal is in the middle of the night, with plenty of +hot coffee and a borrowed cake. It is one of the compensations of our +life in hospital, and even shells are powerless to disturb it. After that, +as we knew we should have a heavy day before us, we all settled +down in the safest corners we could find to get what rest we could. +The staircase leading up to the entrance hall was probably the safest +spot in the building, covered as it was by a heavy arch, and it was +soon packed with people in attitudes more or less restful. A ward with +a comfortable bed seemed to me quite safe enough, and I spent the +night with three equally hedonistic companions. At first we lay +listening to the shells as they passed overhead, sometimes with the +soft whistle of distance, and sometimes with the angry shriek of a +shell passing near. Occasionally the shriek would drop to a low howl, +the note of a steam siren as it stops, and then a deafening crash and +the clatter of falling bricks and glass would warn us that we had only +escaped by a few yards. But even listening to shells becomes +monotonous, and my eyes gradually glued together, and I fell asleep. + +When I awoke it was early morning, and daylight had just come. The +shells were still arriving, but not so fast, and mostly at a much greater +distance. But another sound came at intervals, and we had much +discussion as to what it might mean. Every three and a half minutes +exactly there came two distant booms, but louder than usual, and +then two terrific shrieks one after the other, exactly like the tearing of +a giant sheet of calico, reminding us strongly of the famous scene in +"Peter Pan." Away they went in the distance, and if we ever heard the +explosion it was a long way off. They certainly sounded like shells +fired over our heads from quite close, and at a very low elevation, and +we soon evolved the comforting theory that they were from a pair of +big British guns planted up the river, and firing over the town at the +German trenches beyond. We even saw a British gunboat lying in the +Scheldt, and unlimited reinforcements pouring up the river. Alas! it +was only a couple of big German guns shelling the harbour and the +arsenal; at least, that is the conclusion at which we have since +arrived. But for some hours those shells were a source of great +satisfaction and comfort. One can lie in bed with great contentment, I +find, when it is the other people who are being shelled. + + + + +XIII. The Bombardment--Day + + + +We were up early in the morning, and our first business was to go +round to the British Headquarters to find out what they intended to do, +and what they expected of us as a British base hospital. If they +intended to stay, and wished us to do likewise, we were quite +prepared to do so, but we did not feel equal to the responsibility of +keeping more than a hundred wounded in a position so obviously +perilous. From shrapnel they were fairly safe in the basement, but +from large shells or from incendiary bombs there is no protection. It is +not much use being in a cellar if the house is burnt down over your +head. So two of us started off in our motor to get news. + +The Headquarters were in the Hotel St. Antoine, at the corner of the +Place Verte opposite to the Cathedral, so we had to go right across +the town. We went by the Rue d'Argile and the Rue Leopold, and we +had a fair opportunity of estimating the results of the night's +bombardment. In the streets through which we passed it was really +astonishingly small. Cornices had been knocked off, and the +fragments lay in the streets; a good many windows were broken, and +in a few cases a shell had entered an attic and blown up the roof. +Plainly only small shells had been used. We did not realize that many +of the houses we passed were just beginning to get comfortably +alight, and that there was no one to put out the fires that had only +begun so far to smoulder. A few people were about, evidently on their +way out of Antwerp, but the vast bulk of the population had already +gone. It is said that the population of half a million numbered by the +evening only a few hundreds. We passed a small fox terrier lying on +the pavement dead, and somehow it has remained in my mind as a +most pathetic sight. He had evidently been killed by a piece of +shrapnel, and it seemed very unfair. But probably his people had left +him, and he was better out of it. + +We turned into the Marche aux Souliers, and drew up at the Hotel St. +Antoine, and as we stepped down from the car a shell passed close to +us with a shriek, and exploded with a terrific crash in the house +opposite across the narrow street. We dived into the door of the hotel +to escape the falling debris. So far the shells had been whistling +comfortably over our heads, but it was evident that the Germans were +aiming at the British Headquarters, and that we had put our heads +into the thick of it, for it was now positively raining shells all round +us. But we scarcely noticed them in our consternation at what we +found, for the British Staff had disappeared. We wandered through +the deserted rooms which had been so crowded a few days before, +but there was not a soul to be seen. They had gone, and left +no address. At last an elderly man appeared, whom I took to be +the proprietor, and all he could tell us was that there was no one +but himself in the building. Of all the desolate spots in the world +I think that an empty hotel is the most desolate, and when you have +very fair reason to believe that a considerable number of guns are +having a competition as to which can drop a shell into it first, it +becomes positively depressing. We got into our car and drove +down the Place de Meir to the Belgian Croix Rouge, where we +hoped to get news of our countrymen, and there we were told +that they had gone to the Belgian Etat Majeur near by. We had +a few minutes' conversation with the President of the Croix Rouge, +a very good friend of ours, tall and of striking appearance, with +a heavy grey moustache. We asked him what the Croix Rouge +would do. "Ah," he said, "we will stay to the last!" At that very +moment a shell exploded with a deafening crash just outside +in the Place de Meir. I looked at the President, and he threw +up his hands in despair and led the way out of the building. The +Belgian Red Cross had finished its work. + +At last at the Etat Majeur we found our Headquarters, and I sincerely +hope that wherever General Paris, Colonel Bridges, and Colonel +Seely go, they will always find people as pleased to see them as we +were. They very kindly told us something of the situation, and said +that, though they had every intention of holding Antwerp, they advised +us to clear out, and they placed at our disposal four motor omnibuses +for the transport of the wounded. So off we drove back to the hospital +to make arrangements for evacuating. It was a lively drive, for I +suppose that the Germans had had breakfast and had got to work +again; at any rate, shells were coming in pretty freely, and we were +happier when we could run along under the lee of the houses. +However, we got back to the hospital safely enough, and there we +held a council of war. + +It was in the office, of course--the most risky room we could have +chosen, I suppose--but somehow that did not seem to occur to +anyone. It is curious how soon one grows accustomed to shells. At +that moment a barrel-organ would have caused us far more +annoyance. We sat round the table and discussed the situation. It +was by no means straightforward. In the first place several members +of the community did not wish to leave at all; in the second, we could +not leave any of our wounded behind unattended; and in the third, it +seemed unlikely that we could get them all on to four buses. After a +long discussion we decided to go again and see General Paris, to ask +for absolute instructions as a hospital under his control, and if he told +us to go, to get sufficient transport. And then arose a scene which will +always live in my mind. We had impressed into consultation a retired +officer of distinction to whose help we owed much, and now owe far +more, and whom I shall call our Friend. Perhaps he wished to give us +confidence--I have always suspected that he had an ulterior motive +--but he concluded the discussion by saying that he felt hungry and +would have something to eat before he started, and from his +haversack he produced an enormous German sausage and a large +loaf of bread, which he offered to us all round, and he said he would +like a cup of tea! The shells could do what they liked outside, and if +one of them was rude enough to intrude, it could not be helped. We +must show them that we could pay no attention to anything so vulgar +and noisy. At any rate, the effect on us was electrical. The contrast +between the German shells and the German sausage was too much +for us, and the meeting broke up in positive confusion. Alas that +sausage, the unparalleled trophy of an incomparable moment, was +left behind on the table, and I fear the Germans got it. + +General Paris had been obliged to shift his headquarters to the +Pilotage, on the docks and at the farthest end of the city from us. He +was very considerate, and after some discussion said that we had +better leave Antwerp, and sent Colonel Farquharson with us to get six +buses. The Pilotage is at the extreme north end of the Avenue des +Arts, which extends the whole length of Antwerp, and the buses were +on the quay by the Arsenal at the extreme south end, so that we had +to drive the whole length of this, the most magnificent street of +Antwerp, and a distance of about three miles. It was an extraordinary +drive. In the whole length of that Avenue I do not think that we passed +a single individual. It was utterly deserted. All around were signs of +the bombardment--tops of houses blown off, and scattered about +the street, trees knocked down, holes in the roadway where shells +had struck. On the left stood the great Palais de Justice, with most of +its windows broken and part of the roof blown away, and just beyond +this three houses in a row blazing from cellar to chimney, the front +wall gone, and all that remained of the rooms exposed. As I said, only +small shells had been used, and the damage was nothing at all to that +which we afterwards saw at Ypres; but it gave one an impression of +dreariness and utter desolation that could scarcely be surpassed. +Think of driving from Hyde Park Corner down the Strand to the Bank, +not meeting a soul on the way, passing a few clubs in Piccadilly +burning comfortably, the Cecil a blazing furnace, and the Law Courts +lying in little bits about the street, and you will get some idea of +what it looked like. The scream of the shells and the crash when +they fell near by formed quite a suitable if somewhat Futurist +accompaniment. + +But the climax of the entertainment, the bonne bouche of the +afternoon, was reserved for the end of our drive, when we reached +the wharf by the Arsenal, where the British stores and transport were +collected. Here was a long row of motor-buses, about sixty of them, +all drawn up in line along the river. Beside them was a long row of +heavily loaded ammunition lorries, and on the other side of the road +was the Arsenal, on our left, blazing away, with a vast column of +smoke towering up to the sky. "It may blow up any minute," said +Colonel Farquharson cheerily, "I had better move that ammunition." I +have never seen an arsenal blow up, and I imagine it is a +phenomenon requiring distance to get it into proper perspective; but I +have some recollection of an arsenal blowing up in Antwerp a few +years ago and taking a considerable part of the town with it. However, +it was not our arsenal, so we waited and enjoyed the view till the +ammunition had been moved, and the Colonel had done his best to +get us the motor-buses. He could only get us four, so we had to make +the best of a bad job. But. meanwhile the Germans had evidently +determined to give us a really good show while they were about it, for +while we waited a Taube came overhead and hovered for a moment, +apparently uncertain as to whether a bomb or a shell would look +better just there. A flash of tinsel falling in the sunlight showed us that +she had made up her mind and was giving the range. But we could +not stay, and were a quarter of a mile away when we looked back and +saw the first shells falling close to where we had been two minutes +before. They had come six miles. + +The bombardment was increasing in violence, and large numbers of +incendiary shells were being used, whilst in addition the houses set +on fire during the night were now beginning to blaze. As we drove +back we passed several houses in flames, and the passage of the +narrow streets we traversed was by no means free from risk. At last +we turned into our own street, the Boulevard Leopold, and there we +met a sight which our eyes could scarcely credit. Three motor-buses +stood before our door and patients were being crowded into them. +Those buses and our own lives we owe to the kindness of Major +Gordon. Without them some at least must have remained behind. The +three were already well filled, for our friends thought that we had +certainly been killed and that they must act for themselves. We sent +them off under the escort of one of our cars, as it seemed foolish to +keep them waiting in a position of danger. On our own four we packed +all our remaining patients and all the hospital equipment we could +remove. One does not waste time when one packs under shell fire, +and at the end of three-quarters of an hour there was not a patient +and very little of value in the hospital. I took charge of the theatre as I +knew where the things went, and I think the British working man +would have been rather astonished to see how fast the big sterilizers +fell apart and the operating-tables slid into their cases. The windows +faced shellwards, and I must confess that once or twice when one of +them seemed to be coming unpleasantly near I took the opportunity to +remove my parcels outside. How the patients were got ready and +carried out and into the buses in that time is beyond my +comprehension. But somehow it was managed. I took a last look +round and drove out the last nurse who was trying to rescue some +last "hospital comfort" for a patient, and in the end I was myself driven +out by two indignant dressers who caught me trying to save the +instrument sterilizer. The buses were a wonderful sight. Inside were +some sixty patients, our share of the whole hundred and thirteen, and +on top about thirty of our staff, and the strangest collection of +equipment imaginable. The largest steam sterilizer mounted guard in +front, hoisted there by two sailormen of huge strength, who turned up +from somewhere. Great bundles of blankets, crockery, and +instruments were wedged in everywhere, with the luggage of the staff. +At the door of each bus was seated a nurse, like a conductor, to give +what little attention was possible to the patients. It was a marvellous +sight, but no cheerier crowd of medical students ever left the doors of +a hospital for a Cup-tie. + + + + +XIV. The Night Journey + + + +There was only one way out--by the bridge of boats across the +Scheldt. It was a narrow plank road, and as vehicles had to go across +in single file at some distance apart, the pressure can be imagined. +For an hour and a half we stood in the densely packed Cathedral +square watching the hands of the great clock go round and wondering +when a shell would drop among us. We had seen enough of churches +to know what an irresistible attraction they have for German artillery, +and we knew that, whatever may be the state of affairs in Scotland, +here at any rate the nearer the church the nearer was heaven. But no +shells fell near, we only heard them whistling overhead. + +The scene around us was extraordinary, and indeed these were the +remains of the entire population of Antwerp. The whole city had +emptied itself either by this road or by the road northwards into +Holland. Crowds of people of every class--the poor in their working- +clothes, the well-to-do in their Sunday best--all carrying in bundles +all they could carry away of their property, and wedged in amongst +them every kind of vehicle imaginable, from a luxurious limousine to +coster's carts and wheelbarrows. In front of us lay the Scheldt, and +pouring down towards it was on the left an endless stream of +fugitives, crossing by the ferry-boats, and on the right an interminable +train of artillery and troops, crossing by the only bridge. At last there +was a movement forwards; we crept down the slope and on to the +bridge, and slowly moved over to the other side. Perhaps we should +not have felt quite so happy about it had we known that two men had +just been caught on the point of blowing up the boats in the centre, +and that very shortly after the Germans were to get the range and +drop a shell on to the bridge. At five o'clock we were across the +bridge and on the road to Ghent. + +Of all the pitiful sights I have ever seen, that road was the most utterly +pitiful. We moved on slowly through a dense throng