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THE   STORY  OF  A 
RED  GROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 


H.R.H.    ALEXANDER,   CROWN    PRINCE   OF    SERBIA. 


THE   STORY   OF   A 

Cross  Unit  in  Serbia 


BY 

JAMES    BERRY,   B.S.,   F.R.C.S., 

F.  MAY    DICKINSON    BERRY,   M.D.,   B.S., 

W.   LYON    BLEASE,   LL.M., 

AND   OTHER    MEMBERS   OF   THE    UNIT 


LONDON 

J.    &    A.    CHURCHILL 

7,  GREAT  MARLBOROUGH  STREET 
1916 


IBefctcaUfc 

(by  permission) 
TO 

H.R.H. 
ALEXANDER, 

CROWN    PRINCE    OF    SERBIA, 

WHO 

BY    HIS    MILITARY    SKILL,   HIS    ENERGY,  AND    HIS    ABILITY, 

HAS    DONE    SO    MUCH    FOR    HIS    COUNTRY    AND 

FOR    THE    CAUSE    OF    THE    ALLIES 


Though  Serbia  bows  her  stricken  head, 
Hope  whispers  that  she  is  not  dead, 
That  Serbia,  like  the  Photnix,  dies 
A  Greater  Serbia  to  arise. 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  has  been  written  at  the  request  of  many 
friends  who  wished  to  have  some  permanent  record 
of  the  work  done  by  our  Mission,  the  "  Anglo-Serbian 
Hospital,"  or  the  "  Royal  Free  Hospital "  Unit  as 
it  is  also  called,  during  our  year  in  Serbia.  It  may 
also  be  of  some  interest  to  the  general  public  as  a 
plain  story  of  one  of  the  many  subsidiary  enterprises 
undertaken  by  the  British  peoples  during  the  Great 
War.  We  hope  that  the  details  of  the  sanitary  pre- 
cautions adopted  to  prevent  the  occurrence  and 
spread  of  typhus  and  other  diseases  may  perhaps 
be  of  use  to  others  who  may  be  called  upon  in  the 
future  to  set  up  hospitals  under  similar  conditions 
in  foreign  countries. 

Our  intimate  association  in  war  time  both  with 
the  Serbs  and  with  our  Austro-Hungarian  enemies 
gave  us  an  insight  into  the  character  of  both  these 
nations  which  was  of  extreme  interest  to  ourselves 
and  which  we  have  endeavoured  to  portray  in  the 
following  pages.  Indeed  the  whole  of  our  year's 
stay  in  Serbia  was  a  strange  mixture  of  tragedy, 
comedy  and  pathos.  We  have  come  away  with  a 
warm  feeling  of  respect  and  affection  for  the  simple, 
kind-hearted  and  generous  Serbian  people  whose 
history  is  so  full  of  glorious  deeds  that  it  deserves  to 


viii  PREFACE 

be  better  known  in  this  country,  and  whose  struggles 
for  freedom  and  emancipation  from  oppression  have 
been  so  heroic. 

We  further  take  this  opportunity  of  expressing  our 
gratitude  to  the  many  friends  who  by  their  labour 
or  contributions  made  our  work  possible  and  of  pass- 
ing on  to  them  their  due  share  of  the  thanks  so  freely 
given  us  by  the  Serbs  among  whom  we  laboured. 
So  long  as  the  route  from  England  was  open  we  were 
kept  well  supplied  with  dressings  and  other  hospital 
necessaries  as  well  as  with  clothes  for  distribution, 
and  we  owe  much  to  the  friends  who  sent  contribu- 
tions, organised  meetings  and  working  parties,  or 
who  apportioned  us  a  share  in  the  out-put  from  Red 
Cross  depots — of  these  we  would  specially  mention 
the  Kensington  and  the  St.  Marylebone  War  Hospital 
Supply  Depots. 

It  is,  however,  not  only  to  Great  Britain  and 
her  Oversea  Dominions  that  our  thanks  must  go. 
Friends  in  the  United  States,  especially  at  Baltimore 
and  at  Rochester,  Minn.,  have  sent  us  contributions 
and  taken  interest  in  our  work. 

We  wish  to  thank  also  the  members  of  our 
Committee  and  especially  the  honorary  secretary, 
Mr.  Reginald  Garratt,  on  whom  much  labour 
devolved,  and  to  whose  indefatigable  zeal  and 
industry  the  Mission  owes  so  much. 

With  the  exception  of  two  chapters  which  have 
been  contributed  by  Dr.  Helen  Boyle  and  Lieutenant 
Donald  C.  Norris,  R.A.M.C.,  the  book  has  been 
written  by  ourselves  and  Mr.  W.  Lyon  Blease.  All 
three  are  jointly  responsible,  and  information  has 
often  been  contributed  by  some  one  other  than  the 


PREFACE  4x 

actual  writer  of   the  chapter,  as  shown  in  the  Table 
of  Contents. 

The  authors  are  indebted  to  the  Editors  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century,  the  Lancet,  the  Nation,  and  the 
Manchester  Guardian  for  permission  to  publish  those 
parts  of  chapters  which  have  previously  appeared 
in  one  or  other  of  those  publications. 

The  illustrations  (with  the  exception  of  Fig.  13) 
are  from  photographs  by  various  members  of  the 
Unit. 

J.B. 

F.  M.  D.  B. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I. 

HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION. 
By  JAMES  BERRY. 

The  Annexation  of  Bosnia,  p.  i  ;  Discontent  of  Slav  Subjects  of  Austria, 
p.  2  ;  Trade  Routes  through  the  Balkans,  p.  2  ;  Austrian  Policy,  p.  3  ; 
Wars  of  1912  and  1913,  p.  3  ;  Assassination  of  the  Archduke,  p.  5  ; 
Austria's  Ultimatum,  p.  6  ;  Declaration  of  War,  p.  6  ;  Serbian  Vic- 
tories, p.  7 ;  Breakdown  of  Medical  Organisation  in  Serbia,  p.  8  ; 
Mme.  Grouitch's  Mission  to  England,  p.  8. 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  FORMATION  OF  THE  UNIT. 
By  F.  MAY  DICKINSON  BERRY. 

The  Meeting  at  Steinway  Hall,  p.  9  ;  Mme.  Grouitch,  p.  9  ;  Need  of  Medical 
Help  in  Serbia,  p.  9  ;  Visit  to  Paris  and  Boulogne,  p.  1 1  ;  Invitation 
of  Serbian  Government,  p.  12  ;  Kindness  of  the  Admiralty,  p.  12  ; 
Gift  of  £  1,000  from  the  Serbian  Relief  Fund,  p.  13  ;  Help  from  British 
Red  Cross  Society,  p.  13  ;  Private  and  Public  Appeal  for  Funds,  p.  13  ; 
Buying  of  Stores,  p.  14;  Nurses  and  Medical  Staff,  p.  15  ;  V.A.D.'s, 
p.  16 ;  Volunteer  Orderlies,  p.  17  ;  Financial  Responsibility,  p.  18  ; 
Formation  of  a  Committee,  p.  18  ;  Departure  from  Avonmouth  on 
Admiralty  Transport,  p.  19  ;  Malta,  p.  19  ;  Salonica,  p.  20  ;  Journey 
to  Nish,  p.  21  ;  Serbian  Red  Cross  Society,  p.  22  ;  Unit  attached  to 
Reserve  Military  Hospital  of  Vrnjatchka  Banja,  p.  22  ;  Arrival  at 
Vrnjatchka  Banja,  p.  23. 

CHAPTER  III. 

VRNJATCHKA  BANJA:    PREPARATION  OF  HOSPITALS. 
By  JAMES  BERRY. 

Description  of  Vrnjatchka  Banja,  p.  24  ;  The  "Terapia,"  p.  25  ;  Unpack- 
ing Stores,  p.  29  ;  Supplies  in  Serbia,  p.  30.  Our  Unit  Self-contained, 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xi 

p.  30  ;  Ventilation,  p.  31  ;  Disinfection,  p.  31  ;  Sulphurisation,  p.  32  ; 
Boilers,  p.  32  ;  Destructors  for  burning  Refuse,  p.  33  ;  Flies,  p.  34 ; 
Water  Supply,  p.  35  ;  The  School,  p.  36. 

CHAPTER  IV. 
FEBRUARY,   1915. 
By  JAMES  BIRRY. 

A  Journey  to  Nish,  p.  38  ;  Engineer  and  the  New  Railway,  p.  38  ;  Stalatch, 
p.  39  ;  First  Conference  at  Nish,  p.  39  ;  Terrible  State  of  Serbia, 
p.  40  ;  Overcrowding  and  Typhus  Fever,  p.  40  ;  Memorandum  sent 
to  England,  p.  40 ;  Scarcity  of  Doctors,  p.  41  ;  Mortality  Statistics, 
p.  41  ;  Previous  Balkan  Wars,  p.  42  ;  Vrntse  after  Battle  of  Chachak, 
p.  43  ;  Conditions  at  Vrntse,  p.  43  ;  Spread  of  Typhus,  p.  43  ;  Greek 
and  Serbian  Hospita  Is,  p.  44  ;  Typhus  Baraques,  p.  44 ;  Conference 
with  British  Red  Cross  Unit,  p.  45  ;  Clearing-house  System,  p.  45  ; 
Bath-house,  p.  45  ;  The  Drzhavna,  p.  46 ;  First  Patients  arrive, 
p^  47  5  Methods  of  Transport,  p.  47  ;  The  Serbs  as  Patients,  p.  50. 

CHAPTER  V. 

TYPHUS  AND  HOW  WE  DEALT  WITH  IT. 
By  JAMES  BERRY. 

The  Building  of  the  Baraque,  p.  51  ;  The  Contract  with  Mircha,  the  Car- 
penter, p.  52  ;  Design,  p.  52  ;  Cost,  p.  52  ;  Lice,  p.  55  ;  Cleansing  the 
Patients,  p.  56  ;  Sceptics  about  Lice,  p.  57  ;  Mingling  of  Typhus  and 
other  Patients,  p.  58  ;  Typhus  and  Typhoid,  p.  59 ;  Drugs  and 
Nursing,  p.  59  ;  Fleas,  p.  60. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

IMPRESSIONS  OF  THE  SCOUT. 
By  DONALD  C.  NORRIS. 

The  "  Majestic  Five  "  leave  Paris,  p.  61  ;  Journey  through  Italy,  p.  62  ; 
Salonica,  p.  62  ;  Arrival  at  Vrntse,  p.  63  ;  Unpacking,  p.  64  ;  The 
Carpenter's  Shop,  p.  6$  ;  Manual  Labour,  p.  66  ;  Visit  of  the  Crown 
Prince,  p.  66 ;  To  "  be  English,"  p.  67 ;  Electrical  Engineering, 
p.  67  ;  The  Bath-house,  p.  68  ;  Out-patients,  p.  69  ;  Second  Con- 
ference at  Nish,  p.  71  5  The  Austrian  at  Krushevatz,  p.  71  ;  Nish, 
p.  73  ;  British  Red  Cross  Cottage  at  Stalatch,  p.  75  ;  Fire  at  the 
Terapia,  p.  75  ;  "  It's  an  ill  Wind,"  etc.,  p.  77  ;  Excursion  to  Belgrade, 
p.  78  ;  Naval  Exploits,  p.  78  ;  A  Note  on  Norris,  p.  79. 


xii  'TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VII. 

AUSTRIAN  PRISONERS. 

By  F.  MAY  DICKINSON  BERRY. 

The  Three  at  the  Terapia,  p.  82 ;  The  Slave  Market,  p.  83  ;  Selection  of 
Prisoners,  p.  84  ;  Heterogeneous  Collection  of  Nationalities,  p.  84  5 
Many  Czechs,  p.  85  ;  Ward  Orderlies,  p.  85  ;  Relation  between  Serb 
Patients  and  Austrian  Orderlies,  p.  87  ;  Shoemaker  and  Carpenters, 
p.  89  ;  Language  Difficulties,  p.  89  ;  Gardener  and  other  Outdoor 
Men,  p.  91  ;  Messenger,  p.  91  ;  Marketing,  p.  91  ;  Julius,  p.  92  ; 
Punishment  of  Prisoners,  p.  93  ;  Hardships  of  Austrians  in  previous 
Winter,  p.  94  ;  Kindness  of  Serb  Villagers,  p.  95  ;  Donna  Quixota, 
p.  96 ;  The  Orchestra,  p.  98  ;  Curious  Case  of  Personation,  p.  98  ; 
Commissions  on  Prisoners,  p.  100  ;  Inoculation  against  Typhoid  and 
Cholera,  p.  too  ;  Devotion  to  the  English  Missions,  p.  101. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

MERCURY  AND  ATHENE. 

By  JAMES  BERRY. 

Villa  Merkur,  p.  102  ;  Plan  of  Ventilation,  p.  102  ;  Latrines  (Inspection 
of),  p.  103  ;  Villa  Atina,  p.  104  ;  Preparation  of,  p.  105  ;  Difficulties, 
p.  105  ;  Insanitary  Surroundings,  p.  105  ;  Arrangement  of  Work 
among  the  Six  Hospitals  controlled  by  our  Unit,  p.  106  ;  Civilians 
in  the  Atina,  p.  109  ;  Military  and  Medical  Organisation  at  Vrntse, 
p.  no;  Major  Gashitch,  the  Director,  p.  no;  Mr.  Neuhut,  the 
Dolmetch,  p.  no;  The  Commissaires,  p.  in  ;  Mr.  Boshko  Marko- 
vitch,  p.  in  ;  Catering,  p.  in  ;  Mr.  Milutin  Jovanovitch,  p.  112; 
Other  Commissaires,  p.  112;  Report  of  the  Director  of  Hospitals, 
p.  114  ;  Letter  from  the  Commander-in-Chief,  p.  115. 

CHAPTER  IX. 
THE   SERB   PEOPLE  AS  WE  FOUND  THEM. 

By  W.  LYON  BLEASE. 

The  Barrier  of  Language,  p.  117  ;  External  Appearance  of  Things,  p.  119  ; 
National  Costume,  p.  120 ;  Primitiveness  of  General  Standard  of 
Life,  p.  122  ;  Patriotism,  p.  123  ;  Vanity,  p.  124  ;  Personal  Modesty, 
p.  125  ;  Want  of  Animosity  against  Individuals,  p.  125  ;  Kindness 
of  Heart,  p.  126;  Indifference  towards  Animals,  p.  126;  Women, 
p.  127;  Hospitality,  p.  127;  Curiosity,  p.  128;  Officials  and  Middle 
Class  as  a  Rule  Primitive,  p.  128  ;  Mixing  of  Sexes,  p.  129  ;  Spittoons 
in  the  Park,  p.  129 ;  Official  Slackness,  p.  129 ;  "  Backsheesh," 
p.  130  ;  Exceptions,  p.  130  ;  Gashitch,  p.  131  ;  Jovanovitch,  p.  132  ; 
Parallel  between  Serbs  and  Irish,  p.  135. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xiii 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  OUT-PATIENTS. 

By  A.  HELEN  BOYLE. 

Resemblance  to  the  Irish,  p.  137  ;  Quack  Remedies,  p.  138  ;  "  Dalekos," 
p.  139  ;  Curiosity,  p.  140  ;  Certain  Cure  Demanded,  p.  141  ;  Neglected 
Disease,  p.  142  ;  Diphtheria,  p.  145  ;  Gratitude  of  the  Serbian 
Peasants,  p.  147. 

CHAPTER  XI. 
SANITATION  AND  SIDE-SHOWS. 

By  W.  Lvov  BLEASE. 

Sanitation,  p.  149  ;•  The  Draining  of  the  Marsh,  p.  149  ;  The  Street  Drain, 
p.  151  ;  The  Atina  Road,  p.  152;  The  Refuse  Cart,  p.  153;  The 
Dumping  Ground,  p.  154  ;  The  Iron  Destructor,  p. 154  ;  The  Slaughter- 
house, p.  154;  Laying  a  Foundation  Stone,  p.  159;  A  Prisoners' 
Camp,  p.  161  ;  Purchase  of  Cement,  p.  163  ;  Artificial  Legs,  p.  165  ; 
Distribution  of  Boots,  p.  166  ;  The  Actors,  p.  168. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  SUMMER  MONTHS. 

By  W.  LYON  BLEASE. 

End  of  Typhus  and  Subsequent  Slackness  of  Hospital  Work,  p.  169  ; 
Changes  in  the  Unit,  p.  170;  Difficulty  of  Amusement  in  Vrntse,  p.  172; 
Gordon's  Banjo,  p.  172  ;  The  Theatre,  p.  173  ;  Excursions,  p.  174  ; 
Peripatetic  Medicine  Men,  p.  174  ;  Miss  Reckitt's  Car,  176  ;  Roads 
in  Serbia,  p.  177 ;  "  Kuku-mene,"  p.  179 ;  The  Terapia  Drains, 
p.  180  ;  Reasons  for  Remaining  in  Serbia,  p.  181  ;  Letters  from 
Commander-in-Chief  and  Crown  Prince,  p.  181  ;  Civil  Surgery,  p.  182  ; 
John  Willy,  p.  183  ;  The  Indiscreet  English  Doctor,  p.  185. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE  AUSTRIAN  INVASION. 

By  JAMES  BERRY. 

Meeting  at  Kragujevatz,  p.  186  ;  The  Military  Situation,  p.  186  ;  Rela- 
tions between  Serbia  and  Bulgaria,  p.  187  ;  Albania,  p.  188  ;  Mobili- 
sation of  Bulgaria,  p.  190  ;  Air  Raid  at  Kragujevatz,  p.  191  ;  Nish 
Decorated,  p.  191  5  Non-arrival  of  the  French,  p.  191  ;  Gloom  in 
Serbia,  p.  192 ;  Arrival  of  Freshly-wounded  at  Vrntse,  p.  192  ; 
Progress  of  Austro-Germans,  p.  198  ;  Refugees  at  Vrntse,  p.  199  ; 
Other  British  Missions  arrive,  p.  199  ;  Period  of  Anxiety,  p.  200  ;  Our 
Austrian  Prisoners  leave,  201  ;  Departure  of  Serbian  Officials,  p.  202 ; 
Approaching  Cannonade,  p.  204 ;  Waiting  for  the  Invaders,  p.  204. 


xiv  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
THE  ESCAPE  OF  THE  THREE. 

By  W.  LYON  BLEASE. 

Reasons  for  Flight,  p.  205  ;  Choice  of  Route,  p.  206  ;  Kraljevo,  p.  207  ; 
Food  and  Transport  Difficulties,  p.  208  ;  The  Gorge  of  the  Ibar  and 
its  Human  Torrent,  p.  209;  Austrian  Prisoners  at  Rashka,  p.  212  ; 
Novi  Bazar,  p.  213  ;  In  the  Hills,  p.  215  ;  Podgoritsa,  p.  217  ;  The 
Lake  of  Scutari,  p.  217  ;  Mattresses  or  Foreigners,  p.  217  ;  Scutari, 
p.  218  ;  English  as  She  is  Spoke,  p.  218  ;  Two  Ways  Home,  p.  219  ; 
Horse  Exercise,  p.  219  ;  The  Adriatic  Mission,  p.  220  ;  So  Near  and 
Yet  so  Far,  p.  221  ;  Hours  of  Idleness,  p.  221  ;  On  Board  the  Harmonie, 
p.  224  ;  The  Submarine,  p.  224  ;  Reflections  on  Ourselves  and  the 
Serbs,  p.  224  ;  Official  Neglect  and  Popular  Generosity,  p.  225. 

CHAPTER  XV. 
THE  AUSTRIANS   IN  VRNTSE. 

By  F.  MAY  DICKINSON  BERRY. 

Arrival  of  the  Austrians,  p.  227  ;  A  Sentinel  at  the  Terapia,  p.  227  ; 
Arrangements  for  Hospitals,  p.  228  ;  Frost-bitten  Soldiers,  p.  229  ; 
Gratitude  and  Docility  of  Austrians,  p.  229  ;  Ex-prisoners  replaced 
by  Soldiers,  p.  230;  Desire  for  Peace,  p.  231  ;  Friendly  Behaviour, 
p.  232  ;  Hungary  Paramount  at  Vrntse,  p.  233  ;  "  K.U.K.,"  p.  233  ; 
Commissariat  Arrangements,  p.  234  ;  Dislike  of  Germans,  p.  235  ; 
Ignorance  of  Geneva  Convention,  p.  235  ;  and  of  British  Empire, 
p.  236  ;  A  Magyar  Priest,  p.  237  ;  Story  of  "  Dushan,"  p.  237  ;  Lack 
of  Enthusiasm  about  War  among  Austro-Hungarians,  p.  239. 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
CAPTIVITY. 

By  F.  MAY  DICKINSON  BERRY. 

Sense  of  Failure,  p.  242  ;  Reorganisation  of  Work,  p.  242 ;  The  Kitchen 
Staff,  p.  243  ;  Rations,  p.  245  ;  The  Farmyard,  p.  246  ;  A  Cold  Spell, 
p.  246  ;  Burst  Pipes,  p.  247  ;  Mr.  Jones,  p.  247  ;  Our  Commissaire, 
p.  248  ;  Departure  of  Patients,  p.  249  ;  Walks  in  the  Neighbourhood, 
p.  250;  A  Serbian  Cottage,  p.  251  ;  Condition  of  Peasants,  p.  252; 
Refugees  in  Vrntse,  p.  252  ;  Commissariat  Arrangements,  p.  253  ; 
English  Lessons,  p.  254 ;  Slavas,  p.  254  ;  Our  Isolation,  p.  256 ; 
Prevalence  of  Rumours,  p.  257  ;  Lectures,  p.  258  ;  Christmas  Tree, 
p.  259  ;  Theatricals,  p.  260  ;  A  Serbian  Testimonial  of  Appreciation 
of  our  Work,  p.  261. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xv 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

DEPARTURE  FROM  VRNTSE. 

By  F.  MAY  DICKINSON  BERRY. 

Austro-Hungarian  "  Olympus,"  p.  263  ;  "  Practical  Joke  Department," 
and  the  British  Missions,  p.  263  ;  "  Wounded  Allies,"  and  "  British 
Red  Cross  "  Missions  leave,  p.  265  ;  Serbian  Refugees  ordered  to  leave, 
p.  265  ;  "  Fairy  Godmother  Department,"  p.  266  ;  A  Cosmopolitan 
Tea,  p.  267  ;  Last  Days  at  the  Terapia,  p.  268  ;  Farewells  at  the 
Station,  p.  270  ;  Reflections  on  the  Fate  of  Serbia,  p.  271. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
THE  JOURNEY  HOME  AND  CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

BY  JAMES  BERRY. 

Departure  from  Vrntse,  p.  273  ;  Luggage,  p.  273  ;  Our  Hungarian  Guards, 
p.  274  ;  Krushevatz,  p.  274  ;  German  Incivility,  p.  274  ;  Tsar  Lazar's 
Chapel,  p.  275  ;  The  Hanoverian  Soldier,  p.  276  ;  Belgrade,  p.  277  ; 
Night  at  the  Railway  Station,  p.  278  ;  Travelling  through  Hungary, 
p.  279;  Budapest,  p.  280;  Vienna,  p.  281  ;  Detention  at  Bludenz, 
p.  282  ;  Switzerland  and  Freedom,  p.  283  ;  Courtesy  of  the  French, 
p.  284 ;  Arrival  at  Southampton,  p.  284 ;  Concluding  Remarks, 
p.  284. 


APPENDIX    I. — List  of  Members  of  the  Unit,  p.  291. 
APPENDIX  II. — Financial  Statement,  p.  293. 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Serbian  Red  Cross  Decoration  .         .         .         .         On  the  Cover 
H.R.H.  Alexander,  Crown  Prince  of  Serbia       .         .          Frontispiece 

FIG.  To  face  PAGE 

Map  of  Serbia        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  i 

1.  Vrnjatchka  Banja  and  the  Drzhavna  Kafana  Hospital       .         .  16 

2.  The  Terapia  Hospital id 

3.  Main  Ward  in  the  Terapia      .......  32 

4.  Convalescent  Patients  at  the  School  Hospital  ....  32 

5.  Disinfecting  Apparatus  and  Destructor  at  the  Drzhavna    .          .  48 

6.  Austrian  Orderlies  building  a  Destructor  at  the  School      .         .  48 

7.  Arrival  of  Wounded  at  the  Bath-house    .....  64 

8.  Our  Typhus  Baraque     ........  64 

9.  The  Four  Ward  Orderlies  at  the  Terapia 80 

10.  Arch  of  Welcome  set  up  by  Austrian  Prisoners  at  the  Terapia    .       80 

11.  Austrian  Prisoners   at   the  Terapia   preparing  for  our  Weekly 

Inspection       .........       96 

12.  International  Commission  inquiring  into  the  Condition  of  our 

Austrian  Prisoners  ........       96 

13.  The  Unit  with  Austrian  Prisoners — May,  1915  .         .          .      112 

14.  The  High  Road  from  Uzhitsa — Motor  stuck  in  the  Mud    .         .112 

15.  Serbian  Peasants  at  Market 128 

1 6.  Cottages  near  Vrntse 128 

17.  The  old  Slaughter-house 160 

1 8.  The  new  Slaughter-house        .         .         .         .         .         .         .160 

19.  A  Serbian  Military  Camp        .         .         .         .         .         .         .176 

20.  The  Western  Morava  River 176 

21.  The  Receiving-room  Staff  at  the  Terapia  waiting  for  the  Freshly 

Wounded 192 

22.  "  The  Tables  Turned  : "  Austrian  Sentry  and  British  Prisoners  .  192 

23.  Austrian  Prisoners  in  the  great  Retreat    .         .         .          .          .  208 

24.  On  the  Road  to  Albania          .......  208 

25.  The  Unit  in  Fancy  Dress.    Christmas  Day,  1915       .         .         .  256 

26.  Hungarian  Commandant  at  the  "  Commando,"  in  Vrntee  .          .  256 

27.  Chapel  of  the  Tsar  Lazar  at  Krushevatr .....  272 

28.  Serbian  Cottage  decorated  with  Figures  of  National  Heroes         .  272 


HUNGARY      ' 


MAP   OF    SERBIA. 


A    RED    CROSS    UNIT 
IN    SERBIA 


CHAPTER  I. 

HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

The  Annexation  of  Bosnia — Discontent  of  Slav  Subjects  of 
Austria — Trade  Routes  through  the  Balkans — Austrian  Policy — 
Wars  of  1912  and  1913 — Assassination  of  the  Archduke — Austria's 
Ultimatum — Declaration  of  War — Serbian  Victories — Breakdown 
of  Medical  Organisation  in  Serbia — Mme.  Grouitch's  Mission  to 
England. 

THE  trouble  became  acute  in  1908.  When  Austria, 
in  defiance  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  suddenly  annexed 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  and  the  Powers  made  no 
effective  protest,  Serbia  was  naturally  furious  and 
war  seemed  imminent.  These  two  Turkish  provinces, 
inhabited  by  people  of  Slav  race,  had  been  for 
thirty  years  administered  by  Austria,  who  had 
certainly  done  much  for  the  improvement  of  the 
country.  But  her  rule  was  never  popular,  and  the 
annexation  seemed  to  put  an  end  for  ever  to  the 
dream  of  union  with  Serbia. 

Russia,  exhausted  by  her  recent  struggle  with 
Japan,  was  not  at  that  time  in  a  position  to  support 
Serbia  in  a  conflict  with  Austria ?  and  Serbia  had  to 


2    A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

acquiesce    in    the    annexation.      There    were    other 
troubles  also  which  threatened  the  peace.     A  large 
proportion  of  the  subjects  of  Austria  are  Slavs  who 
are  discontented  with  Austro-Hungarian  rule.     The 
inhabitants    of    Croatia,    Slavonia,   and   the   neigh- 
bouring   parts    of    southern    Hungary    are    almost 
entirely  Slav,  and  look  forward  to  union  with  Serbia 
and  other  portions  of  Serbia  Irredenta,  the  whole  to 
form  a  great  Jugoslav  kingdom  (Jug  is  Serbian  for 
South).     The   Balkan  peninsula   consists  largely  of 
mountains,  and  through  it  pass,  and  have  passed 
from  time  immemorial,  the  two  great  trade  routes 
leading  from  the  Danube  valley  and  the  plains  of 
Hungary   to    Salonica    and    Constantinople    respec- 
tively.    One  of  these  routes  runs  up  the  Morava  and 
down  the  Vardar  valleys  to   Salonica,  following  the 
course  now  taken  by  the  only  railway  which  traverses 
Serbia  from  end  to  end  (see  map).    The  other  route 
is  that  which,  branching  off  from  the  first  at  Nish, 
passes  by   Pirot  into   Bulgaria  and  so  by  Sofia  and 
Philippopolis   to   Constantinople.     Thus   Serbia   lies 
across    these    main    routes    leading    from    Austria- 
Hungary   (and    Germany)    to   the   ^Egean    Sea   and 
Asia  Minor.     Bulgaria  lies  across  the  path  to  Con- 
stantinople.    Just  as  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  Turks, 
desirous   of  advancing  into   Central   Europe,   found 
Serbia  in  the  way  and  had  to  annihilate  and  absorb 
her,  so  in  our  own  time  do  Austria-Hungary  and 
Germany  find  that  she  blocks  the  way  to  Salonica 
and    Constantinople.      The    annexation    of    Bosnia 
and  Herzegovina  in   1908  showed   Serbia  what  she 
might  herself  expect.     Not  long  after  this  event  an 
Austrian  newspaper  in  close  touch  with  the  military 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION  3 

General  Staff  did  not  scruple  to  write  :  "  A  conflict 
with  Serbia  and  Montenegro  is  inevitable,  and  the 
later  it  comes  the  more  expensive  will  it  be  for  us  : 
when  we  have  obtained  hegemony  in  the  Balkans, 
then  will  commence  the  march  to  the  East  and  we 
shall  assimilate  the  Slav  peoples." 

Between  Serbia  and  Bulgaria  there  has  been 
deplorable  enmity,  practically  from  the  time  when 
both  first  established  themselves  on  the  Balkan 
lands.  Each  at  one  time — Bulgaria  under  Simeon 
(c.  1000),  Serbia  under  Dushan  (c.  1350) — has  been  in 
possession  of  almost  the  whole  of  the  peninsula.  But, 
in  the  main,  Serbia  has  been  limited  to  the  western, 
Bulgaria  to  the  eastern,  half  of  the  peninsula. 

Both  were  overwhelmed  by  the  catastrophe  of  the 
Turkish  invasion  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  for 
some  five  hundred  years  both,  like  Bosnia,  were  but 
Turkish  provinces.  But  as  the  Turkish  Empire, 
which  at  one  time  threatened  even  Vienna  itself, 
gradually  receded,  the  various  Danubian  provinces 
succeeded  in  shaking  off  the  Turkish  yoke.  Serbia, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  under 
the  successive  leadership  of  Karageorge  and  Milosh 
Obrenovitch,  gradually  acquired  her  freedom.  In 
1882,  her  Prince  Milan  obtained  the  title  of  King — 
a  title  which  quite  recently  has  also  been  assumed 
by  Bulgaria's  ruler,  Ferdinand. 

Austria's  policy  has  been  to  promote  enmity 
between  these  two  States.  It  was  she  who  egged  on 
her  tool  Milan  to  provoke  the  unfortunate  Serbo- 
Bulgarian  war  of  1885,  which  both  countries  now 
recognise  to  have  been  a  grave  mistake. 

In  1912,  the  Quadruple  Alliance,  of  Serbia,  Bui- 


4    A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

garia,  Greece,  and  Montenegro,  and  the  victorious 
issue  of  the  war  waged  by  them  against  Turkey,  was 
a  great  blow  to  Austrian  aspirations.  Austria  did 
not  want  a  more  powerful  Serbia  on  her  southern 
frontier.  Hence  the  second  war  of  1913,  precipitated 
by  the  sudden  and  treacherous  attack  of  Bulgaria 
upon  Serbia,  while  the  terms  of  the  disputed  treaty 
were  being  submitted  to  arbitration.  Contrary 
to  Austria's  hopes  and  expectations,  Serbia  and 
Greece  together  were  victorious.  Austria's  diplomatic 
failure  had  lowered  her  prestige.  Vindictive  and 
vexatious  trade  restrictions,  which  hindered  Serbian 
products  from  passing  into  and  through  Austria, 
still  further  embittered  the  relations  between  the  two 
countries.  "  War,"  said  Clausewitz  long  ago,  "  is 
but  the  continuation  of  politics  by  other  means." 
It  is  in  the  policy  of  Austria  that  we  must  look  for 
the  cause  of  the  present  war.  There  is  abundant 
evidence  that  Austria  has  long  been  seeking  a  pre- 
text for  attacking  Serbia.  The  removal  of  the 
last  two  kings  of  the  Obrenovitch  dynasty,  both  of 
them  little  more  than  tools  in  the  hands  of  Austria, 
and  their  replacement  by  the  Karageorgevitch  King 
Peter,  under  whose  beneficent  rule  the  country  has 
made  vast  strides  in  material  prosperity  and  strength, 
were  not  at  all  to  the  liking  of  Austria.  The  dis- 
content and  disturbances  among  her  own  southern 
Slav  subjects,  aggravated  by  the  monstrous  fiasco 
of  the  Agram  treason  trial,  with  its  forged  and 
perjured  evidence  for  the  prosecution,  caused  more 
dislike  and  even  fear  of  her  neighbours,  whose 
sympathies  were  naturally  with  their  kinsmen  across 
the  frontier. 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION  5 

Already  in  1913  Austria  was  meditating  an  aggres- 
sive war  against  Serbia.  The  revelations  of  the 
Italian  Minister  Giolitti  have  shown  that  nearly  a 
year  before  the  assassination  of  the  Archduke  Franz 
Ferdinand,  Austria,  supported  by  Germany,  had 
prepared  for,  and  would  have  declared,  war  had 
Italy  given  her  consent.  But  in  June,  1914,  that 
event  occurred  which  gave  her  the  pretext  for  which 
she  had  been  longing.  The  Austrian  Archduke, 
the  heir  to  the  throne,  was  assassinated  at  Serajevo, 
the  capital  of  the  recently  annexed  Austrian  province 
of  Bosnia-Herzegovina.  The  assassins  were  Bosniaks, 
Slav  subjects  of  the  Austrian  Empire.  Not  a  tittle 
of  evidence  has  been  produced  to  show  that  the 
assassination  was  the  work  of  Serbs,  properly  so 
called,  still  less  that  the  Serbian  Government  or  the 
Serbian  people  were  in  any  way  responsible  for  the 
crime.  To  put  the  matter  at  its  lowest,  Serbia  had 
nothing  to  gain  by  the  removal  of  the  Archduke. 
Serbia  did  not  want  a  war  with  Austria.  She  had 
just  emerged  exhausted  from  two  wars  and  had  not 
yet  had  time  to  replenish  her  depleted  stocks  of 
weapons,  ammunition,  and  other  stores. 

But  in  1903  the  Serbians  had  killed  their  King  and 
Queen,  for  reasons  well  known  in  Serbia,  reasons 
which,  although  they  cannot  be  held  wholly  to  excuse 
the  crime,  yet,  to  those  who  know  the  facts,  go  far 
to  palliate  it.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  the  crimes  of 
the  unfortunate  couple  made  it  necessary  that  they 
should  cease  to  rule  in  the  country  which  they  were 
rapidly  bringing  to  ruin ;  the  acts  of  the  King 
himself  had  made  it  impossible  to  bring  him  to  an 
open  trial ;  to  have  put  htm  forcibly  over  the  border 


6    A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

would  have  been  merely  playing  Austria's  game, 
for  assuredly  he  would  have  been  brought  back  again 
at  the  head  of  an  Austrian  army.  For  some  two 
years  repeated  attempts  were  made  to  induce  him 
to  abdicate.  But  in  vain.  The  tales  about  the 
revolting  details  of  the  assassination  have  been 
much  exaggerated. 

The  Archduke  had  been  murdered  by  men  of 
Serb  race  although  not  of  Serb  nationality,  so  it  was 
loudly  proclaimed  through  Austria  that  the  "  Serbs  " 
were  to  be  held  responsible  and  a  "  punitive " 
expedition  against  Serbia  was  to  be  undertaken.  It 
was  thought  that  the  theory  of  Serbia's  guilt  would 
be  accepted  by  most  of  the  European  nations  and 
would  prevent  their  interference  in  the  matter.  So 
Austria,  backed  by  Germany,  went  to  war  with 
Serbia,  believing  she  would  have  a  walk  over.  An 
outrageous  ultimatum,  couched  in  terms  which  no 
independent  State  had  ever  before  addressed  to 
another  independent  State,  and  to  which  an  answer 
was  demanded  within  forty-eight  hours,  was  sent  to 
Serbia.  A  favourable  answer  was  not  intended  or 
expected  by  Austria,  and  great  was  the  annoyance 
when  Serbia,  yielding  to  the  counsel  of  Russia  and 
other  Powers,  gave  way  to  all  the  Austrian  demands 
except  two,  which  could  not  be  complied  with  until 
her  Constitution  had  been  revised,  and  even  this 
she  promised  to  do,  offering  also  to  submit  any 
further  points  to  the  arbitration  of  the  Hague  Tri- 
bunal. But  this  almost  abject,  and  certainly  wholly 
unexpected,  submission  on  the  part  of  Serbia  did  not 
satisfy  Austria,  who  on  July  28th,  1914,  declared 
war.  Immediately  afterwards  Austria  awoke  to  the 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION  j 

fact  that  she  was  about  to  provoke  a  European 
conflagration,  for  she  found  that  Russia  was  in 
earnest  and  ready  to  take  up  arms  in  defence  of  her 
little  sister  in  the  Balkans.  For  the  first  few  days 
after  the  declaration  of  war  Austria  took  no  active 
steps  beyond  throwing  a  few  shells  into  Belgrade. 
She  became  alarmed  at  the  serious  turn  of  events, 
consented  on  July  3 1st  to  modify  her  demands,  and 
expressed  her  willingness  to  reopen  negotiations. 
But  it  was  too  late.  "  Germany,  having  jockeyed 
Austria  into  a  position  from  which  there  was  no 
escape,  declared  war  on  Russia  the  next  day."* 

On  August  1 2th  the  Austrians  crossed  the  Save 
and  Drina  at  various  points  and  invaded  the 
north-west  corner  of  Serbia  in  great  force.  After 
smaller  combats  at  various  places,  the  great  five 
days'  battle  of  the  Jadar  (August  i8th-23rd)  finally 
drove  the  invaders  out  of  Serbia. 

In  September  Austrian  troops  again  entered  the 
country  and  succeeded  in  establishing  themselves 
in  small  numbers  at  certain  points.  But  it  was  not 
until  the  beginning  of  November  that  the  Austrians 
again  advanced  in  great  force,  the  Serbs  retiring 
before  them  to  the  east  and  south.  At  the  end  of 
this  month  the  invaders  held  a  line  extending  almost 
right  across  North  Serbia  from  Chachak  to  Belgrade 
and  thought  that  victory  was  assured.  But  the 
Serbs  had  retired,  not  because  they  were  beaten, 
but  because  their  supply  of  ammunition  was  almost 
exhausted.  Receiving  just  in  time  a  fresh  supply 
from  the  French,  they  made  that  wonderful  rally 
which  has  been  one  of  the  great  events  of  the  war, 

•  Petrovitch. 


8    A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

and,  advancing  with  fury  upon  the  too  confident 
Austrians  drove  them  for  the  second  time  com- 
pletely out  of  the  country.  By  December  I4th 
Belgrade  itself  had  to  be  evacuated  and  the  land  was 
free  once  more.  The  rout  was  phenomenal,  and 
the  Serbs,  with  comparatively  little  loss  on  their  side, 
had  slain  many  thousands  of  the  enemy  and  cap- 
tured vast  stores  of  guns  and  ammunition.  As  the 
result  of  the  various  engagements,  between  sixty  and 
seventy  thousand  Austrian  prisoners  remained  in 
Serbian  hands. 

But  now  fresh  troubles  of  a  different  kind  began. 
The  medical  organisation  was  wholly  unable  to  cope 
with  the  vast  numbers  of  sick  and  wounded.  In  the 
cold  of  a  Balkan  winter  typhus  fever  began  to  raise 
its  ugly  head.  It  was  under  these  circumstances 
that  urgent  appeals  to  allied  countries  were  issued 
by  the  Serbs.  Mme.  Mabel  Grouitch,  the  energetic 
wife  of  M.  Slavko  Grouitch,  Serbian  Foreign  Secre- 
tary, hurried  to  London  to  plead  in  person  for  her 
sorely  distressed  and  gallant  country.* 

J.B. 

*  Those  who  desire  further  information  on  the  events  immediately 
preceding  the  outbreak  of  the  great  war  should  read  "  J'accuse,"  published 
anonymously  by  a  German  in  Switzerland  (English  translation,  Hodder 
and  Stoughton,  popular  edition,  25.),  and  "  La  Guerre,"  by  Professor 
Ernest  Denis,  of  the  University  of  Paris.  Both  give  a  careful  analysis  of 
the  diplomatic  documents  published  officially  by  the  various  belligerents 
in  their  White  Papers,  Blue  Books,  etc.  For  earlier  Serbian  history, 
Miller's  "  Balkan  States  "  (Story  of  the  Nations  series,  publisher,  Fisher 
Unwin),  and  Petrovitch's  "  Serbia  "  (publisher,  Harrap  &  Co.,  London, 
1915)  may  be  consulted.  The  latter  gives  a  good  account  of  events  up 
to  December,  1914.  All  these  books  are  cheap  and  easily  accessible. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    FORMATION    OF   THE    UNIT. 

The  Meeting  at  Steinway  Hall— Mme.  Slavko  Grouitch — 
Need  of  Medical  Help  in  Serbia — Visit  to  Paris  and  Boulogne — 
Invitation  of  Serbian  Government — Kindness  of  the  Admiralty — 
Gift  of  £1,000  from  the  Serbian  Relief  Fund — Help  from  British 
Red  Cross  Society — Private  and  Public  Appeal  for  Funds — Buying 
of  Stores— Nurses  and  Medical  Staff— V.A.D.'s— Volunteer 
Orderlies — Financial  Responsibility — Formation  of  a  Committee — 
Departure  from  Avonmouth  on  Admiralty  Transport — Malta — 
Salonica — Journey  to  Nish — Serbian  Red  Cross  Society — Unit 
attached  to  Reserve  Military  Hospital  of  Vrnjatchka  Banja. 

THE  seed  out  of  which  our  Unit  grew  was  planted 
at  a  meeting  held  in  aid  of  Serbia  at  the  Steinway 
Hall  in  December,  1914. 

Being  interested  in  Serbia,  and  hoping  to  meet 
our  old  friend  Mme.  Grouitch,  we  left  our  comfortable 
fireside  and  sajlied  forth  to  attend  this  meeting. 
There  we  heard  afresh,  what  at  that  time  was  fre- 
quently in  the  papers,  how  great  was  the  need  in 
Serbia  of  doctors  and  hospital  appliances.  Mme. 
Grouitch  was  the  accredited  agent  of  the  Serbian 
Government.  She  had  left  Serbia  on  a  mission  to 
Great  Britain  and  to  her  native  country  of  the 
United  States  to  obtain  and  organise  help,  medical 
and  otherwise,  for  the  Serbians. 

After  the  meeting  I  said  to  Mme.  Grouitch,  with 
but  little  idea  of  the  suggestion  being  taken  seriously, 
"  How  would  Colonel  S "  (mentioning  a  dis- 


io       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

tinguished  Serbian  friend)  "  like  my  husband  to  go 
out  to  help  him  in  his  hospital  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  she,  "  that  would  not  work  ;  English 
and  Serbian  methods  of  hospital  work  are  so  dis- 
similar. But  why  not  go  out  and  take  a  Unit  ?  It 
is  very  easy,  you  ask  your  friends  for  money,  and 
it  is  sure  to  come  rolling  in  ;  you  buy  with  it  chloro- 
form and  other  hospital  necessaries,  engage  nurses 
of  whom  there  are  many  dying  to  go  out ;  get  an 
invitation  from  the  Serbian  Government — and  go  ! " 
She  said  further  that  there  were  some  Americans 
in  Paris  who  had  been  collecting  money  to  send 
medical  help  to  Serbia  and  might  possibly  be  willing 
to  finance  our  undertaking. 

When  we  returned  home  we  thought  seriously 
over  the  scheme,  which  was  not  without  attractions. 
In  the  first  place  we  knew  the  Balkan  States,  having 
visited  them  many  times,  and,  like  everybody  who 
has  travelled  in  those  countries,  we  loved  their  Slav 
inhabitants  and  were  always  ready  to  visit  them 
again.  In  1904  we  had  spent  a  summer  holiday 
cycling  in  Serbia,  and  had  been  present  at  King 
Peter's  coronation  in  the  Cathedral  of  Belgrade. 
We  both  spoke  Serbian  a  little,  French  and  German 
fluently,  and  had  a  bowing  acquaintance  also  with 
some  of  the  other  languages  to  be  met  with  in  South- 
Eastern  Europe.  So  now  that  Serbia  was  an  Ally 
and  asking  for  help,  we  felt  in  some  ways  that  the  call 
was  directed  to  us.  Secondly,  there  was  no  urgent 
necessity  for  us  to  remain  in  London,  and  we  were 
anxious  to  take  a  more  active  share  in  war  work. 

The  Royal  Free  Hospital,  although  one  of  the 
great  London  hospitals  with  a  medical  school  attached 


THE  FORMATION  OF  THE   UNIT       11 

had  been  left  out  of  the  scheme  of  London  Territorial 
hospitals,  and  although  some  of  the  wards  had  been 
given  up  to  the  War  Office,  the  cases  sent  in  were 
unimportant,  and  the  Medical  staff  were  called  on  to 
treat  patients  with  trivial  injuries.  It  seemed  to 
both  of  us  that  Mr.  Berry  should  have  more  oppor- 
tunity of  using  his  surgical  experience  in  the  service 
of  the  victims  of  the  war. 

For  women  doctors  the  War  Office  had  at  that 
time,  so  they  said,  no  use  whatever,  though  later 
on  the  Army  Medical  authorities  took  a  different 
attitude. 

The  scheme,  therefore,  offered  a  more  extended 
field  of  work  in  the  great  cause  for  which  all  the 
Allies  are  fighting. 

We  decided  to  visit  Paris  at  any  rate,  to  inquire 
further  into  the  possibility  of  co-operation  with  the 
Americans  about  whom  we  had  been  told,  and  to 
take  the  opportunity  of  visiting  some  of  the  hospitals. 
We  reached  Paris,  a  curious  journey  compared  with 
the  familiar  one  of  former  days — Harley  Street 
doctors  in  khaki  waiting  on  the  quay  for  the  arrival 
of  the  boat ;  Boulogne  wholly  given  up  to  the  British, 
suggesting  the  days  of  Henry  the  Fifth  ;  the  circuitous 
railway  journey;  Paris  itself  dark,  empty  and  sad, 
not,  as  now,  securely  oblivious  of  the  nearness  of 
the  German  lines.  We  returned  from  Paris  just 
before  the  New  Year,  having  found  that  the  American 
co-operation  was  not  to  be  worked  :  they  had 
themselves  more  people  who  wanted  to  go  out  than 
there  was  money  with  which  to  send  them.  In  Paris, 
however,  we  gained  some  members  for  our  proposed 
unit ;  our  colleague  Dr.  Ulysses  Williams,  Radio- 


iz       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

grapher  to  the  Royal  Free  Hospital,  who  was  work- 
ing at  the  hospital  in  the  Hotel  Majestic  under 
Mr.  Cecil  Joll ;  also  Messrs.  Gwin,  Schwind,  Howard, 
and  Norris,  the  three  former  volunteer  orderlies, 
the  latter  a  medical  student,  all  working  at  the 
same  hospital.  Both  in  Paris  and  Boulogne  we 
visited  several  hospitals  ;  at  Boulogne  we  obtained 
specially  interesting  information  from  Major  Norring- 
ton,  who  showed  us  a  large  warehouse  adapted  to 
form  an  excellent  hospital,  and  introduced  us  to 
Mackonochie's  rations,  which  in  consequence  we 
took  with  us  in  such  quantities  that  in  Serbia  they 
were,  like  the  poor,  always  with  us,  some  even 
remaining  as  a  legacy  to  our  friend  the  enemy  ! 

On  returning  home  we  felt  ourselves  irrevocably 
pledged  to  carry  out  the  scheme,  and  for  the  next 
three  weeks  we  were  qualifying  to  become  simul- 
taneously charity  appeal  organisers,  universal  pro- 
viders, and  agents  to  a  registry  office. 

As  a  preliminary,  a  cable  was  sent  by  Mme. 
Grouitch  to  the  Serbian  Government,  acquainting 
them  with  our  offer,  and  to  this  an  answer  of  cordial 
acceptance  was  shortly  received. 

We  obtained  leave  of  absence  from  the  board  of 
the  Royal  Free  Hospital.  Mr.  Acland,  Chairman  of 
the  Council  of  the  Medical  School,  and  at  that  time 
Under-Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs,  interested  him- 
self in  our  project,  and  sent  us  to  the  Admiralty, 
who  gave  us  a  most  kind  reception,  and  promised 
free  transport  for  the  Unit  to  Salonika. 

Before  leaving  for  Paris  we  had  already  com- 
municated with  the  Chairman  of  the  Serbian  Relict 
Fund,  who  viewed  our  scheme  sympathetically, 


THE  FORMATION  OF  THE   UNIT       13 

but  could  give  no  promise  as  to  help  until  after  a 
meeting  of  the  Committee.  At  this  meeting,  a  fort- 
night later,  it  was  suggested  that  we  might  join  a 
unit  in  process  of  formation  under  their  auspices,  for 
which  an  administrator  and  portion  of  the  staff  had 
already  been  appointed,  although  no  medical  officers 
had  yet  been  found.  This  after  consideration  we 
declined,  finding  we  should  have  to  sacrifice  to  a 
certain  extent  our  independence,  which  might  have 
proved  harmful  later,  and  feeling  that  it  would  be 
better  to  work  with  a  staff  whom  we  had  ourselves 
selected.  The  Serbian  Relief  Fund,  however,  kindly 
voted  us  £1,000,  and  we  received  useful  information 
about  the  selection  of  stores  from  their  Chairman  and 
Secretary. 

We  also  entered  into  negotiation  with  the  British 
Red  Cross  Society,  and  received  the  official  sanction 
necessary  for  our  proposed  work  as  a  Red  Cross 
Unit,  and  were  further  promised  help  from  the 
Stores  Department.  The  head  of  this  Department 
received  us  with  great  cordiality,  and  sent  us  some 
blankets,  disinfectants,  and  other  useful  contribu- 
tions, besides  undertaking  the  labelling  and  dis- 
patching of  our  stores,  which  was  of  great  assistance. 

An  appeal  was  drawn  up  setting  forth  Serbia's 
crying  need  for  doctors  and  hospitals.  This  was  sent 
with  a  personal  letter  to  a  large  number  of  friends 
and  acquaintances.  It  produced  a  most  gratifying 
response,  every  post  bringing  contributions  varying 
from  5.$-.  to  £50,  while  parcels  containing  clothes, 
new  and  old,  dressings,  bandages,  and  other  hospital 
requisites  poured  into  the  Royal  Free  Hospital. 

The  selection  of  stores  was  also  a  great  undertaking. 


i4       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

We  were  largely  helped  in  this  by  lists  of  articles  that 
had  been  supplied  to  other  hospital  units,  and  by  the 
advice  of  Miss  Cox-Davies,  the  Matron  of  the  Royal 
Free  Hospital,  and  other  experts.  We  went  on  the 
assumption  that  we  might  find  nothing  at  our 
destination — we  had  heard  stories  of  nurses  sleeping 
on  bare  boards,  and  of  drugs  and  food  conspicuous 
by  their  absence.  Besides  drugs,  dressings,  and 
all  ordinary  hospital  requisites,  we  took  beds  for 
patients  and  staff,  folding  tables  and  chairs,  plates 
and  cups,  jugs,  basins  and  cooking  utensils  and  a 
portable  army  stove,  besides  food  stores  in  consider- 
able quantities.  In  fact,  when  our  purchases  were 
completed,  we  felt  prepared  to  run  a  hospital  of  fifty 
beds  on  a  desert  island,  or  in  the  most  destitute 
part  of  devastated  Serbia.  We  hoped  to  find  bread 
and  fresh  meat,  but  even  for  these  we  had  substitutes 
in  biscuits  and  Mackonochie  rations. 

The  beds  we  took  were  folding  beds,  convertible 
into  stretchers,  supplied  by  Mr.  John  Perring,  of 
Putney.  These  proved  to  be  extremely  satisfactory, 
their  only  drawbacks  being  that  they  were  a  little 
apt  to  collapse  when  handled  by  the  unwary,  and  a 
little  too  low  for  the  comfort  of  the  nurses,  but  they 
were  invaluable  on  account  of  the  small  amount  of 
space  they  required,  and  for  the  ease  with  which 
patients  could  be  carried  out  of  doors,  or  elsewhere, 
in  them. 

In  the  intervals  of  buying  stores  and  writing 
letters  of  appeal  or  thanks  we  were  selecting  the 
personnel  of  the  Mission,  and  we  found  the  "  registry 
office  "  part  of  our  business  a  very  active  one.  The 
news  of  our  project  seemed  to  have  spread  far  and 


THE  FORMATION  OF   THE   UNIT       15 

wide  ;  persons  of  whom  we  had  never  heard  wrote 
letters  or  rang  us  up  on  the  telephone,  offering  their 
services  to  Serbia — some  with  qualifications,  some 
without.  Fortunately  we  had  the  assistance  of  Miss 
Cox-Davies,  who,  in  spite  of  being  matron  of  two 
large  hospitals  managed  to  bestow  on  us  much  time 
and  interest.  Her  great  experience  in  hospital 
organisation  and  wide  knowledge  of  the  nursing  pro- 
fession made  her  help  invaluable.  At  her  suggestion 
we  attempted  to  secure  as  our  Sister-in-charge  Miss 
Irvine  Robertson,  who  had  for  a  time  been  sister  in 
one  of  Mr.  Berry's  wards  in  the  Royal  Free  Hospital, 
had  nursed  in  Bulgaria  during  the  former  Balkan 
War,  and  could  speak  a  little  Serbian.  But  Miss 
Robertson,  who  was  working  at  a  military  hospital, 
was  bound  to  the  War  Office,  and  the  War  Office 
showed  no  disposition  to  release  her.  However, 
eventually,  insistence  on  the  need  of  Serbia  and  of 
her  special  fitness  for  the  task,  with  intercession  from 
high  quarters,  produced  the  desired  effect.  Another 
former  Royal  Free  Hospital  sister,  Miss  Annie  Pearce, 
was  nursing  at  a  naval  hospital,  but  was  kindly 
yielded  up  by  the  Admiralty.  Two  other  nurses, 
Misses  Bartleet  and  Gore,  had  been  sisters  in  large 
London  hospitals,  and  during  the  present  war  had 
nursed  in  Belgium,  where  for  a  time  they  had  been 
prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  Germans.  The  medical 
staff  was  completed  by  Mr.  Panting,  surgeon  to  the 
Truro  Hospital,  a  tried  and  experienced  surgeon, 
and  Dr.  Dorothy  Chick,  for  whom  the  venture  was 
a  trial  trip,  as  she  heard  only  just  before  starting 
that  she  had  passed  inside  the  magic  portals  of 
the  medical  profession.  Another  medical  student, 


16       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

besides  Mr.  Norris  already  mentioned,  Miss  K. 
Parkinson,  joined  as  a  dresser.  Two  other  Royal 
Free  Hospital  students  were  to  have  been  added  to 
the  number,  but  a  letter  was  received  from  an  English 
medical  student  working  in  Serbia,  giving  such  a 
terrible  description  of  the  country,  as  being  utterly 
disorganised,  and  so  given  up  to  violence  and 
immorality,  that  it  was  unsafe  for  any  woman  to 
be  there  ;  this  so  alarmed  the  parents  of  the  young 
ladies  that  they  cried  off.  I  mention  this  incident 
because  it  was  the  first  instance  we  had  of  what  we 
were  perpetually  encountering  afterwards,  absolutely 
unfounded  rumours  with  circumstantial  details  on 
apparently  excellent  authority.  Whether  there  is 
something  in  the  soil  of  Serbia  which  favours  the 
growth  of  such  rumours,  or  whether  it  is  the  atmo- 
sphere of  war  which  gives  them  birth  I  know  not ; 
certainly  in  the  present  instance  the  description  of 
Serbia  was  as  unlike  anything  we  were  to  find  in 
the  future  as  it  was  opposed  to  what  we  had  seen  in 
the  past ! 

A  very  important  branch  of  a  foreign  hospital 
unit  has  not  yet  been  mentioned,  and  that  is,  that 
of  the  lady  orderlies,  or  V.A.D.'s.  Candidates  for 
this  formed  a  large  number  of  the  letter  writers  and 
telephone  callers  already  mentioned.  The  V.A.D. 
is  ubiquitous.  Not  only  does  economy  favour  her 
use  and  scarcity  of  trained  nurses  often  make  her  a 
necessity,  but  such  desirable  qualities  as  adaptability, 
enthusiasm,  experience  of  the  world  and  of  travel, 
and  especially  a  knowledge  of  foreign  languages,  are 
perhaps  more  generally  found  among  V.A.D. 's  than 
trained  nurses,  and  sometimes  largely  compensate 


FIG.    I. — VRNJATCHKA    BANJA. 

The  large  building  in  the  middle  foreground  is  the  Drzhavna  Hospital. 


FIG.    2.— THE   TERAPIA   HOSPITAL,    SEEN    FROM    THE    SCHOOL. 


THE  FORMATION  OF  THE   UNIT       17 

for  absence  of  complete  training.  All  our  V.A.D.'s 
spoke  French  or  German  or  both. ;  one  had  nursed 
in  the  Boer  War,  one  had  run  a  native  hospital  in 
West  Africa,  and  one  had  had  experience  of  camping 
in  Canada.  One,  Mrs.  Panting,  came  as  dispenser, 
but  was  even  more  in  requisition  in  Serbia  as  the 
possessor  of  a  sewing  machine  !  A  trained  teacher 
of  cookery  and  domestic  science,  Miss  L.  Creighton, 
came  in  the  capacity  of  cook.  The  fact  that  this  lady 
was  the  daughter  of  an  Anglican  bishop,  and  her- 
self a  Cambridge  Graduate,  greatly  impressed  the 
Serbians,  and  in  fact  shed  a  halo  over  the  whole 
Unit! 

Besides  the  three  other  gentlemen  orderlies  secured 
in  Paris,  Mr.  Jan  Gordon,  now  artist,  formerly 
engineer,  rendered  us  great  service. 

A  complete  list  of  the  Unit  is  given  in  the  Appen- 
dix. On  the  whole  we  felt  we  might  well  congratulate 
ourselves  on  the  strength  of  the  staff.  Two  hospital 
surgeons  of  standing,  an  X-ray  specialist,  and  four 
sisters  from  large  London  Hospitals  formed  a  good 
average  in  so  small  a  unit,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
varied  qualifications  of  other  members.  All  the  mem- 
bers were  persons  with  whom  we  were  personally 
acquainted,  or  who  were  known  to  and  recommended 
by  friends  of  our  own. 

On  January  9th  we  received  a  telephone  message 
from  the  Admiralty  asking  if  we  could  be  ready  to 
start  on  the  loth.  Impelled  by  faith  and  hope  we 
boldly  answered  "  yes,"  though  at  that  time  we  had 
not  received  any  promise  of  help  from  the  Serbian 
Relief  Fund,  and  our  assets  stood  only  at  £150, 
while  the  hospital  equipment  was  still  nebulous  ! 


1 8   A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBI4 

The  financial  responsibility,  therefore,  at  this  time 
rested  almost  entirely  upon  ourselves. 

However,  matters  advanced  rapidly.  We  formed 
a  small  committee*  of  friends  and  supporters  to 
carry  on  in  England  the  work  of  collecting  funds  and 
dispatching  stores.  Mr.  Reginald  Garratt,  Secretary 
to  the  Royal  Free  Hospital,  kindly  acted  as  hon. 
secretary  to  this  committee,  a  post  which  entailed  on 
him  and  his  office  staff  an  enormous  amount  of  labour, 
both  before  and  after  our  departure. 

We  wished  to  be  called  the  Royal  Free  Hospital 
Serbian  Unit,  but  the  hospital  board — though  they 
bestowed  their  blessing,  and  several  members  gave 
also  more  substantial  donations — would  not  allow 
the  poor  infant  to  bear  the  hospital  name.  Perhaps 
they  feared  it  would  disgrace  its  parent  in  barbarous 
Serbia,  perhaps  they  had  visions  of  being  called 
upon  to  pay  a  ransom  to  redeem  it  from  the  clutches 
of  the  enemy.  So  it  received  the  colourless  title  of 
Anglo-Serbian  Hospital,  a  name  shed  in  Serbia,  where 
it  was  universally  known  as  the  "  Berry  Mission," 
while  in  England,  in  spite  of  its  god-parents,  it  was 
more  often  called  the  "  Royal  Free  Hospital  Unit." 
The  Royal  Free  Hospital  was  certainly  the  London 
home  of  the  Unit.  In  the  great  central  hall  of  the 
newly-built  out-patient  department — now  a  ward 
for  officers — our  stores  were  received,  to  be  labelled 
and  dispatched.  As  the  date  of  departure  approached 
the  hall  contained  an  imposing  collection  of  packing- 

*  The  committee  consisted  of  the  following  : — George  Hubbard.  Esq., 
F.R.I.B.A.  (Chairman),  Rt.  Hon.  W.  H.  Dickinson,  M.P.  (Treasurer), 
Sir  F.  Layland  Barratt,  Bart.,  M.P.  Oateri  Chairman),  Mrs.  Joseph 
Cunning,  Sir  Arthur  Evans,  K.C.B.,  P.S.A.,  Haden  Guest,  Esq.,  Mrs.  W.  H. 
Hilton,  Cecil  Joll,  Esq.,  F.R.C.S.,  Miss  Zillah  Tuck,  and  Reginald  R. 
Garratt,  Esq.,  Hon.  Secretary. 


THE  FORMATION  OF  THE  UNIT  \  \  19 

cases,  bales,  and  crates.  The  seventy-two  beds, 
tied  together  in  bundles  of  four,  hardly  looked  as  if 
they  would  arrive  in  Serbia  intact,  but,  as  it  turned 
out,  scarcely  one  was  broken.  In  side  rooms  parcels 
containing  contributions  from  friends  were  received  ; 
unpacking  and  repacking  of  these  revealed  a  most 
heterogeneous  collection  of  things,  and  made  great 
claims  on  the  time  and  labour  of  indefatigable 
members  of  the  nursing  and  secretarial  staffs. 

On  January  I9th,  three  days  later  than  expected, 
we  embarked  from  Avonmouth  on  the  Admiralty 
transport  SS.  Dilwara. 

The  incidents  of  the  journey  may  be  passed  over 
rapidly.  The  Bay  was  rough  and  the  Dilwara  rolled, 
but  the  members  of  the  Unit  were  keen  on  preparing 
for  the  work  before  them,  and  those  who  could  hold 
up  their  heads  on  deck  gathered  together  daily  to 
learn  the  rudiments  of  Serbian  from  Mr.  Berry — 
the  Professor  as  we  shall  often  term  him  in  this 
book,  that  being  the  title  by  which  he  was  usually 
known  in  Serbia,  from  his  position  in  connection  with 
the  University  of  London,  and  from  his  having  held 
a  Professorship  in  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons. 

Malta  afforded  a  pleasant  stay  of  two  days.  Our 
further  journey  was  arranged  for  by  the  Admiralty 
on  the  Messageries  boat  Caledonien.  We  left  Malta 
on  a  beautiful  evening,  and  while  sitting  on  deck 
watching  the  moonlit  sea  and  sky,  we  had  our  first 
introduction  to  the  banjo  and  the  inimitable  songs 
of  Mr.  Gordon  (the  Herr  Ingenieur  as  he  was  usually 
called  in  our  Serbian  hospital),  which  during  so  many 
months  were  to  be  such  an  antidote  to  depression 
and  influence  for  sociability  in  the  Unit,  as  well  as 


20       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

such  an  unfailing  attraction  to  lay  before  our  Serbian 
visitors. 

Alas  !  the  Caledonien  soon  showed  that  she  could 
roll  as  well  as  the  Dilwara,  and  in  the  narrow  channel 
of  the  Doro  such  bad  weather  was  encountered  that 
the  boat  actually  turned  back  and  spent  several 
hours  steaming  up  and  down  in  a  more  or  less  sheltered 
bay,  thus  prolonging  by  another  twenty-four  hours 
the  pleasures  of  the  voyage. 

Salonica,  however,  was  reached  in  sunshine,  and 
its  beautiful  harbour  and  picturesque  streets  de- 
lighted the  Unit.  Two  and  a  half  days  were  required 
to  tranship  the  stores  from  the  lighters,  on  which 
they  were  taken  off  the  ship  to  the  train.  On  the 
same  boat  had  come,  under  the  charge  of  our  friend 
Mr.  Weigall,  the  stores  belonging  to  the  British 
Red  Cross  Mission  under  Captain  Bennett,  who  with 
his  staff  was  being  transported  on  Sir  Thomas  Lipton's 
yacht  the  Erin.  There  were  also  packing  cases 
addressed  to  Lady  Paget's  Hospital  at  Skoplje  and 
to  the  Serbian  Red  Cross  Society  at  Nish.  To  ensure 
that  each  packing-case  went  into  the  right  railway 
van  required  constant  supervision  from  one  or  more 
responsible  members  of  the  Unit. 

At  Salonica  we  heard  from  the  Serbian  Consul- 
General,  Mr.  Vintrovitch,  that  our  destination  was 
to  be  Vrnjatchka  Banja,  and  Mr.  Weigall  was  informed 
that  the  British  Red  Cross  Unit  was  to  go  to  Kragu- 
jevatz.  Before  we  left,  however,  another  order 
arrived,  saying  the  destination  of  the  latter  unit 
had  been  changed,  and  they  also  were  to  be  located 
at  Vrnjatchka  Banja.* 

•  Before  we  left  London  it  had  been  suggested  to  us  that  it  would  be  a 
good  plan  if  both  units  could  be  sent  to  work  in  the  same  place.  Con- 


THE  FORMATION  OF  THE   UNIT      21 

On  February  9th  our  party  left  Salonica,  their 
number  augmented  by  the  addition  of  the  five  mem- 
bers from  Paris,  who  had  travelled  thence  viA  Italy, 
and  had  arrived  at  Salonica  the  day  before  (see 
Chap.  VI.).  We  took  with  us  candles  and  food  for  the 
journey,  as  we  knew  the  trains  would  not  be  lighted 
and  no  food  would  be  obtainable  on  the  way. 

A  journey  of  about  three  hours  through  rather 
dull  scenery  brought  us  to  Ghevgeli,  on  the  Serbian 
frontier.  Here,  near  the  station,  were  to  be  seen  the 
hospital  buildings  of  the  American  Mission,  which  was 
waging  a  terrible  fight  against  typhus.  The  enormous 
numbers  they  had  to  deal  with  made  it  impossible 
to  secure  proper  conditions  for  the  satisfactory 
treatment  of  the  sick  or  the  safety  of  the  staff.  Some 
of  the  doctors  and  nurses  met  us  at  the  station  ;  they 
had  already  two  members  of  their  staff  down  with 
typhus  and  seemed  very  depressed  and  overworked. 

At  Ghevgeli  we  were  transferred  into  a  Serbian 
train.  The  line  led  through  magnificent  mountain 
scenery  ;  at  times  we  crawled  over  bridges  which 
had  been  temporarily  repaired  in  consequence  of  a 
recent  Bulgarian  raid.  At  Skoplje  (Uskub),  where 
we  arrived  in  the  evening,  Lady  Paget  met  us  on 
the  platform,  and  from  her  too  we  learnt  of  the 
rapid  increase  of  typhus  in  the  country,  and  of  the 
precautions  they  were  taking  against  it.  Nish  was 
reached  next  morning.  Here  we  were  met  by  M. 
Slavko  Grouitch,  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs,  and 
Colonel  Soubotitch,  Vice-President  of  the  Serbian 


sequently,  from  Malta  we  dispatched  to  Nish  a  letter  to  this  effect,  and  we 
were  afterwards  told  that  a  similar  letter  had  been  received  from  the  other 
unit.  Hence  the  change  in  the  destination  of  the  latter. 


22       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

Red  Cross  Society.  We  were  most  hospitably 
entertained  at  Nish,  and  met  many  prominent  Ser- 
bians engaged  in  Red  Cross  and  other  work,  and  also 
some  of  the  English  already  working  in  the  country. 
We  visited  the  offices  of  the  Serbian  Red  Cross,  saw 
the  President  of  the  Society  Colonel  Karanovitch, 
and  were  informed  that  we  were  to  be  attached  to  the 
Reserve  Military  Hospital  of  Vrnjatchka  Banja  and 
that,  like  other  foreign  missions  in  Northern  Serbia, 
we  should  work  under  the  direct  orders  of  the 
military  authorities,  whose  headquarters  were  at 
Kragujevatz.  The  missions  in  Southern  Serbia 
were  under  different  control.  We  also  heard  that 
we  were  to  be  located  in  a  very  spacious  building  at 
Vrnjatchka  Banja,  which  was  very  satisfactory  news. 
We  left  Nish  in  the  evening,  had  to  transfer  our- 
selves and  our  stores  at  Krushevatz  during  the  small 
hours  of  the  morning  in  pitch  darkness  into  a  narrow- 
gauge  train,  and  when  daylight  appeared  found  our- 
selves travelling  up  a  valley,  the  beautiful  hills  on 
either  side  of  which  were  partially  capped  with  snow. 
We  reached  the  station  of  Vrnjatchka  Banja  before 
we  were  expected,  and  there  was  no  one  to  meet  us. 
We  adjourned  to  a  modest  cafe  close  by,  while  the 
stationmaster  had  recourse  to  the  telephone.  Just 
as  some  of  the  party  were  starting  to  walk,  a  collec- 
tion of  carriages  drove  up.  In  the  leading  one  was 
Colonel  Sondermeyer,  one  of  the  heads  of  the  Army 
Medical  Department,  with  two  gentlemen  of  whom 
we  were  to  see  much  in  the  future,  Major  Gashitch 
and  Mr.  Neuhut.  They  assured  the  intending  walkers 
that  the  mud  was  so  bad  that  walking  would  be 
impossible.  This  sounded  absurd  to  English  ears, 


THE  FORMATION  OF  THE   UNIT       23 

but  subsequent  acquaintance  with  Serbian  mud  in 
general  and  with  this  road  in  particular,  made  us  see 
that  the  description  was  justified. 

Luggage  and  stores  were  left  behind  at  the  station, 
and  the  procession  of  carriages,  headed  by  a  big 
wagonnette  driven  by  an  Austrian  prisoner,  with 
which  we  afterwards  became  very  familiar,  conveyed 
the  Unit  over  the  two  miles  which  separate  the 
station  from  Vrnjatchka  Banja. 

F.  M.  D.  B. 


CHAPTER  III. 

VRNJATCHKA     BANJA  :       PREPARATION     OF     HOSPITALS. 

Description  of  Vrnjatchka  Banja — The  "  Terapia  " — Unpacking 
Stores — Supplies  in  Serbia — Our  Unit  Self-contained — Ventilation 
— Disinfection — Sulphurisation — Boilers — Destructors  for  Burning 
Refuse — Flies — Water  Supply— The  School. 