of fugitives-- +men, women, and little children--all with bundles over their +shoulders, in which was all that they possessed. A woman with three +babies clinging to her skirts, a small boy wheeling his grandmother in +a wheelbarrow, family after family, all moving away from the horror +that lay behind to the misery that lay in front. We had heard of +Louvain, and we had seen Termonde, and we understood. As +darkness came down we lit our lamps, and there along the roadside +sat rows of fugitives, resting before recommencing their long journey +through the night. There was one row of little children which will live +for ever in my memory, tiny mites sitting together on a bank by the +roadside. We only saw them for an instant as our lights fell on them, +and they disappeared in the darkness. Germany will have to pay for +Louvain and Termonde. It is not with man that she will have to settle +for that row of little children. + +We had a few vacant seats when we left Antwerp, but they were soon +filled by fugitives whom we picked up on the road. Strangely enough, +we picked up two of our friends in Antwerp with their families. One +was the doctor who had taken all our radiographs for us, and to whom +we owed a great deal in many ways. He had left his beautiful house, +with X-ray apparatus on which he had spent his fortune, incomparably +superior to any other that I have ever seen, and here he was trudging +along the road, with his wife, his two children, and their nurse. They +were going to St. Nicholas, on their way to Holland, and were +delighted to get a lift. Unfortunately, by some mistake, the nurse and +children left the bus at Zwyndrecht, a few miles from Antwerp, the +doctor came on to St. Nicholas, and his wife went right through with +us to Ghent. It took him three days to find the children, and when we +last heard from him he was in Holland, having lost everything he had +in the world, and after two months he had not yet found his wife. And +this is only an instance of what has happened all over Belgium. + +We reached St. Nicholas about eight o'clock, having covered thirteen +miles in three hours. It was quite dark, and as we had a long night +before us we decided to stop and get some food for ourselves and +our patients. There was not much to be had, but, considering the +stream of fugitives, it was wonderful that there was anything. We +hoped now to be able to push on faster, and to reach Ghent before +midnight, for it is only a little over twenty miles by the direct road. To +our dismay, we found that Lokeren, half-way to Ghent, was in the +hands of the Germans, and that we must make a detour, taking us +close to the Dutch border, and nearly doubling the distance. Without +a guide, and in the dark, we could never have reached our +destination; but we were fortunate enough to get a guide, and we set +out on our long drive through the night. Twenty minutes later a +German scouting party entered St. Nicholas. It was a narrow margin, +but it was sufficient. + +We were rather a downhearted party when we set out northwards +towards the Dutch frontier, for we had been told that the three buses +we had sent on in advance had gone straight on to Lokeren, and had +undoubtedly fallen into the hands of the Germans, who had made +certain of holding the road by destroying the bridge. We hoped that +they might have discovered this in time, and turned back, but we +could not wait to find out. We knew that the enemy were quite close. +At first we used our lights, but a shrapnel whistling overhead warned +us that we were seen, and for the remainder of the night we travelled +in darkness. These were minor roads, with a narrow paved causeway +in the centre, and loose sand on each side. Long avenues of trees +kept us in inky darkness, and how the drivers succeeded in keeping +on the causeway I really do not know. Every now and then one of the +buses would get into the sand; then all the men would collect, dig the +wheels clear, and by sheer brute force drag the bus back to safety. +Twice it seemed absolutely hopeless. The wheels were in the loose +sand within a foot of a deep ditch, and the least thing would have sent +the bus flying over on to its side into the field beyond; and on both +occasions, while we looked at one another in despair, a team of huge +Flemish horses appeared from nowhere in the darkness and dragged +us clear. Think of an inky night, the Germans close at hand, and +every half-hour or so a desperate struggle to shoulder a heavily +loaded London bus out of a ditch, and you may have some faint idea +of the nightmare we passed through. + +As we crept along the dark avenues, the sky behind us was lit by an +ever-increasing glare. Away to the south-east, at no great distance, a +village was blazing, but behind us was a vast column of flame and +smoke towering up to heaven. It was in the direction of Antwerp, and +at first we thought that the vandals had fired the town; but though the +sky was lit by many blazing houses, that tall pillar came from the great +oil-tanks, set on fire by the Belgians lest they should fall into German +hands. A more awful and terrifying spectacle it is hard to conceive. +The sky was lit up as if by the sunrise of the day of doom, and thirty +miles away our road was lighted by the lurid glare. Our way led +through woods, and amongst the trees we could hear the crack and +see the flash of rifle-fire. More than once the whiz of a bullet urged us +to hurry on. + +At Selsaete, only a mile from the Dutch frontier, we turned southwards +towards Ghent, and for an interminable distance we followed the bank +of a large canal. A few miles from Ghent we met Commander +Samson, of the Flying Corps, and three of his armoured cars. The +blaze of their headlights quite blinded us after the darkness in which +we had travelled, but the sight of the British uniforms and the machine +guns was a great encouragement. The road was so narrow that they +had to turn their cars into a field to let us pass. We had just come up +with a number of farm waggons, and the clumsy Flemish carts, with +their huge horses, the grey armoured cars, with their blazing +headlights, and our four red motor-buses, made a strange scene in +the darkness of the night. At last we reached Ghent utterly tired out, +though personally I had slept a sort of nightmare sleep on the top +step of a bus which boldly announced its destination as Hendon. It +was five o'clock, and day was breaking as we got our patients out of +the buses and deposited them in the various hospitals as we could +find room for them. To our unspeakable relief, we found that the rest +of our party had come through by much the same road as we had +taken ourselves, but they had reached Ghent quite early the night +before. Their earlier start had given them the advantage of clearer +roads and daylight. With good fortune little short of miraculous, we +had all come so far in safety, and we hoped that our troubles were +over. Alas, we were told that though Germans were expected to enter +Ghent that very day, and that all British wounded must be removed +from the hospitals before ten o'clock. There was nothing for it but to +collect them again, and to take them on to Ostend. One had died in +the night, and two were too ill to be moved. We left them behind in +skilled hands, and the others we re-embarked on our buses en route +for Bruges and Ostend. + +The First Act in the story of the British Field Hospital for Belgium was +drawing to an end. Our hospital, to which we had given so much +labour, was gone, and the patients, for whom we had grown to care, +were scattered. Yet there was in our hearts only a deep gratitude that +we had come unharmed, almost by a miracle, through so many +dangers, and a firm confidence that in some other place we should +find a home for our hospital, where we could again help the brave +soldiers whose cause had become so much our own. + + + + +XV. Furnes + + + +A week after we had reached London, we were off again to the +front. This time our objective was Furnes, a little town fifteen +miles east of Dunkirk, and about five miles from the fighting-line. +The line of the Belgian trenches ran in a circle, following the +course of the River Yser, the little stream which has proved +such an insuperable barrier to the German advance. Furnes +lies at the centre of the circle, and is thus an ideal position for +an advanced base, such as we intended to establish. It is easy +of access from Dunkirk by a fine main road which runs alongside +an important canal, and as Dunkirk was our port, and the only +source of our supplies, this was a great consideration. From +Furnes a number of roads lead in various directions to Ypres, +Dixmude, Nieuport, and the coast, making it a convenient +centre for an organization such as ours, requiring, as we +did, ready means of reaching the front in any direction, and +open communication with our base of supplies. + +We crossed from Dover in the Government transport, and +arrived at Dunkirk about ten o'clock on Tuesday morning. There +we met Dr. Munro's party, the famous Flying Ambulance Corps, +with whom we were to enter on our new venture. They had not +come over to England at all, but had come down the coast in +their cars, and had spent the last few days in Malo, the seaside +suburb of Dunkirk. The Belgian Government very kindly lent us +a couple of big motor-lorries in which to take out our stores, and +with our own motors we made quite a procession as we started +off from the wharf of Dunkirk on our fifteen-mile drive to Furnes. +It was late in the afternoon when we reached our new home. It +was a large school, partly occupied by the priests connected +with it, partly by officers quartered there, and one of the larger +classrooms had been used as a dressing-station by some Belgian +doctors in Furnes. For ourselves, the only accommodation +consisted of a few empty classrooms and a huge dormitory +divided into cubicles, but otherwise destitute of the necessaries +for sleep. Several hours' hard work made some change in the +scene, mattresses and blankets being hauled up to the dormitory, +where the nursing staff was accommodated, while straw laid +down in one of the classrooms made comfortable if somewhat +primitive beds for the male members. Meanwhile, in the kitchen +department miracles had been accomplished, and we all sat down +to dinner with an appetite such as one rarely feels at home, and for +which many of our patients over in England would be willing to pay +quite large sums. The large room was lit by two candles and a +melancholy lamp, there was no tablecloth, the spoons were of +pewter, with the bowls half gone, and the knives were in their +dotage. But the scales had fallen from our eyes, and we realized +what trifles these things are. Madame, the genius who presided +over our domestic affairs, and many other affairs as well, and +her assistants, had produced from somewhere food, good food, +and plenty of it; and what in the world can a hungry man want more? +Truly there are many people who require a moral operation +for cataract, that they might see how good is the world in which they live. + +Next day we proceeded to unpack our stores, and to try to +make a hospital out of these empty rooms, and then only did +we discover that an overwhelming misfortune had overtaken +us. By some extraordinary circumstance which has never been +explained, we had lost practically the whole of the surgical +instruments which we had brought out of Antwerp with such +trouble and risk. They were tied up in sheets, and my own +impression is that they were stolen. However that may be, here +we were in as ludicrous a position as it is possible for even a +hospital to occupy, for not only had we none of the ordinary +instruments, but, as if Fate meant to have a good laugh at us, +we had a whole series of rare and expensive tools. We had no +knives, and no artery forceps, and not a stitch of catgut; but we +had an oesophagoscope, and the very latest possible pattern of +cystoscope, and a marvellous set of tools for plating fractures. It +reminded one of the costume of an African savage--a silk hat, +and nothing else. Some Belgian doctors who had been working +there lent us a little case of elementary instruments, and that +was absolutely all we had. + +Scarcely had we made this terrible discovery, when an +ambulance arrived with two wounded officers, and asked if we +were ready to admit patients. We said, "No," and I almost think +that we were justified. The men in charge of the ambulance +seemed very disappointed, and said that in that case there was +nothing for it but to leave the wounded men on their stretchers +till an ambulance train should come to take them to Calais, +which they might ultimately reach in two or three days' time. +They were badly wounded, and we thought that at least we +could do better than that; so we made up a couple of beds in +one of the empty rooms, and took them in. Little did we dream +of what we were in for. An hour later another ambulance +arrived, and as we had started, we thought that we might as +well fill up the ward we had begun. That did it. The sluice-gates +were opened, and the wounded poured in. In four days we +admitted three hundred and fifty patients, all of them with +injuries of the most terrible nature. The cases we had seen at +Antwerp were nothing to these. Arms and legs were torn right +off or hanging by the merest shreds, ghastly wounds of the +head left the brain exposed. Many of the poor fellows were +taken from the ambulances dead, and of the others at least half +must have died. + +For four days and four nights the operating theatre was at work +continuously, till one sickened at the sight of blood and at the +thought of an operation. Three operating tables were in almost +continuous use, and often three major operations were going +on at the same time; and all the instruments we had were two +scalpels, six artery forceps, two dissecting forceps, and a finger- +saw. Think of doing amputations through the thigh with that +equipment! There was nothing else for it. Either the work had to +be done or the patients had to die. And there was certainly no +one else to do it. The rapid advance of the Germans had swept +away all the admirable arrangements which the Belgian Army +had made for dealing with its wounded. The splendid hospitals +of Ghent and Ostend were now in German hands, and there +had not yet been time to get new ones established. The cases +could be sent to Calais, it was true, but there the accommodation +was so far totally inadequate, and skilled surgical assistance +was not to be obtained. For the moment our hospital, with its +ludicrous equipment, was the only hope of the badly wounded. +By the mercy of Heaven, we had plenty of chloroform and +morphia, and a fair supply of dressings, and we knew by +experience that at this stage it is safer to be content with the +minimum of actual operative work, so that I think it was we, +rather than our patients, who suffered from the want of the +ordinary aids of surgery. In the wards there was a shortage, +almost as serious, of all the ordinary equipment of nursing, for +much of this had been too cumbrous to bring from Antwerp; +and though we had brought out a fair supply of ordinary +requirements, we had never dreamt of having to deal with such +a rush as this. Ward equipment cannot be got at a moment's +notice, and the bulk of it had not yet arrived. We only +possessed a dozen folding beds, in which some of the worst +cases were placed. The others had to lie on straw on the floor, +and so closely were they packed that it was only with the +greatest care that one could thread one's way across the ward. +How the nurses ever managed to look after their patients is +beyond my comprehension, but they were magnificent. They +rose to the emergency as only Englishwomen can, and there is +not one of those unfortunate men who will not remember with +gratitude their sympathy and their skill. + +During these first days a terrific fight was going on around +Dixmude and Nieuport, and it was a very doubtful question how +long it would be possible for the Belgian and French troops to +withstand the tremendous attacks to which they were being +subjected. The matter was so doubtful that we had to hold +ourselves in readiness to clear out from the hospital at two +hours' notice, whilst our wounded were taken away as fast as +we could get them into what one can only describe as a portable +condition. It was a physical impossibility for our wards to hold +more than a hundred and fifty patients, even when packed +close together side by side on the floor, and as I have said, +three hundred and fifty were dealt with in the first four days. +This meant that most of them spent only twenty-four hours +in the hospital, and as we were only sent cases which could +not, as they stood, survive the long train journey to Calais, +this meant that they were often taken on almost immediately +after serious operations. Several amputations of the thigh, +for example, were taken away next day, and many of them +must have spent the next twenty-four hours in the train, for +the trains were very tardy in reaching their destination. It is not +good treatment, but good