VRNJATCHKA  BANJA*  a  watering-place  with  warm 
sulphur  springs,  is  one  of  the  most  fashionable  and 
important  health  resorts  in  Serbia.  It  possesses  one 
long,  straggling  street,  with  villa  boarding-houses 
and  small  shops  on  one  side,  while  the  other  side  is 
mostly  open  to  the  so-called  "  park,"  where  gravel 
paths  wind  among  grassy  plots  interspersed  with 
groups  of  trees  and  a  few  flower-beds.  Through  the 
park  runs  a  canalised  stream  crossed  by  numerous 
wooden  bridges.  Dotted  about  in  the  park  itself 
and  on  the  slopes  of  the  hills  around  are  numerous 
villas,  some  of  them  private  dwellings,  but  the 
majority  of  the  nature  of  boarding-houses.  One  of 
the  best  of  these  was  the  Villa  Agnes,  where,  we  were 
informed,  seven  or  eight  of  the  Unit  were  to  be 
housed  until  permanent  accommodation  could  be 
found.  It  was  proposed  that  the  rest  of  the  party 
should  sleep  in  the  "  Drzhavna  Kafana,"  (National 

*  The  name  of  our  village  or  little  town  is  Vrntse.  As  Serbian  proper 
names  are  always  declined,  the  baths  of  Vrntse  are  Vrnjatchka  Banja  ; 
just  as  one  might  speak  of  Harrogate  and  "  Harrogatian  "  baths,  if  a 
similar  practice  prevailed  here.  Another,  and  formerly  better  known, 
place  in  Serbia,  much  further  south,  is  Vranje ;  this  also  has  baths,  called 
Vranshka  Banja. 

There  was  much  confusion  of  all  these  names  by  members  of  the  English 
missions  in  Serbia. 


FRNJATCHKA    BANJA  25 

Coffee-house),  a  large  restaurant  which 
had  been  used  as  a  hospital,  but  was  now  empty 
(Fig.  i).  Shortly  after  our  arrival  we  were  taken 
to  see  several  empty  villas  and  told  we  might 
select  any  which  suited  us  for  hospitals  and  dwelling- 
house.  Several  were  good  houses,  but  all  had  only 
small  rooms,  which  we  felt  would  make  nursing 
difficult  and  require  a  larger  staff  than  we  possessed. 
Where,  we  asked,  was  the  palatial  residence  we  had 
been  told  to  expect  ?  At  last  we  learnt  that  there 
was  a  hydropathic  establishment  outside  the  town, 
which  was  said  to  be  in  bad  repair.  We  went  there 
in  the  afternoon,  and  found  a  building  which,  though 
by  no  means  ideal  for  a  surgical  hospital  was  never- 
theless better  than  any  we  had  yet  seen,  and  pos- 
sessed a  large  hall  in  the  form  of  a  dining  saloon. 
The  "  Drzhavna  "  had,  it  is  true,  an  even  larger  room, 
but  this  place  when  we  first  saw  it  appeared  so  dark, 
grimy,  and  generally  insanitary,  that  it  was  doubt- 
ful whether  it  would  ever  be  possible  to  convert  it 
into  a  satisfactory  hospital.  We  decided,  therefore, 
to  take  the  hydropathic,  the  "  Terapia  "  (Fig.  2)  as 
it  was  called,  as  our  principal  hospital,  and  chose  as  a 
second  one  the  then  disused  village  school,  a  brick 
building  which  stood  on  the  hill  opposite,  about 
300  yards  away.  The  Terapia  was  to  be  our  dwell- 
ing-house, and  so  uninviting  and  even  dangerous 
did  the  Drzhavna  appear  for  a  night's  stay,  that  it 
was  decided  that  those  of  the  party  who  were  to  have 
slept  there  should  come  and  "  camp  out  "  in  the 
Terapia  that  very  night.  Next  day  we  started 
vigorously  on  the  work  of  converting  the  latter 
place  into  our  hospital  and  home. 


26       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

The  Terapia  was  an  imposing  grey  stone  building 
adorned  with  several  balconies.  It  stood  near  the 
foot  of  the  lower  slopes  of  the  great  mountain  range 
of  Gotch,  facing  north  and  overlooking  a  marsh. 
Behind  the  house  the  hill  rose  steeply  and  was 
covered  sparsely  with  trees.  The  chief  attraction 
of  the  building,  from  the  hospital  point  of  view,  was 
the  great  dining-hall,  which  we  saw  at  once  would 
form  an  excellent  ward.  This  was  a  long  room  with 
concrete  floor  and  large  windows  on  either  side  ;  it 
ran  at  right  angles  to  the  main  building,  being 
connected  by  an  ante-room  with  the  centre  of  the 
first  floor  corridor  and  opening  at  the  other  end  by 
wide  doors  straight  on  to  the  hillside  (Fig.  3). 

The  ground  floor  of  the  main  block  possessed  at 
either  end  a  large  square  room  with  a  bathroom 
fitted  with  an  ordinary  bath  opening  out  of  it.  These 
rooms  had  concrete  floors,  with  gratings  for  drainage  ; 
they  contained  when  we  came  various  portable 
baths — electrical,  douche,  etc.,  most  of  which  we 
removed.  The  large  room  on  one  side  was  turned 
into  a  receiving  room  ;  it  was  arranged  that  patients 
should  be  brought  in  through  one  of  the  windows 
and  washed  in  the  adjoining  bathroom.  The  corre- 
sponding bathroom  on  the  other  side  was  converted 
into  the  operating  theatre,  and  the  large  adjoining 
room  was  used  for  sterilising,  washing,  keeping 
instruments,  etc.,  and  occasionally,  when  a  chaplain 
visited  us,  it  became  the  chapel.  Between  these 
two  ends  of  the  building  ran  a  passage  out  of  which 
opened  on  one  side  five  good  bathrooms,  and  on  the 
other  several  small  rooms,  one  of  which  became  the 
X-ray  room  ;  one  was  used  for  sulphurisation  of 


FRNJATCHKA  BANJA  27 

clothes  and  another  for  storing  lamps  and  oil.  There 
were  also  many  quaint  little  cubicles  evidently  in- 
tended for  bathers  to  undress  in,  which  came  in  most 
conveniently  for  storing  dressings  and  other  articles. 

A  fine  stone  staircase  led  to  the  centre  of  a  long 
corridor  running  the  whole  length  of  the  first  floor ; 
out  of  this  opened  twelve  small  rooms.  Those  on 
one  side  were  kept  for  patients,  three  or  four  beds 
being  put  in  each,  and  they  were  occupied  at  different 
times  by  typhus  patients,  Serbian  officers,  women,  or 
merely  overflow  patients  from  the  big  ward. 

The  rooms  on  the  other  side  were  used,  one  as  a 
common  room  for  the  staff,  some  as  storerooms  for 
linen,  soap,  pots,  underclothes  for  distribution, 
etc.,  presided  over  by  Mrs.  Eldred,  and  in  one  Dr. 
Chick  and  Miss  Parkinson  established  an  admirable 
little  dispensary  and  pathological  laboratory. 

The  second  floor  was  similar  to  the  first  in  its 
corridor,  and  in  number  and  size  of  rooms,  but  over 
the  big  ward  there  was  nothing,  and  in  the  place  of 
the  ward  ante-room  was  a  shed-like  attic  which  was 
turned  into  a  carpenter's  shop,  first  managed  by 
Gordon  and  Norris  and  afterwards  by  Blease  and 
Jones.  The  other  rooms  were  all  used  as  bedrooms  for 
the  staff.  In  these  rooms  the  very  elegant  furniture 
belonging  to  the  company  owning  the  place  was  left 
for  our  use  ;  from  the  rest  of  the  building  it  was 
all  cleared  out  and  stored  away,  but  pieces  of  it 
used  to  appear  in  other  villas  whenever  a  royal  or 
distinguished  guest  had  to  be  accommodated,  and  it 
thus  gradually  became  scattered  all  over  Vrnjatchka 
Banja. 

Owing    to    the    present    and    previous    wars,    the 


28       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

company  which  owned  the  Terapia  had  not  flourished 
and  the  building  had  been  long  uninhabited.  A 
pipe  had  burst,  and  had  apparently  long  remained 
in  the  same  condition,  as  the  water  had  soaked 
deeply  into  the  wall,  forming  a  dark  stain  over  a 
large  part  of  the  outside  wall,  and  the  partition  walls 
of  three  bedrooms  were  similarly  decorated.  The 
architect  of  the  building  evidently  regarded  the  sun 
as  an  enemy  to  be  kept  away,  and  the  house  was  so 
arranged  that  the  minimum  of  sunlight  should  find 
entrance.  The  marsh  in  front  assisted  in  the  result- 
ing chilliness  and  provided  nightly  a  full  orchestra 
of  vociferous  frogs.  Only  a  few  of  the  smaller  rooms 
faced  south,  and  for  half  of  these  the  sunshine  was 
partly  cut  off  by  a  block  parallel  to  the  main  building 
which  opened  from  one  side  of  the  further  end  of 
the  ward.  Here  on  the  ground  floor  of  the  block 
was  the  hospital  kitchen,  with  an  adjoining  dayroom 
for  the  orderlies  ;  on  the  next  floor  was  our  own 
kitchen,  in  which  was  placed  the  stove  we  had  brought 
out,  and  adjacent  to  the  kitchen  was  the  staff  dining- 
room.  In  the  storey  above  were  small  rooms  (one 
of  which  was  kept  locked  by  the  Terapia  Company), 
and  the  others  were  used  as  bedrooms  by  the  Austrian 
orderlies. 

Underneath  the  big  hall  were  the  things  which 
together  formed  the  pride  of  the  Terapia  and  excited 
the  envy  of  all  our  visitors,  Serb  and  British  alike. 
These  were  the  steam  laundry,  the  electric  light 
plant,  the  central  heating  apparatus,  the  boilers 
for  the  baths,  and  the  engines  which  furnished  the 
power  for  the  rest.  All  this  machinery  was  imposing 
and  suggested  luxury.  But  in  fact  it  was  not  in  very 


VRNJATCHKA  BANJA  29 

good  order  ;  it  required  constant  supervision  and 
repair,  and  when  fuel  failed,  or  engines  broke  down, 
as  they  often  did,  our  palatial  residence  became  very 
uncomfortable.  We  had  not  at  this  time  the  host  of 
Austrian  prisoners  who  afterwards  did  most  of  our 
heavy  work.  The  whole  of  the  unpacking  of  the 
stores  and  preparation  of  the  Terapia  and  school  was 
done  by  the  members  of  the  Unit  themselves.  But 
the  engines  and  machinery  were  fortunately  in  the 
hands  of  skilled  workmen  from  the  first.  When  we 
took  over  the  Terapia  from  the  company  to  which  it 
belonged  we  found  already  installed  in  it  three 
Austrian  prisoners,  who  remained  with  us  until  the 
following  November,  and  rendered  invaluable  ser- 
vice. Two  of  these,  Adolf  Riedl  and  Stefan  Szilagyi, 
worked  in  what  we  always  called,  in  German  fashion, 
"  the  machine-house." 

As  the  Terapia  had  not  only  hot  and  cold  water, 
but  also  central  heating,  electric  light,  up-to-date 
lavatories,  and  a  steam-laundry,  it  was  as  good  a 
hospital  building  as  could  be  found  in  Serbia,  outside 
Belgrade  itself. 

Our  stores,  in  the  shape  of  390  bales  and  packing 
cases,  were  brought  up  from  the  station  in  ox  wagons 
and  piled  up  in  the  large  hall,  where  for  several  days 
all  the  members  of  the  Unit  worked  hard,  unpacking, 
distributing,  and  adapting  the  various  contents. 
Some  of  these  proceedings  are  described  in  Chapter  VI. 

With  regard  to  medical  stores  and  such  things  as 
bedsteads,  bedding,  and  hospital  linen,  conditions 
were  very  different  in  the  various  foreign  units 
which  came  to  Serbia.  Most  of  the  British  units, 
like  our  own,  were  self-contained  and  did  not  need  to 


30       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

draw  to  any  large  extent  upon  the  Serbs  for  equip- 
ment. But  some  of  the  foreign  units,  such  as  the 
Greek  mission  at  Vrntse,  had  brought  but  little  with 
them  except  surgical  instruments,  and  these  were 
naturally  wholly  dependent  upon  the  Serbs  for  the 
rest  of  their  equipment.  It  was  largely  the  rich 
supply  of  medicaments  and  other  hospital  stores  that 
the  British  missions  brought  with  them  to  the 
impoverished  country  that  made  their  help  so  valu- 
able to  Serbia,  and  for  this  the  Serbs  have  always 
been  profuse  in  their  expressions  of  gratitude.  At 
the  time  of  our  arrival  in  Serbia,  or  soon  afterwards, 
the  storerooms  of  the  Serbian  Red  Cross  Society 
were  almost  wholly  depleted,  their  funds  were  prac- 
tically exhausted  (indeed  it  was  said  that  the  Society 
was  at  that  time  actually  in  debt),  and  it  was 
practically  impossible  to  obtain  the  articles  of  which 
the  country  was  urgently  in  need.  It  was  the  lack 
of  sufficient  underclothing,  for  instance,  which  made 
it  impossible  to  treat  typhus  on  rational  lines. 
"  What  Serbia  most  needs,"  said  a  prominent  Serb 
official  to  one  of  us  during  the  typhus  epidemic, 
"  is  a  million  shirts  " ;  and  there  was  much  wisdom 
in  his  remark.  We  seldom  visited  the  Red  Cross 
stores  at  Nish  without  bringing  away  something  that 
was  useful  for  our  hospitals.  The  Red  Cross  officials 
supplied  our  wants  freely  as  far  as  they  were  able, 
but  unfortunately  their  power  to  do  so  fell  far  short 
of  their  willingness.  For  the  first  few  months  we  were 
entirely  dependent,  except  for  beds,  upon  the  stores 
which  we  had  brought  from  home. 

We  were  all  great  believers  in  ventilation,  and  we 
also  believed  that  human  nature  being  what  it  is, 


FRNJATCHKA  BANJA  31 

if  a  window  can  be  shut  it  will  be  shut  ;  consequently 
one  large  window  at  the  end  of  the  ward  was  fixed 
in  a  sloping  position,  while  some  of  the  upper  panes 
from  windows  on  both  side  walls  were  remorselessly 
removed  and  replaced  by  planks  at  an  angle  of  45°, 
so  as  to  direct  the  incoming  air  towards  the  ceiling. 
By  this  means  the  ward,  even  when  full  of  suppurat- 
ing wounds,  remained  surprisingly  sweet.  We  had 
been  told  by  Serbs  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
have  open  windows  in  a  Serbian  hospital :  they 
prophesied  that  all  sorts  of  calamities  would  follow 
the  execution  of  such  revolutionary  proceedings ; 
the  patients  would  not  like  us,  they  would  refuse  to 
stay  in  the  hospital,  and  so  on.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
the  patients  accepted  the  open  windows  with  remark- 
able docility  even  when  we  had  severe  weather, 
and  when  the  central  heating  apparatus  would  not 
work — two  conditions  which  generally  happened  to 
occur  simultaneously.  Sometimes,  when  the  ward 
was  crowded,  the  sisters  and  orderlies  had  difficulty 
in  finding  places  for  all  the  beds  on  the  windward 
side  where  the  patients  would  not  be  snowed  on 
during  a  blizzard  ;  but  even  in  these  conditions  the 
patients  generally  remained  cheerful !  The  seventy- 
two  portable  stretcher  beds,  which  had  happily 
arrived  in  good  condition,  were  placed  in  the  main 
ward,  and  also  in  the  smaller  rooms  destined  for 
patients.  In  the  school,  which  was  being  simul- 
taneously got  ready,  we  placed  iron  bedsteads, 
which  were  requisitioned  from  villas  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood. 

The  disinfection  of  clothing,  blankets,  mattresses, 
etc.,  was  an  important  matter  which  early  engaged 


32       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

our  attention.  At  first  we  tried  sulphurisation.  A 
small  room  in  the  basement  of  the  Terapia  was 
hermetically  sealed  by  pasting  newspaper  over  all 
cracks  and  crevices.  Poles  were  placed  across  the 
room,  and  upon  these  were  hung  the  various  articles 
to  be  disinfected.  Lump  sulphur  upon  an  iron  tray 
in  the  middle  of  the  floor  was  then  ignited  and  the 
room  left  closed  for  twenty-four  hours.  This  method, 
when  carefully  carried  out,  proved  perfectly  satis- 
factory as  regards  the  destruction  of  all  living  lice. 
When  the  room  was  subsequently  opened  and  the 
garments  examined,  hundreds  of  dead  lice  could  be 
shaken  out,  especially  from  the  socks  and  under- 
garments. For  the  successful  application  of  this 
method,  it  is  essential  that  the  room  be  hermetically 
sealed,  and  that  a  sufficiency  of  sulphur  be  employed 
(three-quarters  of  a  pound  to  each  thousand  cubic 
feet  of  air  space)  so  that  all  the  oxygen  may  be 
transformed  into  sulphur  dioxide  ;  it  is  important 
also  that  the  bundles  of  clothing  be  opened  out  so 
that  the  sulphurous  gas  can  obtain  free  access  to  all 
parts.  When,  as  occasionally  happened,  careless- 
ness led  to  a  neglect  of  these  precautions,  some  lice 
were  found  to  survive.  But  sulphurisation,  in  any 
case,  did  not  destroy  the  nits,  and  after  a  time  we 
gradually  came  to  use  this  method  chiefly  for  articles, 
such  as  boots,  which  could  not  be  boiled. 

But  to  boil  a  large  mass  of  clothes  and  blankets 
was  a  difficulty  ;  we  had  no  large  tanks  in  which  the 
boiling  could  be  effected,  and  none  were  obtainable 
either  in  Vrntse  or  in  Nish.  The  local  tinsmith  was 
therefore  summoned,  galvanised  iron  sheets  were 
bought  at  the  neighbouring  little  town  of  Trstenik, 


FIG.    3. — MAIN    WARD    IN    THE    TERAPIA. 


FIG.    4. — CONVALESCENT    PATIENTS   AT   THE    SCHOOL    HOSPITAL,    DANCING 
THE    KOLA. 


FRNJATCHKA   BANJA  33 

and  in  a  few  days  we  were  in  possession  of  five  large 
circular  metal  tanks,  each  about  a  yard  wide,  and 
a  yard  high,  at  a  cost  of  fifty  dinars  (francs)  apiece. 
Wooden  lids  were  made  for  them  by  our  Austrian 
prisoner  carpenters.  Two  of  these  tanks  we  handed 
on  to  the  British  Red  Cross  unit.  The  others  we 
mounted  on  brick  furnaces  built  by  our  orderlies, 
English  or  Austrian,  and  from  that  time  onwards 
clothes,  linen,  blankets,  uniforms,  and  everything  else 
that  would  stand  the  process  were  disinfected  by 
thorough  boiling*  (Fig.  5).  It  was  surprising  how 
little  an  Austrian  uniform  was  damaged  by  a  good 
boiling ;  and  even  blankets,  although  somewhat 
hardened  by  the  process,  were  afterwards  still  quite 
serviceable.  Anything  was  better  than  harbouring 
infected  lice. 

Until  the  Austrian  prisoners  came  the  work  was 
done  mainly  by  Mr.  Howard.  Afterwards  each 
boiler  was  placed  in  charge  of  an  Austrian  prisoner 
told  off  for  the  purpose,  who  soon  managed  his  duty 
most  efficiently.  Mattresses,  or  rather  the  "  straw 
sacks  "  which  we  used  in  place  of  mattresses,  were 
disinfected  by  the  simple  process  of  burning  the 
hay  with  which  they  were  stuffed,  and  boiling  the 
empty  sacks. 

Two  things  had  to  be  provided  for  each  of  our 
hospitals.  The  first  was  the  boiler  just  described, 
and  the  second  a  refuse  destructor.  The  destructors 
were  only  brought  to  perfection  after  several  experi- 
ments. Our  first  attempt  at  the  Terapia  was  at 

*  In  the  autumn  we  received  from  England  a  "  Thresh  "  steam  dis- 
infector,  but  for  the  first  few  months  we  were  entirely  dependent  upon 
these  improvised  boilers. 


34       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

making  one  of  the  army  pattern,  a  shallow  pit  lined 
with  stones,  which  rise  in  a  cone  in  the  middle.  In 
theory  this  is  at  once  cheap  and  effective,  but  we  found 
that  our  hospitals  did  not  furnish  a  sufficiently  large 
supply  of  combustible  material  to  keep  the  fire 
going.  If  the  fire  once  abates  in  a  destructor  of  this 
type,  the  draught  up  the  sides  of  the  middle  cone  is 
diminished  and  the  fire  eventually  goes  out.  We 
wanted  something  smaller  with  a  high  chimney. 
Howard  therefore  devised  a  picturesque  structure, 
which  for  several  months  defied  all  the  laws  of 
stability  as  successfully  as  the  Austrian  Empire 
itself.  It  was  built  of  unmortared  bricks,  and  a 
sinuous  double  chimney,  made  of  drain  pipes,  pro- 
vided the  necessary  draught.  It  was  not  until  the 
autumn  that  this  was  replaced  by  another,  built 
by  Pokorny,  our  Austrian  mason,  which  carried  out 
the  same  principles  of  combustion  and  at  the  same 
time  took  more  account  of  those  of  architecture. 
Pokorny  had  previously  built  destructors  for  our 
other  hospitals  (Figs.  5  and  6).  His  type  included  a 
base,  in  which  a  wood  fire  could  be  lit,  and  a  refuse 
chamber,  floored  with  iron  bars  and  communicating 
with  a  brick  chimney  at  the  back.  An  iron  stove- 
pipe crowned  the  whole.  This  destructor  was  a  great 
success  ;  once  lit  it  burnt  continuously,  and  a  very 
small  fire  underneath  would  set  it  at  work. 

A  point  to  which  from  the  beginning  we  attached 
considerable  importance  was  the  removal  and  de- 
struction, by  burning  or  burial,  of  all  manure  or 
decaying  vegetable  material  from  the  grounds  of 
the  hospital  and  from  the  neighbouring  roads.  It 
is  in  such  places  that  flies  breed,  and  the  precautions 


FRNJATCHKA  BANJA  35 

taken  accounted  for  the  comparative  immunity  of 
most  of  our  hospitals  from  these  pests. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  consideration  in  the 
establishment  of  a  hospital  is  the  provision  of  a 
good  water  supply.  At  Vrnjatchka  Banja  we  were 
exceptionally  fortunate  in  this  respect.  A  public 
supply  of  water  of  excellent  quality  had  been  brought 
a  few  years  before  from  a  point  about  five  miles 
away  in  the  mountains  behind  us.  Almost  the  first 
thing  we  did  after  our  arrival  was  to  dispatch  a 
small  party  under  Dr.  Williams  to  inspect  the  intake 
of  this  water  supply  and  to  examine  the  course  of  the 
channel  by  which  the  water  came  to  Vrntse.  Dr. 
Williams  who  had  been  accompa'nied  also  by  the 

town  engineer,  Mr.  M ,  reported  that  the  springs 

from  which  the  water  came  were  in  a  remote  part  of 
the  mountains  far  from  any  habitations  or  cultivated 
soil,  that  there  was  a  good  covered  reservoir  at  the 
intake,  and  that  the  water  was  brought  down  in  an 
underground  channel.  Both  source  and  channel 
were  free  from  liability  to  pollution,  and  the  water 
might  therefore  be  drunk  with  impunity.  Until 
this  fact  had  been  established  we  had  drunk  no  water 
which  had  not  previously  been  boiled.  Now  we 
were  free  to  drink  the  water  which  was  obtainable  at 
fountains  in  various  parts  of  the  town.  The  fountain 
nearest  to  our  main  hospital  was  distant  about 
400  yards,  lying  behind  the  school  and  close  to  the 
Villas  Shumadia  and  Zlatibor,  afterwards  chosen 
by  the  British  Red  Cross  unit  for  their  dwelling- 
house  and  main  hospital.  For  more  than  two  months 
all  our  drinking  water  at  the  Terapia  was  brought 
in  buckets  from  this  fountain.  But  immediately 


36       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBI4 

after  receiving  Dr.  Williams'  report  we  applied, 
through  Mr.  Neuhut,  to  the  Serbian  Government, 
asking  that  the  town  supply  might  be  laid  on  to  the 
Terapia  itself  and  the  other  hospital  buildings.  To 
obviate  the  long  delay  which  in  Serbia  generally 
precedes  the  granting  of  such  requests,  we  offered  to 
contribute  a  sum  of  money,  not  exceeding  £50,  towards 
the  expenses  of  laying  pipes,  etc.  This  arrangement 
was  made  before  Captain  Bennett's  unit  had  arrived  ; 
when  he  learnt  what  had  been  done,  he  kindly 
agreed  to  share  in  the  guarantee.  In  the  end,  how- 
ever, neither  of  us  was  called  upon  to  pay  anything. 
The  pipes  duly  arrived  from  Belgrade,  and  after 
considerable  pressure  had  been  applied  to  the  town 
engineer,  he  set  a  gang  of  Austrian  prisoners  to  dig 
the  necessary  trenches  and  complete  the  work. 

By  the  middle  of  April  water  had  been  laid  on  to 
the  Terapia,  the  School,  and  the  Villa  Zlatibor.  A 
stand  pipe  was  also  erected,  for  the  convenience  of 
the  general  public,  by  the  side  of  the  high  road  not 
far  from  the  Terapia.  As  the  other  hospitals,  which 
we  subsequently  established,  were  in  close  proximity 
to  the  public  sources  of  water  supply  in  the  town,  all 
our  hospitals  were  thus  eventually  supplied  with  an 
abundance  of  good  water.  The  Berkfeldt  filters  that 
we  had  brought  with  us  from  England  were  therefore 
never  used,  and  the  elaborate  plans  for  the  puri- 
fication of  drinking  water,  which  we  had  intended 
to  adopt  if  necessary,  also  fortunately  never  required 
to  be  put  into  execution. 

By  February  I9th,  our  main  hospital,  the  Terapia, 
was  ready  for  the  reception  of  patients,  and  we 
duly  notified  the  military  authorities  to  this  effect. 


VRNJATCHKA  BANJA  37 

The  school  was  also  ready  very  shortly  afterwards. 
This  building  consisted  of  three  class  rooms,  which 
we  turned  into  excellent  wards.  There  was  also  a 
small  kitchen,  and  two  rooms  where  the  schoolmaster 
formerly  resided.  One  of  these  became  a  bedroom 
for  Mr.  Gwin,  in  whose  charge  the  school  remained 
during  the  whole  of  his  stay  with  the  mission,  and 
the  other  was  used  as  a  dressing  room  for  patients. 
The  school  was  intended  only  for  patients  who  could 
walk  and  would  require  little  nursing,  and  it  proved  a 
very  useful  convalescent  home  for  the  Terapia  (Fig.  4). 
These  two  hospitals,  Terapia  and  School,  gave  us  an 
aggregate  of  one  hundred  beds.  On  February  2ist, 
two  days  after  they  were  made  ready,  the  first  batch 
of  patients,  twenty-three  in  number,  was  received 
at  the  Terapia.  They  were  nearly  all  cases  of  old 
compound  fracture  and  other  severe  bone  injuries, 
transferred  from  the  Serb  and  Greek  hospitals  in  the 
town.  They  were  brought  into  the  receiving  room 
on  the  ground  floor,  and  before  being  taken  up  to 
the  ward  each  patient  was  shaved  and  washed 
thoroughly,  in  the  manner  that  will  be  described 
later. 

J.B. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FEBRUARY,    1915. 

A  Journey  to  Nish — Engineer  and  the  New  Railway — Stalatch — 
First  Conference  at  Nish — Terrible  State  of  Serbia — Overcrowding 
and  Typhus  Fever — Memorandum  sent  to  England — Scarcity  of 
Doctors— Mortality  Statistics — Previous  Balkan  Wars — Vrntse 
after  Battle  of  Chachak — Conditions  at  Vrntse — Spread  of  Typhus 
— Greek  and  Serbian  Hospitals — Typhus  Baraques — Conference 
with  British  Red  Cross  Unit — Clearing-house  System — Bath-house 
— The  Drzhavna — First  Patients  Arrive — Methods  of  Transport — 
The  Serbs  as  Patients. 

ON  February  I9th,  the  day  on  which  our  main 
hospital  was  ready  for  the  reception  of  patients,  a 
summons  was  received  from  Nish  to  attend  a  meeting 
of  representatives  from  the  various  British  hospital 
units  then  in  Serbia,  to  be  held  at  the  British 
Minister's.  Accordingly  on  the  following  day  Mr. 
Berry  and  Dr.  Howell,  the  senior  medical  officer  of 
tfye  British  Red  Cross  Society's  unit,  which  had 
arrived  at  Vrnjatchka  Banja  four  days  after  ourselves, 
set  off  by  train  to  attend  the  meeting.  Travelling 
by  train  at  that  time  was  by  no  means  pleasant. 
It  was  generally  recognised  that  the  railway  carriages 
were  a  fertile  source  of  infection  from  typhus,  and 
consequently  they  reeked  of  disinfectants.  A  pleasant 
travelling  companion  was  found  in  the  person  of  the 
chief  engineer  to  the  line,  who  told  us  about  the 
projected  new  railway  that  was  being  constructed 
from  Kragujevatz  via  Kraljevo  and  the  Ibar  valley 
to  Mitrovitsa,  where  it  would  join  the  existing  line 
running  north  from  Skoplje  (Uskub).  The  con- 


FEBRUARY,    1915  39 

struction  was  in  the  hands  of  a  Franco-Serbian 
company,  and  it  was  expected  that  it  would  take  at 
least  four  years  to  complete.  Such  a  line  would 
obviously  be  of  great  advantage  to  Serbia,  especially 
from  a  military  point  of  view,  as  it  would  give  an 
alternative  route  from  Belgrade  (or  rather  from  the 
junction  of  Lapovo)  in  the  north  to  Skoplje  in  the 
south.  At  present  Serbia  has  only  one  railway,  and 
that  a  single  line,  running  right  through  the  country 
from  north  to  south.  But  very  little  had  been  done 
as  yet  towards  the  construction  of  the  new  line 
beyond  preliminary  surveys  and  the  collection  of 
material.  The  outbreak  of  war  had  of  course  put  a 
stop  to  all  work,  and  some  of  the  derelict  material 
was  subsequently  of  use  to  us,  as  will  be  told  here- 
after (see  Chap.  XL). 

A  seven  hours'  wait  at  the  junction  of  Stalatch 
was  spent  at  the  neighbouring  inn,  where  we  managed 
to  secure  a  good  supper.  The  place  was  very  dirty, 
and  the  main  room  (in  which  we  did  not  stay)  was 
crowded  with  nearly  a  hundred  weary,  unwashed, 
and  verminous  soldiers,  many  of  whom  looked 
extremely  ill.  They  were  lying  about  all  over  the 
place — on  tables,  chairs  and  floors,  and  it  was  with 
difficulty  that  we  could  thread  our  way  across  them. 
All  windows  were,  as  usual,  tightly  closed,  and  the 
atmosphere  was  stifling.  It  was  obvious  enough 
from  this  room  alone  how  typhus  spread  in  Serbia. 
At  3  A.M.  we  resumed  our  journey  and  reached  Nish 
some  three  hours  later. 

At  the  medical  conference  held  that  afternoon 
similar  pathetic  tales  came  from  all  who  were  in 
attendance.  Existing  hospitals  everywhere  were 


4o       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

said  to  be  over-full  and  under-staffed ;  typhus, 
typhoid,  small-pox,  and  other  infectious  diseases  were 
present  everywhere  in  the  country  and  apparently 
rapidly  on  the  increase ;  shortage  of  doctors  and 
nurses  in  most  places  ;  disinfectants  and  many  other 
drugs  difficult  to  obtain  ;  linen  of  all  kinds,  either  in 
rolls  or  made  up  into  garments,  was  urgently  required, 
as  the  spread  of  typhus  was  largely  due  to  the  inability 
to  provide  the  verminous  patients  with  clean  under- 
garments. 

It  was  clear  that  very  valuable  work  had  been 
done  by  those  foreign  doctors  and  nurses  who  had 
been  in  the  country  since  the  early  days  of  the  war, 
under  conditions  of  great  difficulty  and  much  per- 
sonal danger.  But  the  efforts  of  many  of  them  were 
much  hampered  by  the  lack  of  funds  and  of  sanitary 
material.  All  the  doctors  at  the  meeting  felt  strongly 
that  they  had  not  sufficient  means  for  dealing  with 
the  insanitary  conditions,  which  were  largely  due  to 
overcrowding  and  imperfect  means  of  washing  and 
disinfecting. 

At  the  request  of  the  conference  a  memorandum 
embodying  the  above  facts  and  asking  for  further 
assistance  was  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Howard  Barrie, 
of  Skoplje,  and  Mr.  Berry,  and  signed  by  them  and 
the  other  medical  members  of  the  conference.*  It 
was  then  forwarded  to  England  with  an  explanatory 
letter  requesting  that  it  should  be  shown  to  the 
authorities  of  the  Serbian  Relief  Fund  and  the 

•  Mr.  J.  T.  Morrison,  F.R.C.S.,  Surgeon-in-Chief  of  the  Serbian  Relief 
Fund  Hospital  at  Skoplje,  who  was  unfortunately  unable  to  be  present 
at  the  conference,  was  shown  a  copy  of  the  memorandum  a  few  days  later 
and  wrote  that  he  was  "  in  full  agreement  with  all  the  statements  and 
recommendations,  and  would  especially  urge  the  prime  importance  of 
(a)  temporary  buildings,  and  (b)  underclothing." 


FEBRUARY,    1915  41 

British  Red  Cross  Society.  There  is  good  reason  to 
believe  that  this  memorandum  contributed  materially 
to  stimulate  the  flow  of  money,  material,  doctors 
and  nurses,  which  had  already  begun,  and  which  was 
subsequently  poured  by  a  generous  British  public 
into  the  unhappy  land. 

Our  return  journey  was  made  with  Captain  Bennett 
and  Mr.  Karslake,  who  kindly  gave  us  seats  in  the 
luxurious  motor  car  which  the  latter  had  brought  out 
from  England  for  the  use  of  the  British  Red  Cross  unit. 

We  thus  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  beautiful 
mountain  road  via  Djunis  and  Krushevatz,  and  were 
enabled  to  avoid  the  intensely  disagreeable  railway 
journey  which  would  otherwise  have  been  our  fate. 

At  the  time  of  our  arrival  in  Northern  Serbia 
active  hostilities  were  in  abeyance.  After  the  great 
Serbian  victories  of  two  months  before,  which  had 
ended  in  the  triumphant  rout  of  the  Austrian  invaders, 
the  country  had  been  flooded  with  large  numbers  of 
wounded  and  sick,  both  Serb  and  Austrian.  For 
these  the  existing  hospital  accommodation  was 
wholly  inadequate.  All  the  buildings  which  had  been 
pressed  into  the  service  were  hopelessly  overcrowded 
and  miserably  understaffed  as  regards  doctors  and 
nurses.*  In  previous  Balkan  wars  Austria,  Russia, 
and  other  foreign  countries  had  been  of  great  use, 
sending  well-equipped  medical  units  to  supplement 

*  The  following  interesting  figures  were  kindly  supplied  to  me  from 
official  sources  by  Colonel  Karanovitch,  the  President  of  the  Serbian  Red 
Cross  Society : — 

In  the  war  against  the  Turks  (1912-13)  there  were  303  doctors,  80  students, 
and  13  other  assistants.  As  the  army  then  numbered  356,000  soldiers, 
there  was  one  doctor  to  rather  more  than  a  thousand  soldiers.  In  the 
present  war,  Serbia,  with  greatly  expanded  territory,  was  able  to  put 
400,000  soldiers  into  the  field  and  had,  at  the  beginning,  387  doctors  (all 
Serbian)  and  203  students  and  helpers.  Up  to  date  (May  22nd,  1915, 


42       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

the  work  of  the  Serbian  Army  Medical  Service.  But 
most  of  these  nations  now  had  their  own  affairs  to 
attend  to,  and  but  little  help  could  be  spared  for 
Serbia.  Austria  in  particular  was  an  enemy  and 
fighting  on  the  other  side  ;  the  only  Austrian  doctors 
now  helping  Serbia  were  those  who  had  been  taken 
prisoners.  Many  of  these  rendered  invaluable  aid 
to  the  Serbs,  many,  alas,  gave  up  their  lives  while 
so  doing.  Some  60,000  or  70,000  Austrian  prisoners, 
wounded  or  unwounded,  were  already  in  the  country. 
The  consequent  overcrowding,  dirt,  and  neglect, 
in  the  cold  of  a  Balkan  winter,  not  unnaturally  led 
to  an  outbreak  of  typhus  fever. 