surgery is not the primary object of +war. The fighting troops are the first consideration, and the +surgeon has to manage the best way he can. + +One of the most extraordinary cases we took in was that of the +editor of a well-known sporting journal in England. He had +shown his appreciation of the true sporting instinct by going out +to Belgium and joining the army as a mitrailleuse man. If there +is one place where one may hope for excitement, it is in an +armoured car with a mitrailleuse. The mitrailleuse men are +picked dare-devils, and their work takes them constantly into +situations which require a trained taste for their enjoyment. Our +friend the editor was out with his car, and had got out to +reconnoitre, when suddenly some Germans in hiding opened +fire. Their first shot went through both his legs, fracturing both +tibiae, and he fell down, of course absolutely incapable of +standing, just behind the armoured car. Owing to some mistake, +an officer in the car gave the order to start, and away went the +car. He would have been left to his fate, but suddenly realizing +how desperate his position was, he threw up his hand and caught +hold of one of the rear springs. Lying on his back and holding +on to the spring, he was dragged along the ground, with both +his legs broken, for a distance of about half a mile. + +The car was going at about twenty-five miles an hour, and how +he ever maintained his hold Heaven only knows. At last they +pulled up, and there they found him, practically unconscious, +his clothes torn to ribbons, his back a mass of bruises, but still +holding on. It was one of the most splendid examples of real +British grit of which I have ever heard. They brought him to the +hospital, and we fixed him up as well as we could. One would +have thought that he might have been a little downhearted, but +not a bit of it. He arrived in the operating theatre smiling and +smoking a cigar, and gave us a vivid account of his experiences. +We sent him over to England, and I heard that he was doing well. +There is one sporting paper in England which is edited by a +real sportsman. May he long live to inspire in others the courage +of which he has given such a splendid example! + + + + +XVI. Poperinghe + + + +For a long week the roar of guns had echoed incessantly in our +corridors and wards, and a continuous stream of motor-lorries, +guns, and ammunition waggons had rumbled past our doors; +whilst at night the flash of the guns lit up the horizon with an +angry glare. The flood of wounded had abated, and we were +just beginning to get the hospital into some sort of shape when +the order came to evacuate. + +It had been no easy task transforming bare rooms into +comfortable wards, arranging for supplies of food and stores, +and fitting a large staff into a cubic space totally inadequate to +hold them. But wonderful things can be accomplished when +everyone is anxious to do their share, and the most hopeless +sybarite will welcome shelter however humble, and roll himself +up in a blanket in any corner, when he is dead tired. For the first +few days the rush of wounded had been so tremendous that all +we could do was to try to keep our heads above water and not +be drowned by the flood. + +But towards the end of the week the numbers diminished, not +because there were not as many wounded, but because the +situation was so critical that the Belgian authorities did not dare +to leave any large number of wounded in Furnes. Supplies +were coming out from England in response to urgent telegrams, +and, through the kind offices of the Queen of the Belgians, we +had been able to obtain a number of beds from the town, in +addition to twenty which she had generously given to us herself. +So that we were gradually beginning to take on the appearance +of an ordinary hospital, and work was settling down into a +regular routine. The sleepy little town of Furnes had been for +some weeks in a state of feverish activity. After the evacuation +of Antwerp and the retirement of the Belgian Army from Ostend, +it had become the advanced base of the Belgian troops, and it +was very gay with Staff officers, and of course packed with +soldiers. The immense Grand Place lined with buildings, in +many cases bearing unmistakable signs of a birth in Spanish +times, was a permanent garage of gigantic dimensions, and the +streets were thronged day and night with hurrying cars. We in +the hospital hoped that the passage of the Yser would prove +too much for the Germans, and that we should be left in peace, +for we could not bear to think that all our labour could be thrown +to the winds, and that we might have to start afresh in some +other place. But one of the massed attacks which have formed +such a prominent feature of this terrible war had temporarily +rolled back the defence in the Dixmude district, and it was +deemed unwise to submit the hospital to the risk of possible +disaster. + +We were fortunate in having Dr. Munro's ambulance at our +disposal, and in rather over two hours more than a hundred +wounded had been transferred to the Red Cross train which lay +at the station waiting to take them to Calais. An evacuation is +always a sad business, for the relations between a hospital and +its patients are far more than professional. But with us it was +tragic, for we knew that for many of our patients the long +journey could have only one conclusion. Only the worst cases +were ever brought to us, in fact only those whose condition +rendered the long journey to Calais a dangerous proceeding, +and we felt that for many of them the evacuation order was a +death warrant, and that we should never see them again. They +were brave fellows, and made the best of it as they shook +hands with smiling faces and wished us "Au revoir," for though +they might die on the way they preferred that to the danger of +falling into the hands of the Germans. And they were right. They +knew as well as we did that we are not fighting against a +civilized nation, but against a gang of organized savages. + +Three hours later we were mingling with the crowds who +thronged the road, wondering with them where our heads would +rest that night, and filled with pity at the terrible tragedy which +surrounded us. Carts, wheelbarrows, perambulators, and in fact +any vehicle which could be rolled along, were piled to overflowing +with household goods. Little children and old men and women +struggled along under loads almost beyond their powers, none +of them knowing whither they went or what the curtain of fate +would reveal when next it was drawn aside. It was a blind flight +into the darkness of the unknown. + +Our orders were to make for Poperinghe, a little town lying +about fifteen miles due south of Furnes, in the direction of +Ypres. For the first ten miles we travelled along the main road to +Ypres, a fine avenue running between glorious trees, and one +of the chief thoroughfares of Belgium. Here we made our first +acquaintance with the African troops, who added a touch of +colour in their bright robes to the otherwise grey surroundings. +They were encamped in the fields by the side of the road, and +seemed to be lazily enjoying themselves seated round their +camp-fires. At Oostvleteren we parted company with the main +road and its fine surface, and for the next six miles we bumped +and jolted along on a bad cross-road till our very bones rattled +and groaned. + +There was no suggestion now of the horrors of war. Peaceful +villages as sleepy as any in our own country districts appeared +at frequent intervals, and easy prosperity was the obvious +keynote of the well-wooded and undulating countryside. We +were in one of the great hop districts, and the contrast with the +flat and unprotected country round Furnes was striking. One +might Almost have been in the sheltered hopfields of Kent. Little +children looked up from their games in astonishment as we +rolled by, and our response to their greetings was mingled with +a silent prayer that they might be spared the terrible fate which +had befallen their brothers and sisters in far-off Lou vain. The +contrasts of war are amazing. Here were the children playing by +the roadside, and the cattle slowly wending their way home, and +ten miles away we could hear the roar of the guns, and knew +that on those wasted fields men were struggling with savage +fury in one of the bloodiest battles of the war. + +In the great square of Poperinghe the scene was brilliant in the +extreme. Uniforms of every conceivable cut and colour rubbed +shoulder to shoulder; ambulance waggons, guns, ammunition +trains, and picketed horses all seemed to be mixed in inextricable +confusion; while a squadron of French cavalry in their bright +blue and silver uniforms was drawn up on one side of the +square, waiting patiently for the orders which would permit +them to go to the help of their hard-pressed comrades. It seemed +impossible that we could find shelter here, for obviously every +corner must have been filled by the throng of soldiers who +crowded in the square. But we were quite happy, for had we +not got Madame with us, and had her genius ever been known +to fail, especially in the face of the impossible? Others might +go without a roof, but not we, and others might go to bed +supperless, but in some miraculous way we knew that we should +sit down to a hot dinner. We were not deceived. The whole nursing +staff was soon comfortably housed in a girls' school, while the men +were allotted the outhouse of a convent, and there, rolled up in our +blankets and with our bags for pillows, we slept that night as soundly +as we should have done in our own comfortable beds in England. + +There was ample room in the courtyard for our heavily laden +ambulances, for we had brought all our stores with us; and a +big pump was a welcome sight, for grime had accumulated +during the preceding twelve hours. By the side of the friendly +pump, in a railed-off recess, a life-size image of Our Lady of +Lourdes, resplendent in blue and gold, looked down with a +pitying smile on a group of pilgrims, one of whom bore a little +child in her arms; whilst a well-worn stone step spoke of the +number of suppliants who had sought her aid. + +We had fasted for many hours, and while we were doing our +part in unpacking the small store of food which we had brought +with us, Madame, with her usual genius, had discovered on the +outskirts of Poperinghe an obscure cafe, where for a small sum +the proprietor allowed us to use his kitchen. There we were +presently all seated round three tables, drinking coffee such as +we had rarely tasted, and eating a curiously nondescript, but +altogether delightful, meal. There were two little rooms, one +containing a bar and a stove, the other only a table. Over the +stove presided a lady whose novels we have all read, cooking +bacon, and when I say that she writes novels as well as she +cooks bacon it is very high praise indeed--at least we thought +so at the time. Some genius had discovered a naval store in the +town, and had persuaded the officer in charge to give us +cheese and jam and a whole side of bacon, so that we fed like +the gods. There was one cloud over the scene, for the terrible +discovery was made that we had left behind in Furnes a large +box of sausages, over the fate of which it is well to draw a veil; +but Madame was not to be defeated even by that, and a wonderful +salad made of biscuits and vinegar and oil went far to console +us. And that reminds me of a curious episode in Furnes. For +several days the huge store bottle of castor oil was lost. It was +ultimately discovered in the kitchen, where, as the label was +in English, it had done duty for days as salad oil! What is +there in a name after all? + +We had not been able to bring with us all our stores, and as +some of these were wanted two of us started back to Furnes +late at night to fetch them. It was a glorious night, and one had +the advantage of a clear road. We were driving northwards, and +the sky was lit up by the flashes of the guns at Nieuport and +Dixmude, whilst we could hear their dull roar in the distance. All +along the road were encamped the Turcos, and their camp- +fires, with the dark forms huddled around them, gave a picturesque +touch to the scene. Half-way to Furnes the road was lit up +by a motor-car which had caught fire, and which stood blazing +in the middle of the road. We had some little difficulty in passing +it, but when we returned it was only a mass of twisted iron by +the roadside. There was no moon, but the stars shone out +all the more brilliantly as we spun along on the great Ypres +road. It was long after midnight when we reached the hospital, +and it was not a little uncanny groping through its wards in the +darkness. There is some influence which seems to haunt the +empty places where men once lived, but it broods in redoubled +force over the places where men have died. In those wards, +now so dark and silent, we had worked for all the past days amid +sights which human eyes should never have seen, and the +groans of suffering we had heard seemed to echo through the +darkness. We were glad when we had collected the stores +we required and were again in the car on our way back to Poperinghe. + +Next morning we called at the Hotel de Ville in Poperinghe, and +there we learnt that the Queen, with her usual thoughtfulness, +was interesting herself on our behalf to find us a building in +which we could make a fresh start. She had sent the Viscomtesse +de S. to tell us that she hoped to shortly place at our disposal +either a school or a convent. On the following day, however, +we heard that the situation had somewhat settled, and an order +came from General Mellis, the Chief of the Medical Staff, +instructing us to return to Furnes. A few hours later found +us hard at work again, putting in order our old home. + +There was one rather pathetic incident of our expedition to +Poperinghe. Five nuns who had fled from Eastern Belgium-- +they had come, I think, from a convent near Louvain--had +taken refuge in the school in Furnes in which we were established. +When we were ordered to go to Poperinghe, they begged to +be allowed to accompany us, and we took them with us in the +ambulances. On our return they were so grateful that they asked +to be allowed to show their gratitude by working for us in the +kitchen, and for all the time we were at Furnes they were our +devoted helpers. They only made one request, that if we left +Furnes we would take them with us, and we promised that we +would never desert them. + + + + +XVII. Furnes Again + + + +The position of the hospital at Furnes was very different from +that which it had held at Antwerp. There we were in a modern +city, with a water-supply and modern sanitary arrangements. +Here we were in an old Continental country town, or, in other +words, in medieval times, as far as water and sanitation were +concerned. For it is only where the English tourist has +penetrated that one can possibly expect such luxuries. One +does not usually regard him as an apostle of civilization, but he +ought certainly to be canonized as the patron saint of continental +sanitary engineering. As a matter of fact, in a country as flat as +Belgium the science must be fraught with extraordinary difficulties, +and they certainly seem to thrive very well without it. We were +established in the Episcopal College of St. Joseph, a large +boys' school, and not badly adapted to the needs of a hospital +but for the exceptions I have mentioned. Our water-supply +came, on a truly hygienic plan, from wells beneath the building, +whilst we were entirely free from any worry about drains. There +were none. However, it did not seem to affect either ourselves +or our patients, and we all had the best of health, though we took +the precaution of sterilizing our water. + +We were now the official advanced base hospital of the Belgian +Army, and not merely, as in Antwerp, a free organization +working by itself. The advantage of this arrangement was that +we had a constant supply of wounded sent to us whenever +there was any fighting going on, and that the evacuation of our +patients was greatly facilitated. Every morning at ten o'clock +Colonel Maestrio made the tour of our wards, and arranged for +the removal to the base hospital at Dunkirk of all whom we +wished to send away. It gave us the further advantage of +special privileges for our cars and ambulances, which were +allowed to go practically anywhere in search of the wounded +with absolute freedom. Formerly we had owed a great deal to +the assistance of the Belgian Croix Rouge, who had been very +good in supplementing our supply of dressings, as well as in +getting us army rations for the patients. This, of course, had all +come to an end, and we now had to rely on our own resources. + +Our personnel had undergone considerable alteration, for while +several of our original members had dropped out, we had +joined forces with Dr. Hector Munro's Ambulance Corps, and +four of their doctors had joined our medical staff. Dr. Munro and +his party had worked in connection with the hospitals of Ghent +till the German advance forced both them and ourselves to +retreat to Ostend. There