Typhus*  had  occurred  in  the  previous  Balkan  war, 
two  years  before,  but  had  never  then  attained  any- 
thing like  the  proportions  which  it  now  assumed. 
Whether  or  not  on  this  occasion  it  was  originally 
introduced  by  Austrian  prisoners,  as  was  commonly 
asserted,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  its  widespread 
occurrence  throughout  Serbia  was  due  to  the  soldiers, 
both  wounded  and  unwounded,  Serb  and  Austrian,  who 

when  the  typhus  epidemic  had  practically  ceased)  93  had  died,  as  follows  : — 
Killed  in  battle,  i  ;  died  from  non-infectious  diseases,  6  ;  from  typhus 
exanthematicus,  82  ;  recurrent  fever,  2  ;  typhoid  (typhus  abdominalis),  2. 
Besides  the  above,  no  less  than  35  foreign  doctors  had  also  died,  mostly  of 
typhus  and  typhoid ;  among  them  were  six  Austrian  prisoners.  Of  the 
English,  only  two  had  died,  of  typhus  and  of  dysentery  respectively.  Of 
American  doctors,  four  died  of  typhus,  including  one  who  committed 
suicide  in  delirium.  Two  Belgian  doctors  and  one  Egyptian  died.  A  very 
striking  contrast  is  afforded  by  the  figures  of  the  previous  (Turkish)  war, 
in  which  only  two  doctors  lost  their  lives,  one  Serb  and  one  Greek. 

*  It  should  be  remembered  that  in  Serbia  and  throughout  the  Germanic 
countries  in  general  the  term  "  typhus  "  is  applied  indiscriminately  to 
the  two  fevers  which  we  call  typhus  and  typhoid  (or  enteric),  just  as  was 
the  case  in  England  half  a  century  ago.  To  distinguish  them  the  former 
is  known  as  typhus  exanthematicus^  or  Fleck-typhus,  the  latter  as  typhus 
abdominalis,  but  in  practice  the  qualifying  adjective  is  generally  omitted. 
Misunderstandings,  sometimes  serious,  sometimes  amusing,  are  apt  to 
occur  among  those  whose  knowledge  of  German  medical  terms  is  imperfect, 
as  was  the  case  with  some  of  the  English  doctors  in  Serbia. 


FEBRUARY,   1915  43 

were  now  distributed  in  hospitals,  in  other  public 
buildings,  and  in  private  houses  all  over  the  country. 

Vrntse  lay  some  thirty  miles  from  a  range  of  hills 
near  Chachak,  on  which,  during  the  last  invasion,  a 
bloody  battle  had  occurred,  when  the  Austrians  had 
been  decisively  defeated.  After  the  battle  hundreds  of 
wounded  were  poured  into  the  town.  There  was  no 
regular  hospital  in  the  place,  but  the  principal  hotels 
and  boarding-houses  were  converted  into  temporary 
hospitals,  and  were  soon  filled  to  overflowing. 

Our  energetic  Major  Gashitch,  aided  by  an  elderly 
Slav,  Dr.  Ivanishevitch,  who  had  practised  for 
many  years  in  France  and  had  patriotically  come  to 
Serbia  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  did  what  they 
could,  and  worked  incessantly.  Many  Serbian  ladies, 
although  mostly  without  training  as  nurses,  also  gave 
their  assistance  willingly,  but  when  typhus  had  made 
its  appearance  few  remained. 

But  few  deaths  had  occurred  in  these  hospitals 
until  some  days  before  our  arrival,  when  typhus  had 
broken  out.  The  disease  had  been  introduced  and 
disseminated  by  patients,  who  were  sent  into  the 
town  in  batches  at  short  notice  and  without  any 
information  as  to  what  was  the  matter  with  them. 
Sometimes  100  or  150  were  just  dumped  down  in 
the  middle  of  the  night,  no  inquiry  having  been 
made  whether  they  could  be  accommodated.  They 
had  to  be  squeezed  in  anyhow,  often  two  in  a  bed. 
Many  of  these  brought  typhus,  either  declared  or  in 
the  incubation  stage.  Patients  and  hospitals  swarmed 
with  lice,  and  the  disease  spread  rapidly.  We  were 
told  that  of  sixty-eight  patients  who  had  recently 
come  to  the  town,  fifty  died  within  a  fortnight. 


44       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

The  hospitals  were  in  a  most  unsatisfactory 
condition  ;  there  were  practically  no  nurses ;  what 
nursing  there  was,  was  done  by  untrained  Austrian 
prisoners.  The  windows  were  always  closed,  and  the 
heat  and  stench  were  almost  unbearable.  Little  or 
no  attempt  was  made  to  wash  the  patients,  or  to 
provide  them  with  clean  linen.  The  treatment 
consisted  chiefly  in  the  administration  of  powders, 
(antipyrin,  salicylates,  etc.),  by  orderlies  at  frequent 
intervals.  The  diet  was  mainly  of  bread  and  thin 
soup.  Under  the  pillows  would  be  found  the  remains 
of  the  daily  rations  of  bread,  and  often  an  accumu- 
lation of  pills  or  powders,  for  they  were  generally 
just  handed  round,  the  patient  being  left  to  take 
them  or  not  as  he  felt  inclined.  There  was  at  this 
time*  no  public  laundry,  and  no  public  disinfection 
of  any  kind,  and  the  clothes  of  the  patients  were 
rarely  if  ever  disinfected  in  the  hospitals  them- 
selves. 

Two  of  the  hospitals,  the  Sotirovitch,  an  hotel  with 
a  fine  dining-room,  and  the  Kruna,  another  hotel, 
were  under  the  Greek  doctors  ;  and  two  villas,  the 
Avala  and  the  Atina,  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Serbs. 
Besides  these  hospitals  there  were,  outside  the  town, 
three  portable  baraques  which  had  been  set  up  for 
convalescent  officers  by  the  Serbian  Red  Cross  Society 
during  the  previous  Balkan  war.  These  were  now 
filled  with  cases  of  all  kinds  of  infectious  disease, 
mainly  typhus.  The  place  was  in  a  dirty  and  insani- 
tary condition,  and  the  mortality  was  very  high. 
These  baraques  were  under  the  charge  of  a  Monte- 

*  Subsequently  Major  Gashitch  set  up  a  hospital  laundry  and  built  a 
brick  dry  air  disinfector  in  the  town. 


FEBRUARY,   1915  45 

negrin  lady  medical  student,  who  lived  there  and 
worked  heroically  under  Dr.  Ivanishevitch. 

It  was  very  evident  from  the  state  of  things  in 
Vrntse  that  very  favourable  conditions  existed  for 
the  spread  of  typhus  and  that,  unless  some  stringent 
measures  were  taken,  the  whole  place  would  be  over- 
run by  the  epidemic. 

The  British  Red  Cross  Unit,  under  their  non-medical 
head,  Captain  Bennett,  had  arrived  on  February  I5th, 
and  had  taken  as  their  principal  hospital  a  large  villa, 
the  Zlatibor.  The  two  missions  tried  as  far  as  possible 
to  collaborate  in  their  work.  On  March  1st  a  con- 
ference was  held  at  the  Terapia,  in  which  the  medical 
staff  of  both  missions  and  Captain  Bennett  took 
part.  At  this  it  was  decided,  on  Dr.  Williams' 
suggestion,  to  adapt  and  use  one  of  the  hot  springs 
for  washing  patients  and  to  transform  the  Drzhavna 
Kafana,  which  stood  close  by,  into  a  receiving  or 
clearing  hospital.  It  was  intended  that  as  far  as 
possible  all  patients  arriving  at  the  town  should  pass 
through  the  portals  of  our  bath,  and  that  they  should 
be  kept  a  few  days  at  the  clearing  hospital  before 
being  passed  on  to  the  hospital  for  which  they  were 
intended.  By  this  means  it  was  hoped  that  all 
lice  would  be  eliminated.  Patients  who  developed 
typhus  were  drafted  into  the  infectious  baraques. 
It  was  not  practicable  to  keep  patients  in  the  clear- 
ing hospital  during  the  whole  possible  time  of  incu- 
bation, but,  even  if  the  patient  fell  ill  of  typhus  after 
being  sent  to  another  hospital,  there  was  little  or 
no  chance  of  his  transmitting  the  infection,  if  he  were 
free  from  lice.  It  was  arranged  that  the  baths  and 
"  Drzhavna  "  should  be  run  jointly  by  both  missions. 


46       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

Dr.  Williams  and  I)r.  Rowlands  were  to  be  the  medical 
officers  in  charge  of  the  "  Drzhavna,"  each  taking 
half  the  wards,  and  sisters  and  V.A.D.'s  were  to  be 
provided  from  each  mission. 

The  work  of  preparing  the  "  Drzhavna "  was 
undertaken  at  once,  everyone  in  our  Unit  who  could 
be  spared  lending  a  hand.  The  part  of  the  building 
already  used  as  a  hospital  consisted  of  two  wards, 
one  with  large  windows  opening  on  to  the  terrace, 
a  fine  room  easily  capable  of  holding  sixty  beds, 
the  other  a  room  somewhat  dark  and  less  easy  to 
ventilate,  in  which  twenty  patients  could  be  accom- 
modated. Besides  these  there  were  several  other 
smaller  rooms  ;  one  of  them  was  used  for  keeping 
stores,  dressing  out-patients,  etc.,  and  one  was  later 
turned  into  an  operating  theatre. 

The  disinfection  of  the  hospital  was  carried  out 
in  the  usual  way  by  sulphurisation  ;  fifteen  heaps  of 
sulphur  were  left  burning  in  various  places,  looking 
like  so  many  little  volcanoes.  Next  day  a  great 
cleaning  of  floors,  walls,  tables,  and  bedsteads  took 
place,  and  the  whole  place  was  metamorphosed  into 
an  airy  and  attractive  hospital,  instead  of  the  dark, 
odoriferous,  grimy  place  it  was  before.  In  one 
respect  our  cleansing  of  the  "  Drzhavna "  was 
incomplete.  We  never  got  rid  of  the  fleas.  The 
building  was  old,  and  less  than  half  of  it  was  actually 
under  our  control.  The  fleas  swarmed  in  it,  and  no 
one  could  work  there  without  being  continually 
irritated  by  their  bites. 

The  public  bath-house  required  some  adaptation  to 
fit  it  for  the  proposed  washing  of  patients.  The  work 
of  pulling  down  the  existing  dressing  cubicles  and 


FEBRUARY,    1915.  47 

the  erection  of  a  wooden  platform  is  described  in 
Chap.  VI. 

While  the  preparation  of  the  "  Drzhavna  "  was 
still  in  progress,  we  heard  that  another,  and  this 
time  a  large,  consignment  of  wounded  was  on  its 
way.  These  were  cases  of  wounds  inflicted  during 
the  great  battles  at  the  end  of  November  and  begin- 
ning of  December,  and  had  been  collected  from  various 
hospitals  in  Northern  Serbia,  chiefly  from  that  of 
Palanka.  Beds  were  hastily  got  ready  by  filling 
mattress-cases  and  pillow-cases  with  hay,  but  in 
spite  of  the  efforts  of  both  missions,  the  complement 
of  blankets  remained  somewhat  short,  and  some  beds 
lacked  pillows,  even  after  all  available  bags  and 
pillow-cases  had  been  filled.  The  convoy  of  wounded, 
however,  did  not  arrive  on  the  day  expected.  This 
was  fortunate,  for  snow  fell  heavily  nearly  all  day, 
and  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  carry  out 
thoroughly  the  scheme  of  washing  and  disinfection. 
On  the  morning  of  the  next  day  (March  I2th)  we  were 
informed  that  they  were  arriving,  and  Major  Gas- 
hitch  took  Mr.  Berry  to  the  station.  There  they 
saw  the  ambulance  train  arrive  in  charge  of  a  Serbian 
doctor,  one  of  the  many  Markovitches  with  whom 
we  came  in  contact.  The  party  had  been  two  days 
on  the  journey,  the  whole  of  the  preceding  day 
having  been  spent  at  the  junction  for  our  branch  line. 
About  a  dozen  ox  wagons,  as  well  as  some  horse- 
drawn  carriages,  were  already  at  the  station. 

Occasionally  the  methods  by  which  ox  wagons 
and  other  vehicles  were  obtained  to  convey  patients 
from  the  station  were  distinctly  amusing.  If  the 
conveyances  provided  by  the  town  authorities  were 


48       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

insufficient,  carriages  or  wagons  passing  along  the 
neighbouring  high  road  were  stopped,  and  the  occu- 
pants turned  out,  together  with  baggage,  farm  imple- 
ments or  furniture,  as  the  case  might  be.  If  objec- 
tions were  raised,  a  fierce-looking  gentleman  with 
a  gun  strolled  up,  and  the  peasants  yielded  at  once. 
Groups  of  disconsolate  men  and  women  might  be 
seen  sitting  by  the  roadside  at  the  station,  while 
their  wagons  made  two  or  three  journeys  to  the 
town  and  back.  On  one  occasion,  even  the  post 
carriage  was  pressed  into  the  hospital  service.  What 
impressed  us  most  was  the  readiness  with  which 
the  Serbs  as  a  rule  gave  way  to  demands  which  in 
England  would  have  produced  a  riot.  They  were 
a  strange  mixture  of  docility  and  independence. 

While  the  Professor  was  absent  at  the  station,  the 
other  members  of  the  British  units  were  preparing  for 
the  reception  of  the  patients,  both  at  the  baths  and  at 
the  hospitals.  About  two  o'clock  the  horse  vehicles 
arrived  bearing  wounded,  most  of  whom  were  able 
to  walk.  These  were  seated  on  the  benches  outside  in 
the  sun,  while  they  waited  their  turn  to  enter  (Fig.  7). 
Here  their  heads  were  clipped  by  the  local  barber  and 
others. 

The  ox  wagons  began  to  arrive  some  time  after  the 
horse  wagons,  in  a  long-drawn-out  train,  bringing  cases 
mostly  recumbent  and  some  looking  extremely  ill. 
Twenty-five  of  the  worst  cases  were  sent  on  at  once  to 
the  Terapia,  where  Dr.  Chick,  with  Sister  Robertson 
and  English  orderlies,  was  waiting  to  receive  them. 
The  remainder  were  laid  on  benches  beside  the  earlier 
arrivals.  Fortunately  the  day  was  fine  ;  there  was 
glorious  sunshine,  though  it  was  freezing  in  the  shade. 


FIG.    5. DISINFECTING    APPARATUS    AND    DESTRU' 


HE    DRZHAVNA. 


From  right  to  left  are  seen  hot  water  boiler    destructor,  tank  for  boiling  infected 
clothing,  and  the  Thresh  disinfector,  received  from  England  in  September. 


FIG.    6. — AUSTRIAN    PRISONER    ORDERLIES    BUILDING    A    DESTRUCTOR    AT 
THE    SCHOOL. 


f* 

FEBRUARY,   1915  49 

Inside  the  bathhouse  Dr.  Williams  and  Dr.  Row- 
lands, from  the  Red  Cross,  with  English  and  Austrian 
orderlies  from  both  missions,  worked  hard  all  the 
afternoon.  Each  patient  on  entering  the  bathhouse 
was  stripped  and  his  clothes  put  into  a  linen  bag  to 
be  disinfected.  After  the  removal  of  clothes  and 
hair  with  their  lice  inhabitants,  the  patient,  if  able 
to  walk,  went  down  into  the  water  and  was  well 
swilled  by  an  orderly.  The  more  severe  cases  were 
laid  on  trestle  benches  by  the  side  of  the  water  and 
washed  there.  After  the  bath  they  were  dressed 
in  clean  pyjamas  and  carried  to  the  "  Drzhavna." 

Nearly  all  the  wounded  arriving  in  the  town 
entered  the  bath  before  being  distributed  among 
the  different  hospitals.  But  we  could  not  prevent 
a  certain  amount  of  leakage.  A  good  many  patients 
succeeded  in  obtaining  access  directly  to  the  Greek 
and  Serb  hospitals.  It  must  be  said,  however,  that 
the  vast  majority  of  those  who  did  come  to  us 
thoroughly  enjoyed  the  luxury  of  the  warm  bath 
and  submitted  cheerfully  enough  to  the  thorough 
scrubbing  to  which  each  was  subjected.  All  the  staff, 
men  or  women,  who  came  into  contact  with  patients 
before  they  were  washed  had  to  wear  a  bifurcated 
garment  made  in  one  piece,  and  tied  tightly  round 
ankles,  wrists  and  neck,  as  a  safeguard  against  lice. 
High  rubber  boots  were  also  worn  by  those  who 
possessed  any,  and  were  extremely  useful,  as  the  lice 
were  unable  to  crawl  up  them.  Later  on  a  wooden 
hut  was  built  beside  the  bathhouse  ;  here  patients 
were  shaved  and  undressed,  and  this  was  a  great 
improvement  on  the  earlier  arrangement. 

The   general   opinion   of   our  doctors  and   nurses 


50       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

was  that  the  Serbs  were  very  good  patients.  Some 
of  our  sisters,  who  had  nursed  soldiers  of  other 
nationalities,  declared  that  they  preferred  the  Serbs 
to  all  the  others.  In  spite  of  their  independence  of 
character,  the  soldiers  were  almost  always  docile, 
and  they  had  borne  injuries  and  neglect,  as  a  rule, 
with  patience  and  fortitude.  Occasionally  we  had 
cases  of  childish  and  malicious  complaints  against 
Austrian  prisoners.  Sometimes  a  man  would  howl 
like  a  baby  when  his  wound  was  being  dressed  ; 
but  a  case  of  this  sort,  unless  he  was  seriously 
exhausted  by  long  suffering,  could  generally  be  cured 
by  a  little  playful  banter.  The  most  common  fault 
was  reluctance  to  get  up  and  move  about  when  it 
was  desirable  that  the  patient  should  do  so.  The 
men  would  lie  on  their  beds  and  refuse  to  walk,  or 
cling  to  crutches  when  they  ought  to  have  been 
putting  their  weight  on  their  feet.  But  the  majority 
were  courageous  enough.  When  they  first  came  to 
hospital,  most  of  them  had  a  great  dread  of  anaes- 
thetics, probably  well  founded  upon  experience  in 
previous  places.  Some  believed  that  every  period 
of  anaesthesia  meant  a  loss  of  several  years  of  life, 
and  they  would  sometimes  undergo  painful  opera- 
tions without  an  anaesthetic  rather  than  purchase 
painlessness  at  such  a  cost.  On  one  occasion  however 
the  Frau  Doktor  received  a  graceful  compliment  when 
a  patient  declared,  on  recovering  from  an  anaesthetic, 
"  When  death  eomes,  I  hope  it  will  be  like  that." 
Distrust  of  anaesthetics  and  reluctance  to  believe 
themselves  really  cured  were  the  only  common  failings 
that  we  discovered  in  the  Serb  wounded. 

J.B. 


CHAPTER  V. 

TYPHUS   AND    HOW   WE   DEALT   WITH    IT. 

The  Building  of  the  Baraque — The  Contract  with  Mircha,  the 
Carpenter — Design — Cost — Lice — Cleansing  the  Patients — Sceptics 
about  Lice — Mingling  of  Typhus  and  other  Patients — Typhus  and 
Typhoid — Drugs  and  Nursing — Fleas. 

WHILE  the  events  related  in  the  last  chapter  were 
still  in  progress,  the  British  Red  Cross  Mission  pro- 
posed to  undertake  the  charge  of  the  baraques  for 
infectious  diseases  already  mentioned.  We  suggested 
that  our  Unit  should  co-operate  with  them  in  this 
work,  as  our  staff,  both  medical  and  nursing,  were 
anxious  for  some  more  typhus  work,  and  we  offered 
to  take  charge  of  one  of  the  baraques.  This  suggestion, 
however,  was  not  accepted,  as  it  was  considered  that 
the  buildings  were  too  small  for  a  joint  undertaking 
and  that  the  double  management  would  be  likely 
to  lead  to  difficulties.  Consequently  we  decided  to 
build  a  baraque  ourselves,  where  typhus  and  other 
diseases  could  be  received,  as  there  was  undoubtedly 
need  for  greater  accommodation  for  infectious  diseases 
than  already  existed  in  the  place. 

Soon  after  our  arrival,  when  we  found  that  existing 
accommodation  would  not  suffice  for  all  the  typhus 
patients  with  whom  we  expected  we  should  shortly 
have  to  deal,  we  had  applied  to  the  Serbian  War 
Office  for  plans  and  estimates  for  baraques.  These 
showed  that  an  excellent  baraque  to  hold  fifty 


52       A  RED  CROSS  UNI?  IN  SERBIA 

patients  would  cost  10,000  dinars.  The  town  engineer 
was  then  approached,  but  that  easy  going  gentleman 
was  in  no  hurry  to  give  us  an  estimate,  and  the 
matter  was  urgent.  So  Major  Gashitch  suggested 
that  we  should  call  in  the  local  carpenter,  explain 
to  him  exactly  what  we  wanted,  and  ascertain  what 
he  could  do  for  us.  "  You  will  most  likely  get  from 
him  a  building  quite  good  enough  for  your  purpose, 
and  it  will  probably  cost  less  and  be  finished  in  much 
less  time."  The  carpenter,  who  lived  close  by,  was 
immediately  sent  for  and  asked  how  long  it  would 
take  to  build  a  wooden  shed  thirty-six  metres  long 
and  six  wide,  with  a  tiled  roof,  the  whole  sufficiently 
strong  to  resist  the  violent  wind  which  frequently 
occurred  at  Vrntse. 

"  Between  one  and  two  weeks,  not  more ;  it 
depends  on  the  weather,"  said  Mircha  cautiously, 
for  there  was  already  a  foot  of  snow  on  the  ground 
and  more  might  come.  "  Then  prepare  detailed 
estimates  and  plans  and  bring  them  to  the  Terapia 
at  9  to-morrow  morning." 

At  the  appointed  time  Mircha,  who  was  evidently 
very  pleased  with  the  prospect  of  being  entrusted 
with  so  important  a  piece  of  work,  produced  an 
elaborate  plan  and  specification :  the  materials 
would  cost  3,150  dinars  (about  £100) ;  he  himself 
would  require  ten  dinars  a  day,  and  his  two  Serb 
assistants  three  and  four  dinars  respectively.  But 
now  he  spoke  of  "  two  or  three  "  weeks  as  the  time 
that  would  be  required  for  the  completion  of  the 
building.  He  had  to  be  reminded  that,  on  the  pre- 
vious day,  to  Major  Gashitch,  he  had  said  "  not  more 
than  two  weeks."  The  estimate  for  material  seemed 


TYPHUS  AND  HOW  WE  DEALT  WITH  IT   53 

not  unreasonable  ;  so  Mircha  was  informed  that  we 
would  pay  him  140  dinars  for  his  own  labour  and  that 
he  would  get  this  same  sum  whether  he  took  a  week 
over  the  job,  or  three,  four,  or  more  weeks.  But  if 
the  building  were  completed  within  the  fortnight,  he 
would  get  an  extra  loo  dinars  for  himself.  The 
worthy  man  demurred,  saying  it  was  not  the  custom 
in  Serbia  to  undertake  work  on  such  terms.  We 
replied  that  it  was  our  English  custom,  and  that  he 
could  either  undertake  the  work  or  we  would  get  it 
done  by  someone  else.  We  knew  enough  of  Serb 
workmen  to  be  fully  aware  that  if  we  paid  him  by 
the  day  it  might  be  many  weeks,  perhaps  months, 
before  we  should  have  our  baraque,  as  Master 
Mircha  would  doubtless  find  half-a-dozen  other 
jobs  that  he  would  like  to  carry  on  at  the  same  time 
as  our  own.  Mircha,  who  was  no  fool,  saw  that  we 
were  determined.  Within  a  few  minutes  a  formal 
contract  upon  the  above  terms  was  drawn  up  and 
signed  by  both  parties. 

Mircha  and  his  two  Serbs  assistants  worked 
energetically,  and  were  assisted  by  some  Austrian 
prisoners  kindly  provided  by  the  town.  These  latter 
gradually  diminished  in  number  from  seven  to  two, 
as  they  sickened  with  typhus  and  had  to  be  taken 
off  duty.  The  snow  had  to  be  cleared  away  and  the 
ground  levelled,  stout  posts  being  driven  in  to  form 
a  foundation.  The  floor  and  walls  were  built  of  thick 
beech  planks.  In  the  gable  at  either  end  was  a  large 
opening  about  three  feet  square  to  permit  of  thorough 
ventilation.  This  was  further  secured  by  a  space 
eight  inches  high  which  ran  all  round  the  building, 
between  the  outside  wall  and  the  overlapping  roof.  As 


54       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

glass  was  expensive  and  difficult  to  obtain,  the  frames 
of  the  doors  and  windows  were  fitted  with  white 
muslin,  which  admitted  a  sufficiency  of  light  (Fig.  8). 

A  trench  ran  along  the  outside  of  the  building  to 
carry  off  rain  water. 

The  roof  was  covered  with  heavy  overlapping 
tiles,  which  fitted  into  one  another,  so  that  no  nails 
or  pegs  were  required  for  their  support.  It  was 
satisfactory  to  observe  that  a  violent  windstorm 
which  occurred  a  few  weeks  later  and  actually  blew 
down  a  side  of  a  house  not  far  away,  left  our  baraque 
quite  intact,  and  did  not  lift  even  a  single  tile  from 
the  roof. 

In  exactly  fourteen  days,  on  March  29th,  our 
baraque  was  finished,  and  if  urgent  necessity  had 
arisen,  could  have  been  utilised  at  once  for  the 
reception  of  typhus  patients.  But  as  a  matter  of 
fact  we  did  not  find  it  necessary  to  open  it  until 
several  days  later,  as  we  were  dealing  quite  satis- 
factorily with  our  typhus  cases  at  the  Terapia. 

The  intervening  time  was  utilised  in  doing  a  good 
deal  more  towards  fitting  up  and  adding  to  the 
building  generally.  Two  separate  latrines  on  the 
dry-earth  system,  for  patients  and  nur.ses  respectively, 
a  shed  for  washing  and  disinfecting  bedpans  and 
other  utensils,  and  another  for  storing  fuel,  together 
with  a  mortuary,  afterwards  used  as  a  storehouse, 
were  built  by  our  energetic  and  ingenious  orderlies, 
Messrs.  Schwind  and  Howard.  A  small  kitchen,  a 
bathroom,  separate  rooms  for  nurses  and  for  an 
isolation  case,  together  with  stoves  and  trestle  beds,* 

*  -These,  of  which  there  were  fifty,  were  made  by  Mircha  at  'a  cost  of 
four  dinars  each. 


TTPHUS  AND  HOW  WE  DEALT:  WITH  IT   55 

were  also  added  to  the  interior  of  the  building. 
Electric  light  was  subsequently  brought  from  the 
Terapia  and  a  telephone  installed  in  the  nurses' 
kitchen  by  the  resourceful  Scout.* 

The  usual  destructor  for  refuse  and  tank  for  boiling 
linen  were  erected  in  the  grounds. 

The  total  cost  of  the  building  with  all  its  accessories 
eventually  came  to  about  5,000  dinars  (about  £150). 

We  were  told  that  this  building  was  the  first  of 
its  kind  to  be  erected  in  Serbia,  and  the  speed  with 
which  it  was  constructed,  with  so  small  a  number  of 
workmen,  excited  much  astonishment.  In  a  country 
where  sawn  wood  is  plentiful  and  cheap,  and  where 
Austrian  prisoner  labour  was  abundant,  similar 
baraques  might  have  been  erected  in  large  numbers 
and  the  spread  of  the  epidemic  materially  checked. 
We  afterwards  regretted  that  we  had  not  started 
to  build  our  baraque  much  sooner  than  we  did. 
All  patients  who  entered  its  portals  were  stripped, 
shaved,  and  treated  to  a  warm  bath  before  being 
taken  to  the  ward,  their  clothing  being  immediately 
removed  in  closed  sacks  for  disinfection  elsewhere. 
We  believe  it  to  be  a  fact  that  outside  the  bathroom 
only  one  louse  was  ever  seen  in  our  baraque. 

After  a  short  time  we  used  to  offer  100  dinars  to 
any  visitor  who  could  discover  a  louse,  but  the  reward 
was  never  claimed  ! 

From  the  beginning  we  had  recognised  that  the 
key  of  the  position  as  regards  the  typhus  epidemic 
was  the  elimination  of  its  carrier  the  louse.  Our 
main  efforts  were  therefore  in  this  direction.  Hence 
the  elaborate  precautions  as  regards  washing  and 

*  The  nickname  by  which  Norris  was  generally  known. 


56       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBI4 

disinfection  which  were  instituted,  first  at  the  Terapia 
and  later  at  the  "  Drzhavna "  and  public  bath, 
as  already  described.  To  the  loyal  co-operation  of 
all  our  members — doctors,  nurses,  orderlies  and 
Austrians,  who  worked  energetically  in  pursuance  of 
the  same  object — the  elimination  of  the  louse,  must 
be  attributed  the  absence  of  any  spread  of  the 
epidemic  within  our  hospitals. 

At  first,  besides  the  thorough  cleansing  to  which 
all  new  patients  were  subjected,  we  had  been  content 
with  cutting  short  the  hair  of  the  head  and  beard. 
But  the  keen  eyes  of  our  watchful  nurses  at  the 
Terapia  had  discovered,  in  one  or  two  cases,  a  few 
days  after  admission,  a  louse  or  two  which  had 
hatched  out  from  nits  adhering  to  body  hairs.  This 
quickly  led  to  an  extension  of  our  hair-removing 
activities,  and  we  soon  adopted  the  more  thorough 
process  of  shaving  every  hair  from  all  parts  of  the 
body.  Not  only  were  hairs  removed  from  head, 
face,  axilla,  and  pubes,  but  those  also  on  the  thighs, 
legs,  chest  and  abdomen.  For  the  benefit  of  the  non- 
professional  reader,  it  may  be  well  to  explain  that  the 
body  louse,  the  carrier  of  typhus,  inhabits  the  under- 
clothing lying  next  the  skin  and  crawls  upon  the 
surface  of  the  body.  The  eggs,  however,  or  nits, 
are  laid  mostly  upon  the  hairs,  to  which  they  are 
firmly  glued,  so  firmly  that  mere  washing  does  not 
necessarily  suffice  to  remove  them.  The  safest  way 
to  ensure  their  removal  is  to  shave  away  the  hairs 
themselves.  As  an  additional  precaution,  petroleum 
and  vermijelli  were  also  employed  for  the  destruction 
of  any  stray  louse  that  might  possibly  have  escaped 
attention.  But  we  placed  very  little  reliance  upon  the 


TTPHUS  AND  HOW  WE  DEALT  WITH  IT  57 

employment  of  this  method  when  the  more  efficacious 
mechanical  cleansing  could  be  effected. 

Although  when  we  first  came  to  Serbia  most  of 
us  had  had  but  little  practical  experience  of  a  disease 
so  rare  in  England  as  typhus  fever,  the  recognition 
of  its  transmission  by  means  of  the  body  louse  was 
already   well   established.      Our    own    observations, 
after  a  comparatively  short  time,  sufficed  to  impress 
upon  us  the  truth  of  this  important  fact.     It  occa- 
sionally happened,  however,  even  at  a  much  later 
period,  that  we  came  across  doctors  (and  at  least  one 
English  doctor,  not  in  our  own  Unit)  who  had  seen 
much   typhus,   and   nevertheless   still   clung   to   the 
belief  that  lice  had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the 
matter.     The   retention   of   this    belief   is   probably 
due  to  the  great  prevalence  of  lice  among  soldiers 
living  in   the   trenches,   under   conditions  in  which 
washing    and    frequent    change    of    undergarments 
may  be  impossible,  who  nevertheless  do  not  necessarily 
get  typhus.     This  is  because  it  is  not  every  louse, 
but  only  the  louse  that  has  become  infected  from  a 
typhus  patient,  that  acts  as  a  carrier  of  the  disease. 
Those    of    our   patients  who  were  already  infected 
with   typhus    before    admission,    but   in   whom    the 
disease  had  not  yet  had  time  to  declare  itself,  natu- 
rally developed  it  within  a  few  days  of  their  admission. 
Again  and  again  did  typhus  break  out  in  all  our 
hospitals,  among  the  newly  admitted.    But,  with  the 
exception  mentioned  below,  no  case  occurred  among 
those  who  had  already  been  in  hospital  for  a  fort- 
night— that  is,  long  enough  to  have  passed  the  period 
of  incubation.    In  other  words,  no  patient  with  typhus 
was  able  to  transmit  it  to  any  patient  in  an  adjoining 


58       A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

bed,  or  to  any  person  in  attendance.  As  a  concession 
to  popular  opinion,  and  in  deference  to  those  who 
still  maintained  that  typhus  may  be  transmitted 
through  the  air,  we  did  always  move  our  typhus 
patients  from  the  general  wards  and  place  them  in 
separate  rooms,  as  soon  as  the  nature  of  their  illness 
became  clearly  manifest.  Nevertheless,  our  medical 
officers  soon  came  to  the  conclusion  that  this  pre- 
caution was  really  quite  unnecessary.  As  far  as  any 
danger  of  infection  was  concerned,  the  typhus  cases 
might  just  as  well  have  been  treated  in  the  general 
ward.  At  the  Terapia  these  patients  were  placed  in 
the  small  rooms  on  the  lower  corridor.  On  the  same 
corridor,  and  next  to  the  typhus  wards,  was  the 
common  sitting-room  used  by  all  members  of  the 
Unit.  Yet  not  one  of  our  Mission  ever  contracted 
the  disease.  Remove  the  lice  and  you  remove  all 
danger  of  transmitting  typhus.  The  exception 
mentioned  at  the  beginning  of  this  paragraph  really 
serves  but  to  emphasise  the  truth  of  these  state- 
ments. On  one  occasion  we  were  requested  to  admit 
to  the  Villa  Merkur  six  convalescent  typhus  patients 
from  another  hospital.  It  was  understood  that 
their  clothes,  which  were  sent  with  them,  had  been 
properly  disinfected,  but  we  afterwards  found  that 
such  was  not  the  case.  Lice  were  thus  accidentally 
introduced,  and  two  of  these  six  patients  transmitted 
the  disease  to  the  patient  in  the  next  bed. 

The  very  low  mortality  of  typhus  fever,  when  the 
patients  are  treated  under  proper  hygienic  conditions 
and  completely  freed  from  all  lice  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment,  contrasts  strongly  with  the  terribly 
high  mortality  which  occurs  when  the  patients  are 


TTPHUS  AND  HOW  WE  DEALT  WITH  IT  59 

left  in  overcrowded  and  verminous  surroundings,  as 
was  so  often  the  case  in  Serbia.  This  raises  the 
interesting  question  whether  the  virus  of  typhus 
fever  may  not  be  to  a  certain  extent  cumulative. 
Granted  that  the  bite  of  a  single  louse  may  cause 
typhus,  is  it  possible  that  the  disease  thus  acquired 
will  be  of  a  milder  nature  than  that  which  is  pro- 
duced by  the  bites  of  scores  or  hundreds  of  lice, 
infecting  and  re-infecting  the  patient  again  and 
again  ?  We  are  not  prepared  to  give  a  definite 
answer  to  this  question,  but  are  inclined  to  think, 
from  our  own  limited  observations,  that  the  correct 
answer  may  be  in  the  affirmative. 