we met and arranged to carry on our +work together at Furnes. The arrangement was of the greatest +possible advantage to both of us, for it gave us the service of +their splendid fleet of ambulances, and it gave them a base to +which to bring their wounded. We were thus able to get the +wounded into hospital in an unusually short space of time, and +to deal effectively with many cases which would otherwise have +been hopeless. Smooth coordination with an ambulance party +is, in fact, the first essential for the satisfactory working of an +advanced hospital. If full use is to be made of its advantages, +the wounded must be collected and brought in with the minimum +of delay, whilst it must be possible to evacuate at once all who +are fit to be moved back to the base. In both respects we were +at Furnes exceptionally well placed. + +We were established in a large straggling building of no +attraction whatever except its cubic capacity. It was fairly new, +and devoid of any of the interest of antiquity, but it presented +none of the advantages of modern architecture. In fact, it was +extremely ugly and extremely inconvenient, but it was large. +Two of the largest classrooms and the refectory were converted +into wards. At first the question of beds was a serious difficulty, +but by the kind intervention of the Queen we were able to +collect a number from houses in the town, whilst Her Majesty +herself gave us twenty first-class beds with box-spring +mattresses. Later on we got our supplies from England, and we +could then find beds for a hundred patients. Even then we were +not at the end of our capacity, for we had two empty classrooms, +the floors of which we covered with straw, on which another fifty +patients could lie in comfort until we could find better accommodation +for them. We could not, of course, have fires in these rooms, +as it would have been dangerous, but we warmed them by the +simple plan of filling them with patients and shutting all the windows and +doors. For the first few nights, as a matter of fact, we had to sleep +in these rooms on straw ourselves, and in the greatest luxury. No +one who has slept all his life in a bed would ever realize how +comfortable straw is, and for picturesqueness has it an equal? + +I went into the Straw Ward on my round one wild and stormy +night. Outside the wind was raging and the rain fell in torrents, +and it was so dark that one had to feel for the door. Inside a +dozen men lay covered up with blankets on a thick bed of +straw, most of them fast asleep, while beside one knelt a nurse +with a stable lantern, holding a cup to his lips. It was a picture +that an artist might have come far to see--the wounded soldiers +in their heavy coats, covered by the brown blankets; the nurse +in her blue uniform and her white cap, the stable lantern throwing +flickering shadows on the walls. It was something more than +art, and as I glanced up at the crucifix hanging on the wall +I felt that the picture was complete. + +Above the two larger wards was a huge dormitory, divided up +by wooden partitions into some sixty cubicles, which provided +sleeping accommodation for the bulk of our staff. They were +arranged in four ranks, with passages between and washing +arrangements in the passages, and the cubicles themselves +were large and comfortable. It was really quite well planned, +and was most useful to us, though ventilation had evidently not +appealed to its architect. Two rows were reserved for the +nurses, and in the others slept our chauffeurs and stretcher-bearers, +with a few of the priests. Our friends were at first much shocked +at the idea of this mixed crowd, but as a matter of fact it worked +very well, and there was very little to grumble at. The only real +disadvantage was the noise made by early risers in the morning, +convincing us more than ever of the essential selfishness of +the early bird. A few of us occupied separate rooms over in +the wing which the priests had for the most part reserved for +themselves, and these we used in the daytime as our offices. + +But the real sights of our establishment were our kitchen and +our chef; we might almost have been an Oxford college. Maurice +had come to us in quite a romantic way. One night we took in a soldier +with a bullet wound of the throat. For some days he was pretty +bad, but he won all our hearts by his cheerfulness and pluck. +When at last he improved sufficiently to be able to speak, he +told us that he was the assistant chef at the Hotel Metropole +in Brussels. We decided that he ought to be kept in a warm, +moist atmosphere for a long time, and he was installed in the +kitchen. He was a genius at making miracles out of nothing, +and his soups made out of bacon rind and old bones, followed +by entrees constructed from bully beef, were a dream. He was +assisted by the nuns from Louvain who had accompanied us +to Poperinghe, and who now worked for us on the sole condition +that we should not desert them. They were very picturesque +working in the kitchen in their black cloaks and coifs. At meal-times +the scene was a most animated one, for, as we had no one +to wait on us, we all came in one after the other, plate in hand, +while Maurice stood with his ladle and presided over the +ceremonies, with a cheery word for everyone, assisted by the silent nuns. + +The getting of supplies became at times a very serious +question. Needless to say, Furnes was destitute of anything to +eat, drink, burn, or wear, and Dunkirk was soon in a similar +case. We had to get most of our provisions over from England, +and our milk came every morning on the Government transport, +from Aylesbury. For some weeks we were very hard up, but the +officer in charge of the naval stores at Dunkirk was very good to +us, and supplied us with bully beef, condensed milk, cheese, +soap, and many other luxuries till we could get further supplies +from home. We used a considerable quantity of coal, and on +one occasion we were faced by the prospect of an early famine, +for Furnes and Dunkirk were empty. But nothing was ever too +great a strain for the resources of our housekeeper. She +discovered that there was a coal-heap at Ramscapelle, five +miles away, and in a few hours an order had been obtained +from the Juge d'Instruction empowering us to take the coal if we +could get it, and the loan of a Government lorry had been +coaxed out of the War Lords. The only difficulty was that for the +moment the Germans were shelling the place, and it was too +dangerous to go near even for coal; so the expedition had to be +postponed until they desisted. It seemed to me the most +original method of filling one's coal-cellar of which I had ever +heard. And it was typical of a large number of our arrangements. +There is something of the Oriental about the Belgians and the +French. If we wanted any special favour, the very last thing we +thought of doing was to go and ask for it. It was not that they +were not willing to give us what we asked for, but they did +not understand that method of approach. What we did was +to go to breakfast with the Juge, or to lunch with the Minister, +or to invite the Colonel to dinner. In the course of conversation +the subject would be brought up in some indirect way till the +interest of the great man had been gained; then everything +was easy. And surely there is something very attractive about +a system where everything is done as an act of friendship, and +not as the soulless reflex of some official machine. It is easier +to drink red wine than to eat red tape, and not nearly so wearing +to one's digestion. + +As we were fifteen miles from Dunkirk, and as everything had to +be brought out from there, transport was a serious problem. +Every morning one of our lorries started for our seaport soon +after nine, carrying the hospital mailbag and as many messages +as a village carrier. The life of the driver was far more exciting +than his occupation would suggest, and it was always a moot +point whether or not he would succeed in getting back the +same night. The road was of the usual Belgian type, with a +paved causeway in the middle just capable of allowing two +motors to pass, and on each side was a morass, flanked on +the right by a canal and on the left by a field. The slightest +deviation from the greasy cobbles landed the car in the mud, +with quite a chance of a plunge into the canal. A constant +stream of heavy army lorries tore along the road at thirty or +more miles an hour, and as a rule absolutely refused to give +way. It took a steady nerve to face them, encouraged as one +was by numbers of derelicts in the field on the one side and half +in the canal on the other. On one bridge a car hung for some +days between heaven and earth, its front wheels caught over +the parapet, and the car hanging from them over the canal--a +heartening sight for a nervous driver. It was rarely that our lorry +returned without some tale of adventure. The daily round, the +common task, gave quite enough occupation to one member of +the community. + + + + +XVIII. Work At Furnes + + + +Our work at Furnes differed in many ways from that at Antwerp. +All its conditions were rougher, and, as we had to deal with a +number of patients out of all proportion to our size, it was +impossible to keep any but a few special cases for any length of +time. We admitted none but the most serious cases, such as +would be instantly admitted to any London hospital, and when I +mention that in five weeks we had just a thousand cases in our +hundred beds, the pressure at which the work was carried on +will be realized. There is no hospital in England, with ten times +the number of beds, that has ever admitted to its wards +anything like this number of serious surgical cases. We were +essentially a clearing hospital, with this important proviso, that +we could, when it was required, carry out at once the heaviest +operative work, and retain special cases as long as we thought +fit. Our object was always to get each patient into such a +condition that he could be transferred back to the base without +injury to his chances of recovery, and without undue pain, and I +believe we saved the life of many a patient by giving him a +night's rest in the Straw Ward, and sending him on next day +with his wound properly dressed and supported. The cases +themselves were of a far more severe type than those we had +at Antwerp. There, indeed, I was astonished at the small +amount of injury that had in many cases resulted from both +shrapnel and bullet wounds, and it was certainly worthy of note +that we had never once in our work there had to perform an +amputation. At Furnes, we drew our patients from the line +between Nieuport and Dixmude, where the fighting was for the +most part at close range and of a most murderous nature. +There were no forts, and the soldiers had little or no protection +from the hail of high-explosive shells which the enemy poured +upon them. In Nieuport and Dixmude themselves the fighting +was frequently from house to house, the most deadly form of +fighting known. The wounds we had to treat were correspondingly +severe--limbs sometimes almost completely torn off, terrible +wounds of the skull, and bullet wounds where large masses of +the tissues had been completely torn away. It was difficult to +see how human beings could survive such awful injuries, and, +indeed, our death-roll was a long one. Added to this, the men +had been working in the wet and the mud for weeks past. Their +clothes were stiff with it, and such a thing as a clean wound was +not to be thought of. Simple cases at Antwerp were here tedious +and dangerous, and they required all the resources of nursing +and of surgery that we could bring to bear upon them. Still, +it was extraordinary what good results followed on common-sense +lines of treatment, and we soon learnt to give up no case as +hopeless. But each involved a great amount of work, first in +operating and trying to reduce chaos to reason, and then in +dressing and nursing. For everyone all round--surgeons, +dressers, and nurses--it was real hard physical labour. + +Our rapid turnover of patients involved a large amount of +manual labour in stretcher work, clearing up wards, and so on, +but all this was done for us by our brancardiers, or stretcher-bearers. +These were Belgians who for one reason or another could not +serve with the army, and who were therefore utilized by the +Government for purposes such as these. We had some eight +of them attached to our hospital, and they were of the greatest +use to us, acting as hospital orderlies. They were mostly +educated men--schoolmasters and University teachers--but +they were quite ready to do any work we might require at +any hour of the day or night. They carried the patients to the +theatre and to the wards, they cleaned the stretchers--a very +difficult and unpleasant job--they tidied up the wards and scrubbed +the floors, and they carried away all the soiled dressings and +burned them. They were a fine set of men, and I do not know +what we should have done without them. + +Work began at an early hour, for every case in the hospital +required dressing, and, as we never knew what we should have +to deal with at night, we always tried to get through the routine +before lunch. At ten o'clock Colonel Maestrio arrived, with two of +his medical officers, and made a complete round of the hospital +with the surgeons in charge of the various cases. They took the +greatest interest in the patients, and in our attempts to cure +them. They would constantly spend an hour with me in the +operating theatre, and after any exceptional operation they +would follow the progress of the patient with the keenest +interest. Many of the cases with which we had to deal required +a certain amount of ingenuity in the reconstruction of what had +been destroyed, so that surgery had often to be on rather +original lines. What interested them most was the fixation of +fractures by means of steel plates, which we adopted in all our +serious cases. Apparently the method is very little used abroad, +and as an operation it is distinctly spectacular, for in a few +minutes a shapeless mass which the patient cannot bear to be +touched is transformed into a limb almost as strong as the +other, which can be moved about in any direction without fear of +breaking, and, when the patient recovers consciousness, +almost without discomfort. We almost always had an interested +audience, professional, clerical, or lay, for the chauffeurs found +much amusement in these feats of engineering. + +In the afternoon we almost always had some distinguished +visitor to entertain, and it is one of my chief regrets that we +never kept a visitors' book. Its pages would one day have been +of the greatest interest. Twice every week the Queen of the +Belgians came round our wards. She came quite simply, with +one of her ladies and one of the Belgian medical officers, and +no one could possibly have taken a deeper interest in the +patients. Her father studied medicine as a hobby, and had, +indeed, become a very distinguished physician, and she herself +has had considerable training in medicine, so that her interest +was a great deal more than that of an ordinary lay visitor. She +was quite able to criticize and to appreciate details of nursing +and of treatment. She always spoke to every patient, and she +had a kind word for every one of them, Belgian, French, or even +German, for we had a few Germans. There was something deeply +touching in the scene. The dimly lit ward, with its crude furniture, +the slim figure in black, bending in compassion over the rough +fellows who would gladly have given their lives for her, and +who now lay wounded in the cause in which she herself had +suffered. The Germans may destroy Belgium, but they will never +destroy the kingdom of its Queen. Sometimes the King came +to see his soldiers--a tall, silent man, with the face of one who +has suffered much, and as simple, as gentle, and as kindly as +his Queen. It was good to see the faces light up as he entered +a ward, to see heads painfully raised to gaze after no splendid +uniform, but a man. + +One of our most distinguished and most welcome visitors was +Madame Curie, the discoverer of radium. She brought her large +X-ray equipment to Furnes for work amongst the wounded, and +we persuaded her to stay with us for a week. One of our +storerooms was rapidly fitted up as an impromptu radiographic +department, the windows painted over and covered with thick +paper, a stove introduced, and a dark-room contrived with the +aid of a cupboard and two curtains. Electric current was +obtained from a dynamo bolted on to the step of a twenty-horse-power +car, and driven by a belt from the flywheel of the engine. The +car stood out in the courtyard and snorted away, whilst we +worked in the storeroom alongside. The coil and mercury +break were combined in one piece, and the whole apparatus +was skilfully contrived with a view to portability. Madame Curie +was an indefatigable worker, and in a very short time had taken +radiographs of all the cases which we could place at her +disposal, and, indeed, we ransacked all the hospitals in Furnes, +for when they heard of her arrival, they were only too glad to +make use of the opportunity. Mademoiselle Curie developed +the plates, and between them they produced photographs of +the greatest utility to us. + +Considering its obvious utility, whether in war or in civil practice, +it has always been a source of wonder to me that there is no +such thing as a car designed and built with a view to radiography. +Perhaps it exists, but if so, I have never met It only means the +building into the frame of suitable dynamo, and the provision of +means for storing the rest of the equipment. It would place an +X-ray equipment at the disposal of ever cottage hospital, or +even of a country-house, and it would place the cottage hospital, +not to mention the country-house, at the disposal of the +enterprising radiographer. + +As soon as our patients could be moved, we had to send them +on to their base hospitals--the Belgians to Calais and the +French to Dunkirk. + +From Calais the Belgians were brought over the Channel, and +distributed all over England and Scotland. I had a postcard from +one of them from Perth. The French were taken on in hospital +ships to Cherbourg and other seaports along the coast. From +Furnes they were all carried in hospital trains, and the scene at +the station when a large batch of wounded was going off was +most interesting. Only the worst cases were ever brought to our +hospital; all the others were taken straight to the station, and +waited there until a train was ready to take them on. Often they +would be there for twelve hours, or even twenty-four, before +they could be got on, and the train itself would be constantly +shunted to let troops and ammunition go by, and might take +twelve hours to reach its destination. There were no proper +arrangements for the feeding of these men, all of whom were +more or less badly wounded; and at first, when we heard at the +hospital that a train was about to be made up, we took down all +the soup and coffee we could manage to spare in big pails and +jugs. But this was a mere makeshift, and was superseded very +soon by a more up-to-date arrangement. A proper soup-kitchen +was established at the station, with huge boilers full of soup and +coffee always ready, and after that it was never necessary for a +wounded soldier to leave Furnes hungry. All this was due to the +energy and resource of Miss Macnaughtan, the authoress, who +took it up as her special charge. She had a little passage +screened off, and in this were fitted up boilers for coffee and +soup, tables for cutting up meat and vegetables, and even a +machine for cutting up the bread. It was all most beautifully +arranged, and here she worked all day long, preparing for the +inevitable crowd of wounded which the night would bring. How it +was all managed was a mystery to me, for there was not enough +food in Furnes to feed a tame cat, let alone a trainload of famished +soldiers, and I am looking anxiously for her next book in the +hopes of finding the solution. + +The trains themselves were well equipped, though nothing to +the hospital trains of England. The more severe cases were +carried in long cars on a double row of stretchers, and they +looked very comfortable on a cold night, with their oil-lamps and +a coke stove in the centre of each car. A stretcher is, perhaps, +not exactly a bed of roses for a wounded man, but when one +considers what pain is involved in moving a man who is badly +wounded, there is obviously a great advantage in placing him +on a stretcher once for all on the battle-field, and never moving +him again until he can be actually placed in bed in a hospital. +On the train the men were looked after by the priests, splendid +fellows who never seemed tired of doing all they could for the +soldiers. One found the Belgian priest everywhere--in the +trenches, in the hospitals, and in the trains--unobtrusive, +always cheerful, always ready to help. From the brave Archbishop +Mercier to the humblest village cure, regardless of their comfort +and careless of their lives, they have stood by their people in +the hour of their trial. May their honour be great in the hour of +Belgium's triumph! + + + + +XIX. Furnes--The Town + + + +Like so many of the cities of Belgium, Furnes is a town of the +past. To stand in the great square, surrounded by buildings +which would delight the heart of any artist, is to travel back +through three centuries of time. Spain and the Renaissance +surround us, and we look instinctively towards the Pavilion for +the soldiers of Philip, or glance with apprehension at the door of +the Palais de Justice for the sinister form of Peter Titelmann the +Inquisitor. Around this very square marched the procession of +the Holy Office, in all the insolent blasphemy of its power, and +on these very stones were kindled the flames that were to +destroy its victims. But all these have gone; the priest and his +victim, the swaggering bravo and the King he served, have +gone to their account, and Furnes is left, the record of a time +when men built temples like angels and worshipped in them like +devils. + +The immense square, with the beautiful public buildings which +surround it, speaks of a time when Fumes was an important +town. As early as the year 850 it is said that Baldwin of the Iron +Arm, the first of the great Counts of Flanders, had established a +fortress here to withstand the invasion of the Normans. After +that Furnes appears repeatedly with varying fortunes in the +turbulent history of the Middle Ages, until in the thirteenth +century it was razed to the ground by Robert of Artois. In the +next three hundred years, however, it must have entirely +recovered its position, for in the days of the Spanish Fury it was +one of the headquarters of the Inquisition and of the Spanish +Army, and there is no town in Belgium upon which the Spanish +occupation has left a greater mark. Since then, of no commercial +or political importance, it has lived the life of a dull country town, +and tradition says that there is plenty of solid wealth stored by +its thrifty inhabitants behind the plain house-fronts which line +its quiet streets. + +From the centre of the square one can see all that there is to be +seen of Furnes. The four sides are lined by beautiful old houses +whose decorated fronts and elaborate gables tell of the +Renaissance and of Spanish days. Behind the low red roofs +tower the churches of St. Walburga and St. Nicholas, dwarfing +the houses which nestle at their base. In the corners of the +square are public buildings, small when compared with those of +Bruges and Ypres, but unsurpassed in exquisite detail of +design. Behind one corner rises the tall belfry without which no +Flemish town would be complete. On an autumn evening when +the sun is setting, when the red roofs glow with a deeper +crimson, and the tall churches catch the sun's last rays on their +old brick walls, there can be few more perfect pictures than the +square of Furnes. + +The two oldest buildings in the square stand at the ends of the +eastern side. At the north end is the Pavilion des Officiers +espagnols, once the Town Hall, and, in the days of the Spanish +occupation, the headquarters of the army for the district. It is an +old Flemish building, solidly built, with high-pitched roof, and +windows framed in ornamental stonework, ending in a big +square tower with battlements and little turrets at its corners. A +short outside staircase leads up to the entrance. The whole +building gives the impression that in the days when it was built +the Town Hall was also the Fortress, and that the mayor had +duties more strenuous than the eating of dinners. At the other +end of the eastern side stands the old Halle aux Vins, where the +night-watchmen had their quarters, a fine old gabled house with +a loggia reached by a flight of steps in the centre, a row of plain +stone columns supporting the floors above. + +Directly opposite is the north-west corner of the square, with the +Palais de Justice on the right and the Hotel de Ville on the left. +Both date from the Spanish occupation, but they are very +different in their style of architecture. The first is classical and +severe, the second has all the warmth of the Renaissance. The +Hotel de Ville is an elaborately decorated building, with two +exquisite gables and a steep roof surmounted by a little +octagonal tower. The loggia below, standing out from the +building and supporting a balcony above, is perhaps its most +charming feature, both for the beauty of its proportions and the +delicacy of its carved stone balustrades. Inside, the rooms are +as they were three hundred years ago, and the wonderful +hangings of Cordova leather in the council chamber are still +intact. Beside the Hotel de Ville the straight lines of the Palais +de Justice, with its pillars and its high narrow windows, form a +striking contrast. It was here, in the large room on the first floor, +that the Inquisition held its awful court, and here were the +instruments of torture with which it sought to enforce its will. +Behind the Palais rises the tall belfry, a big square tower from +which springs an octagonal turret carrying an elaborate +campanile. There is a quaint survival on this belfry, for upon it +the town crier has a little hut. He is a cobbler, and from below +one can hear the tap-tap of his hammer as he plies his trade. +But at night he calls out the hours to the town below, together +with any information of interest, concluding with the assurance +that he and his wife are in good health. The office has +descended from father to son from the earliest days of the +history of Furnes, and its holder has always been a cobbler. Till +early in last November the record was unbroken, but, alas the +fear of German shells was too much for the cobbler, and he is +gone. + +Furnes is a town of contrasts, and though both its churches +were built by the wonderful architects of the fourteenth century, +there could hardly be two buildings more diverse. Behind the +line of red roofs on the east of the square rises the rugged +tower of St. Nicholas, a great square mass of old and weather- +beaten brick, unfinished like so many of the Belgian towers, but +rough, massive, and grand, like some rude giant. On the north, +behind the Palais de Justice and the belfry, stands St. +Walburga, with the delicate tracery of her flying buttresses and +her spire fine as a needle. There is something fitting in the +rugged simplicity which commemorates the grand old Bishop, +and in the exquisite fragility of the shrine of the virgin saint. The +double flying buttresses of St. Walburga, intersecting in mid-air, +and apparently defying the laws of gravity, are as delicate a +dream as the mind of architect could conceive, and they give to +the whole an airy grace which cannot be described. The church +was planned six hundred years ago on a gigantic scale, in the +days when men built for the worship of God and not for the +accommodation of an audience, and for six hundred years the +choir stood alone as a challenge to future generations to +complete what had been so gloriously begun. Only seven years +ago the transept was added, and to the credit of its builders it is +worthy to stand beside the choir. One wonders how many hundred +years may have passed before the vision of the first great architect +is complete. It is built for the most part of red brick, the rich +red brick of Belgium, which grows only more mellow with age. +Inside, the tall pillars of a dark grey stone support at a great +height a finely groined roof of the same red brick, lit by a +clerestory so open that one wonders how it can carry the weight +of the roof above. The tall windows of the transept, reaching +almost from the floor to the roof, with their delicate tracery, +carry on the same effect of airiness, while their light is softened +by the really beautiful stained glass which they frame. The richly +carved choir-stalls of dark mahogany and the fine organ furnish +an interior of which any town in England might well be proud. +And all this magnificence is in a little Flemish town of some +six thousand inhabitants. + +One is brought suddenly face to face with the tremendous +difference which exists between the Protestant and the Catholic +conception of what a church is and what it is for. To the one it is +a place where men meet for mutual support and instruction, for +united worship; to the other it is a place where men meet God. +To the one some organized service is necessary; the other only +requires the stones on which to kneel. The one will only go to +church--in fact, he will only find his church open at certain +appointed times; for the other it is only closed with darkness. Of +course, I am using the words Protestant and Catholic to indicate +broad conceptions of religion, and not as defining definite +bodies of men; but even of those who call themselves by these +names what I have said is largely true. And this difference in +conception is reflected in the churches which they build. For the +one a simple building will suffice which will seat in comfort those +who may come; the other, though he alone should ever enter it, +will raise to heaven the mightiest temple which mortal hands +can frame. + +Fumes still carries on a tradition of medieval times--the +strange procession which passes through its streets and across +the great square on the last Sunday in July. Its origin, in the +twelfth century, is unknown, though many legends are woven +around it. It is a long procession, in which are represented +many of the episodes in the story of the Christ, some in +sculptured groups of figures, some by living actors. Before each +group walks a penitent, barefoot and heavily veiled in black +gown and hood, carrying an inscription to explain the group +which follows. Abraham appears with Isaac, Moses with the +serpent, Joseph and Mary, the Magi, and the flight into Egypt. +Then come incidents from the life of Jesus, and the great +tragedy of its close. The Host and its attendant priests conclude +the procession. It is all very primitive and bizarre, but behind it +there is a note of reality by which one cannot but be moved. For +the figures concealed beneath the black hoods and dragging +along the heavy wooden crosses are not actors; they are men +and women who have come, many of them, long distances to +Furnes, in the hope that by this penance they may obtain the +forgiveness they desire. + + + + +XX. A Journey + + + +The hospital had already been established in Furnes for ten +days, and even in that time we had once had to escape to +Poperinghe before the German advance, when, after a short +visit to England, I left London to rejoin my friends on the last +Friday in October. Crossing to the Continent is not at any time +pleasant, and the addition of submarines and mines scarcely +adds to its charms. But Government had certainly done their +best to make it attractive, for when we arrived at Dover on +Friday night we found a comfortable boat waiting to take us +over in the morning. We spent the night soundly asleep in her +cabins, without the anxiety of feeling that we might miss her if +we did not get up in time, and after an excellent breakfast we +felt ready for anything. We were late in starting, for the Anglo- +Belgian Ambulance Corps was going over, and their ambulances +had to be got on board. We watched them being neatly picked +up in the slings and planted side by side on deck. At half-past +eight they were all on board, and we started off. + +There was a moderate sea running, but our three screws made +light work of it, and in an hour we were half-way over to our +destination, Dunkirk. We were sitting in our cabin talking when +suddenly the engines stopped, and there was considerable +commotion on deck. We looked out to see what was the matter, +and there met our eyes a sight which we are likely to remember +--a huge man-of-war sinking. She was down by the stern, so +far that every now and then the waves broke over her, and it +was evident that she would soon go under. A submarine had +attacked her an hour before, and struck her with two torpedoes. +The first destroyed her screws, and she was then an easy prey; +the second entered her saloon in the stern. She was the +Hermes, an old vessel, and of no great value at the present +day, but it was tragic to see a great cruiser expiring, stabbed in +the dark. Thanks to her buoyancy, she was only sinking slowly, +and there was ample time for the whole of her crew to escape. +Very different would be the fate of an unarmed vessel, for the +explosion of a torpedo would probably blow such a large hole in +the thin steel plates that she would go to the bottom like a +stone. To torpedo a merchantman simply means the cold-blooded +murder of the crew, for their chances of escape would be almost +negligible, whilst it is impossible to find words to describe the +attempts which have been made to sink hospital ships. About +the last there is a degree of callous inhumanity remarkable even +for Germany, for how could doctors and nurses make any efforts +to save their own lives when it would be impossible for them to +do anything to all at save the lives of their patients? And yet +these things are not the unconsidered