To  those  of  us  whose  knowledge  of  true  typhus 
fever  before  our  arrival  in  Serbia  was  mainly  or  solely 
derived  from  text-books,  it  was  extremely  interesting 
to  observe  that  in  the  early  stages  of  the  disease  it 
was  occasionally  difficult  to  say  definitely  whether 
we  were  dealing  with  typhus  or  with  an  anomalous 
form  of  typhoid.  In  pronounced  cases,  and  when 
the  rash  was  out,  there  was  of  course  seldom  or  never 
any  difficulty  in  the  diagnosis,  but  in  the  first  few 
days  it  was  often  otherwise. 

A  Serbian  officer  in  one  of  our  hospitals  was  con- 
sidered for  several  days  by  the  medical  officer  in 
charge  to  be  suffering  probably  from  typhoid,  but 
the  disease  subsequently  ran  the  typical  course  of 
typhus.  Conversely,  another  patient  whose  case  had 
been  diagnosed  quite  correctly  by  our  doctor  as 
"  typhoid  without  diarrhoea,"  was  pronounced  by 
a  foreign  doctor  who  had  had  very  wide  experience 
of  both  diseases  to  be  "  probably  typhus  exanthe- 


60         A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

With  regard  to  the  treatment  of  typhus,  no  drug 
that  we  knew  of  seemed  to  have  any  appreciable 
influence  upon  the  course  of  the  disease.  Nor  did 
we  hear  from  any  of  the  many  doctors  with  whom  we 
discussed  the  subject  that  there  was  any  such  drug. 
Most  had  some  remedy  or  other  that  they  recom- 
mended, but  proof  of  its  efficacy  seemed  to  be  wanting. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  application  of  the  ordinary 
general  principles  of  hygiene,  diet,  and  especially 
nursing,  seemed  to  us  to  be  extremely  valuable  ele- 
ments in  the  treatment.  We  have  but  little  doubt 
that  many  of  our  patients,  some  of  whom  were 
desperately  ill,  owed  their  lives  to  the  devoted  nursing 
of  our  skilled  sisters  no  less  than  to  the  careful  watch- 
fulness of  our  doctors. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  repeated  with  confidence 
that  it  was  the  thorough  removal  of  all  lice  and  nits 
from  the  patients  that  prevented  the  spread  of  the 
disease  in  our  hospitals,  and  saved  them  from  becoming 
the  horrible  pesthouses  that  we  saw  and  heard  of  in 
some  other  parts  of  Serbia,  where  similar  measures  of 
cleanliness  could  not  be,  or  were  not,  carried  out. 

We  can  claim  with  equal  confidence  to  have  proved 
that  the  flea  does  not  in  Serbia  carry  typhus.  Every- 
one who  worked  at  the  "  Drzhavna,"  by  day  or  by 
night,  was  constantly  bitten  by  the  fleas  which  infested 
that  old  building,  and  no  one  became  ill.  It  is  im- 
possible that  of  these  countless  bites  none  should 
have  conveyed  infection,  if  the  flea  was  capable  of 
being  a  carrier.  The  case  against  the  flea  was  never 
strong,  but  our  experience  seems  to  have  demolished 
it  altogether. 

J.B. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

IMPRESSIONS    OF   THE    SCOUT. 

The  "  Majestic  Five  "  leave  Paris — Journey  through  Italy — 
Salonica — Arrival  at  Vrntse — Unpacking — The  Carpenter's  Shop — 
Manual  Labour — Visit  of  the  Crown  Prince — To  "  be  English  " — 
Electrical  Engineering — The  Bathhouse — Out-patients — Second 
Conference  at  Nish — The  Austrian  at  Krushevatz— British  Red 
Cross  Cottage  at  Stalatch — Fire  at  the  Terapia — "  It's  an  ill  Wind," 
etc. — Excursion  to  Belgrade — Naval  Exploits. 
A  NOTE  ON  NORRIS. 

ON  a  Sunday  evening,  the  last  day  of  January,  1915, 
five  lusty  fellows,  resplendent  in  khaki,  left  the 
Hopital  Majestic,  Paris,  where  they  had  been  working 
since  the  beginning  of  the  war. 

We  five,  Williams,  Schwind,  Gwin,  Howard,  and 
Norris,  nicknamed  the  "  Majestic  Five,"  had  heard 
of  the  sad  plight  of  Serbia  ;  and  so  set  forth,  each  with 
his  kit-bag,  looking  forward  to  meeting  the  Professor 
in  Salonika.  What  was  to  be  the  programme  then 
no  one  knew  exactly,  but  each  of  us  had  the  spirit  of 
Caius  Ligarius  : 

"  Set  on  your  foot, 

And  with  a  heart  new-fired  I  follow  you 
To  do  I  know  not  what,  but  it  sufficeth 
That  Brutus  leads  me  on." 

We  were  a  heterogeneous  group.  Williams  was 
sailing  under  his  true  colours  as  a  doctor,  and  so  was  I 
as  a  medical  student ;  but  Schwind  was  a  hunting 
squire,  who  had  judged  at  the  Royal  Horse  Show ; 
Gwin  was  a  professional  singer ;  Howard  was  a 


62       A   RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

sculptor  ;  and  all  three  had  been  entirely  innocent  of 
hospital  ambitions  until  the  war  broke  out. 

The  journey  was  made  through  Italy,  where  there 
was  time  to  look  over  Genoa  and  Florence  on  the  way 
to  the  Imperial  City.  Here  we  put  up  at  a  certain 
hotel  which  advertised  "  Sala  da  Bagno."  This 
golden  hope  turned  out  to  be  a  myth,  for,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  there  was  but  one  small  bath,  which  one  filled 
with  a  jug.  Our  khaki  uniform  often  evoked  cheers 
for  Britain  among  the  Romans,  although  Austrians 
and  Germans  were  not  wanting  in  the  streets. 

After  leaving  Rome  we  passed  through  the  Abruzzo 
district,  which  had  just  been  devastated  by  earth- 
quake. Scarcely  a  single  permanent  building  was  left 
standing,  whole  towns  being  in  ruins.  The  ground  was 
covered  with  snow,  with  here  and  there  a  wooden  or 
canvas  refuge  for  the  survivors.  Behind  this  desola- 
tion rose  the  white  peaks  of  the  Apennines,  the  whole, 
illuminated  by  a  brilliant  full  moon,  making  up  a 
scene  long  to  be  remembered. 

As  we  were  leaving  Brindisi  a  hydroplane  flew  out 
of  the  harbour,  like  a  great  seagull,  passing  within  a 
few  yards  of  the  boat.  Then  it  settled  on  the  water 
ahead  of  us,  turned  round,  and  came  back,  skimming 
along  the  surface  of  the  sea  at  about  forty  miles  an 
hour,  while  the  man  in  the  passenger's  seat  waved 
his  hand  to  us. 

The  ship  passed  through  the  Gulf  of  Corinth,  and 
so,  by  way  of  the  canal,  to  the  Piraeus,  where  we  had  a 
few  hours  in  which  to  see  Athens. 

Next  day  we  arrived  in  Salonika  and  met  the  Pro- 
fessor, with  his  twenty  fellow-workers,  and  twenty- 
five  tons  of  stores.  Salonika  was  full  of  people  in 


IMPRESSIONS  OF   THE   SCOUT         63 

every  variety  of  fantastic  costume,  some  even  dressed 
up  as  London  business  men,  in  stiff  white  collars  and 
plain  black  suits  !  Others,  less  ambitious,  arrayed 
themselves  in  brightly  coloured  calico  ;  while  here 
and  there  was  a  beggar,  hard  put  to  it  to  stretch  his 
scanty  apparel  over  the  verminous  wastes. 

Two  days  were  spent  on  the  journey  to  Vrntse. 
When  we  arrived  in  the  little  village  we  were  shown 
into  a  room  at  a  hospital,  where  some  Austrian  order- 
lies— prisoners  of  war — were  told  off  to  attend  to  our 
wants,  so  that  for  a  few  hours  after  arrival  we  had  a 
valet  de  chambre  to  assist  us  to  wash,  shave,  and  dress 
for  lunch  !  He  could  not  speak  a  word  of  anything 
we  understood,  but  he  smiled  cheerfully  enough, 
brought  along  water  and  towels  and  soap,  and  stood 
by  during  our  ablutions. 

He  advanced  deferentially  to  wash  our  shaving 
brushes,  took  off  our  boots  for  us,  and  indicated  his 
complete  willingness  to  do  anything  for  our  comfort  ! 

The  two  Austrian  engineers  at  the  Terapia  had  an 
interesting  history.  According  to  the  tale  current  in 
Vrntse,  their  Serbian  predecessors  having  gone  to  the 
war,  the  chief  engineer — a  very  capable  Serb — set  out 
to  the  front  with  but  one  object,  to  capture  two 
engineers  ;  and  he  went  on  capturing  Austrians  and 
asking  them  if  they  were  of  this  profession.  Having 
thus  collected  two,  he  brought  them  back  to  Vrn- 
jatchka  Banja  and  set  them  to  work  in  the  engine- 
house  of  the  Terapia. 

As  many  excellent  surgical  instruments  are  made  in 
Vienna,  we  thought  of  sending  out  our  chief  engineer 
to  forage  for  a  man  to  sharpen  our  scalpels  ;  telling 
him  if  he  could  bring  back  a  chef  or  two,  and,  possibly 


64       A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN   SERSI4 

a  family  butler,  or  a  landscape  gardener,  we  could 
fill  up  a  few  blanks  in  our  household  staff  ! 

The  Austrians  in  our  village  were  very  worthy 
fellows  ;  it  was  scarcely  possible  to  carry  anything 
about  the  streets  without  inducing  a  man  in  slate- 
blue  uniform  to  step  alongside,  salute,  and  relieve 
one  of  the  burden. 

The  first  few  days  were  spent  mainly  in  unpacking 
stores,  a  fairly  strenuous  business,  in  which  every- 
one joined.  In  fact,  the  keynote  of  the  whole  of  our 
work  in  Serbia  was  struck  during  this  our  first  task. 
We  had  come  to  a  simple  little  hillside  village,  to 
share  in  the  life  of  a  sturdy,  honest  race  of  hard- 
working peasants  ;  and  many  of  the  conventions  of 
London  society  were  to  be  swept  ruthlessly  aside. 
And  so  the  Professor  wielded  crowbar  and  axe  with 
much  effect,  while  surgeons  and  Austrians  staggered 
away  with  piles  of  stores,  and  sisters  and  nurses 
packed  away  the  provisions,  scrubbed  the  floors, 
and  served  up  steaming  hot  soup  in  the  kitchen. 

When  the  last  packing-case  had  been  emptied, 
we  all  set  to  work  to  clear  up  the  big  dining-hall  of 
the  Terapia,  which  was  to  be  our  main  ward.  The 
ladies  sat  around  making  mattresses  and  stuffing 
pillows,  the  place  was  scoured  out  with  disinfectant, 
and  the  stretcher  beds  were  brought  in  and  fitted 
up.  Downstairs  we  were  busy  whitewashing  the 
operating  theatre  and  surgical  storerooms.  Out  in 
the  grounds  the  Austrians  stacked  up  the  empty 
packing-cases,  which  were  soon  to  be  so  extensively- 
used  in  making  cupboards,  lockers,  and  all  manner 
of  furniture.  A  consignment  of  beds  for  the  "  School " 
arrived  from  the  "  Drzhavna."  Each  bed  was  disin- 


FIG.    7. — PATIENTS    ARRIVING    AT    THE    BATH-HOUSE. 


FIG.    8. — OUR    TYPHUS    BARAQUE 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  THE   SCOUT         65 

fected  by  burning  piles  of  straw  under  it,  to  the 
immense  amusement  of  the  village  children  and  to 
the  admiration  of  the  Serbian  medical  men  who  were 
present. 

It  became  the  fashion  among  the  village  maidens 
to  corne  along  and  offer  their  services,  but  our  Serbian 
commissaire,  or  secretary,  passed  on  their  names  to 
the  local  military  officials,  who  drafted  them  into 
other  hospitals,  which  was  not  what  they  bargained 
for  !  All  sorts  of  people  strolled  into  the  Terapia  to 
see  how  we  mad  English  were  getting  on,  and  many  a 
wild  report  was  spread  about  our  methods.  For 
example,  we  had  some  difficulty  in  finding  a  kitchen 
maid  to  assist  our  cook  ;  and  it  was  found  that  they 
believed  in  the  village  that  if  we  engaged  anyone  to 
work  in  the  Terapia,  he  or  she  was  to  be  washed 
in  the  receiving  room  by  our  orderlies  before  being 
allowed  to  commence  duty  ! 

One  of  the  busiest  departments  of  the  hospital, 
especially  during  the  early  days,  was  the  workshop, 
fitted  up  by  Gordon  and  Norris.  A  very  serviceable 
bench  was  constructed  out  of  a  few  planks  and  the 
wreckage  of  some  wooden  railings  ;  tool-racks  and 
shelves  were  installed  and  a  window  was  put  in.  Even 
a  little  metal-work  was  done  at  times — as  witness 
the  stand  for  the  theatre  steriliser,  made  with 
aluminium  splinting  and  thick  iron  wire.  The  first 
step  in  this  process  was  to  make  a  drill  to  bore 
rivet-holes  in  the  aluminium.  A  large  bradawl  was 
sacrificed  for  the  purpose,  and  after  being  shaped 
with  a  file,  was  hardened  with  the  aid  of  a  "  Primus  " 
stove  and  a  basin  of  water  ;  it  worked  fairly 
well.  There  were  no  rivets  in  the  stores  brought 


66       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

out  from  England,  but  screws  cut  in  halves  and 
split  down  with  a  hack-saw  served  the  purpose. 
The  finished  article  lasted  for  several  months  of 
constant  use. 

We  made  a  small  sledge  to  carry  things  across  the 
valley  to  the  convalescent  hospital,  but  it  was  never 
used,  as  the  snow  had  disappeared  by  the  time  it 
was  ready.  The  local  gentry  were  quite  unable  to 
understand  why  we  should  go  in  for  all  this  manual 
labour.  "  Is  that  one  of  your  employees  ?  "  asked 
a  visitor,  indicating  Howard  laying  drain-pipes. 
"  No,"  said  the  Professor,  "  that  is  one  of  my  col- 
leagues, a  gentleman  from  Paris."  "  But  he  is  work- 
ing like  a  servant !  He  is  digging  !  "  "  That  is 
nothing,"  replied  the  Professor,  with  a  smile.  "  You 
see,  we  have  no  servants  ;  all  the  people  here  are 
giving  their  services  freely,  and  we  do  whatever  work 
has  to  be  done."  And  not  long  afterwards  the  most 
distinguished  of  all  our  visitors,  the  Crown  Prince, 
arriving  unexpectedly,  found  our  chief  bespattered 
with  mud  from  head  to  foot,  plying  his  spade  with 
the  rest  of  us,  draining  a  marsh  in  front  of  the  Terapia  ! 
The  Prince  arrived  in  a  motor  car  and  naturally 
entered  the  Terapia  without  ceremony.  The  Pro- 
fessor, to  whom  an  unauthorised  visitor  in  his  wards 
was  as  inflammatory  a  spectacle  as  a  donkey  on  her 
green  to  Miss  Betsy  Trotwood,  hurried  into  the 
building  and  shouted  up  the  stairs  after  the  intruders, 
"  What  do  you  want  ?  "  A  scandalised  aide-de- 
camp explained  that  this  was  the  Crown  Prince. 
The  Prince  himself  was  no  stickler  for  etiquette, 
and  after  spending  some  time  in  the  ward,  had  tea 
in  the  kitchen,  then  the  only  living-room,  with 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  THE  SCOUT         67 

complete  cheerfulness.  On  this  occasion  Norris, 
who  was  fitting  up  a  water  tank  at  the  Baraque,  had 
to  pull  his  shirt-sleeves  down  hurriedly  and  put  on 
his  tunic  and  cap,  in  order  to  be  introduced  to  the 
Prince  ;  while  Gwin  and  Howard  had  to  leave  their 
domestic  duties  at  the  school  for  the  same  purpose. 
It  became  a  proverb  in  the  village  to  "  Be  English," 
that  is,  to  stride  along  in  neglige  attire,  with  a  baulk 
of  timber  over  one's  shoulder,  or  a  pailful  of  white- 
wash in  one's  hand. 

On  one  occasion  there  arose  a  dearth  of  dustpans, 
and  it  was  found  that  the  small,  flat,  square,  wooden 
boxes  which  had  contained  tins  of  condensed  milk 
could  readily  be  cut  in  two  with  a  saw  in  such  a 
way  as  to  provide  two  of  these  useful  domestic 
articles. 

Large  folding  screens  were  easily  made  out  of  beech- 
wood  battens,  strengthened  by  diagonal  strands  of 
steel  wire  and  covered  with  calico. 

Odd  minutes  were  spent  in  the  workshop  making 
inkstands  and  soap  dishes,  while  longer  intervals 
were  devoted  to  the  construction  of  the  various 
splints  and  extension  apparatus  required  in  the  treat- 
ment of  fractures  and  deformities. 

There  was  also  a  fair  amount  of  electrical  engineer- 
ing to  be  done  in  connection  with  the  electric  lighting 
plant,  the  motor  which  pumped  water  up  into  the 
loft,  and  the  X-ray  apparatus.  This  latter  gave 
trouble  several  times,  as  the  wires  and  fuses  supply- 
ing the  light  in  the  room  were  unable  to  carry  the 
heavy  current  required  in  taking  skiagrams.  Ulti- 
mately the  difficulty  was  surmounted  by  laying  a 
special  cable  directly  from  the  power-house  to  the 


68       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

X-ray  room.  The  accidental  breakage  of  a  marble 
basin  provided  the  material  for  making  a  switch- 
board in  the  department,  while  the  fragments  of  a 
towel  rack  yielded  a  sufficient  quantity  of  thick 
glass  rod  to  make  an  insulated  stand  for  a  part  of  the 
apparatus.  Perhaps  the  greatest  mechanical  triumph 
in  the  X-ray  room  was  the  repair  of  a  broken  guide 
on  the  tube-carrier — a  process  which  involved  boring 
two  holes,  a  quarter  of  an  inch  wide,  through  half  an 
inch  of  cast  steel,  with  an  improvised  drill,  held  in 
a  carpenter's  brace  ! 

One  day  the  motor  in  the  pump  house  fused,  and  our 
water  supply  was  thereby  threatened.  We  had  no 
insulated  wire  thick  enough  to  replace  the  strand  which 
had  given  way.  However,  a  piece  of  plain  thick 
copper  wire  was  discovered  in  a  fence  near  by,  and, 
having  been  covered  with  a  layer  of  thin  string  and 
some  lead  plaster  from  the  surgical  store,  was  fitted 
into  the  damaged  motor,  which  worked  well  from  that 
day  until  the  end  of  our  time  at  the  Terapia. 

Some  weeks  after  we  had  settled  in  Vrnjatchka 
Banja  steps  were  taken,  as  already  narrated  on 
page  45,  to  establish  a  clearing-house  system.  One 
fine  day,  with  this  end  in  view,  the  bath-house  was 
attacked  by  a  small  but  resolute  band,  and  the  poor 
old  man  who  looked  after  the  place  was  shocked  past 
all  expression  by  such  proceedings.  He  pulled  off  his 
Astrakan  cap  and  passed  his  withered  fingers  des- 
perately through  his  long  white  hair  and  flowing  beard, 
utterly  bewildered  by  the  sight  of  us  pulling  up  by  the 
foundations  all  the  rotten  old  posts  and  verminous 
wooden  partitions  which  surrounded  the  pool  of  hot 
sulphur  water. 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  THE   SCOUT         69 

"  Cheer  up,  Tolstoi !  "  we  said  ;  but  he  shook  his 
head  sadly,  talked  a  great  deal  of  Serbian,  and  finally 
went  off  up  the  road  in  despair,  convinced  that  we 
were,  one  and  all,  hopelessly  and  irremediably  mad  ! 
Then  came  the  work  of  building  a  platform  a  few 
inches  above  the  water  level,  where  the  orderlies  could 
stand  and  supervise  the  washing  of  the  patients. 
Gordon  and  Norris  made  some  massive  trestles  with 
logs  brought  down  from  the  Gotch  forests  ;  and  these, 
fastened  together  with  iron  staples,  were  placed  in  the 
big  concrete  basin,  while  thick  beech  boards  were 
shaped  roughly  with  saw  and  axe  and  nailed  on  to  the 
trestles.  The  work  was  finished  about  midnight,  by 
the  light  of  an  acetylene  lamp,  and  the  two  carpenters 
celebrated  the  occasion  by  swimming  round  the  pool 
while  waiting  to  see  whether  the  structure  would  float 
up  when  the  water  rose  again  to  its  full  level.  Fortu- 
nately, it  remained  quite  firm. 

As  time  went  on  the  work  of  the  hospital  became 
known  in  the  whole  district  round  about  Vrnjatchka 
Banja,  and  a  small  out-patient  practice  was  developed, 
of  which  more  is  said  in  a  subsequent  chapter.  A 
baby  was  brought  along  for  club-foot,  and  a  little  girl 
whose  knee  had  become  fixed  in  a  bad  position  as  a 
result  of  tuberculosis,  one  or  two  ophthalmic  cases, 
and  so  on,  came  in  to  be  attended  by  the  British 
doctors. 

One  day  a  message  arrived  from  a  cottage  away 
over  the  hills  asking  that  someone  might  come  to  see 
a  man  who  had  been  taken  ill.  The  matron  and  Norris 
set  out  in  answer  to  this  call  and  arrived  at  a  farm.  In 
a  little  dark  kitchen  with  an  earthen  floor  they  found 
two  patients,  the  farmer  and  his  son,  a  boy  of  fourteen. 


yo       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

Numerous  legs  of  ham  were  hanging  up^in  the  enor- 
mous chimney,  and  the  chickens  walked  about  the 
room,  quite  unmolested  by  the  three  cats  which  shared 
the  farmer's  bed.  The  old  lady  was  much  surprised 
that  no  bargaining  for  fees  took  place  before  the 
patients  were  examined,  and  when  she  was  given  the 
medicines  for  her  husband  and  boy,  with  no  mention 
of  payment,  she  was  quite  overcome  with  gratitude. 
She  walked  over  to  the  Terapia  next  day  to  bring  us 
five  eggs  and  a  basket  of  apples. 

We  were  cleaning  out  the  Drzhavna  Kafana,  in 
preparation  for  its  occupation  as  a  clearing  hospital, 
when  Williams  struck  up  a  little  composition,  set  to  a 
well-known  tune  : 

"There  are  no  lice  on  us, 
There  are  no  lice  on  us, 

No  lice  on  us ! 
There  may  be  one  or  two 
Great,  big,  fat  lice  on  you, 
But  what  we  sing  is  true : 
No  lice  on  us ! " 

At  this  point  there  entered  a  Serbian  gentleman,  who, 
recognising  the  tune,  asked,  in  French,  if  that  was  our 
National  Anthem  ;  and  we  replied  that  it  was. 

Gordon  helped  Williams  for  a  while  with  the  work 
at  the  clearing  hospital,  and  as  a  result  of  this  experience 
he  concluded  that  the  whole  science  and  art  of  medicine 
is  summed  up  in  the  rule  that  if  the  pain  is  above  the 
eyes,  one  must  give  a  "  sleeper  "  (a  tablet  of  aspirin)  ; 
if  below  the  eyes,  a  "  shifter  "  (a  tablet  of  calomel). 
When  Williams  went  his  round  each  day,  Gordon 
followed  him  with  a  bottle  of  "  sleepers  "  in  one  hand 
and  one  of  "  shifters  "  in  the  other.  Very  soon,  how- 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  THE  SCOUT         71 

ever,  the  pharmacy  was  extended  to  include  a  number 
of  "  tabloid  "  preparations,  some  quinine,  and  several 
other  useful  drugs.  Some  stock  solutions  were  made 
up  by  the  dispenser  at  the  Terapia  containing  much 
orange  peel  and  a  little  burnt  sugar. 

On  the  last  day  of  March  the  Professor  was  invited  to 
attend  a  second  conference  of  British  medical  men,  to 
be  held  at  Nish  ;  and  Norris  went  with  him.  The 
train  was  an  hour  or  so  late,  but  nobody  worried  about 
a  little  thing  like  that.  Besides,  it  gave  time  to 
examine  the  station-master's  wife,  who  was  ill.  The 
station-master  telephoned  to  Nish,  so  he  told  us, 
asking  to  have  rooms  prepared  for  us  in  the  town. 

The  train  was  crowded  with  soldiers  returning  from 
the  front,  so  we  got  into  the  mail-van — a  compartment 
some  ten  feet  by  seven — and  made  ourselves  com- 
fortable. It  is  wonderful  what  a  fine  couch  one  can 
make  out  of  piles  of  letters  and  parcels,  which  were 
strewn  thickly  over  the  floor.  Our  average  velocity 
was  six  miles  per  hour,  as  we  reached  Krushevatz, 
twenty-four  miles  away,  in  four  hours.  Shortly 
before  leaving  the  latter  station  we  were  aroused  by  a 
cheery  greeting,  "  Hullo  !  Good-evening,  gents  !  " 
from  an  extraordinarily  grimy  individual  who  thrust 
into  the  narrow  doorway  a  half-shaved  chin  and  a  pair 
of  ferret  eyes,  hung  about  with  verminous  fringes  of 
tousled  hair,  surmounted  by  a  tattered  Austrian  cap. 
"  Hullo  ! "  he  said  again.  "  Where  are  you  going  ? 
Glad  to  see  you  !  "  and  he  proffered  a  greasy  hand, 
which  we  seized  and  shook  enthusiastically.  Where- 
upon he  climbed  into  our  mail-van,  giving  us  glimpses 
of  a  coat  consisting  chiefly  of  holes,  having  no  front 
aspect,  while  below  were  seen  the  more  durable  frag- 


72       A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

ments  of  a  pair  of  trousers.  At  the  same  time  the 
atmosphere  acquired  a  perfume  rich  and  rare,  remind- 
ing us  of  many  things.  "  Well,  old  friend,"  we  said, 
cordially  ;  "  it's  very  pleasant  to  hear  a  Christian 
language  again.  Tell  us  all  about  it.  Where  did  you 
pick  up  your  English,  which  you  talk  so  well  ?  "  "  In 
London,"  he  replied.  "  My  home  is  in  Canning  Town, 
where  I  have  been  a  journalist  for  twelve  years.  Now, 
since  seven  months,  I  am  a  prisoner  of  war."  "  Well, 
that's  rotten  luck,  isn't  it  ?  How  are  you  getting  on 
here  ?  "  "  Oh,  not  so  bad.  I  am  quite  well  and 
strong.  There  were  a  hundred  of  us  Austrians  sent 
here  from  Nish,  but  twenty-eight  have  died  of  typhus, 
and  all  the  rest  are  ill  but  myself  and  four  others.  We 
live  together  in  a  wagon  down  there  in  the  railway 
yard.  Oh,  we  are  warm  and  comfortable,  we  five,  I 
tell  you,  gents  !  I  built  up  a  stove,  and  my  friend 
makes  us  beds  and  curtains  to  keep  out  the  wind. 
Well,  the  train  is  going  on.  I  thank  you  for  your  kind- 
ness, and  I  hope  to  see  you  in  London  when  I  come 
home,  some  day."  More  hand-shaking,  and  then  he 
sprang  out  into  the  night. 

A  few  miles  further  on  we  changed  on  to  the  broad- 
gauge  railway — the  main  line  from  Belgrade  to 
Nish.  The  last  fifty  miles  were  accomplished  in  one 
of  the  trucks  to  which  we  had  become  accustomed, 
labelled  in  Serb  and  French,  "  Horses  8.  Men  40." 
The  sides  were  open,  giving  us  a  fine  cross-ventila- 
tion, with  a  full  view  of  the  moonlight  scenery.  Once 
or  twice  the  conductor  came  along  with  a  candle- 
lantern,  to  see  that  all  was  well — for  nothing  could 
be  easier  than  to  push  an  undesirable  fellow- 
passenger  out  of  the  side  of  the  truck,  to  take  his 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  THE  SCOUT         73 

chance  in  any  ravine  over  which  the  train  might  be 
passing. 

An  old  farmer  sat  up  in  the  corner  with  a  friend 
and  discussed  the  price  of  goats.  Before  the  war, 
he  said,  he  could  buy  them  for  five  dinars  ;  now,  the 
price  was  nine  or  ten. 

A  passenger  on  the  train  asked  the  Professor  to 
advise  him  about  a  sore  throat  ;  and  all  went  well 
until  it  came  to  a  matter  of  writing  out  a  prescription 
for  a  chlorate  of  potash  gargle,  which  proved  to  be 
a  little  difficult  even  for  one  so  well  versed  in  the 
languages  of  Europe  as  our  chief.  However,  the 
prescription  was  ultimately  finished  and  contained 
directions  in  Serbian,  German,  and  Latin.  For  this 
the  man  expressed  his  gratitude  and  insisted  on 
tendering  a  fee  of  eightpence. 

The  train  reached  Nish  at  11.30  P.M.  and  stopped 
in  a  siding.  We  climbed  down,  shouldered  our 
baggage,  and  crossed  several  lines  of  rails,  threading 
our  way  between  trucks  and  other  obstacles,  and 
avoiding  the  larger  pools  of  water,  until  we  reached 
the  dark  and  silent  railway  station.  The  station- 
master  was  aroused  by  a  sleepy  sentry,  and  told  us 
that  he  had  not  received  any  message  about  us,  and 
that  it  was  too  late  to  find  accommodation  for  the 
night. 

We  found  among  the  passengers  who  had  alighted 
at  Nish  a  Serbian  officer,  who  very  kindly  offered  to 
find  us  rooms  in  a  building  which  had  been  taken 
over  by  the  War  Office.  So,  after  waiting  an  hour 
for  a  conveyance,  we  set  out,  rattling  along  over  the 
cobblestones,  dropping  into  the  holes,  and  being 
jerked  over  the  boulders,  until  we  reached  the  build- 


74   A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

ing  in  question,  close  to  the  public  gardens  at  the  end 
of  the  Rue  Obrenovitch.  The  sentry  informed  us 
that  there  was  no  room  for  the  British  gentlemen,  so 
our  companion  led  us  the  round  of  the  hotels  in  the 
town,  but  all  were  found  to  be  full. 

It  was  then  proposed  that  we  should  go  to  the  big 
military  hospital  near  the  station,  but  this  idea  was 
abandoned,  owing  to  the  prevalence  of  so  much 
infectious  disease.  Finally  the  Professor  bethought 
him  of  a  certain  abode  where  he  had  once  stayed 
on  the  recommendation  of  the  British  Legation ; 
so  we  turned  towards  it.  We  knocked  up  the  slum- 
bering household  and  found  that  there  was  a  room 
vacant,  so  we  bade  good-night  to  our  Serbian  friend 
and  entered  into  a  very  comfortable  little  room.  The 
man  who  opened  the  door  regretted  that  he  had 
nothing  to  give  us  for  supper  except  a  bottle  of 
"  rakija,"  the  Serbian  spirit  made  from  plums  ;  so 
we  fell  back  upon  the  bread  and  cheese  which  we  had 
brought  with  us,  and  after  the  frugal  repast  we 
turned  in  for  a  few  hours'  sleep. 

About  10  in  the  morning  we  went  to  the  British 
Legation  and  got  some  letters,  and  also  a  welcome 
message  that  sixty  packing-cases  of  stores  were  on 
the  way  from  Salonica. 

At  the  Conference,  where  Colonel  Hunter  explained 
the  measures  which  he  was  taking  to  prevent  the 
spread  of  typhus,  we  met  a  lady  doctor,  Dr.  Hanson, 
on  her  way  through  to  Kragujevatz,  so  we  agreed 
to  travel  back  together  to  Vrnjatchka  Banja. 

The  evening  after  the  conference,  therefore,  we 
three,  with  two  Serbian  gentlemen  from  our  village, 
whom  we  met  in  the  town,  made  our  way  to  the 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  THE  SCOUT         75 

station    and    established   ourselves   in    the   luggage- 
van. 

The  official  in  charge  was  very  friendly,  and  by 
the  simple  expedient  of  piling  the  luggage  round  the 
door  the  company  within  was  kept  small  and  select. 
At  Stalatch,  fifty  miles  north  of  Nish,  the  narrow- 
gauge  line  branches  off  up  the  western  Morava 
valley,  and  at  this  junction  we  had  to  wait  till  early 
morning.  At  a  cottage  situated  close  to  the  station 
a  "  rest-room  "  had  been  engaged  by  the  British 
Red  Cross  Society's  unit  for  the  convenience  of  the 
various  British  units  in  Serbia.*  We  went  along  to 
this  cottage  and  had  quite  a  good  supper  and  a  few 
hours'  rest,  and  then  proceeded  on  our  way,  reaching 
the  Terapia  in  comfortable  time  for  lunch. 

One  of  the  most  strenuous  days,  as  well  as  the  most 
anxious,  that  we  spent  in  Serbia  was  on  the  occasion 
of  the  fire  which  occurred  in  a  corner  of  the  Terapia 
towards  the  end  of  March.  Schwind  was  the  first 
to  see  the  blue  smoke  issuing  from  between  the 
tiles  over  the  storerooms  containing  the  sanatorium 
property.  These  rooms  had  been  closed  before  we 
occupied  the  building,  so  that  we  consoled  ourselves 
with  the  reflection  that  the  fire  had  not  originated 
in  any  part  of  our  domain.  Schwind  told  us  of  his 
discovery  in  the  most  casual  way.  He  came  into  the 
bedroom  shared  by  three  of  us  and  said  :  "  Gwin, 
I'm  in  terrible  trouble  this  morning  ;  I  don't  know 
what  clothes  I'm  to  wear,  and  besides  the  hospital 
is  on  fire."  Williams,  Schwind,  and  Norris  went 
across  to  investigate,  and  found  a  regular  furnace 

*  An  excellent  piece  of  work  due  to  the  energy  and  foresight  of  Captain 
Bennett. 


76   A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBI4 

raging  in  the  top-floor  rooms  over  the  kitchen  and 
dining-room. 

We  summoned  all  our  Austrian  orderlies,  and  in 
a  few  minutes  there  was  a  line  of  helpers  stretching 
from  the  fire  down  two  flights  of  stairs  to  the  water- 
supply  in  the  basement.  Buckets,*  kettles,  jugs 
and  basins — all  things  capable  of  holding  water — 
were  requisitioned,  and  large  quantities  of  water 
were  thrown  into  the  burning  storerooms.  Williams, 
Gwin,  and  Howard  protected  their  heads  from  falling 
tiles  by  iron  basins,  and  thus  arrayed  advanced 
into  the  fray  and  laid  about  them  with  much  vigour. 
Downstairs  salvage  work  went  on  apace,  as  the 
floors  of  the  upper  rooms  were  fast  burning  through. 
The  whole  of  the  linen  belonging  to  the  Terapia 
company  was  got  safely  away,  and  a  great  quantity 
of  our  stores.  Many  tins  of  various  foods  were, 
however,  buried  in  the  fragments  which  came  down, 
but  were  not  any  the  worse  for  that,  as  they  were 
easily  recovered  afterwards  from  the  debris.  In 
the  wards  the  nursing  staff  "  carried  on  "  with  true 
British  indifference  to  danger.  The  patients  were 
fed  and  washed  and  well  wrapped  up,  so  as  to  be 
ready  for  removal  if  necessary.  Gordon  and  Norris 
cut  a  hole  in  the  ceiling  of  a  room  alongside  the  fire, 
and  so  were  able  to  get  into  the  loft  above  and 
throw  water  upon  the  burning  roof,  thus  preventing 
the  fire  from  spreading  to  the  main  ward  of  the 
Terapia.  The  Professor  and  the  "  Frau  Doktor  " 
(Mrs.  Berry)  worked  with  the  rest,  and  the  former, 
perched  amid  the  smoke  of  the  burning  rafters, 

*  Fire-buckets,  filled,  some  with  water,  others  with  sand,  had  been 
established  in  all  the  corridors  within  a  day  or  two  of  our  arrival,  and 
fortunately  we  had  also  a  large  supply  of  buckets  for  other  purposes. 