acts of a moment; they +are all part of the .campaign of frightfulness which has been +so carefully planned for years, the consummation of the +doctrines which learned professors have proclaimed for so +long and with such astonishing success. + +The order was given for our boats to be lowered, and down they +went all six of them, manned partly by the crew and partly by +the Ambulance Corps. We were surrounded by torpedo-boats, +British and French, and most of the crew of the Hermes had +already been transferred to them. A few minutes later there was +a cheer, and we saw the Captain step down into one of the +boats, the last man to leave his ship. Our boats had picked up +twenty or so of the men, and the problem now was to get them +on board again. A moderate sea was running, but it required all +the skill of our sailors to haul them up without mishap. Standing +by as we were, the ship rolled considerably, and several times +one of the boats was within an ace of being broken up against +her side. To get a boat out from a big liner in a heavy sea must +be an almost miraculous feat, whilst to get her back again must +be a sheer impossibility. As it was, it took us at least an hour to +get those six boats on board. All this time four torpedo-boats +were racing in circles round and round us, on the lookout for the +submarine, and ready to cut it down if it should appear. Indeed, +a report went round that a torpedo was actually fired at us, but +passed underneath the ship on account of her shallow draught. +Standing at rest, we would have been an easy target, and but +for our friends the torpedo-boats we should very likely have +been attacked. It is not a good plan to hang about in the +Channel just now. + +Meanwhile the Hermes was steadily sinking. By the time all her +crew were off her stern was awash, and in another half-hour +she had a very marked list to port. She slowly, almost imperceptibly, +listed more and more, and then the end came with startling +suddenness. With a slow and gentle roll she heeled over till +she was completely on her side and her great funnels under +water; she remained there for a moment, and then slowly turned +turtle and gradually sank stern first. For a long time about +twenty feet of her nose remained above water, then this slowly +sank and disappeared. It was all so quiet that it seemed like +some queer dream. The fires must have been drawn with great +promptness, for there was no explosion as her funnels went +under, though we were standing some way off to be clear of +flying fragments. She had been stabbed in the dark, and she +passed away without a murmur. + +There is something very moving in the end of a great vessel. It +is so hard to believe that a thing of such vast bulk, and with +organs of such terrific power, should be so utterly helpless +because of a mere hole in her side. It is like watching the death +of a god. We make such a turmoil about the end of our puny +lives, and that great giant slides away into darkness without a +murmur. Ah, but you will say, a man is of far more value than a +ship. Is he? Is any single man in this world worth as much as +the Titanic? And if so, how? He can make wealth, but so could +she. He could bring happiness to others, and so could she. I +have yet to find any ground on which any man can be put up in +competition with that vessel in sheer worth to the world, and I +am not speaking in any low sense of values. For I suppose the +greatest man who ever lived might feel that his life was well +spent if he had brought two continents nearer together. It was +for that that she was created. The hard fact is that there are +very few indeed of us, in spite of all the noise we make, who are +worth to the world a thousand pounds, and if she could sell the +bulk of us for that she would be positively drunk with fortune. + +But, you will say, a ship has no soul. Are you quite so sure +about that? Most people will maintain that their bodies contain a +soul, and then they proceed to build up these same bodies with +bread and bacon, and even beer, and in the end they possess +bodies constructed without any shadow of doubt out of these +ingredients. And if ten thousand men have toiled night and day, +in blazing furnace and in dark mine, to build a mighty vessel, at +the cost of years of labour, at the cost of pain and death, is not +that vessel a part of them as much as their poor bodies, and do +not their souls live in it as much as in their flesh and blood? We +speak of the resurrection of the Body, and superior people +smile at an idea so out-of-date and unscientific. To me the body +is not mere flesh and blood, it is the whole complex of all that a +man has thought and lived and done, and when it arises there +will arise with it all that he has toiled for on earth, all that he has +gained, and all that he has created by the sweat of his brow and +the hunger of his soul. The world is not the dust-heap of the +centuries, but only their storehouse. + +It was late when we reached Furnes after a freezing drive in the +dark, but all our thoughts were overshadowed by the tragedy +we had seen. We felt that we had been present at the burial of +a god. + + + + +XXI. The Ambulance Corps + + + +One of the most difficult problems for a medical service in war is +the recovery of the wounded from the field of battle and their +carriage back to hospital. In the old days men fought out a +battle in a few hours, and the field at the end of the day was left +to the conqueror. Then the doctors could go forward and attend +to the wounded on the spot without any special danger to +themselves. A man might lie out all night, but he would be +certain to be picked up next day. But in this war everything is +changed. It is one continuous siege, with the result that the +removal of the wounded is a matter of extraordinary difficulty +and danger. I have met with one officer who has been in a +trench out at the extreme front for two and a half months. +During the whole of that time he has never seen a German, and +the nearest German trench is just one hundred yards away! +Shell and shot have been pouring over his head all that time, +and to raise one's head above the ground would be to court +instant death. + +Between the trenches the ground is a quagmire, and any +advance by either side is out of the question. But a time will +come when the ground is just solid enough for a man to stand, +there will be a desperate struggle for a few yards of ground, +again both sides will subside into new trenches; but now +between those trenches will lie perhaps some hundreds of +wounded, and how in the world are they to be got? This is the +problem with which an ambulance is everywhere faced--the +recovery of the wounded from disputed ground. It was to +grapple with difficulties like these that the rules of the Geneva +Convention were framed, so that men wearing a Red Cross on +their arms might be able to go where no combatant of either +side dare venture, and succour the wounded, whether they +were friend or foe, in safety both for themselves and for the +wounded. It is, after all, possible to fight as gentlemen. + +Or at least it was until a few months ago. Since then we have +had a demonstration of "scientific" war such as has never +before been given to mankind. Now, to wear a Red Cross is +simply to offer a better mark for the enemy's fire, and we only +wore them in order that our own troops might know our business +and make use of our aid. A hospital is a favourite mark for the +German artillery, whilst the practice of painting Red Crosses on +the tops of ambulance cars is by many people considered unwise, +as it invites any passing aeroplane to drop a bomb. But the +Germans have carried their systematic contempt of the rules of war +so far that it is now almost impossible for our own men to +recognize their Red Crosses. Time after time their Red Cross +cars have been used to conceal machine-guns, their flags have +floated over batteries, and they have actually used stretchers to +bring up ammunition to the trenches. Whilst I was at Furnes two +German spies were working with an ambulance, in khaki uniforms, +bringing in the wounded. They were at it for nearly a week before +they were discovered, and then, by a ruse, they succeeded in +driving straight through the Belgian lines and back to their +own, Red Cross ambulance, khaki and all. The problems, then, that +have to be faced by an ambulance corps in the present war are +fairly perplexing, and they demand a degree of resource and +cool courage beyond the ordinary. That these qualities are +possessed by the members of the ambulance corps of which +Dr. Hector Munro and Lady Dorothie Feilding are the leading +members is merely a matter of history. They have been in as +many tight corners in the last few months as many an old and +seasoned veteran, and they have invariably come out triumphant. + +They started in Ghent under the Belgian Red Cross with a party +of four surgeons, five women, and three men for the stretchers, +and two chauffeurs to drive the two ambulances. Now they have +grown into an organization which takes on a great part of the +ambulance work of the Belgian Army. At Ghent they were attached +to the big Red Cross hospital in the Flandria Palace Hotel, +and at first it was dull, for most of the fighting was around Antwerp, +and the wounded were taken there. We were in Antwerp just then, +and it was by no means dull. We shared Alost and Termonde +as a common hunting-ground, and we several times had a visit from +Dr. Munro in the Boulevard Leopold. In fact, we were discussing +the possibility of arranging to work together when the crash came and +Antwerp fell. + +For the next few days the ambulance corps had enough work +and ran enough risks to satisfy even the members of that +notorious organization. The Germans were coming on with +great rapidity, and if there is one dangerous job, it is to pick up +the wounded of a retreating army. But here the interest for an +English ambulance was doubled, for the British Army was +covering the retreat of the Belgians and the French. On +Sunday, the 11th of October, they were asked to go out to +Melle, four miles south-east of Ghent, to help with some French +wounded, and, after spending some time there, they met the +British Staff, and were asked to help them in their retreat +through Zwynarde, a town on the Scheldt about four miles +south of Ghent and the same distance from Melle. It was a +dangerous undertaking, as the intention was to blow up the +bridge which crosses the Scheldt at Zwynarde and to fight a +retreating battle covering the retirement of our allies. The bridge +was to be blown up at ten o'clock that evening, and though it +was only four miles away, it was already dark and a mist was +rising from the river. The main roads were in the hands of the +Germans, and there was nothing for it but to get across by a +small side-road. They started off in the mist, and promptly lost +their way. It is a pleasing situation to be lost in the dark +somewhere very close to the enemy's lines when you know that +the only available bridge is just going to be blown up. A thick +mist had risen all around, and they were midway between two +batteries--British and German--engaged in an artillery duel. +The crash of the guns and the scream of the shells overhead +filled the darkness with terror. But there was nothing for it but to +go straight on, and though they must have gone right through +the German lines and out again, they reached the bridge just +ten minutes before it was blown into the air. + +We all met at Ostend, and decided to join forces at Furnes, and +it worked out as a splendid arrangement for both parties. +Though our organizations remained entirely distinct, we worked +together, and they had the advantage of a hospital to which +they could always bring their patients, whilst we had the +services of the smartest ambulance corps on the Continent. +The qualities required for the satisfactory working of a hospital +and the successful running of an ambulance are so distinct that +I am sure that the ideal arrangement is to have two entirely +distinct organizations working in harmony. + +The position of an ambulance up at the front is always a +delicate one, for as it moves about from place to place its +members have opportunities of picking up information about the +position and movements of the troops of a very confidential +nature. It was therefore a great advantage to Dr. Munro when +his party was joined by M. de Broqueville, the son of the +Minister for War; for it meant that they would have full +information as to where wounded were likely to require their +help, and that they possessed the full confidence of the Belgian +authorities. Their position and our own had been very greatly +affected by the fortunes of the war, for the Belgian Croix Rouge +and Army Medical Services were for the moment in abeyance, +and instead of obtaining from them the help which had hitherto +been so generously given, we had now to undertake their work +and to rely entirely on our own resources. We had not to wait +long for an opportunity to show what we could do. The Belgian +Army, supported by a certain number of French troops, made +its final stand on the line of the Yser, the little river which runs +from Ypres through Dixmude and Nieuport to the sea. From this +position they have never since been shaken, but they have +never had to withstand more desperate attacks than those +which took place in the end of October. The centre of these was +Dixmude, and here the Germans threw against the little remnant +of the Belgian Army forces which might have been expected to +shatter it at a blow. Their efforts culminated in one of the fiercest +and bloodiest engagements of the whole war, and at the height +of the engagement word came that there were wounded in Dixmude, +and that ambulances were urgently required to get them out. +Getting wounded out of a town which is being shelled is not +exactly a joke, and when the town is in rapid process of annihilation +it almost becomes serious. But this was what the Corps had +come out for, and two ambulances and an open car started +off at once. As far as Oudecappelle the road was crowded with +motor transport waggons carrying supplies of food and ammunition +to the troops, but beyond that it was empty, unless one counts +the shells which were falling on it in a steady hail. + +Every now and then a Jack Johnson would fall and leave a hole +in which one could bury a motor, and, apart from the shells, the +holes made driving risky. There was over a mile of the road in +this unhealthy state, and entirely exposed to the enemy's guns, +before any shelter could be obtained; but the wounded must be +fetched, and the cars pushed on as fast as they dared to drive. +They were suddenly pulled up by an appalling obstacle. A +Belgian battery advancing along the road to the front only +twenty minutes before had been struck by a big shell. Several +of the gunners were horribly mangled; ten horses lay dead, +most of them in fragments; the gun was wrecked, and all its +equipment scattered about the road. It was some minutes +before the remaining soldiers could clear the road sufficiently for +the cars to pass. + +Dixmude itself was a roaring furnace, and shells were pouring +into it in all directions. Practically every house had been +damaged, many were totally demolished, and many more were +on fire. The wounded were in the Town Hall on the square, and +shells were bursting all over it. The upper portion was +completely destroyed, and the church close by was blazing +furiously, and must have set fire to the Town Hall soon after. On +the steps lay a dead Marine, and beside him stood a French +surgeon, who greeted them warmly. The wounded were in a +cellar, and if they were not got out soon, it was obvious that +they would be burned alive. Inside the hall were piles of +bicycles, loaves of bread, and dead soldiers, all in gruesome +confusion. In the cellar dead and wounded were lying together. +The wounded had all to be carried on stretchers, for everyone +who could crawl had fled from that ghastly inferno, and only +those who have shifted wounded on stretchers can appreciate +the courage it requires to do it under shell fire. At last they were +all packed into the ambulances, and even as they left the +building with the last, a shell struck it overhead and demolished +one of the walls. How they ever got out of Dixmude alive is +beyond the ken of a mere mortal, but I suppose it was only +another manifestation of the Star which shines so brightly over +the fortunes of the Munro Ambulance. + +How high is the appreciation of the Belgian Government for +their work is shown in the fact that three of the lady members of +the Corps have just been decorated with the Order of Leopold +--one of the highest honours which Belgium has to confer. It is +not every honour which is so well earned. + + + + +XXII. Pervyse--The Trenches + + + +This is indeed the strangest of all wars, for it is fought in the +dark. Eyes are used, but they are the eyes of an aeroplane +overhead, or of a spy in the enemy's lines. The man who fights +lives underground, or under water, and rarely sees his foe. +There is something strangely terrible, something peculiarly +inhuman, in the silent stealth of this war of the blind. The +General sits in a quiet room far behind the lines, planning a +battle he will never see. The gunner aims by level and compass +with faultless precision, and hurls his awful engines of +destruction to destroy ten miles away a house which is to him +only a dot on a map. And the soldier sitting in his trench hears +the shells whistling overhead and waits, knowing well that if he +appeared for one instant above that rampart of earth he would +be pierced by a dozen bullets from rifles which are out of his +sight. + +It is a war in the dark, and by far the most important of its +operations are carried on, its battles are fought, in the literal +sense of the word, underground. Perhaps the next war will be +fought not merely underground, but deep in the bowels of the +earth, and victory will rest, not with the finest shots or the expert +swordsmen, but with the men who can dig a tunnel most quickly. +The trenches may be cut by some herculean plough, deep tunnels +may be dug by great machines, and huge pumping engines may +keep them dry. Our engineers have conquered the air, the water, +and the land, but it is still with picks and spades that our soldiers +dig themselves into safety. + +At Furnes the nearest point to us of the fighting line was +Pervyse, and as the Ambulance Corps had a dressing-station +there, we often went out to see them and the soldiers in the +trenches close by. But the Belgian line was most effectively +protected by an agency far more powerful than any trench, for +over miles and miles of land spread the floods with which the +Belgians, by breaking down the dykes, had themselves flooded +the country. The floods were a protection, but they were also a +difficulty, since they made actual trenches an impossibility. No +ordinary pumps could have kept them dry. So they had built +huts of earth behind a thick earth bank, and partly sunk in the +very low embankment, only two or three feet above the fields, +on which the railway ran. They were roofed with boards covered +again with earth and sods, and behind each was a little door by +which one could crawl in. Inside, the floor was covered with a +bed of straw, and a bucket with holes in its sides and full of red-hot +coke did duty as a stove, while narrow loopholes served for ventilation +and for light, and were to be used for firing from in the event of an +attack. Of course the huts were very cramped, but they were at +least warm, they gave protection from the weather, and above +all they were safe. The men only occupied them as a matter of +fact for short periods of one or two days at a time, a fresh guard +coming out from Fumes to take their places. + +These huts, and all covered trenches, are only safe from +shrapnel exploding in the air or near by. No ordinary trench is +safe from a shell falling upon it; but this, as a matter of fact, has +scarcely ever happened. For shells are as a rule fired from +some considerable distance, and in most cases the opposing +lines of trenches are so close together that there would be great +danger of sending a shell into the back of your own trench, the +most deadly disaster that can happen. The trenches are often +so close together that their occupants can talk to one another, +and a considerable amount of camaraderie may spring up. + +I know of one instance where a private arrangement was made +that they would not shoot on either side. One day a man on our +side was wounded, and there was great annoyance till a note +was thrown across apologizing profusely, and explaining that it +was done by a man in a trench behind who did not know of the +compact! A few days later a message came to say that an +important officer was coming to inspect the German trench, and +that they would be obliged to fire, but that they would give due +warning by three shots fired in quick succession. The shots +were fired, and our men lay low, under a storm of bullets, till +firing ceased, and another message arrived to say that the +danger was past. We really are queer animals! + +Behind the trenches at Pervyse the fields were positively riddled +with shot-holes. In one space, not more than twenty yards +square, we counted the marks of over a hundred shells. The +railway station was like a sieve, and most of the houses in the +little town were absolutely destroyed. I do not believe that there +was a house in the place which had not been hit, and the +number of shells that must have rained on that small area +would have sufficed not so many years ago for the siege of a +large town. The church was destroyed beyond any possibility of +repair. The roof was gone entirely, and large portions of the +walls; a great piece of the tower had been blown clean out, and +the tower itself was leaning dangerously. The bombardment of +the church must have been terrific, for even the heavy pillars of +the aisle had been snapped across. Of the altar only the solid +stones remained, surrounded by fragments of what had once +been the stained glass of the apse, and the twisted remains of +the great brass candlesticks which had stood beside the altar. +Only a few weeks ago this was an old parish church of singular +beauty. Now even the graves in the churchyard have been torn +open by the shells. These few battered walls, these heaps of +stone and brick, are all that remain of a prosperous village and +its ancient church. + +The dressing station of the Ambulance Corps was one of their +most daring and successful ventures. At first it was placed +close to the trenches and just behind the railway station, in the +house of the village chemist. At least there were evidences in +the existence of portions of walls, roof, and floors that it had +once been a house, and the chemist had left a few bottles +behind to indicate his trade. But I do not think that anyone but a +member of the Corps would have ever thought of living there. +There was plenty o ventilation, of course, since there were no +windows left, part of the roof had gone, and the walls were +riddled with holes through which shells had passed clean +across the building. It could hardly be described as a desirable +residence, but it had one incomparable advantage: it possessed +a cellar. A couple of mattresses and a few blankets converted it +into a palace, whilst the limits of luxury were reached when there +arrived a new full-sized enamelled bath which one of the +soldiers had discovered and hastened to present as a mark +of gratitude. There was no water-supply, of course, and I do +not think that there was a plug, but those were mere trifles. +How such a white elephant ever found its way to Pervyse none +of us will ever know. I do not believe that there was another for +twenty miles around. + +In this strange residence--it could hardly be called a house-- +lived two of the lady members of the Corps. They were relieved +from time to time, two others coming out to take their places, +and every day they had visits from the ambulances which came +out to pick up the wounded. A room on the ground floor was +used during the day, partly as a living-room, partly as a surgery, +and here were brought any soldiers wounded in this part of the +lines. At night they retired to the cellar, as the house itself was +far too dangerous. The Germans shelled Pervyse almost every +night, and sometimes in the day as well, and this particular +house was the most exposed of any in the town. But shells +were not the only trouble, and when a few weeks later the +cellars were filled with water, it was evident that other quarters +must be found. + +Pervyse was of course entirely deserted by its inhabitants, but it +could scarcely be called dull. We went out one afternoon to see +what was going on, and found a party of the Corps at lunch. +They seemed to be in particularly good spirits, and they told us +that the house had just been struck by a shell, that the big +Daimler ambulance had been standing outside, and that its +bonnet had been riddled by the shrapnel bullets. We went +outside to see for ourselves, and there we found a large hole in +the side of the house, through which a shell had entered a room +across the passage from that occupied by the Corps, who had +fortunately chosen the lee-side. The big six-cylinder Daimler +had been moved into a shed, and there it stood with twenty or +more holes in its bonnet, but otherwise uninjured. By a stroke of +luck the driver had gone inside the house for a moment or he +would undoubtedly have been killed. It is fortunate that the +Corps is possessed of such a keen sense of humour. + +Shells may be amusing in the daytime, but they are not a bit +amusing at night. Only two women with real solid courage could +have slept, night after night, in that empty house in a ruined and +deserted village, with no sounds to be heard but the rain and +the wind, the splutter of the mitrailleuse, and the shriek of shells. +Courage is as infectious as fear, and I think that the soldiers, +watching through the night in the trenches near by, must have +blessed the women who were waiting there to help them, and +must have felt braver men for their presence. + +Pervyse was protected by a wide screen of flood, and across +this there was one way only--a slightly raised road going +straight across six miles of water. No advance by either side +was possible, for the road was swept by mitrailleuses, and to +advance down it would have meant certain death. Half a mile +down the road was a farmhouse held by a Belgian outpost, and +beyond this, and perhaps half a mile away from it, were two +other farms occupied by the Germans. We could see them moving +amongst the trees. That piece of road between Pervyse and the +Belgian farm was the scene of one of the very few lapses of the +Germans into humanity. + +It was known one morning in the trenches at Pervyse that +several of their comrades in the farm had been injured in an +outpost engagement. It was, however, impossible to reach +them before nightfall as the road was swept by the German +guns. Two Belgian priests, taking their lives in their hands, +walked out to the farm, but they found that the wounded were +beyond their powers of carriage. Nothing daunted, they went on +to one of the German farms and asked for help, and a few +minutes later the astounded Belgians saw a little procession +coming up the road. In front walked the two priests, and behind +them came four wounded Belgians, lying on stretchers carried +by German soldiers. They came right into the lines, and they +had a royal welcome. They all shook hands, and the little party +of Germans walked back down the road amid the cheers of +their opponents. + +The spirit of chivalry is not dead in Germany; it is only stifled by +her present rulers. Is it too much to hope that some day its +voice may be heard and may command? + + + + +XXIII. Ypres + + + +One morning early in December I was asked by Dr. Munro to +run down with him in one of our motors to Ypres. A message +had arrived saying that the town had been heavily shelled +during the night, and that there were a number of children and +of wounded there, who ought if possible to be removed to some +less dangerous situation. So we started off to see what we +could do for them. It was a dismal morning, and the rain was +coming down in a steady drizzle which continued all day long, +but fortunately we had a closed car, and we were protected +from the elements. The road to Ypres is a broad avenue between +long lines of tall trees, and to-day it was crowded with soldiers and +transport motors. The French were moving up a large number of +men to relieve and to support their lines between Dixmude and +Ypres. Every little village seemed to be crowded with troops, for +in this weather "the poorest village is better than the best +bivouac," and the contrasts of the uniforms were very striking. +Every type was represented--the smart French officer, the +Zouave, the Turco, and the Arab, and one could not help +wondering what the Senegalese and the Algerians thought +of this soaking rain, or how they would fare in the rigours +of a Belgian winter. + +Like so many of the towns of Belgium, Ypres is a town of the +past, and it is only in the light of its history that the meaning of +its wonderful buildings can be realized, or an estimate formed of +the vandalism of its destroyers. Its records date back to the +year 900, and in the twelfth century it was already famous for its +cloth. By the thirteenth century it was the richest and the most +powerful city in Flanders, and four thousand looms gave +occupation to its two hundred thousand inhabitants. These +great commercial cities were also great military organizations, +and there were few wars in the turbulence of the Middle Ages in +which Ypres did not have a share. In fact, it was almost always +engaged in fighting either England, or France, or one of the +other Flemish towns. + +After a century of wars, to which Ypres once contributed no +fewer than five thousand troops, the town was besieged by the +English, led by Henry Spencer, Bishop of Norwich, with the help +of the burghers of Ghent and Bruges. The town was surrounded +by earthen ramparts planted with thick hedges of thorn, and by +wide ditches and wooden palisades, and these were held by +some ten thousand men. They were attacked, in 1383, by seventeen +thousand English and twenty thousand Flemish. For two months Ypres +was defended against almost daily attacks in one of the fiercest and +most bloody sieges in history. At last Spencer saw that it was +impossible to take the town by assault, and in view of the advance +of a large French army he withdrew. Ypres was saved, but its +prosperity was gone, for the bulk of its population had fled. +The suburbs, where large numbers of the weavers worked, +had been destroyed by the besiegers and the looms had been +burnt. The tide of trade turned to Bruges and Ghent, though they +did not enjoy for long the prosperity they had stolen. + +The commercial madness of the fourteenth century gave way to +the religious madness of the sixteenth. Men's ideas were +changing, and it is a very dangerous thing to change the ideas +of men. For the momentum of the change is out of all proportion +to its importance, and the barriers of human reason may melt +before it. It is a mere matter of historical fact that no oppression +has half the dangers of an obvious reform. At Ypres the +Reformers were first in the field. They had swept through +Flanders, destroying all the beauty and wealth that the piety of +ages had accumulated, and here was rich plunder for these +apostles of the ugly. There is real tragedy in the thought that the +Reformer is sometimes sincere. + +But at least the fanatics limited their fury to the symbols of +religion. Philip of Spain could only be sated by flesh and blood, +and for the next fifteen years Ypres was tossed to and fro in an +orgy of persecution and war such as have rarely been waged +even in the name of religion. At the end of that time only a +miserable five thousand inhabitants remained within its broken +ramparts. + +With the seventeenth century commerce and religion made way +for politics, and the wars of Louis XIV. fell heavily on Ypres. On +four separate occasions the town was taken by the French, and +the dismantled fortifications which still surround it were once an +example of the genius of Vauban. Yet with all these wars-- +commercial, religious, political--with all the violence of its +history, Ypres had kept intact the glorious monuments of the +days of her greatness, and it has been left for the armies of +Culture to destroy that which even the hand of Philip spared. + +The centuries have handed down to us few buildings of such +massive grandeur as the great Cloth Hall, a monument of the +days when the Weavers of Ypres treated on equal terms with +the Powers of England and of France. This huge fortress of the +Guilds is about a hundred and fifty yards long. The ground floor +was once an open loggia, but the spaces between its fifty pillars +have been filled in. Above this are two rows of pointed windows, +each exactly above an opening below. In the upper row every +second window has been formed into a niche for the figure of +some celebrity in the history of the town. A delicate turret rises +at each end of the facade, and above it rose the high-pitched +roof which was one of the most beautiful features of the +building. In the centre is the great square tower, reaching to a +height of more than two hundred feet, and ending in an elegant +belfry, which rises between its four graceful turrets. The whole +of this pile was finished in 1304; but in the seventeenth century +there was added at its eastern end the Nieuwerck, an exquisite +Renaissance structure supported entirely on a row of slim +columns, with tiers of narrow oblong windows, and with elaborate +gables of carved stone. The contrast between the strength and +simplicity of the Gothic and the rich decoration of Spain is as +delightful as it is bold. The upper part of this vast building formed +one great hall, covered overhead by the towering roof. The walls +were decorated by painted panels representing the history of +the town, and so large