IMPRESSIONS  OF   THE   SCOUT         77 

distinguished  himself  by  discharging  a  bucketful 
of  water  upon  Williams  and  drenching  him  from 
head  to  foot !  By  1 1  o'clock  the  conflagration  had 
been  practically  extinguished,  and  a  little  work 
with  an  axe,  followed  up  by  a  few  more  pails  of  water, 
completed  the  task  ;  which  done,  we  had  an  enor- 
mous lunch,  comprising  the  Mackonochie  rations 
usually  supplied  at  mid-day,  together  with  the  bacon 
and  eggs  which  we  should  have  had  at  breakfast. 

It  was  not  until  some  weeks  later  that  we  fully 
realised  how  the  proverb  "  It  is  an  ill  wind  that 
blows  nobody  any  good  "  applied  to  our  fire.  We 
proved  its  application  for  many  a  long  day  after- 
wards, as  we  came  to  place  an  ever-increasing  reliance 
upon  the  debris  of  the  fire  whenever  we  wanted  any 
article  of  china  or  glass,  or  any  little  thing  in  the  way 
of  electric  light  fittings.  From  the  site  of  the  fire 
came  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  stout  copper  wire,  with 
large  china  insulators,  which  was  to  carry  electric 
light  and  telephone  to  the  convalescent  hospital  and 
the  typhus  baraque.  Amongst  the  ashes  were  found 
irregular  fragments  of  marble,  which,  shaped  and 
cleaned  up,  became  switchboards.  Long  glass  rods 
were  unearthed,  and  brass  holders  were  not  lacking, 
so  that  towel-racks  sprang  into  being  far  and  near. 
Taps  and  pipes  there  were  found,  which  were  called 
to  higher  service  in  the  theatre,  the  ward,  and  the 
typhus  baraque.  Locks  and  keys  in  abundance, 
choked  with  cinders,  were  brought  to  the  light  of 
day,  and  affixed  to  doors  long  left  unclosed.  Nor  was 
art  wholly  unremembered,  for  the  one  and  only  picture 
which  graced  the  walls  of  the  Terapia  was  rescued 
from  the  obscurity  of  this  gold  mine  of  an  ash-heap. 


78       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

In  the  last  week  of  April,  Williams,  Schwind, 
Howard,  and  Norris  made  an  expedition  to  Belgrade. 
On  the  way  there  we  spent  a  night  in  the  train.  Two 
of  us  slept  on  the  carriage  seats,  one  on  the  floor, 
and  one  on  the  luggage  rack  ;  and  slept  very  com- 
fortably too,  for  this  was  after  three  months  in 
Serbia  !  In  the  capital  city  we  received  a  most 
cordial  welcome  from  the  military  authorities,  who 
took  us  to  see  the  defences  of  the  town  ;  we  entered 
the  first  line  trenches,  a  few  hundred  yards  from  the 
Austrian  lines,  and  saw  the  enemy  positions  on  the 
islands  and  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Danube.  We 
were  received  with  great  hospitality  by  the  officer 
in  command  of  a  Serbian  battery,  who  showed  us  the 
ingenious  arrangement  of  his  guns,  underground 
magazines  and  dug-out  shelters. 

We  heard,  too,  of  the  exploits  of  a  naval  party  who 
had  fitted  up  a  boat,  armoured  with  railway  iron, 
and  mounted  on  it  a  torpedo  tube.  On  discharging 
a  torpedo,  however,  they  found  that  the  recoil  cap- 
sized the  vessel,  so  they  fixed  up  a  second  tube  on 
the  opposite  side  of  their  craft.  Thus  equipped, 
they  could  discharge  a  weapon  at  the  mark  safely, 
taking  care  that  the  spare  torpedo  did  no  damage 
as  it  went  away  aft.  The  night  we  were  at  Belgrade 
this  home-made  outfit  went  across  the  river  to  an 
Austrian  naval  base  near  Semlin  and  blew  up  a 
monitor. 

The  journey  back  from  Belgrade  was  the  last 
that  we  took  together,  for  Williams  and  Schwind 
returned  to  England  through  Russia  a  few  days 
later,  Howard  and  Norris  came  home  via  Italy,  and 
Gwin  stayed  on  until  shortly  before  the  third  Austrian 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  THE   SCOUT         79 

invasion  in  the  autumn.  At  this  point  then,  with 
the  breaking  up  of  the  glorious  company  of  the 
"  Majestic  Five,"  ended  three  months  of  the  most 
useful,  absorbing,  romantic,  and  adventurous  life 
that  anyone  could  wish  to  lead  ! 

D.  C.  N. 


A  NOTE  UPON  MORRIS 

BY 
ANOTHER  MEMBER  OF  THE  UNIT. 

This  seems  to  be  the  best  place  for  some  words 
in  season  about  Norris.  He  joined  the  mission 
already  enjoying  the  nickname  of  the  Boy  Scout, 
and  he  had  just  that  capacity  for  improvisation  which 
is  the  essential  quality  of  a  scout  and  rendered  him 
so  useful  to  us  at  Vrntse.  For  instance,  he  not  only 
provided  the  baraque  with  electric  light,  but  he  con- 
structed a  most  elaborate  system  of  communication 
between  the  Terapia  and  the  typhus  building.  There 
were  a  telephone  and  a  blue  lamp  in  one  of  the  Terapia 
bedrooms,  and  in  theory,  if  a  patient  were  seriously 
ill,  Sister  West  at  the  baraque  would  be  able  to 
communicate  at  once  with  Sister  Robertson  at  the 
Terapia.  In  practice  the  system  was  defective,  and 
sometimes  the  bell  would  ring  and  the  light  flash 
when  Sister  West  turned  on  the  electric  lights  or 
did  some  other  harmless  necessary  act.  Once  an 
alarm  was  produced  by  a  flash  of  lightning,  which 
set  all  the  contrivances  at  work  at  once.  But  they 
were  certainly  ingenious.  If  Norris  really  was  a 


8o       A   RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

scout,  General  Baden-Powell  ought  to  be  very  proud 
of  him. 

His  experiments,  however,  were  sometimes  only 
made  possible  by  acquisitions  of  very  dubious 
character.  One  has  doubts  about  the  "  accidental  " 
nature  of  the  breakages  which  put  him  in  possession 
of  porcelain,  brass  work,  glass  rods,  and  the  rest. 
Nor  can  the  impartial  observer  accept  without 
question  his  statement  that  he  "  rescued  "  sundry 
valuable  fittings  from  the  "  gold  mine  of  an  ash- 
heap,"  which  was  left  by  the  fire.  The  fire  not  only 
left  an  ash-heap,  it  opened  the  locked  storeroom  of 
the  Terapia  Company.  Not  long  after  it  had  burned 
away  the  doors  of  the  room  Norris  got  in,  and  his 
own  narrative  hardly  does  justice  to  the  fearful 
scenes  of  pillage  which  followed.  What  he  took 
no  one  knows  exactly.  But  several  of  his  most 
ingenious  devices  made  their  appearance  about  this 
time,  including  the  elaborate  telephone  apparatus 
connecting  the  Terapia  with  the  School  and  the 
Baraque.  As  the  fire  could  hardly  have  volatilised 
porcelain  fittings  and  several  hundred  feet  of  copper 
wire,  we  should  have  been  hard  pressed  to  account 
for  their  disappearance  from  the  storeroom.  In  the 
end  the  Austrian  occupation  solved  our  difficulties, 
and  those  who  appropriated  the  whole  of  Serbia 
can  hardly  complain  if  a  few  trifling  excesses  of  zeal 
on  the  part  of  Norris  are  also  laid  to  their  charge. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

AUSTRIAN    PRISONERS. 

The  Three  at  the  Terapia — The  Slave  Market — Selection  of 
Prisoners — Heterogeneous  Collection  of  Nationalities — Many 
Czechs— Ward  Orderlies— Relations  between  Serb  Patients  and 
Austrian  Orderlies — Shoemaker  and  Carpenters — Language  Diffi- 
culties— Gardener  and  other  Outdoor  Men — Messenger — Marketing 
— Julius — Hardships  of  Austrians  in  previous  Winter — Kindness 
of  Serb  Villagers — Donna  Quixota — The  Orchestra — Curious 
Case  of  Personation — Commissions  on  Prisoners — Inoculation 
against  Typhoid  and  Cholera — Devotion  to  the  English  Missions. 

BETWEEN  December,  1914,  and  November,  1915, 
the  grey  uniform  of  the  Austrian  prisoner  was  a  very 
familiar  object  in  the  Serbian  landscape.  During  that 
time  most  of  the  Serbian  men  of  military  age  were  with 
their  regiments,  and  a  great  deal  of  the  work  of  the 
country  was  carried  on  by  the  prisoners.  They  were 
constantly  to  be  seen  in  gangs  working  on  the  roads  ; 
they  were  employed  in  public  gardens,  Government 
factories,  and  even  in  the  Arsenal  of  Kragujevatz, 
where  they  cleaned  up  their  own  cannon  and  the 
ammunition  which  the  Serbs  were  waiting  to  return 
with  interest  to  the  Austrians  at  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity. Foreigners  were  surprised  to  notice  how  the 
prisoners  worked  without  guards,  and  how  they  were 
to  be  met  with  in  villages  and  market-places  as  if  they 
belonged  to  the  ordinary  population.  Most  of  the 
work  of  hospital  servants  throughout  Serbia  was  done 
by  Austrian  prisoners.  The  Serbian  Government 
bestowed  them  with  no  niggardly  hand  on  British 


82       A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

missions,  to  be  used  for  whatever  purposes  they 
desired. 

When  we  reached  the  Terapia,  we  found  there,  as 
already  mentioned,  three  Austrian  prisoners,  two  of 
them  engineers.  Adolf  Riedl,  of  the  Frag  Lands turm, 
our  chief  engineer,  had  been  an  engineer  in  a  hydro- 
pathic at  Marienbad.  He  was  a  German  Bohemian, 
an  excellent  mechanic,  with  not  a  little  contempt  both 
for  his  Slav  compatriots  and  his  Serb  captors.  He 
understood  his  business  thoroughly,  and  proved  a  most 
valuable  servant.  He  steered  us  safely  through 
several  periods  of  deepest  gloom,  caused  by  impending 
catastrophes,  such  as  permanent  stoppage  of  water 
supply,  or  hopeless  injury  to  indispensable  and  irre- 
placeable parts  of  the  machinery.  On  these  occasions 
he  was  always  pessimistic  and  managed  to  infect  our 
"  Herr  Ingenieur  "  with  his  pessimism,  but  things 
always  came  right  in  the  end.  Sometimes  we  think 
he  acted  on  the  principle  of  a  doctor  who  paints  his 
patients'  condition  in  the  darkest  hues  that  the  cure 
may  seem  the  more  miraculous  ! 

Stefan  Szilagyi,  a  Hungarian,  had  been  an  elec- 
trician at  Carlsbad,  and  had  spent  some  years  in 
Edison's  works  in  the  United  States.  He  was  Riedl's 
right-hand  man  in  the  engine-room,  and  showed 
extraordinary  ingenuity  as  a  worker  in  metal.  With 
limited  and  inferior  materials  and  but  few  tools,  he 
was  constantly  turning  out  masterpieces  of  craftsman- 
ship. When  a  watering-pot  was  required  for  the 
garden,  it  was  Szilagyi  who  made  it,  rose  included,  out 
of  old  petroleum  cans.  Surgical  instruments,  metal 
splints,  kitchen  utensils,  watches,  clocks,  umbrellas, 
brooches,  crochet  needles,  and  countless  other  neces- 


AUSTRIAN  PRISONERS  83 

sary  articles  were  repaired  by  him,  or  devised  and 
manufactured  by  his  resourceful  brain  and  skilful 
fingers. 

The  third  prisoner  already  in  possession  was  a 
Czech,  from  the  same  Landsturm  regiment  as  Riedl,  a 
middle-aged  man,  slouching  and  unkempt,  who  was 
put  into  the  kitchen.  Here  the  lady  cook  found  him  a 
hopeless  incubus,  so  he  was  moved  upstairs,  and  under 
the  kindly  influence  of  the  Lady  of  the  Sewing 
Machine,  he  brightened  up  considerably  and  served 
the  mission  for  many  months  with  the  fidelity  and 
devotion  of  a  Newfoundland  dog.  He  considered  that 
on  account  of  having  been  married  fifteen  years  he 
knew  all  about  dust  in  corners  and  was  an  efficient 
housemaid,  an  opinion  with  which  neither  the  Lady  of 
the  Sewing  Machine  nor  her  successors  wholly  con- 
curred. He  was  once  asked  by  a  Serb  lady  how,  being 
a  Czech,  he  came  to  fight  against  his  brothers  in  race. 
"  Well,"  he  replied,  "  we  fought  for  one  day,  but  we 
gave  ourselves  up  in  the  evening." 

With  the  exception  of  the  three  already  mentioned, 
we  did  not  obtain  any  Austrian  prisoners  until  early  in 
March,  when  a  long-expected  party  arrived  in  the  town. 
They  were  drawn  up  in  the  market-place  next  day  and 
the  two  British  units  summoned  to  inspect  them  and 
make  their  choice.  The  scene  was  a  strange  one  and 
very  like  a  slave  market.  Though  March  had  arrived, 
there  was  as  yet  no  promise  of  spring,  and  the  snow, 
slush,  and  chilly  wind  seemed  more  suitable  to  an 
English  December.  The  men  looked  ill  and  wretched 
after  the  privations  of  the  winter,  and  the  ravages  of 
typhus  and  recurrent  fever.  But  even  in  these 
depressing  circumstances  the  young  sergeant  in  charge 


84       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

gave  briskly,  on  his  own  initiative,  the  word  of  com- 
mand, and  made  his  men  stand  at  attention.  It 
struck  the  writer  that  a  man  who  could  behave  in  a 
"  slave  market  "  as  if  he  were  on  a  review  ground  had 
a  character  worthy  of  further  investigation,  and  the 
first  man  taken  from  the  ranks  was  the  sergeant.  The 
prisoners  were  selected  by  the  principal  lady  of  each 
unit  in  turn  ;  a  knowledge  of  English  or  German  was 
reckoned  valuable,  signs  of  good  health  were  looked 
for,  and  the  trade  of  the  prisoners  was  taken  into 
account.  When  the  selection  was  finished  the  new 
orderlies  had  to  go  through  the  ordeal  of  the  bath, 
which  awaited  all  new  arrivals  at  our  hospitals, 
whether  patients  or  prisoners.  Thus  they  gained  the 
first  asset  of  entrance  into  a  British  hospital — farewell 
to  the  louse,  hitherto  an  inseparable  companion. 

About  a  week  later  another  contingent  of  prisoners 
arrived  and  another  "  slave  market "  was  held. 
On  this  occasion  a  curious  contretemps  occurred. 
The  selected  prisoners  were  conducted  to  the  baths 
and  their  clothes  removed  to  be  disinfected,  but  by 
some  misunderstanding  the  fresh  clothes,  which 
should  have  been  sent,  never  arrived.  It  was  only 
late  in  the  afternoon  that  the  non-arrival  of  the 
prisoners  at  the  hospital  was  noticed.  Search  was 
made  for  them,  and  they  were  discovered  still  in  the 
bath-house,  minus  clothes,  having  enjoyed  for  some 
seven  hours  the  hot  sulphur  fumes  with  which  the 
atmosphere  was  impregnated. 

Among  our  prisoners  were  representatives  of  most 
of  the  heterogeneous  elements  of  which  the  "  ram- 
shackle empire,"  as  Mr.  Lloyd  George  aptly  called  it, 
is  composed.  There  were  Czechs  and  Germans  from 


AUSTRIAN  PRISONERS  85 

Bohemia,  Ruthenians  and  a  Jew  from  Galicia, 
Italians  from  Trieste  and  Dalmatia,  Magyars  from 
Hungary,  Serbs,  some  from  Hungary,  some  from 
Bosnia  and  Slavonia.  Prisoners  from  Bohemia, 
especially  Czechs,  formed  the  largest  group  in  our 
hospitals,  as  seemed  to  be  the  case  also  in  all  parts  of 
Serbia  which  we  visited.  There  are  still  people  in 
England  who  look  upon  the  Austrians  as  a  nation, 
in  the  sense  in  which  French  or  Germans  are  a 
nation  and  who  also  have  a  vague  idea  that  there  is 
an  Austrian  language.  We  have  often  wondered 
where  they  would  find  this  language  among  this 
heterogeneous  collection  of  nationalities.  It  was 
certainly  not  German,  whether  of  the  Viennese  or 
other  variety.  Not  more  than  half  our  prisoners 
spoke  German,  although  when  choosing  our  prisoners 
we  had  looked  for  knowledge  of  German  both  as 
being  useful  in  itself  and  also  as  in  many  cases  evi- 
dence of  better  education.  Men  of  each  nationality 
had  their  own  mother  tongue,  to  which  they  clung 
tenaciously,  and  among  our  own  prisoners  Czech 
was  the  predominant  language. 

The  first  step  after  obtaining  the  prisoners  was  to 
allot  them  their  several  avocations.  A  considerable 
number  were  made  ward  orderlies,  the  men  of  better 
education  being  generally  selected  for  this  work 
unless  some  special  experience  made  them  more 
useful  elsewhere.  In  the  Terapia  we  had  four  ward 
orderlies  on  day  duty,  who  worked  together  for 
several  months  (Fig.  9).  Head  of  these  was  the 
sergeant  already  mentioned  ;  keen  and  alert,  with 
an  appetite  for  knowledge  of  any  kind,  he  soon  learnt 
to  make  a  bed  with  the  dexterity  of  a  trained  nurse 


86       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

and  to  lift  a  patient  with  the  skill  showing  an  inborn 
aptitude.  He  was  a  Czech  and  had  Bohemian 
history  at  his  finger  tips  ;  we  have  a  shrewd  suspicion 
that  he  had  visions  of  changes  in  the  map  of  Europe 
which  hardly  come  into  the  schemes  of  the  Central 
Empires.  On  the  same  side  worked  another  Czech, 
Johann,  red-haired  and  with  a  face  rather  like  an 
Italian  St.  John,  slack  and  amiable,  and,  alas, 
with  a  penchant  for  the  forbidden  attractions  of  a 
cafe  on  the  hill  hard  by,  which  led  ultimately  to 
disastrous  results.  On  the  other  side  of  the  ward 
were  placed  two  German  Bohemians  ;  one  was  a 
head  waiter  from  Marienbad,  once  in  the  Carlton 
Hotel,  who  spoke  English  perfectly.  He  alone  among 
the  prisoners  manifested  any  trace  of  animosity 
towards  the  English.  One  day  soon  after  he  came 
he  was  told  to  clean  a  window,  and  was  heard  to 
mutter,  "  I  suppose  the  English  woman  wants  to 
kill  me."  Signs  of  any  feelings  of  this  sort,  however, 
soon  disappeared.  His  knowledge  of  English  was 
most  useful,  and  he  became  in  many  ways  the  sister's 
right  hand.  But  he  never  took  enthusiastically  to 
ward  work,  and  when  he  was  moved  later  into  the 
kitchen  and  dining-room  he  was  much  happier, 
and  more  in  his  element,  wafting  about  dishes  and 
trays  and  studying  the  gastronomic  idiosyncrasies 
of  the  Unit.  His  companion  was  a  schoolmaster, 
inclined  to  be  sentimental  and  melancholic,  longing 
for  home  and  a.  fiancee  he  had  left  there.  He  was  a 
Protestant,  and  thought  that  things  had  gone  very 
wrong  for  Germans  and  English  to  be  fighting  one 
another  instead  of  standing  together  and  ruling  the 
world.  We  tried  to  cheer  him  up  by  making  him 


AUSTRIAN  PRISONERS  87 

learn  English  and  getting  him  to  teach  German  to 
some  of  the  Unit,  but  even  this  did  not  greatly 
exhilarate  him.  He  was  a  very  conscientious  little 
man  and  assiduous  in  his  care  of  the  patients,  espe- 
cially if  they  were  seriously  ill. 

Bohemia  is  not  unlike  Ireland,  in  that  there  is 
a  Czech  majority  corresponding  to  the  Nationalists, 
and  a  German  minority  corresponding  to  the  Ulster- 
men.  Unionist  and  Nationalist  had  it  out  some- 
times in  our  ward  ante-room,  in  the  persons  of  the 
schoolmaster  and  the  sergeant,  the  former  generally 
in  friendly  banter,  the  latter  always  in  deadly  earnest. 

The  relations  between  Serbian  patients  and  Austrian 
orderlies  were  at  times  a  little  difficult.  It  is  a 
somewhat  topsy-turvy  state  of  things  for  the  captor 
to  be  put  under  the  charge  of  the  captive.  As  a  rule 
the  Serbian  soldier  was  a  simple,  large-hearted, 
friendly  person,  and,  though  he  believed  firmly  that 
if  only  his  armies  were  let  go  they  would  be  at  Buda- 
pest and  Vienna  in  no  time,  he  had  no  personal 
malice  towards  his  Austrian  opponents,  and  accepted 
their  ministrations,  and  even  a  certain  degree  of 
control,  in  good  part.  Prisoners  of  Slav  race  certainly 
fitted  in  best  as  a  rule,  but  success  or  failure  in 
regard  to  the  patients  was  largely  a  matter  of  indi- 
vidual character. 

A  good  instance  of  the  force  of  personality  over- 
coming the  disadvantages  of  race  was  to  be  seen  in 
the  head  orderly  at  the  school,  a  sergeant  from 
Vienna,  Josef  Merstalinger,  selected  at  the  second 
"  slave  market,"  a  German,  not  a  Slav,  by  race. 
Mr.  Gwin,  our  American  volunteer,  reigned  over  the 
school,  our  second  hospital,  with  four  Austrian 


88       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

prisoners  under  him.  Mr.  Gwin  and  his  sergeant 
were  somewhat  like  a  shepherd  and  his  dog  in  their 
relation  to  the  school,  and  indeed  there  seemed  to  be 
between  them  something  like  the  mutual  under- 
standing, and  the  devotion  without  words  which 
exist  between  a  Highlander  and  his  collie.  There 
was  no  smarter  soldier  than  the  sergeant,  none  more 
wholly  correct  in  all  that  he  did,  in  the  promptitude 
with  which  he  would  salute  a  Serbian  officer,  the 
immaculate  condition  of  his  wards  and  dressing- 
room,  the  keenness  he  displayed  in  bandaging  and 
dressing.  Over  the  patients,  and  also  over  the  other 
orderlies,  he  exercised  extraordinary  influence  ;  they 
received  his  rebukes  with  docility  and  his  jokes 
with  appreciation.  There  was  at  one  time  among  the 
patients  a  wounded  Herzegovinian,  more  Serb  than 
the  Serbs,  as  volunteer  Herzegovinians  are  wont  to 
be.  This  young  man  loved  to  tease  the  Austrians 
and  to  try  to  draw  the  sergeant.  On  one  occasion 
when  the  latter  was  dressing  the  wound  of  an 
Austrian  patient  the  Herzegovinian  remarked  exul- 
tantly, "  Ah !  that  was  made  by  a  Serb  !  "  "  Yes, 
and  yours  was  made  by  a  '  Schwab,'  "  answered  the 
sergeant,  using  himself  the  somewhat  contemptuous 
term  applied  to  Austrians  and  Germans.  The  laugh 
which  followed  was  on  his  side  ! 

Several  of  the  Austrian  orderlies  showed  great 
devotion  to  the  patients  under  their  care.  This  was 
especially  the  case  in  a  young  Czech,  named  Chylle, 
a  machine-gun  sergeant,  who  was  head  orderly  at  the 
Baraque  during  the  summer.  At  this  time  the  beds 
were  largely  occupied  by  children,  and  to  see  this 
strapping  young  fellow  washing  and  attending  to 


AUSTRIAN  PRISONERS  89 

these  infants  like  a  most  devoted  and  well-trained 
nursemaid  was  quite  touching.  There  was  one  child, 
by  name  Janko,  a  most  entertaining  little  person, 
who  came  in  for  an  operation  for  harelip  and  was  for 
many  weeks  the  pet  of  the  ward,  and  to  him  the 
sergeant  was  a  most  constant  slave. 

Besides  the  ward  orderlies  an  orderly  was  assigned 
to  each  floor  of  the  Terapia,  to  look  after  rooms  and 
corridor.  In  the  basement  reigned  Pekarek,  also  a 
Czech,  by  occupation  furniture  designer,  and  storyette 
writer.  He  did  sterilising  and  had  charge  of  the 
theatre  under  the  theatre  sister ;  he  unpacked 
packing-cases  and  looked  after  clothes  and  blankets 
stored  in  the  basement  under  Miss  Dickinson  ;  he 
helped  in  the  complicated  arrangements  for  the 
labelling,  disinfecting,  and  storing  of  patients' 
clothes  under  the  "  Herr  Ingenieur "  and  the 
commissaire.  Most  people  who  wanted  anything 
called  upon  Pekarek,  but  with  so  many  duties  and 
so  many  masters  it  is  not  surprising  that  his  work 
was  considered  by  some  extremely  "  sketchy." 

In  the  basement  we  also  had  a  shoemaker,  a  most 
valuable  person,  for  whom  a  little  workshop  was 
rigged  up,  and  who  made  and  mended  footgear 
for  the  Unit,  the  prisoners,  and  sometimes  for  friends 
outside. 

Among  the  outdoor  men  at  the  Terapia  there  were 
three  carpenters,  whose  time  was  always  fully 
employed.  These  three  carpenters  afforded  a  curious 
instance  of  the  language  difficulties  between  the 
prisoners  themselves.  One  spoke  only  Czech,  one 
Czech  and  a  little  German,  while  the  third  spoke  only 
Italian.  Consequently  if  No.  I  had  anything  impor- 


90       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

tant  to  say  to  No.  3  it  required  the  assistance  of  No. 
2  and  also  of  a  member  of  the  Unit  who  knew  both 
German  and  Italian  before  they  could  communicate 
with  one  another  !  The  Italian-speaking  carpenter 
came  from  Trieste,  a  town  most  of  whose  inhabitants 
in  speech,  appearance,  and  sentiment  are  as  Italian 
as  if  they  were  on  the  other  side  of  the  Adriatic. 
This  man,  who  was  both  anti-militarist  and  anti- 
Austrian,  would  have  made  his  escape  when  the  war 
broke  out,  if  the  frontier  had  not  been  guarded.  He 
related  with  much  satisfaction  how  once,  on  Gari- 
baldi's birthday,  some  of  the  citizens  of  Trieste 
had  managed  to  hoist  the  Italian  flag  on  to  the 
town-hall.  There  was  a  great  row  in  consequence, 
but  the  Austrian  authorities  never  discovered  the 
culprits. 

During  the  course  of  the  summer,  some  time  after 
the  entrance  of  Italy  into  the  war,  news  came  that 
prisoners  of  Italian  race  were  to  be  passed  over 
to  the  Italians  and  be  sent  to  Italy.  We  had  at 
that  time  three  Austrian  Italians.  They  came  up 
delighted  at  the  news,  assuring  us  that  the  only 
thing  which  would  have  reconciled  them  to  leaving 
our  Mission  was  the  prospect  of  going  to  Italy,  which 
they  evidently  looked  upon  as  a  mother  country 
from  which  they  had  been  cruelly  separated.  Alas  ! 
poor  Italians,  the  expected  order  to  depart  never 
arrived,  and  although  they  started  indeed  for  Italy 
it  was  to  take  part  in  that  terrible  retreat  through 
Albania,  along  roads  now  thickly  strewn  with  the 
bones  of  Austrian  prisoners.* 

*  Two  of  them,  we  have  since  heard,  reached  Italy,  but  we  have  no 
news  of  the  third. 


AUSTRIAN  PRISONERS  91 

We  had  other  outdoor  men,  whose  work  consisted 
in  cutting  wood,  looking  after  the  garden  and  dis- 
infectors,  and  doing  various  odd  jobs.  Among  these 
was  one  Dushan,  a  Serb  from  Slavonia,  strong, 
well-knit  and  sturdy,  like  a  well-bred  cob.  He  was  a 
good  worker,  but  liked  intervals  for  meditation, 
and  the  English  orderly  whose  department  was  the 
oversight  of  the  outdoor  prisoners  always  had  to 
keep  him  well  in  view.  When  Jones  had  this  depart- 
ment Dushan  found  that  his  moments  of  meditation 
and  chances  of  snatching  a  surreptitious  cigarette 
were  sadly  interfered  with,  and  he  was  heard  to 
remark  plaintively  that  he  could  never  sit  down  but 
his  "  mali  brat  "  (little  brother)  was  certain  to  come 
and  rout  him  out.  "  Brat  "  is  the  usual  term  used 
by  Serbs  for  their  friends,  and  the  name  of  "  Little 
Brother  "  clung  to  Jones  for  ever  after.  Later  on, 
when  we  put  prisoners  into  the  kitchens,  Dushan 
became  cook  to  the  patients  and  orderlies.  He 
occasionally  fed  the  prisoners  on  burnt  beans,  but 
fear  of  the  watchful  eye  of  the  ward  sister  kept  him 
up  to  the  mark  as  regarded  the  patients !  One 
prisoner  acted  as  messenger  to  the  commissaire.  He 
spent  most  of  his  time  going  backwards  and  forwards 
into  the  town,  bringing  up  the  daily  supplies,  and 
doing  innumerable  errands.  For  a  considerable 
part  of  our  time  a  German  Bohemian,  named  Heidler, 
a  tall  young  fellow,  with  an  engaging,  ever-ready 
smile,  held  this  office.  Heidler  was  frequently 
abstracted  from  the  commissaire  to  go  marketing 
with  Miss  Dickinson.  He  spoke  Serbian  well,  and 
would  drive  excellent  bargains  with  the  market- 
women,  in  the  most  friendly  fashion.  Often  they 


92       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

went  to  the  Trstenik  market  in  the  Major's  wagonette, 
Heidler  sitting  on  the  box.  There  they  would  buy, 
among  other  things,  sheep,  pigs,  geese,  and  chickens, 
which  were  brought  home  some  on  the  box,  some 
inside  the  carriage,  the  whole  equipage  looking  like 
a  "  Return  from  the  Foray  "  or  some  similar  pictorial 
subject. 

Last  but  not  least  should  be  mentioned  "  Julius." 
Julius  was  a  Hungarian  who  had  been  a  patient  in 
another  hospital  in  Vrntse,  and  who  when  recovered 
was  passed  on  to  us  at  an  early  period  of  our  career. 
He  was  first  kitchen  boy,  and  later  became  cook  to  the 
staff.  He  also  had  in  his  charge  the  various  animals 
brought  from  Trstenik  or  elsewhere,  both  in  their  life 
and  death — especially  the  latter,  as  he  was  by  trade  a 
butcher.  Julius  was  quite  a  good  cook  and  keen  about 
his  work.  On  his  own  initiative  he  levelled  during  the 
summer  a  bit  of  rough  ground  at  the  foot  of  the  steps 
to  our  dining-room,  and  every  day  when  fine  he  used 
to  carry  out  our  tables  and  chairs  to  his  "  Restauration 
zum  Rothen  Kreuz,"  as  he  called  it.  He  was  very 
amenable  to  those  who  knew  how  to  manage  him,  but 
his  relations  with  the  other  kitchen  servants  were 
not  always  cordial,  and  he  occasionally  got  into 
the  commissaire's  black  books  by  speaking  in  a 
manner  unbecoming  in  a  prisoner.  Once,  having  been 
told  to  be  in  the  commissaire's  room  at  a  certain  time, 
he  never  appeared  till  sent  for,  and  when  asked  the 
reason  why,  replied,  coolly,  "  I  had  no  time  " — at 
which  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  wrath  of  the  com- 
missaire  descended  upon  Julius.  The  Professor  said 
he  must  be  punished,  and  informed  him  that  he  would 
have  to  cut  wood  during  all  his  spare  time  for  the  next 


AUSTRIAN  PRISONERS  93 

two  or  three  days.  But  it  appeared  that  Julius  had, 
officially,  no  spare  time,  and  the  lady  who  reigned 
over  the  kitchen  did  not  see  why  spare  time  should  be 
made  for  Julius,  simply  in  order  that  he  might  be  able 
to  fulfil  his  punishment — which  story  illustrates  two 
difficulties  which  often  beset  the  Heads  of  the  Unit ; 
one  was  to  avoid  treading  on  the  toes  of  Heads  of 
departments  and  others,  and  the  other  was  to  find 
punishments  for  prisoners. 

The  prisoners  were  all  under  a  Serbian  lieutenant, 
who  visited  us  occasionally,  and  to  whom  any  cases  of 
serious  misdemeanour  were  reported.  As  a  rule  we 
maintained  discipline  among  theAustrians  without  any 
system  of  punishment.  If  a  prisoner  proved  unsatis- 
factory, which  was  not  often  the  case,  we  asked  for  his 
removal  and  another  was  sent  in  his  place.  The  Serbs 
themselves  were  more  severe  in  their  methods,  and  we 
often  heard  of  prisoners  working  in  native  hospitals 
being  flogged.  If,  however,  the  flogging  was  of  the 
same  kind  as  that  witnessed  in  the  only  case  which 
came  under  our  personal  observation,  it  was  not  a 
painful  proceeding.  One  of  our  orderlies  once  took 
advantage  of  the  absence  of  most  of  the  Unit  at  a 
picnic  to  go  down  to  the  town  and  return  home  drunk. 
He  was  reported  to  the  authorities,  and  the  lieutenant 
in  charge  came  up  to  administer  punishment.  The 
prisoners  were  all  summoned  and  drawn  up  in  line 
to  witness  the  proceeding.  The  lieutenant  first 
harangued  the  culprit  and  then  administered  several 
cuts  with  his  riding  whip  ;  no  clothing  was  removed, 
and  the  victim  ran  about  trying  to  elude  the  cuts  like 
a  frightened  dog.  The  effect  was  distinctly  comic, 
and  the  suffering  inflicted  was  much  more  mental  than 


94       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

physical.  Some  of  the  better-class  Austrians  were 
indignant  and  considered  it  a  humiliating  performance, 
but  we  fancy  the  victim  himself  would  certainly  have 
preferred  it  to  the  more  drastic  methods  of  Prussian,  or 
even  Austrian,  military  discipline.  It  bore,  indeed, 
little  resemblance  to  the  barbarous  military  floggings 
which  were  common  even  in  England  only  half  a 
century  ago.  The  commissaires  also  exercised  juris- 
diction over  the  prisoners  in  their  own  hospitals,  but 
practically  the  Professor  had  the  prisoners  and  most 
matters  concerning  them  under  his  own  control.  If 
we  wanted  any  special  work  done,  we  asked  for  more 
prisoners  ;  thirty,  for  instance,  were  sent  us  daily  for 
the  drainage  of  the  marsh  as  long  as  that  work  was  in 
hand,  and  later  a  considerable  number  were  supplied 
for  the  building  of  the  slaughter-house.  We  had  about 
sixty  or  seventy  working  in  the  hospitals,  and  with  the 
addition  of  the  men  for  the  slaughter-house  the  number 
came  to  nearly  a  hundred.  We  felt  rather  as  if  we 
were  in  the  Southern  States  of  America  before  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  or  perhaps  a  better  parallel  was 
that  of  feudal  lords,  with  retainers  who  were  forced  to 
give  their  service.  Serbia  certainly  had  an  immense 
amount  of  cheap  labour  at  her  disposal  at  that  time, 
and  it  seems  a  pity  it  was  not  employed  with  more 
permanent  effect.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  it  used 
in  scraping  roads  free  from  mud,  which  the  next  rain 
put  back  again. 