were these that in one bay there was +erected the entire front of an old wooden house which had +been pulled down in the town, gable and all. + +And all this is a heap of ruins. Whether any portion of it can +ever be repaired I do not know, but the cost would be fabulous. +The roof is entirely destroyed, and with it the whole of the great +gallery and its paintings, for fire consumed what the shells had +left. Only the bare stone walls remain, and as we stood among +the pillars which had supported the floors above, it was difficult +to realize that the heap of rubbish around us was all that was +left of what had once been the envy of Europe. The only +building which we have at all comparable to the Cloth Hall is the +Palace of Westminster. If it were blasted by shells and gutted +by fire, we might regret it, but what would be our feelings if it +were the legacy of Edward the First, and had been handed +down to us intact through six centuries? + +Behind the Cloth Hall stands the Church of St. Martin, once for +two and a half centuries the Cathedral of Ypres. It was largely +built at the same time as the Cloth Hall, and it is a glorious +monument of the architecture of the thirteenth century. Perhaps +its most beautiful features are the great square tower, the lofty +and imposing nave, and the exquisite rose window in the south +wall of the transept, which is said to be the finest in Belgium. +The tower was surrounded with scaffolding, and around its base +were piles of stone, for the church was being repaired when the +war began. I wonder if it will ever be repaired now. The +Germans had expended on its destruction many of their largest +shells, and they had been very successful in their efforts. There +were three huge holes in the roof of the choir where shells had +entered, and in the centre of the transept was a pile of bricks +and stone six feet high. Part of the tower had been shot away, +and its stability was uncertain. The beautiful glass of the rose +window had been utterly destroyed, and part of the tracery was +broken. The old Parish Chapel on the south side of the nave +had nothing left but the altar and four bare walls. The fine old +roof and the great bronze screen which separated it from the +nave had perished in the flames. The screen was lying in small +fragments amongst the rubbish on the chapel floor, and at first I +thought they were bits of rusty iron. + +As I stood in the ruins of the Parish Chapel looking round on +this amazing scene, there was a roar overhead, and one of the +big 14-inch shells passed, to explode with a terrific crash +amongst the houses a few hundred yards farther on. It was +plain that the bombardment was beginning again, and that we +must see to our business without any delay. Two more shells +passed overhead as I came out of the church, with a roar very +different from the soft whistle of a small shell. The destruction +produced by one of these large shells is astonishing. One large +house into which a shell had fallen in the previous night had +simply crumpled up. Portions of the walls and a heap of bricks +were all that was left, a bit of an iron bedstead and a fragment +of staircase sticking out from the debris. The roof, the floors, +and the greater part of the walls might never have existed. In +the Place in front of the Cathedral were two holes where shells +had fallen, and either of them would have comfortably held a +motor-car. The children were all together in a little street a +quarter of a mile west of the Cathedral, just where the last three +shells had fallen. Fortunately they had hurt no one, though one +had passed clean through the upper stories of a house where +there were several children being got ready by one of our party +for removal. By good luck through some defect it did not +explode, or the house would have been annihilated and everyone +in it killed. Quite a collection of people had congregated in that +little street, though why they considered it safer than the rest +of the town I do not know. At first they were very unwilling to +let any of the children go at all. But at last about twenty children +were collected and were packed into ambulances. Some of them +were without parents, and were being looked after by the +neighbours, and the parents of some absolutely refused to +leave. More children and a few adults to look after them were +found later, and I think that in the end about a hundred were +taken up to Fumes, to be sent on to Calais as refugees. + +The children were as merry as crickets, and regarded it all as a +huge joke; sitting in the ambulances, they looked for all the +world like a school treat. But I have often wondered whether we +were right to take them away or whether it would not have been +better to have left them to take their chance. War is a very +terrible thing, and the well-meant interference of the kind- +hearted may do far more harm than good. What is going to +happen to those children? I suppose that they are in some +refugee home, to remain there till the war is over. And then? +We did our best to identify them, but what are the chances that +many of them will ever see their parents again? From what I +have seen of these things I do not think that they are very large. +Perhaps you will say that the parents ought to have gone with +them. It is easy for the well-to-do to leave their homes and to +settle again elsewhere; but the poorer a man is the less can he +afford to leave what little he possesses. In their own town they +might be in danger, but at least they had not lost their homes, +and they possessed the surroundings without which their +individual lives would be merged in the common ocean of +misery. The problem of the civil population, and especially of +the children, in time of war is entirely beyond the scope of +individual effort. It is a matter with which only a Government or a +very powerful organization can deal, and it is a matter in which +Governments do not take a great deal of interest. Their hands +are quite full enough in trying to defeat the enemy. + +In all previous wars between civilized nations a certain regard +has been paid to the safety of the civilian population, and +especially of the women and children. But from the very first the +German policy has been to utterly ignore the rights of non- +combatants, tearing up the conventions which they themselves +had signed for their protection. No Government could be +expected to be prepared for such a total apostasy from the +elementary principles of civilized society, or to anticipate +methods at which a Zulu might blush. If they had done so, it +should have been their first care to remove all non-combatants +from the area of fighting, and to make provision for them +elsewhere. It is unfair that a civilian should be left with the +hopeless choice of leaving a child in a house where it may at +any moment be killed by a shell or taking it away with a +considerable probability that it will be a homeless orphan. For +life is a matter of small moment; it is living that matters. + +The problem of the children of Belgium will be one of the most +serious to be faced when the war is over. There will be a great +number of orphans, whilst many more will be simply lost. They +must not be adopted in England, for to them Belgium will look +for her future population. There could be few finer ways in which +we could show our gratitude to the people of Belgium than by +establishing colonies over there where they could be brought +up in their own country, to be its future citizens. It would form a +bond between the two countries such as no treaty could ever +establish, and Belgium would never forget the country which +had been the foster-mother of her children. + +But Ypres gave us yet another example of German methods of +war. On the western side of the town, some distance from the +farthest houses, stood the Asylum. It was a fine building +arranged in several wings, and at present it was being used for +the accommodation of a few wounded, mostly women and children, +and several old people of the workhouse infirmary type. It made +a magnificent hospital, and as it was far away from the town and +was not used for any but the purposes of a hospital, we considered +that it was safe enough, and that it would be a pity to disturb the +poor old people collected there. We might have known better. +The very next night the Germans shelled it to pieces, and all +those unfortunate creatures had to be removed in a hurry. +There is a senseless barbarity about such an act which could +only appeal to a Prussian. + + + + +XXIV. Some Conclusions + + + +To draw conclusions from a limited experience is a difficult +matter, and the attempt holds many pitfalls for the unwary. Yet +every experience must leave on the mind of any thinking man +certain impressions, and the sum of these only he himself can +give. To others he can give but blurred images of all he may +have seen, distorted in the curving mirrors of his mind, but from +these they can at least form some estimate of the truth of the +conclusions he ventures to draw. For myself, these conclusions +seem to fall naturally into three separate groups, for I have met +the experiences of the past three months in three separate +ways--as a surgeon, as a Briton, and as, I hope, a civilized +man. It is from these three aspects that I shall try to sum up +what I have seen. + +As a surgeon it has been my good fortune to have charge of a +hospital whose position was almost ideal. Always close to the +front, we received our cases at the earliest possible moment, +and could deal with them practically first hand. Every day I +realized more strongly the advantages of such a hospital, and +the importance for the wounded of the first surgical treatment +they receive. Upon this may well depend the whole future +course of the case. No wounded man should be sent on a long +railway journey to the base until he has passed through the +hands of a skilled surgeon, and has been got into such a +condition that the journey does not involve undue risk. And no +rough routine treatment will suffice. A surgeon is required who +can deal with desperate emergencies and pull impossible cases +out of the fire--a young man who does not believe in the +impossible, and who can adapt himself to conditions of work +that would make an older man shudder, and a man who will +never believe what he is told until he has seen it for himself. For +the conditions of work at the front are utterly different from those +of civil practice, and it is impossible for any man after many +years of regular routine to adapt himself to such changed +environment. The long experience of the older man will be of far +more use at the base, and he will have plenty of difficulties to +contend with there. + +I have often been told that there is no opening for skilled +surgery at the front. In my opinion there is room for the highest +skill that the profession can produce. It is absurd to say that the +abdominal cases should be left to die or to recover as best they +can, that one dare not touch a fractured femur because it is +septic. To take up such an attitude is simply to admit that these +cases are beyond the scope of present surgery. In a sense, +perhaps, they are, but that is all the more reason why the scope +of surgery should be enlarged, and not that these cases should +be left outside its pale. I am far from advising indiscriminate +operating. There are many things in surgery besides scalpels. +But I do urge the need for hospitals close to the front, with every +modern equipment, and with surgeons of resource and energy. + +But for a surgeon this war between nations is only an incident in +the war to which he has devoted his life--the war against +disease. It is a curious reflection that whilst in the present war +the base hospital has been given, if anything, an undue +importance, in the other war it has been practically neglected. +Our great hospitals are almost entirely field hospitals, planted +right in the middle of the battle, and there we keep our patients +till such time as they are to all intents and purposes cured. A +very few convalescent homes will admit cases which still require +treatment, but only a very few. The bulk of them expect their +inmates to do the work of the establishment. Now, this is most +unreasonable, for a country hospital is cheaper to build and +should cost less to run than one in town, and in many cases the +patients will recover in half the time. Our hospitals in London are +always crowded, the waiting-lists mount up till it seems +hopeless to attack them, and all the time it is because we have +no base hospital down in the country to which our patients +might be sent to recover. I wonder how long it will be before +each of the great London hospitals has its own base down in +the country, with its own motor ambulances and its own ambulance +coaches to carry its patients in comfort by rail to surroundings +where they could recover as can never be possible in the +middle of the London slums? And as to getting the staff to +look after it, there would probably be a waiting-list for week-ends. + +But there are more important considerations in this war than +surgery, and one would have to be very blind not to perceive +that this is a life-and-death struggle between Britain and +Germany. The involvement of other nations is merely accidental. +It is ourselves whom Germany is making this huge effort to crush, +and but for one small circumstance she would have come within +a measurable prospect of success. To swoop down on France +through Belgium, to crush her in three weeks, to seize her fleet, +and with the combined fleets of France and Germany to attack +ours--that was the proposition, and who can say that it might not +have succeeded? The small circumstance which Germany overlooked +was Belgium, and it is to the heroic resistance of Belgium that we owe +the fact that the German advance has been stopped. + +At the cost of the desolation of their own country, Belgium has +perhaps saved the flag of Britain, for where would it have flown +on the seas if Germany had won? And at the very least she has +saved us from a war beside which this is nothing--a war not +now, but a few years hence, when she might have controlled +half the Continent, and we should have stood alone. We owe +an incalculable debt to Belgium, and we can only repay it by +throwing into this war every resource that our country has to +offer. For the only end which can bring peace to Europe is the +total annihilation of Germany as a military and naval Power. +What other terms can be made with a nation which regards its +most solemn treaties as so much waste paper, which is bound +by no conventions, and which delights in showing a callous +disregard of all that forms the basis of a civilized society? The +only guarantees that we can take are that she has no ships of +war, and that her army is only sufficient to police her frontier. +The building of a war vessel or the boring of a gun must be +regarded as a casus belli. Then, and then only, shall Europe be +safe from the madness that is tearing her asunder. + +But there is a wider view of this war than even that of Britain. +We are not merely fighting to preserve the pre-eminence of our +country; we are fighting for the civilization of the world. The +victory of Germany would mean the establishment over the +whole world of a military despotism such as the world has never +seen. For if once the navy of Britain is gone, who else can stop +her course? Canada, the United States, South America, would +soon be vassals of her power--a power which would be used +without scruple for her own material advantage. This is not a +war between Germany and certain other nations; it is a war +between Germany and civilization. The stake is not a few acres +of land, but the freedom for which our fathers gave their lives. + +Is there such a thing as neutrality in this war? Germany herself +gave the answer when she invaded Belgium. It is the undoubted +duty of many great nations, and of one before all others, to stand +aside and not to enter the struggle; but to be neutral at heart, not +to care whether the battle is won or lost, is impossible for any +nation which values honour and truth above the passing advantages +of worldly power. We do not ask America to fight on our side. +This is our fight, and only Britain and her Allies can see it +through. But we do ask for a sympathy which, while obeying +the laws of neutrality to the last letter, will support us with a +spirit which is bound by no earthly law, which will bear with us +when in our difficult task we seem to neglect the interests of +our friends, and will rejoice with us when, out of toil and sorrow, +we have won a lasting peace. + +This war is not of our choosing, and we shall never ask for +peace. The sword has been thrust into our hands by a power +beyond our own to defend from a relentless foe the flag which +has been handed down to us unsullied through the ages, and to +preserve for the world the freedom which is the proudest +birthright of our race. When it is sheathed, the freedom of the +world from the tyranny of man will have been secured. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11086 *** |