Austrian  prisoners  were  generally  very  glad  to  get 
into  a  British  mission,  especially  in  the  spring  of  1915, 
for  there  is  no  doubt  that  during  the  previous  winter 
they  had  had  a  very  bad  time  indeed.  But  it  is  hardly 
fair  to  blame  on  that  account  either  the  Government 


AUSTRIAN  PRISONERS  95 

or  the  Serbian  people.  The  Government  of  a  more 
developed  country  than  Serbia  would  find  it  hard  to 
deal  with  such  a  large  increase  in  mouths  to  be  fed  at 
a  time  when  there  was  no  money,  and  when  the  country 
was  j  ust  recovering  from  a  devastating  invasion.  If  the 
Austrians  suffered  that  winter,  so  did  the  Serbs.  The 
Austrian  prisoners  were  treated  much  the  same  as  the 
Serbian  soldiers,  but  were  less  able  than  the  latter  to 
withstand  hardships  and  to  thrive  on  a  wretched  diet. 
Typhus  decimated  them  earlier,  and  more  universally, 
probably  owing  to  the  way  in  which  they  were  crowded 
together.  Our  head  orderly,  the  sergeant  at  the 
Terapia,  described  how  throughout  the  winter  he  had 
lived  with  250  other  men  in  a  small  house  just  outside 
Trstenik.  They  had  neither  beds,  blankets,  nor  even 
straw  to  sleep  upon,  and  were  fed  on  the  scantiest  of 
food.  They  had  no  guards,  but  each  sergeant  had 
under  him  fifty  men,  and  was  responsible  with  his  life 
if  any  should  escape.  Many  of  the  prisoners  fell  ill 
and  were  carried  off  to  the  hospital.  Here,  too,  they 
lay  on  the  floor  with  nothing  to  cover  them  unless  they 
were  the  fortunate  possessors  of  a  great-coat.  Our 
informant  stated  that  of  his  party  50  per  cent,  died — 
of  eleven  Italians  whom  he  had  under  his  charge  only 
one  survived. 

The  peasants  in  the  neighbourhood  showed  the 
prisoners  a  good  deal  of  kindness.  On  a  hill  above  the 
house  where  they  lived  stood  a  village  graveyard. 
Here,  every  Saturday,  according  to  the  strange 
Serbian  custom,  plates  of  food  were  put  upon  the 
graves,  services  held  over  them,  and  the  food  after- 
wards given  away,  the  recipients  eating  it  benefiting  in 
some  mystic  manner  the  souls  of  the  deceased.  Every 


96       A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

Saturday  the  kindly  villagers  called  up  the  hungry 
prisoners  and  bestowed  upon  them  this  food,  regard- 
less of  the  fact  that  they  were  enemies.  Undoubtedly 
the  relations  between  the  peasants  and  the  prisoners 
were  generally  perfectly  friendly. 

During  the  summer  we  frequently  took  walks 
in  the  mountains,  accompanied  by  some  of  the 
prisoners,  to  gather  fruit  for  the  hospital  or  some- 
times to  get  wood.  During  these  walks  we  often 
saw  instances  of  kindly  feeling  on  the  part  of  the 
peasants  towards  the  prisoners.  On  one  occasion 
we  reached  a  remote  saw-mill  on  a  mountain  stream. 
The  proprietor,  a  well-to-do  peasant,  brought  rakija, 
the  native  spirit,  especially  for  the  Austrians. 

On  the  whole  the  Austrian  prisoners  in  our  service, 
and  I  think  in  that  of  all  other  British  missions  in 
Serbia,  had  by  no  means  a  bad  time,  and  they 
generally  showed  their  appreciation  of  their  treat- 
ment by  doing  good  work.  It  may  be  added  that  we 
always  paid  our  prisoners  a  small  weekly  sum, 
according  to  the  rules  laid  down  by  the  Geneva 
Convention.  This,  although  merely  of  the  nature 
of  pocket-money,  encouraged  the  men  to  work 
well,  and  its  withdrawal  in  cases  of  idleness  or 
misconduct  was  one  of  our  methods  of  punishment. 
Some  of  the  prisoners  were  possibly  occasionally  a 
little  spoiled  by  sympathetic  members  of  the  Unit, 
but  probably  this  did  little  harm  either  to  the 
spoiled  or  the  spoilers.  Perhaps  one  of  the  worst 
offenders  in  this  respect  was  one  of  our  V.A.D.'s, 
whom  we  will  call  Donna  Quixota,  because  that  is 
a  name  which  certainly  fits  her  well.  She  was  tall 
and  comely,  indeed  beautiful,  though  not  exactly 


FIG     II. AUSTRIAN      PRISONERS    AT    THE    TERAPIA    PREPARING    FOR    OUR    WEEKLY 

INSPECTION. 


FIG.  12. — INTERNATIONAL   COMMISSION    INQUIRING    INTO    THE   CONDITION    OF   OUR 
AUSTRIAN     PRISONERS.       THE     PRESIDENT,    AN    AMERICAN,    IS    ADDRESSING    THEM 
IN   CZECH. 


AUSTRIAN  PRISONERS  97 

of  the  buxom  type  which  fulfils  the  Serbian  ideal  of 
the  "  lepa  sestra "  (the  Beautiful  Sister)  (Fig.  9). 
On  the  voyage  out  she  had  passed  her  time  feeding 
miserable  animals  and  attending  to  the  seasick  and 
infirm.  She  was  always  looking  for  and  helping  the 
sick  and  suffering,  always  standing  up  for  the 
oppressed.  If  she  sometimes  imagined  the  suffering 
or  mistook  the  oppressor  for  the  oppressed,  "  Que 
voulez-vous  ?  " — she  was  a  feminine  Don  Quixote  ! 
She  was  splendidly  genuine,  and  before  the  final 
release  of  the  Unit  she  was  reduced  to  the  depths 
of  destitution  in  regard  to  shoes  and  clothes,  as  she 
had  given  away  most  of  her  belongings.  She  would 
have  driven  a  Charity  Organisation  Committee  to 
distraction,  and  she  made  Heads  of  units  and  keepers 
of  stores  feel  stony-hearted  misers,  when  they  with- 
stood the  white  heat  of  her  generosity.  Donna 
Quixota  pitied  the  poor  prisoners  and  tried  to 
alleviate  their  sad  lot  by  doing  part  of  their  work 
herself !  She  thought  Julius  overworked — Julius, 
the  ever-growing  rotundity  of  whose  form  made  him 
resemble  an  incipient  alderman — and  she  would 
squeeze  time  from  her  multitudinous  duties  to  wash 
dishes  or  peel  potatoes  for  him.  One  day  she  was  seen 
vigorously  sweeping  a  garden  path  while  Johann 
of  the  auburn  hair  reclined  at  ease  on  the  grass  by  the 
side,  enjoying  his  off-duty  hour.  I  thought  of  Gil- 
bert and  Sullivan's  line  "  the  prisoner's  lot  is  not  a 
happy  one  "  and  wished  for  a  camera  !  But  the 
proceeding  was  too  much  even  for  the  easy-going 
Johann,  and  he  spoilt  the  picture  by  springing  up  and 
taking  the  broom  out  of  the  hands  of  Donna  Quixota. 
During  the  summer  Vrnjatchka  Ban]  a  was  visited 


98       A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

by  an  orchestra  from  Nish,  which  had  gained  great 
renown  throughout  Serbia.  More  than  half  of  this 
was  composed  of  prisoners,  mainly  Bohemians. 
Performances  in  aid  of  the  widows  and  orphans  of 
Serbian  soldiers  were  held  in  the  park  on  three 
consecutive  days,  and  were  attended  by  most  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  place,  including  many  of  the 
prisoners.  Excellent  music  was  performed  at  these 
concerts,  and  the  Slav  hymn  was  sung  over  and  over 
again  amidst  scenes  of  tremendous  enthusiasm,  the 
whole  audience  joining  in.  The  thrilling  tones  of 
this  hymn,  which  is  the  national  anthem  for  all 
Slav  races,  and  is  anathema  to  Germans,  frequently 
resounded  through  our  wards,  patients  and  prisoners 
singing  it  together.  Most  Slav  races  are  extremely 
musical,  and  in  the  evenings  our  prisoners  frequently 
amused  themselves  by  singing  charming  Bohemian 
folk-songs.  We  had  to  be  careful,  however,  about 
what  the  prisoners  sang,  as  Austrian  airs  gave  great 
offence. 

One  of  the  Czech  prisoners  constructed  a  violin 
for  himself  out  of  the  tin  sides  of  a  biscuit  box,  and 
produced  with  it  quite  creditable  harmony.  At 
another  hospital  in  the  town  the  First  Violin  from  the 
Prague  Grand  Opera  held  the  menial  position  of 
scrubber  in  the  wards,  but  when  distinguished 
guests  visited  the  town  his  services  in  his  former 
professional  capacity  were  often  requisitioned  for 
their  evening  entertainment. 

A  curious  instance  of  personation,  which  came 
under  our  cognisance,  shows  that  sometimes  the  lot 
of  an  Austrian  prisoner  was  considered  more  enviable 
than  that  of  a  Serb  soldier,  and  illustrates  also  the 


AUSTRIAN  PRISONERS  99 

small   difference  that  existed   between  the  Serbs   of 
Serbia  and  the  Serbs  of  Austria. 

A  Serbian  soldier,  by  way  of  evading  military 
service,  deserted  from  his  regiment,  donned  an 
Austrian  uniform,  and  gave  himself  up  as  an  Austrian 
deserter.  He  was  made  prisoner  accordingly.  The 
fact  that  he  spoke  Serbian  perfectly,  and  knew  no 
other  language,  was  nothing  extraordinary  in  an 
Austrian  prisoner,  and  was  explained  by  his  stating 
that  he  came  from  one  of  the  many  villages  in  Austria- 
Hungary  where  all  the  inhabitants  speak  Serbian. 
We  found  him  among  the  prisoners  at  the  Merkur 
when  we  took  this  over  as  one  of  our  hospitals,  and 
there  he  remained  for  some  time  without  attracting 
any  particular  attention.  One  day  a  peasant 
appeared  at  the  hospital  to  inquire  whether  his  son 
was  a  patient  there,  and  the  name  he  gave  was  that 
of  the  pseudo-prisoner.  He  was  told  there  was  no 
patient  of  that  name,  only  an  Austrian  prisoner. 
"  Oh,  my  son's  not  a  l  Schwab  '  !  "  said  the  old  man, 
and  away  he  went.  After  this  the  man  might  have 
remained  undetected  until  after  the  war.  But  for 
some  reason  he  chose  to  steal  a  quantity  of  morphia 
and  this  was  found  upon  him.  His  coolness  then 
vanished,  and  while  the  case  was  under  consideration 
he  ran  away.  He  was  followed  and  arrested,  and  the 
whole  story  came  to  light.  If  he  thought  he  would 
fare  better  as  a  Serbian  deserter  than  an  Austrian 
thief  he  was  mistaken,  for  the  poor  man  was  even- 
tually shot. 

As  the  summer  advanced,  and  Serbia  passed  out 
of  the  want  and  misery  of  the  winter  months  into 
comparative  peace  and  plenty,  the  Austrian  prisoner 

7—a 


ioo     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

shared  to  some  extent  in  the  general  prosperity. 
In  other  respects  also  his  condition  changed.  He  was 
no  longer  the  comparatively  free  but  neglected  being 
he  had  been  during  the  earlier  months  of  his  captivity. 
No  longer  might  he  wander  about  at  will  and  eat  at 
any  cafe,  if  he  possessed  the  wherewithal.  He  might 
go  nowhere  without  a  permit,  and  woe  betide  him  if 
he  were  found  at  a  cafe.  These  restrictions,  which 
were  not  always  wisely  enforced,  especially  irritated 
the  Slav  prisoners,  and  rather  damped  the  ardour 
of  some  of  the  Pan-slavists  among  them. 

The  prisoner  had  in  fact  come  out  into  the  limelight  ! 
Commissions  were  constantly  looking  him  up.  Inter- 
national commissions  to  compare  his  condition  with 
that  of  prisoners  in  other  lands,  Serbian  commissions, 
some  to  see  that  he  was  properly  treated,  others  to 
make  sure  that  he  was  not  being  pampered  (Fig.  12). 
When  he  was  not  being  interviewed  by  commissions, 
he  was  probably  being  marched  down  to  the  town  to 
be  inoculated  against  various  diseases.  This  was  done 
at  the  request  of  the  Austrian  Red  Cross  by  the  French 
Sanitary  Mission  which  had  undertaken  the  work  of 
inoculation  throughout  the  district.  The  Serbian 
civil  population  did  not  respond  over-readily,  but  the 
Austrian  prisoner  had  no  choice.  Strict  regulations, 
however,  were  issued  by  the  Serbian  Government  as 
to  cessation  of  work  before  and  after  inoculation.  If 
one  was  merely  a  member  of  a  British  Unit,  one  got 
through  typhoid  inoculation  as  best  one  could,  without 
stopping  work  ;  but  if  one  was  an  Austrian  prisoner 
things  were  different  ! 

So  sometimes  the  Austrians  were  all  sent  to  bed,  and 
doctors,  sisters,  and  lady  orderlies  washed  up  dishes 


AUSTRIAN  PRISONERS  101 

and  carried  in  the  beds  of  patients.  To  do  the 
Austrians  justice,  however,  they  showed  no  desire  to 
keep  strictly  to  the  regulations,  or  even  to  profit  by 
bad  arms  ! 

In  the  month  of  June,  when  some  of  the  hospital 
sisters  returned  to  England,  they  left  carrying  great 
bouquets  presented  by  Austrian  orderlies,  who  had 
been  down  to  the  town  in  the  early  hours  of  the  morn- 
ing to  procure  them.  The  photograph  of  this  send-off 
would  scarcely  be  pleasing  to  the  German  Emperor, 
being  evidence  that  the  doctrine  of  "  Hate  to  England  " 
is  scarcely  as  potent  in  the  subjects  of  his  Austrian 
ally  as  he  would  wish.  Still  less  pleasing  would  be  the 
photos  of  the  triumphal  arches  (Fig.  10)  which  were 
erected  at  each  hospital  by  the  prisoners,  to  greet  the 
"  Frau  Doktor  "  on  her  return  from  a  brief  visit  to 
England  in  September,  1915.  For  some  days  before- 
hand Austrian  orderlies  were  industriously  making 
Union  Jacks,  and  were  sometimes  scandalised  to  find 
that  members  of  the  Unit  could  not  always  tell  them 
which  was  the  right  side  up. 

Fig.  13  also  shows  the  friendly  spirit  displayed  by 
the  prisoners  towards  our  Mission. 

Besides  the  prisoners  employed  in  the  various  hos- 
pitals, about  1 20  more  were  at  the  disposal  of  the  town 
engineer  ;  others  were  in  the  service  of  the  mayor. 
Thus  there  were  altogether  in  Vrntse  some  300 
Austrian  prisoners.  It  is  worth  noting  that  there 
were  no  Serbian  soldiers  in  the  place,  except  those 
who  were  patients  in  the  hospital,  and  there  were  not 
even  any  policemen  until  the  Professor  asked  for  and 
obtained  four  gendarmes  to  see  that  the  new  sanitary 
regulations  were  enforced.  F  M  D  R 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MERCURY   AND    ATHENE. 

Villa  Merkur — Plan  of  Ventilation — Latrines  (Inspection  of) — 
Villa  Atina — Preparation  of — Difficulties — Insanitary  Surround- 
ings— Arrangement  of  Work  among  the  Six  Hospitals  controlled 
by  our  Unit — Civilians  in  the  Atina — Military  and  Medical 
Organisation  at  Vrntse — Major  Gashitch,  the  Director — Mr. 
Neuhut,  the  Dolmetch — The  Commissaires — Mr.  Boshko  Marko- 
vitch — Catering — Mr.  Milutin  Jovanovitch — Other  Commissaires 
— Report  of  the  Director  of  Hospitals — Letter  from  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief. 

BEFORE  the  full  complement  of  the  hospitals  under 
our  charge  was  reached  two  more  were  added  to  those 
already  described.  These  were  the  Villa  Merkur  and 
the  Villa  Atina.  The  Villa  Merkur  was  a  fine  building 
standing  in  its  own  grounds  at  the  northern  end  of  the 
town,  about  a  mile  from  the  Terapia.  It  was  a  typical 
boarding-house,  with  a  number  of  little  rooms  opening 
into  long  corridors,  and  was  prepared  for  use  by  taking 
away  all  the  doors,  removing  panes  of  glass  from 
both  ends  of  the  corridors,  and  opening  the  top  sashes 
of  the  windows  in  each  room.  This,  in  effect,  con- 
verted a  corridor,  with  rooms  on  each  side  of  it,  into  a 
long  ward  divided  into  cubicles  with  a  through  current 
of  air  passing  from  one  end  to  the  other.  It  was  at 
this  hospital  that  an  order  was  given  that  a  certain 
window  should  be  kept  permanently  open.  But  on 
three  successive  mornings  the  Professor,  on  his  round, 
found  it  closed.  As  argument  and  peaceful  persuasion 
seemed  unavailing,  he  took  up  a  stick  and  in  the 
presence  of  a  large  crowd  of  inmates  drove  it  through 


MERCURY  AND  ATHENE  103 

the  glass.  The  news  of  this  drastic  act  reverberated 
throughout  Vrtnse  and  even  beyond,  and  produced  an 
excellent  effect.  At  the  same  time  it  gave  the  chief 
actor  in  the  incident  a  reputation  as  a  window- 
smasher  which  he  really  hardly  deserved.  For,  with 
the  exception  of  the  twelve  panes  at  the  Terapia  which 
were  removed  by  Gordon  at  his  request,  it  was  the 
only  window  that  he  broke  during  the  whole  of  his 
stay  in  Serbia. 

The  low-lying  situation  of  this  hospital  caused  us 
some  engineering  difficulties  ;  the  site  was  in  the 
former  bed  of  the  river,  now  canalised,  and  after  heavy 
rain  it  was  not  uncommon  to  find  three  feet  of  water  in 
the  cellar.  This  had  to  be  baled  out  from  time  to 
time,  as  there  was  no  other  way  of  getting  rid  of  it. 

The  latrines  within  the  house  were  in  the  usual 
unspeakable  condition  and  had  to  be  closed  down  at 
once,  a  new  one  being  built  in  the  garden.  Here  were 
also  built  the  usual  destructor,  boiler,  and  other  acces- 
sories. It  may  be  mentioned  here  that  we  had  no  real 
difficulty  in  teaching  the  Serbs  to  use  dry-earth  latrines, 
to  which  they  were  wholly  unaccustomed,  in  a  decent 
and  proper  manner.  But  it  involved  a  good  deal  of 
patience  and  perseverance  on  the  part  of  the  English. 
It  is  of  no  use  merely  telling  a  Serbian  soldier  what 
you  want  him  to  do.  You  must  see  for  yourself 
that  he  does  it,  and  go  on  telling  him  and  correcting 
him  until  he  understands  that  you  are  in  earnest 
and  mean  to  be  obeyed.  After  that  you  must  still 
keep  an  eye  upon  him,  lest  he  should  lapse  into  evil 
ways.  As  a  rule  it  took  about  a  fortnight  to  teach 
the  Serbs  to  keep  the  latrines  absolutely  clean. 
These  had  to  be  visited  at  least  once  a  day,  and  if 


io4     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

anything  was  found  wrong,  the  offender,  if  he  could 
be  detected,  was  called  up  and  lectured.  At  the  same 
time,  the  Austrian  orderly  in  charge  was  reminded 
that  it  was  his  duty  to  see  that  the  place  was  always 
kept  thoroughly  clean.  "  There  must  be  no  flies  and 
no  smell,  and  if  I  find  either,  you  will  get  into  trouble," 
was  a  threat  which  at  first  had  to  be  frequently  used 
and  acted  upon.  Soon  both  Austrians  and  Serbs, 
when  they  had  learnt  that  we  were  not  to  be  trifled 
with,  themselves  took  great  pains  to  maintain  order, 
and  it  was  the  Serb  soldier  who  instructed  the  new- 
comers. On  one  occasion,  when  a  large  batch  of 
newly-arrived  convalescents  was  admitted  to  the 
school,  things  began  to  go  wrong.  Then  uprose  the 
older  inhabitants.  "  Look  here,"  said  they  to  the 
new-comers,  "  we  cannot  allow  this  sort  of  thing 
in  our  nice  clean  latrines.  We  won't  stand  it,  and 
you  must  remember  that  you  are  not  now  in  a  Serb 
but  in  an  English  hospital."  Then  peace  and  cleanli- 
ness reigned  again. 

THE  ATINA. 

On  March  I9th  Major  Gashitch,  who  had  been 
much  impressed  with  the  thoroughness  of  our  sanitary 
measures,  asked  us  to  take  over  the  Villa  Atina, 
which  had  been  in  use  as  a  Serb  hospital,  mainly  for 
medical  cases.  The  need  for  an  additional  hospital 
was  at  that  time  not  urgent,  but  the  typhus  epidemic 
was  by  no  means  over,  and  we  might  at  any  time  be 
called  upon  to  receive  a  large  influx  of  either  sick  or 
wounded.  It  was  well,  therefore,  to  be  prepared, 
and  the  Major's  idea  was  that  we  should  convert  the 
Villa  Atina  into  a  hospital  on  the  English  model.  To 


MERCURT  AND  ATHENE  105 

this  we  agreed,  with  the  stipulation  that  when  ready 
it  should  remain  under  our  own  control  and  not  be 
handed  over  to  anyone  else.  We  were  prepared  to 
use  it  as  a  hospital  for  medical  cases,  typhus  or 
wounded,  as  might  be  necessary.  To  this  the  Major 
readily  agreed,  and  he  afterwards  loyally  kept  his 
word.  The  building  was  never  used  for  any  other 
purpose  without  our  full  consent.  The  usual  trans- 
formation from  a  Serb  to  an  English  hospital  then 
took  place.  All  floors  and  walls  were  scrubbed  and 
whitewashed,  the  cesspool  was  emptied,  the  latrines 
were  filled  up,  and  the  dry-earth  system  was  intro- 
duced. In  the  courtyard,  Krish,  the  Czech  carpenter, 
under  the  superintendence  of  Schwind  and  Blease, 
built  a  new  latrine  with  a  concrete  floor.  The  floor 
of  the  yard,  which  had  been  a  muddy  swamp,  was 
raised  some  eight  inches  to  allow  the  water  to  run 
away,  and  a  destructor  and  a  boiler  for  infected  linen 
were  installed  in  it.  The  adjoining  road,  which  ran 
at  a  higher  elevation  behind  the  hospital,  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  discharging  all  its  surplus  rain  water 
into  our  yard.  This  had  to  be  remedied  and  involved 
an  extensive  reconstruction  of  the  road  itself.  The 
courtyard  and  tiny  garden  were  unsuitable  for  the 
disposal  of  excreta  from  the  latrine,  as  the  subsoil 
was  found  to  consist  of  mere  builder's  refuse.  The 
proprietor  of  a  neighbouring  garden,  a  doctor  who 
ought  to  have  been  glad  of  the  opportunity  of 
enriching  his  soil  without  expense  to  himself,  having 
declined  our  suggestion  that  we  should  do  it  for  him, 
we  made  a  large  excavation  in  the  courtyard  and 
filled  it  in  to  a  depth  of  three  or  four  feet  with  suitable 
soil  brought  from  the  outskirts  of  the  town.  This 


io6     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

area  was  roofed  over  and  the  necessary  trenches  were 
dug  in  it.  Subsequently  as  the  area  was  found  to  be 
too  small,  we  utilised  also  a  patch  of  ground  in  the 
neighbouring  park. 

Finally,  the  pump  in  the  courtyard  was  dismantled 
and  the  well  closed,  as  there  was  plenty  of  water  to 
be  obtained  from  the  public  fountain  a  hundred 
yards  away.  The  Atina  was  on  the  main  street  in 
the  middle  of  the  town,  and  it  was  impossible  to  make 
it  as  satisfactory  as  our  other  buildings.  The  neigh- 
bours threw  rubbish  over  the  fence,  the  fowls  pecked 
about  the  yard,  and  the  refuse  from  a  restaurant, 
twenty  yards  higher  up,  occasionally  offended  the 
eyes  and  noses  of  our  sanitary  inspectors.  But  it 
was  as  healthy  as  we  could  make  it,  and  with  that  we 
had  to  be  content. 

When  all  our  work  of  preparation  was  finished  our 
Unit  controlled  six  hospitals,  containing  about  360 
beds,*  though  the  actual  floor  space  admitted  of 
rather  more.  The  Terapia  remained  our  principal 
surgical  hospital,  and  the  most  serious  cases,  as  far 
as  possible,  were  lodged  there.  Mr.  Panting  took  one 
side  of  the  ward  and  the  Professor  the  other,  with 
Miss  Chick  as  his  house-surgeon.  The  sisters  were 
Sutherland,  Hurley,  and  Barber. 

The  Terapia  proved  to  be  an  admirable  hospital  for 
these  serious  cases.  The  wide  doors  at  the  end  of  the 
ward  opened  directly  on  to  the  hillside  behind  the 
building,  and  when  the  weather  became  warm  and  fine 
it  was  easy  for  the  orderlies  to  carry  the  stretcher  beds 

*  Terapia,  60  ;  school,  40  ;  baraque,  4.0  ;  Drzhavna,  60  ;  Merkur,  80  ; 
Atina,  80.  But  the  numbers  varied  at  different  times,  being  sometime* 
more,  sometimes  less,  than  is  here  indicated. 


MERCURT  AND  ATHENE  107 

out  on  to  the  grass,  where  the  patients  lay  all  day 
under  the  trees  (Fig.  3).  Occasionally  the  onset  of 
one  of  the  terrific  thunderstorms  of  the  Balkan 
summer  would  provide  an  exciting  ten  minutes'  work 
for  the  staff,  doctors,  sisters  and  orderlies  dashing  out 
to  rescue  the  drenched  but  generally  hilarious  patients. 
When  these  serious  cases  had  been  got  over  the  difficult 
stage  they  were  drafted  off  to  the  school,  where  they 
were  nursed  by  Gwin  and  his  orderlies,  Miss  Parkinson 
attending  every  day  to  help  in  the  dressings.  The 
Baraque,  of  which  the  Frau  Doktor  was  the  medical 
officer,  at  first  accommodated  mainly  typhus  cases. 
But  as  we  considered  that  typhus,  in  the  absence  of 
lice,  was  never  transmitted  from  one  patient  to  another, 
we  admitted  cases  of  recurrent  fever,  malaria  and 
other  diseases,  which  required  medical  rather  than 
surgical  treatment.  In  the  spring  came  a  considerable 
number  of  cases  of  subacute  scurvy,  which  seems  to 
have  been  common  at  this  time  in  most  of  the  Serbian 
hospitals,  and  was  doubtless  due  to  the  scarcity  of 
fresh  vegetables.  Most  of  these  presented  extensive 
haemorrhages  in  the  calves  of  the  legs  ;  a  few  had  the 
typical  swollen  gums.  Careful  dieting  and  other  treat- 
ment soon  cured  these  patients.  It  may  be  mentioned 
that  the  internal  administration  of  chlorate  of  potash 
in  considerable  doses  was  found  to  be  most  efficacious. 
When  the  last  of  the  typhus  patients  had  gone,  we  used 
the  Baraque  for  a  time  mainly  as  a  hospital  for  children, 
most  of  the  latter  being  cases  of  either  diphtheria  or 
tuberculosis.  The  Drzhavna,  in  the  first  few  months, 
as  has  been  already  described,  served  chiefly  the  pur- 
pose of  a  clearing-house.  But  later  Dr.  Williams,  and 
after  him  Dr.  Helen  Boyle  and  Dr.  Christopherson  in 


io8     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

succession,  kept  most  of  the  cases  permanently  at  the 
Drzhavna.  When  one  of  the  small  rooms  had  been 
appropriated  for  a  theatre,  many  important  operations 
were  successfully  performed  in  the  converted  res- 
taurant ;  and,  with  an  enthusiastic  commissaire  and 
excellent  orderlies,  it  made  a  very  good  hospital. 

The  Merkur  was  a  special  hobby  of  the  Professor's. 
He  wished  to  show  that,  once  properly  prepared,  it 
could  be  managed  by  local  talent  only.  While  he  had 
his  own  cases  in  the  Terapia,  and  exercised  general 
superintendence  over  all  the  hospitals  alike,  he 
eventually  acquired  sole  and  undisputed  authority 
within  the  precincts  of  the  Merkur.  But  his  position 
here  was  at  first  anomalous,  and  he  merely  visited  the 
place  in  order  to  relieve  Major  Gashitch.  Though  his 
colleagues  might  criticise,  they  never  envied  him  this 
burden,  and  never  desired  to  share  the  responsibility 

of  it.     Mme.   P ,  an  interned  Austrian  Serb,  of 

great  energy  and  enthusiasm  but  little  training  or 
experience,  had  been  made  matron-in-charge.  Over 
the  orderlies  and  patients  she  ruled  despotically 
within  the  hospital,  subject  only,  so  far  as  medicine  and 
surgery  was  concerned,  to  the  Major  and  Mr.  Berry. 
Her  principal  slave  was  Ferdinand,  the  head  Austrian 
orderly,  a  stout  and  rather  sleepy  Czech.  Every  day 
she  met  the  Professor  with  a  beaming  smile  and  her 
solitary  English  phrase  "  Is  everything  clean  ?  "  and 
then  accompanied  him  on  his  melancholy  round  among 
the  derelicts  who  filled  the  place.  Behind  walked 
Ferdinand  and  a  young  Serb,  whose  pockets  bulged 
with  bottles  of  pills  and  lotions.  The  chief  difficulty 
in  dealing  with  the  Merkur  in  the  early  days  was  the 
absence  of  sufficient  underclothing  for  the  patients  and 


MERCURT  AND  ATHENE  109 

the  consequent  impossibility  of  enforcing  proper 
personal  cleanliness.  This  difficulty  was  solved  with 
the  arrival  of  the  first  consignment  of  stores  from 
England,  which  included  large  quantities  of  linen 
and  garments  of  all  kinds,  generously  presented  to  us 
by  the  British  public.  The  cleanliness  of  the  Merkur 
itself  at  first  was  far  from  what  we  desired.  Even- 
tually Mme.  P herself  got  typhus  and  went  to  the 

baraque.  It  was  not  until  her  place  was  taken  by  one 
of  our  sisters  that  the  villa  was  at  last  thoroughly 
cleaned  and  disinfected  and  brought  formally  into  our 
organisation.  Late  in  the  summer  most  of  the  remain- 
ing surgical  cases  were  transferred  to  the  Drzhavna 
and  the  Terapia,  and  the  Merkur  was  filled  with 
medical  cases  under  the  care  of  Dr.  Inglis.  These  were 
nearly  all  tuberculous  or  dyspeptic.  Most  of  them 
were  more  in  need  of  fattening  food  and  of  fresh  air 
than  of  medicine  or  surgery.  When  the  fresh  attack 
from  the  north  began  in  September  they  were  all 
hustled  away,  and  their  places  were  afterwards  taken 
by  wounded. 

The  Atina  was  not  used  as  a  hospital  for  some  months 
after  it  was  made  ready.  No  patients  came  in  until 
October,  and  during  the  holiday  season  it  was  a  source 
of  considerable  trouble.  Even  in  time  of  war  there 
were  many  visitors  to  the  Ban] a,  and  when  so  many 
buildings  had  been  appropriated  as  hospitals  it  was 
extremely  difficult  to  find  lodging  for  all  who  wanted  it. 
A  few  privileged  civilians  were  therefore  allotted 
rooms  in  the  Atina,  and  for  some  weeks  they  and  their 
families  used,  and  abused,  our  disinfected  rooms, 
whitewashed  corridors  and  staircases,  and  carefully 
constructed  and  inspected  latrines.  The  state  of  the 


no     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

latrines  during  the  period  of  the  civilian  invasion  was 
very  bad,  and  the  Austrian  orderly  whose  duty  it  was 
to  look  after  them  was  reduced  to  despair.  We  could, 
and  did,  train  the  Austrians,  when  they  needed  it,  in 
habits  of  decency,  but  we  had  very  little  authority  over 
these  civilians.  It  was  therefore  with  a  sigh  of  relief 
that  we  heard  of  the  renewal  of  hostilities  and  gave 
our  undesirable  tenants  notice  to  quit. 

As  all  the  members  of  our  Unit  had  been  definitely 
attached  to  the  Serbian  army,  whose  headquarters 
were  at  Kragujevatz,  all  instructions  as  to  our  work 
were  received  from  that  place.  The  regular  channel 
of  communication  was  through  Major  Gashitch, 
formerly  a  civilian  doctor  at  Belgrade,  who  had  had 
much  military  experience  in  various  Balkan  wars. 
His  official  post  at  Vrntse  was  that  of  Director  of  all  the 
hospitals,  foreign  as  well  as  Serbian,  and  as,  shortly 
after  our  arrival,  there  were  in  all  no  less  than  thirteen 
hospitals  established  there,  it  can  readily  be  under- 
stood that  his  post  was  no  sinecure.  He  was  respon- 
sible for  the  equipment,  provisioning  and  administra- 
tion in  general  of  all  these  hospitals.  Strictly,  no 
major  operation  was  supposed  to  be  performed  in  any 
foreign  hospital  in  Serbia  without  the  sanction  of  the 
Serbian  medical  officer  in  charge.  But  in  practice 
this  rule,  in  the  case  of  our  own  Unit,  and  we  believe  in 
that  of  all  the  foreign  units,  became  a  dead-letter.  As 
soon  as  the  Serbs  saw  that  the  foreign  doctors  under- 
stood their  business  they  gave  them  a  perfectly  free 
hand  and  refrained  from  any  meddlesome  interference. 

The  second  Serbian  official  connected  with  the 
Mission  was  our  "  dolmetch "  or  interpreter,  Mr. 
Neuhut,  a  hotel  manager  from  Belgrade  who  had 


MERCURT  AND  ATHENE  in 

spent  many  years  in  America,  and  whose  knowledge 
of  languages  caused  him  to  be  attached  jointly  to 
both  the  British  missions.  He  was  a  zealous  and 
patriotic  Serb,  always  willing  to  do  whatever  he 
could  to  aid  us,  and  rendered  us  good  service  on 
many  occasions.  His  health  was  not  good,  and  he 
was  thus  precluded  from  serving  his  country  in  any 
more  active  sphere. 

The  commissariat  department  of  the  hospitals  was 
in  the  hands  of  commissaires  or  "  komesars,"  in  our 
own  case  at  first  two  elderly  civilians,  who  visited  daily 
to  inquire  into  our  wants.  They  were  aided  at  the 
Terapia  by  a  sub-commissaire,  Mr.  Boshko  Marko- 
vitch,  a  young  Serb  of  good  education,  who  had  been 
an  official  at  Belgrade.  He  spoke  French  and  German 
excellently,  lived  near  the  Terapia,  and  spent  most 
of  the  day  in  our  hospital.  After  a  few  days  it  was 
evident  that  he  alone  was  quite  able  to  cope  with 
our  needs,  so  he  was  appointed  sole  commissaire, 
the  other  two  devoting  themselves  entirely  to 
the  service  of  the  British  Red  Cross  Unit. 

We  had  been  asked  whether  we  should  prefer  to 
receive  rations  from  the  Government  or  money 
payment  to  enable  us  to  buy  our  own  provisions. 
As  the  latter  was  three  dinars  (francs)  a  day  for 
each  member  of  the  Unit,  we  decided  to  accept  this 
and  do  our  own  catering.  This  arrangement  proved 
an  economical  one,  as  it  enabled  us  not  only  to  obtain 
all  the  food  that  we  required,  but  left  us  with  money 
that  we  could  spend  on  hospital  equipment  and  sani- 
tation. Fuel,  petroleum,  and,  later,  petrol  for  our 
motor  car  were  supplied  to  us  free  of  cost  by  the 
Serbian  authorities. 


ii2     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

The  registration  of  the  patients,  the  supervision 
of  our  Austrian  orderlies,  and  the  lay  administration 
in  general  of  the  hospital  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
commissaire,  subject  to  our  control.  In  many  Serbian 
hospitals  the  commissaire  is  a  most  important  func- 
tionary ;  in  fact,  he  does  everything  not  directly 
connected  with  the  actual  medical  treatment  of  the 
patients.  Mr.  Markovitch,  a  most  good-tempered  but 
somewhat  easy-going  young  man,  got  on  very  well 
with  the  Heads  of  the  Unit,  but  if  he  had  any  com- 
plaint against  them  it  was  probably  that  they  took 
the  management  of  affairs  too  much  into  their  own 
hands  and  did  things  for  themselves  which  in  other 
hospitals  were  usually  done  by  the  commissaire. 
Mr.  Markovitch  was  commissaire  not  only  of  the 
Terapia,  but  also  of  our  two  neighbouring  hospitals, 
the  School  and  the  Baraque,  which  were  thus  included 
under  one  administration.  Of  the  commissaires  at 
our  other  hospitals,  by  far  the  most  important  was 
Mr.  Milutin  Jovanovitch,  an  interned  Austrian 
subject  of  Serb  descent,  who  reigned  at  the  Drzhavna, 
and  of  whom  we  shall  have  much  to  relate  in  the 
course  of  this  narrative.  A  more  admirable  com- 
missaire, or  a  more  loyal  and  devoted  colleague,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  find  in  Serbia,  and  the  whole 
mission  as  well  as  the  patients  and  orderlies  were 
greatly  indebted  to  him  for  his  services. 

At  the  Villa  Merkur,  we  had  at  first  Mr.  M ,  a 

young  Serb  who  kept  a  shop  in  the  town.  The  latter 
occupied  more  of  his  attention  than  did  his  duties 
at  the  hospital.  After  repeated  warnings  and  expos- 
tulations we  were  obliged  to  get  rid  of  him,  and 
subsequently,  much  to  his  annoyance,  he  had  to 


FIG      13.  —  MEMBERS    OF    THE    UNIT    AND    AUSTRIAN    PRISONERS,    MAY,    IQI5. 

The  inscription  says  :  "  In  remembrance  of  our  imprisonment  with  Dr.  Berry's 
English  Mission,  Serbia,  1915." 

Photograph  taken  by  special  request  of  the  prisoners  and  at  their  own  expense. 


FIG.    14. — THE    HIGH    ROAD    FROM    UZHITSA.        EXTRICATING    OUR    MOTOR    FROM 
THE    MUD. 


MERCURT  AND  ATHENE  113 

return  to  active  service  in  the  army.    His  place  was 

taken  by  Mr.   P ,  an  elderly,  good-natured  and 

pleasant  Serb.  Although  by  no  means  a  brilliant  or 
quick-witted  person  and  almost  totally  devoid  of 
initiative,  he  did  his  duty  conscientiously  and  got  on 
well  with  everybody  ;  but  he  required  a  good  deal  of 
supervision  and  prodding,  in  the  absence  of  which 
the  Merkur  would  soon  have  slipped  back  into  an 
unsatisfactory  condition.  He  was  a  married  man 
and  possessed  a  farm  somewhere  in  the  neighbour- 
hood. In  the  summer  time,  when  the  plums  were 
being  gathered  in,  he  requested  leave  of  absence 
for  a  few  days  that  he  might  return  to  his  farm  and 
superintend  the  making  of  "  pekmes,"  the  native 
plum  jam,  so  well  known  to  most  members  of  the 
English  missions  in  Serbia.  Neither  of  these  two 
commissaires  spoke  any  language  but  Serbian.  For 

a  few  weeks  we  had  a  youth  named  R ,  who  also 

spoke  German  and  was  of  considerable  use,  being 
industrious  and  fairly  attentive  to  orders,  but, 
owing  to  his  youth  and  inexperience,  he  had  not 
much  authority  over  the  soldiers  and  did  not  get  on 
particularly  well  with  the  Austrian  orderlies.  Finally, 
being  anxious  to  obtain  some  linen  shirts,  instead 
of  asking  us  openly  for  them  he  invaded  the  store- 
room at  night  through  the  window.  Being  caught 
in  the  act  by  the  Austrian  night  orderlies,  who  duly 
reported  the  matter  to  us,  he  made  matters  worse 
by  prevarication.  At  a  kind  of  court-martial  which 
we  held  he  eventually  confessed,  and  we  promptly 
dismissed  him  from  our  service. 

At  the  Atina  our  commissaire  was  another  interned 
Austrian  Serb,  a  well-educated  and  intelligent  man, 


n4  A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

who  was  also  employed  as  a  chemist  in  the  military 
dispensary.  He  served  us  well,  but,  like  some  of  the 
Serb  commissaires,  he  made  his  escape  with  the 
Serb  army  before  the  Austrian  invaders  arrived. 
We  subsequently  heard  that  he  had  succeeded  in 
reaching  Switzerland  in  safety. 

Early  in  May  the  Serbian  authorities  ordered  an 
inquiry  into  the  condition  of  all  the  hospitals  at 
Vrntse,  with  especial  reference  to  their  cleanliness 
and  the  manner  in  which  the  Austrian  prisoners 
were  being  treated  and  to  the  work  of  the  com- 
missaires. A  copy  of  the  report  based  upon  this 
inquiry  subsequently  came  into  our  hands,  and  the 
following  is  a  translation  of  that  portion  of  it  which 
relates  to  the  hospitals  under  our  management. 
The  Atina,  not  being  at  that  time  occupied  by 
patients,  is  not  included  in  the  report. 

EXTRACT  FROM  THE  REPORT  OF  THE  DIRECTOR  OF 
THE  RESERVE  MILITARY  HOSPITALS  IN  VRN- 
JATCHKA  BANJA. 

"  I.  With  regard  to  the  examination  of  the  personnel  of 
the  hospitals,  I  found  the  following  conditions.  [Here 
follows  report  on  the  condition  of  the  Sotirovitch  (Greek), 
Kruna  (Serb),  Avala,  old  Typhus  Baraques,  Shumadia  and 
Zlatibor  (British  Red  Cross)  hospitals.] 

"  6.  In  the  *  Merkur  *  I  found  the  prisoners  clean,  clothes 
and  linen  clean,  dwelling-rooms  very  well  furnished  and 
clean. 

"  7.  In  the  '  Terapia '  (including  the  School  and  new 
Baraque),  I  found  the  prisoners  absolutely  clean  and  in  good 
order,  clothes  and  linen  clean,  dwelling-rooms  well  arranged 
and  clean. 

"  8.  In  the  '  Drzhavna  '  the  prisoners  are  absolutely  clean 
and  in  good  order,  clothes  and  linen  faultlessly  clean,  dwelling- 


MERCURT  AND  ATHENE  115 

rooms  very  good  and  orderly.  In  this  hospital  complete 
order  reigns  among  the  Austrian  servants,  and  I  feel  obliged 
to  take  this  opportunity  of  expressing  my  thanks  to  the  Chief 
of  the  Volunteer  English  Mission,  Professor  Dr.  James 
Berry,  to  all  the  other  doctors,  to  the  kind  English  Sisters 
and  also  to  the  Commissaire  of  this  Hospital,  M.  Milutin 
Jovanovitch,  for  the  excellent  manner  in  which  he  has  per- 
formed his  duties  and  done  such  good  work.  I  desire  to  call 
the  attention  of  all  the  others  to  this,  that  they  may  take 
this  hospital  as  an  example  of  the  way  in  which  they  should 
do  their  duty,  which  is  truly  hard  enough  and  requires  much 
watchfulness. 

"  (Signed)          MAJOR  Dr.  GASHITCH, 

Director  of  Hospitals  at  Vrnjatcbka  Banja, 
"April  2^-May  12,  1915." 

Soon  afterwards  we  were  honoured  by  a  visit 
from  the  Director-General  of  the  Army  Medical 
Department,  who  had  motored  over  from  Kragu- 
jevatz  on  an  official  visit  of  inspection.  He  spent  the 
best  part  of  a  day  in  visiting  all  the  hospitals,  and  a 
few  days  later  we  received  the  following  letter  of 
thanks : — 

"  MILITARY  HEADQUARTERS  MEDICAL  DEPARTMENT 

(No.  17026). 

"  To  the  Chief  of  the  English  Mission,  Prof.  Dr.  James  Berry. 
"  The  Commander-in-Chief  has  ordered  that  the  following 
shall  be  written  to  you  :  — 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"  I  have  learnt  with  the  greatest  satisfaction  from  the 
report  of  the  head  of  the  Medical  Department,  who  visited 
your  hospitals  at  Vrnjatchka  Banja,  that  there  exists  in  these 
an  extraordinary  degree  of  order  and  cleanliness,  and  that  our 
soldiers  who  have  the  good  fortune  to  be  under  treatment 
in  your  hospitals  receive  unusual  care  and  every  comfort. 
In  order  to  obtain  better  conditions  for  the  treatment  of  our 
patients  and  to  carry  on  the  work  of  your  hospitals  in  the 


u6     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

best  possible  manner,  you  have  erected  or  brought  with  you 
important  contributions  in  the  shape  of  buildings  and  stores. 
"  I  have  therefore  considered  it  my  pleasant  duty  to  express 
to  you  and  to  your  personnel,  in  the  name  of  the  Commander- 
in-Chief,  in  the  name  of  the  Serbian  army  and  also  of  our 
wounded  and  sick  soldiers,  our  heartfelt  thanks  for  the 
trouble  you  have  kindly  taken  and  for  all  the  services  you 
have  rendered  to  us. 

"  (Signed)  VOIVODA  (FIELD  MARSHAL),  K.  PUTNIK, 
Commander-in-Cbief  and  Adjutant  to 

H.M.  the  King. 
"  KRAGUJEVATZ,  May  12-25,  1915. 

"  It  gives  me  much  pleasure  to  be  able  to  send  you  the 
above  communication. 

"  (Signed)  COLONEL  DR.  LAZAR  GENTCHITCH, 

Head  of  the  Army  Medical  Department. 
"  KRAGUJEVATZ,  May  13-26,  1915." 

J.B. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    SERB    PEOPLE    AS    WE    FOUND   THEM. 

The  Barrier  of  Language— External  Appearance  of  Things — 
National  Costume — Primitiveness  of  General  Standard  of  Life — 
Patriotism — Vanity— Personal  Modesty— Want  of  Animosity 
against  Individuals — Kindness  of  Heart — Women — Indifference 
towards  Animals — Hospitality — Curiosity — Officials  and  Middle 
Class  as  a  Rule  Primitive — Mixing  of  Sexes — Spittoons  in  the 
Park — Official  Slackness — "  Backsheesh  " — Exceptions — Gashitch 
Jovanovitch — Parallel  between  Serbs  and  Irish. 

FOR  those  who  enter  Serbia  for  the  first  time  it 
is  easy  to  form  an  unfavourable  opinion  of  the 
country  and  the  people,  which  it  is  afterwards  diffi- 
cult to  correct.  This  chapter  is  an  attempt  to 
estimate  them  at  their  true  value,  without  extenuating 
anything,  or  setting  anything  down  in  malice.  It 
describes  as  accurately  as  possible  the  atmosphere 
in  which  our  work  was  carried  on. 

The  chief  barrier  between  ourselves  and  the  Serbs 
was  the  language  of  the  country.  As  it  has  practi- 
cally nothing  in  common  with  either  the  Teutonic 
or  the  Latin  origins  of  our  own  tongue,  it  proved 
for  many  of  us  an  almost  insuperable  obstacle  to 
free  intercourse.  We  had  the  additional  difficulty 
of  being  grouped  together  in  English  units,  with 
Austrian  prisoners  to  do  the  manual  labour,  and  if 
we  had  occasion  to  speak  any  other  language  than 
our  own  it  was  German  that  was  at  once  most 
serviceable  and  most  easily  practised.  Not  a  few  of 


ii8     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

the  Austrians  spoke  no  German,  but  most  of  those 
inside  the  wards  knew  at  least  the  elements  of  it, 
and  several  English  people,  after  spending  months  in 
Serbia,  returned  home  with  a  very  slight  acquain- 
tance with  the  language  of  the  Ally  whom  they  had 
gone  out  to  help  and  a  vastly  improved  knowledge 
of  the  tongue  of  their  most  deadly  enemies.  In 
Serbian  many  got  no  further  than  the  ordinary  terms 
of  greeting,  easy  numerals,  and  the  names  of  essential 
hospital  gear.  The  magic  word  "  Dobro  "  ("  Good  ") 
filled  up  the  worst  gaps.  With  different  tones  of 
voice  it  could  be  made  to  mean  all  sorts  of  things. 
In  the  interrogative  it  meant  "  How  are  you  ?  " — 
in  the  hortatory  "  Cheer  up  !  " — in  the  conclusive 
"  That's  all  right !  "  and  so  on.  It  will  be  readily 
acknowledged  that  in  this  general  inability  to  under- 
stand the  Serb  speech  the  English  would  fail  to  form 
a  just  opinion  of  their  character.  The  practical 
inconveniences  of  daily  life  would  assume  an  exag- 
gerated importance,  and  many  valuable  qualities 
would  escape  notice. 

Our  Unit  had  three  exceptions  to  the  general  rule. 
The  Professor  himself  spoke  Serb  fairly  well,  and  in 
turn  delighted  and  disgusted  the  Serbs  by  his  pro- 
ficiency. It  was  something  of  a  compliment,  no  doubt, 
to  show  such  a  knowledge  of  their  language.  But 
when  he  used  his  knowledge  to  bother  their  officials, 
and  see  through  their  excuses  and  make  it  impossible 
for  them  to  evade  and  postpone  in  the  characteristic 
Serb  fashion,  then  he  became  a  horse  of  another 
colour.  Mrs.  Gordon  aroused  nothing  but  admiration. 
She  was  almost  the  only  member  of  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  Unit  who  seriously  attempted  to  acquire  and 


THE  SERB  PEOPLE  AS  WE  FOUND  THEM  119 

employ  an  extensive  vocabulary.     She  worked  for 
some  weeks  with  the  out-patients,  getting  details  of 
their  complaints  before  passing  them  on  to  the  doctor, 
and    if   her   grammar   was    inaccurate    she   wanted 
nothing  of  fluency.     She  was  invaluable  as  an  inter- 
preter in  the  out-patient  department.      Miss  Barber 
was  little  inferior  to  Mrs.  Gordon.     Mr.  Berry  had 
unquestionably  the  largest  vocabulary,  as  he  had  to 
deal   with   all   sorts   and   ranks   of   Serbians.      Miss 
Barber  acquired  the  phrases  which  enabled  her  to 
chat    familiarly    with    peasants,    and    Mrs.    Gordon 
specialised    in     the    language     of    symptoms,     but 
traversed  a  wide  general  field  as  well.     The  rest  of 
us  had  very  little  to  show,  even  after  several  months 
in   the   country,   in   the   way   of   knowledge   of   the 
language  of  its  inhabitants.     But  with  the  Professor, 
Mrs.  Gordon,  and  Miss    Barber  the   mission  had  a 
very   good    opportunity    of    obtaining    an    intimate 
knowledge  of  the  Serbs  and  thus  correcting  super- 
ficial impressions. 

The  external  aspect  of  things,  in  spite  of  the 
prevailing  dirt,  muddy  or  dusty  roads,  ill-paved 
streets,  and  deficient  railways,  was  most  attractive. 
The  scenery  of  Northern  Serbia  is  surprisingly  like 
that  of  the  more  hilly  parts  of  Great  Britain,  almost 
the  whole  of  it  consisting  of  rolling  hills  covered  with 
timber.  The  narrow  valleys  which  intervened  alone 
admit  of  roads  and  cultivation.  The  fences  which 
enclose  the  fields  and  orchards  strengthen  the 
resemblance  to  England. 

In  the  neighbourhood  of  Vrntse  the  people  lived  in 
cottages  built  of  brick,  rubble,  or  mud,  whitewashed 
and  roofed  with  red  tiles,  and  the  walls  were  often 


izo     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

painted  with  geometrical   patterns,   flower   designs, 
or    named    portraits    of    national    champions    and 
deliverers  (Fig.  28).     Further  south  and  west,  near 
the    Montenegrin    border,    we    found    stone    houses 
roofed  with   big  wooden   tiles   and  without   colour 
decoration,    and    the    open    loggias    or    verandahs, 
which  were  so  common  around  us,  were  seldom  to  be 
seen.     In  the   districts   taken   from  Turkey  in   the 
Balkan  wars  the  architecture  was  of  the  meanest 
description,  houses  being  either  mere  wooden  booths 
or   ill-planned   agglomerations   of  rubble  and   stone 
without  beauty  of  either  form  or  colour.     But  in  all 
parts  the  people  themselves  wore  brilliant  costumes, 
and,  whatever  the  background  might  be,  there  was 
never  a  group  of  peasants  which  did  not  prove  the 
existence  of  a  national  liking  for  bold  and  original 
decoration  (Fig.  15). 

In  the  north  the  men  wore  loose  jackets  and  waist- 
coats and  tight  trousers,  all  of  brown  or  dark  blue 
cloth,  and  heavily  ornamented  with  black  braid. 
Instead  of  the  cloth  waistcoat  they  often  wore  one 
of  sheepskin  (bunda),  with  the  wool  inside,  brilliantly 
patched  in  front  with  geometrical  patterns  in  coloured 
leather.  Round  the  waist  went  one  or  two  belts 
with  the  stripes  of  colour  running  round  the  body. 
The  stockings,  worn  outside  the  trousers,  were 
generally  decorated  with  a  flower  pattern,  in  bright 
red  and  pink  and  green.  The  one  thing  which  few 
men  except  soldiers  wore  was  a  weapon.  In  Monte- 
negro every  true-bred  Montenegrin  carries  in  his 
belt  a  revolver,  while  Albanians  and  other  inferior 
peoples  go  unarmed.  The  weapon  is  a  symbol  of 
racial  aristocracy.  Every  gentleman  "  who  is  a 


THE  SERB  PEOPLE  AS  WE  FOUND  THEM  121 

gentleman  "  wears  this  revolver,  always  loaded  and 
never  used,  of  such  length  and  weight  that  the 
strongest  man  could  hardly  fire  it  with  any  hope 
of  hitting  the  mark.  Apparently  it  is  not  intended 
for  use.  Wearing  a  revolver,  in  fact,  is  in  Montenegro 
what  driving  a  gig  was  once  in  England,  merely 
proof  of  being  a  person  of  honourable  parentage, 
and  has  nothing  to  do  with  courage  or  truculence. 
There  was  nothing  of  this  in  Serbia,  and  no  peasant 
apparently  carried  anything  more  formidable  than 
the  knife  with  which  he  cut  his  bread  and  cheese. 

The  woman's  dress  was  often  more  splendid  than 
the  man's.  A  coloured  kerchief  draped  her  head  ; 
she  wore  either  a  sheepskin  waistcoat,  coloured 
behind  as  well  as  in  front,  or  one  of  black  silk  trimmed 
with  gold  braid,  or,  on  working  days,  one  of  quilted 
cloth  with  sleeves  ;  her  skirt  was  either  a  plaid,  or 
striped  vertically  with  half  a  dozen  colours,  and  she 
often  wore  a  brilliant  apron  in  front  of  it,  and  a 
brilliant  petticoat  underneath  it  as  well.  Her 
stockings  were  of  the  same  sort  as  the  man's.  Many 
of  these  garments  were  made  at  home.  The  stock- 
ings were  knitted  by  the  women,  and  every  farmer's 
wife  of  the  better  sort  possessed  a  loom  on  which 
she  wove  the  belts  and  skirts  and  aprons.  In  the 
same  way  she  made  the  wonderful  rugs,  combining 
stripes  or,  more  rarely,  geometrical  forms  of  daringly 
contrasted  colours,  which  were  used  as  carpets,  as 
wall  decorations,  or  as  blankets  and  bed  covers. 
For  ordinary  work  the  people  wore  simpler  costumes, 
the  men  often  having  in  summer  nothing  but  white 
linen  shirts  and  trousers  with  a  waistcoat  and  belt. 
The  shirt  was  then  worn  outside  the  trousers.  But 


122     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

on  any  festive  occasion,  with  the  kerchiefs,  the  belts, 
the  waistcoats,  the  skirts,  the  stockings  and  the  rugs, 
a  group  of  Serb  peasantry  presented  as  dazzling  an 
appearance  as  could  be  found  anywhere  in  the 
world.  The  richer  people,  with  their  fashions  fresh 
from  Vienna,  were  always  a  sorry  contrast.  Except 
that  the  men  never  wore  silk  hats,  there  was  nothing 
to  distinguish  the  Serb  middle  and  upper  classes 
from  those  of  any  country  of  Western  Europe.  It 
is  the  earnest  hope  of  every  lover  of  beauty  that 
the  Westernisation  of  Serbia  may  spare  the  costumes 
of  the  peasantry. 

Fortunately,  so  far  as  this  aspect  of  the  country 
is  concerned,  Serbia  is  intensely  democratic,  and  the 
bulk  of  the  people  seem  likely  for  a  long  time  to 
prefer  the  simplicity  of  its  own  life  to  the  more 
conventional  existence  of  the  West.  Wealth  is  on 
the  whole  very  evenly  distributed,  and  there  is,  in 
consequence,  very  little  of  that  scrambling  imitation 
of  richer  folk  which  is  so  common  and  so  lamentable 
elsewhere  and  does  so  much  to  spoil  the  appearance 
of  the  prosperous  classes  even  in  Serbia.  The  great 
bulk  of  the  population  is  still  composed  of  peasant 
proprietors,  who  preserve  the  simple  standard  of 
living  established  by  their  forefathers.  The  rich  man 
in  Serbia,  like  the  seventeenth  century  Englishman, 
reckons  his  wealth  in  land  and  cattle,  horses  and 
carriages,  furniture  and  plate,  and  the  plutocracy, 
living  on  its  invested  accumulations  of  capital  and 
deserting  native  modes  of  living  for  cosmopolitan, 
is  almost  unknown.  Great  inequalities  therefore 
do  not  exist,  and  in  fact  many  of  those  who  by  edu- 
cation or  residence  abroad  have  raised  themselves 


'THE  SERB  PEOPLE  AS  WE  FOUND  THEM  123 

to  a  higher  level  of  civilisation  than  the  ordinary 
retain  in  spirit  the  primitive  simplicity  of  the  race. 
Cheerfulness,  hospitality,  patriotism,  procrastination, 
and  a  disposition  to  make  promises  without  much 
intention  of  performing  them  are  found  all  over 
Serbia.  Many  English  people,  unable  to  speak  or 
understand  the  language,  and  therefore  experiencing 
little  but  the  slovenliness  of  officialism,  the  discom- 
forts of  imperfect  sanitation,  and  the  pilfering  of 
spare  parts  of  their  motor  cars,  speak  with  great 
contempt  of  Serbians.  Those  of  us  who  have  got 
deeper  into  the  spirit  of  the  people  find  in  them 
much  to  praise  and  much  to  love. 

The  Serb  virtue  which  has  been  most  severely 
tried  and  most  honourably  illustrated  in  this  war 
is  that  of  patriotism.  This  quality  is  deeply  rooted 
in  Serbia,  as  it  seems  to  be  in  all  countries  where  the 
actual  soil  is  divided  among  the  people.  The  little 
farms  containing  the  houses  and  supporting  the 
families  of  the  children,  as  well  as  of  the  father  of 
the  house,  hold  the  hearts  of  their  proprietors  in 
Serbia  as  in  Russia.  The  Serb  does  not  speak  of 
"  Holy  Serbia,"  but  his  feeling  for  his  country  is 
as  much  a  religious  feeling  as  among  the  inhabitants 
of  the  great  Slav  Empire.  Alone  of  the  peoples  of 
the  Balkans  the  Serbs  themselves  direct  the  policy 
of  their  country,  and  the  degree  of  their  influence  is 
proportioned  to  the  intensity  of  their  devotion. 
Dynastic  intrigues,  whatever  they  may  have  done 
in  the  past,  have  now  little  power  in  public  affairs, 
and  it  would  be  as  impossible  for  King  Peter  to  sell 
his  people  to  Austria  as  it  was  easy  for  King  Fer- 
dinand to  sell  the  Bulgars.  Even  after  the  complete 


i24     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

overthrow  of  1915,  when  everything  Serbian  except 
the  remnants  of  the  army  and  a  few  thousand 
destitute  civilian  refugees  had  been  swept  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy,  none  of  the  half-starved  outcasts 
was  ever  heard  to  suggest  a  peace  with  Austria. 
National  independence  is  to  Serbs  the  same  tacitly 
accepted  and  exalting  idea  that  it  was  to  Italians  in 
the  time  of  Garibaldi.  They  hate  Austria  more  than 
Turkey,  because  Turkey  only  scourged  their  bodies, 
while  Austria  has  stifled  their  souls,  and  the  Serb 
dwellers  on  Austrian  soil  look  to  Serbia  as  their 
country  just  as  the  Italians  of  Lombardy  looked  to 
Piedmont.  There  is  all  the  great  spirit  of  the  Ris- 
orgimento  in  the  Serbian  custom  which  makes  it 
improper  to  condole  with  a  mother  who  has  lost  her 
son  in  the  war.  She  is  to  be  congratulated  on  the 
honour  rather  than  commiserated  on  the  loss.  The 
people  which  has  established  that  rule  of  conduct 
is  a  people  of  very  high  and  very  generous  temper. 

Serbian  patriotism,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  has  its 
little  as  well  as  its  large  aspect.  The  first  Serb  BJease 
ever  encountered  was  a  fluent  gentleman,  who 
assured  him  that  Italy  and  Greece  and  France  were 
all  very  well  in  their  way,  but  they  had  really  no  care 
for  us,  while  Serbia  had  250,000  of  the  best  soldiers 
in  the  world,  and  would  stand  by  us  to  the  end. 
Reverence  for  the  national  heroes  who  had  saved 
them  from  the  Turk  in  the  past  was  mixed  with  a 
very  genuine  conviction  that  they  were  themselves 
very  worthy  descendants  of  those  heroes.  The  only 
foreigner  whom  we  ever  heard  a  Serb  acknowledge 
himself  to  fear  in  war  was  the  Bulgar,  and  the  moral 
effect  of  the  entry  of  Bulgaria  into  the  war  was 


THE  SERB  PEOPLE  AS  WE  FOUND  THEM  125 

obvious  and  profound.     Over  all  other  races  they 
were  ready  to  boast  their  superiority. 

But  if  the  Serbs  were  vain,  it  must  be  stated  in  fair- 
ness that  their  vanity  was  national  and  not  personal. 
We  never  heard  a  Serb  boast  of  his  own  exploits.  He 
would  brag  of  the  national  heroes,  of  the  great  defeat 
of  the  Austrians,  and  of  the  readiness  of  Serbia  to 
fight  and  beat  the  Germans,  Austrians,  Roumanians, 
Greeks,  and  Italians,  but  he  would  never  say  anything 
of  his  own  courage  or  skill,  or  of  the  way  in  which  he 
got  his  wounds.  He  took  himself  as  a  matter  of  course. 
It  was  his  country  and  his  race  which  filled  him  with 
surprise  and  admiration.  Akin  to  this  modesty  was 
an  equally  striking  absence  of  personal  animosity.  A 
Serb  would  hate  Austria,  even  without  knowing  much 
of  her  constant  bullying  and  thwarting  of  his  country, 
and  he  would  be  bitter  enough  about  the  atrocities  of 
the  first  invasion  of  1914.  But  an  individual  Austrian 
could  generally  be  sure  of  considerate  and  even 
friendly  treatment  at  the  hands  of  the  ordinary  Serb. 
Austrian  wounded  lay  in  the  hospital  wards  with  Serb 
wounded,  and  we  seldom  heard  of  any  quarrels.  Two 
violent  disputes  occurred  at  the  Drzhavna,  the  first 
between  two  Austrian  orderlies  and  the  second  between 
two  Serb  patients.  But  we  had  no  disturbances  of 
this  kind  between  Serbs  and  Austrians.  The  Austrian 
orderlies  were  generally  on  the  best  of  terms  with  their 
patients,  though  a  refractory  convalescent  would 
occasionally  retaliate  in  a  childish  way  after  a  repri- 
mand by  laying  a  charge  against  an  orderly.  It  was, 
as  a  rule,  only  the  official  and  better-educated  Serbs 
who  rose  to  the  level  of  individual  antipathies.  The 
simpler  folk  took  even  Hungarians,  inveterate  oppres- 


126     A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

sors  of  all  Slavs,  to  be  men  of  like  nature  with  them- 
selves. The  word  "  brat,"  or  "  brother,"  came  easily  to 
the  lips  of  the  peasant,  and  it  was  applied  as  readily  to 
the  foreigners  whom  he  had  taken  in  war  as  to  those  who 
had  brought  hospitals  two  thousand  miles  over  the  sea  to 
help  him.  Just  as  it  was  of  Serbia  that  he  bragged,  and 
not  of  Serbians  in  particular,  so  it  was  Austria  that  he 
hated,  and  not  Austrians.  The  individual  in  both  cases 
counted  for  little  and  the  nation  for  very  much. 

Next  to  their  patriotism,  their  kindness  of  heart, 
expressed  in  their  unaffected  use  of  the  word  "  brat," 
was  their  most  conspicuous  virtue.  Unhappily  this 
did  not  extend  to  animals.  Of  active  cruelty  we  saw 
very  little,  but  the  Serbs  did  not  often  make  a  friend 
of  any  animal.  They  would  kick  dogs  out  of  mere 
wantonness,  and  the  savage  animals  which  guarded 
the  farms  would  be  silenced  by  their  masters  as  often 
as  not  by  a  stone.  Dogs  always  seemed  to  be 
disciplined  by  blows  rather  than  affection.  But  if  he 
very  often  failed  in  his  duty  towards  animals,  the  Serb 
was  far  more  ready  than  Western  people  to  show  his 
affection  for  mankind.  As  in  all  countries  where  the 
standard  of  ordinary  life  is  low,  and  disease  more  often 
mortal  than  in  the  West  of  Europe,  death  is  accepted 
in  Serbia  with  a  resignation  that  is  often  not  dis- 
tinguishable from  indifference,  and  the  killing  of  a 
foreign  enemy  is  never  a  matter  for  compunction.  An 
Albanian  incursion,  for  instance,  would  be  repelled  and 
punished  without  a  very  strict  regard  to  evidence  of 
individual  guilt.  This  is  only  the  habit  of  all  primitive 
peasant  States.  One  does  not  encounter  in  Serbia  any 
ferocious  mutilation  of  prisoners  such  as  disfigured  the 
last  Montenegrin  campaign  against  the  Turks,  and  a 


THE  SERB  PEOPLE  AS  WE  FOUND  THEM    127 

vanquished  enemy  seems  to  be  treated  always  with 
humanity. 

The  position  of  women,  again,  is  not  very  high  in 
Serbia,  though  they  are  not  such  utter  beasts  of  burden 
as  in  Montenegro.  A  Serb  out-patient  of  ours,  asked 
if  he  would  ever  beat  his  wife,  exclaimed  in  surprise  : 
"  Why  not  ?  Of  course  I  should,  if  she  wouldn't  do 
what  I  told  her."  That  is  only  another  expression  of 
the  primitive  temper  of  a  young  community,  putting 
the  Serbs  about  on  the  level  of  the  English  of  the 
seventeenth  century  ;  and  if  submissiveness  of  wives 
was  generally  enforced  by  custom,  we  heard  very 
little  of  any  serious  physical  ill-treatment. 

Within  these  limits  kindness  towards  individuals  is 
universal  in  Serbia.  When  a  Serb  goes  to  the  war  his 
neighbour  steps  in  to  help  the  wife  and  children  in  the 
management  of  the  farm,  and  asks  for  no  reward. 
To  the  English  we  found  them  uniformly  grateful,  and 
their  hospitality  was  so  lavish  as  to  be  embarrassing. 
A  dinner  or  a  picnic  with  a  middle-class  family  called 
for  prodigious  efforts  of  mastication  and  digestion. 
A  visit  to  a  farmhouse  meant  gifts  of  apples,  plums, 
and  mealies.  We  were  lucky  if  we  escaped  without 
an  offer  of  milk,  produced  in  a  wooden  trough  from  a 
wicker-work  outhouse,  which  served  the  purpose  of  a 
henroost  as  well  as  a  dairy,  and  tendered  to  us  in  a 
spoon  which  had  reached  the  farmer's  lips  before  our 
own.  The  native  "  rakija,"  a  kind  of  brandy  dis- 
tilled on  every  Northern  farm  from  plums,  was  danger- 
ous in  another  way,  and  we  had  to  shun  intoxication 
as  well  as  typhoid. 

Everywhere  among  the  common  people  we  were 
greeted     with     affection,     and     conversation     often 


iz8     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

became  curiously  intimate.  The  peasant  would 
inform  us  that  our  teeth  were  not  good,  or  ask  us 
how  much  a  conspicuous  gold  crown  had  cost.  He 
wanted  to  know  how  old  we  were,  whether  we  were 
married  or  single,  how  old  our  parents  were,  how  many 
children  we  had,  where  we  were  going,  and  what 
we  wanted  to  do  when  we  got  there.  All  this  was  not 
in  the  least  an  impertinent  curiosity,  but  simply  a 
friendliness,  which  was  not  satisfied  with  any  but 
complete  knowledge  of  the  beloved  object,  and  was 
prepared  to  make  equally  frank  revelations  on  its 
own  part.  A  very  simple,  egoistic,  likeable  people 
indeed  :  dirty  enough,  living  on  mud  floors,  dis- 
liking fresh  air,  and  consequently  suffering  much 
from  tuberculosis  and  diphtheria,  careless  about 
water  supply,  and  therefore  horribly  tormented 
with  worms,  but  always  lively  and  affectionate, 
delighting  in  bright  colours  and  wild  music,  and 
making  a  most  attractive  combination  of  its  charac- 
teristic virtues  and  failings. 

The  officials  of  such  a  race  were  what  we  should 
expect  to  find.  However  clean  they  were,  and  how- 
ever spotless  their  uniforms,  many  of  them  remained, 
in  habit  of  mind,  peasants.  No  reasonable  person 
can  doubt  the  Serb  capacity  for  organisation  and  dis- 
cipline, and  there  is  a  universal  desire  for  improve- 
ment. It  has  been  stated  that  though  many  of  the 
older  members  of  the  Skupshtina  can  neither  read  nor 
write,  they  have  never  refused  to  vote  money  for 
education.  Every  substantial  village  has  its  elemen- 
tary school.  But  where  the  Turk  has  once  been, 
method  and  system  grow  with  desperate  slowness. 
The  bureaucracy  of  Serbia  is  still  capable  of  immense 


'THE  SERB  PEOPLE  AS  WE  FOUND  THEM    129 

improvement,  though  the  best  of  what  it  has  already 
done  shows  how  much  it  will  some  day  be  able  to 
do.  Western  civilisation  is  with  many  of  the  Serbs 
still  no  more  than  skin-deep — often,  it  might  be 
said,  only  uniform  deep.  No  less  a  person  than  a 
general  in  the  Serbian  Army  once  stayed  a  few 
days  at  our  hospital.  He  shared  his  bedroom  with 
his  daughter,  a  girl  of  eighteen  years  of  age,  as  he 
would  have  shared  it  had  he  been  a  small  farmer. 
It  was  common  enough  to  find  this  mixing  of  the 
sexes  in  middle-class  households,  and  beds  might 
be  found  in  the  principal  room  of  a  villa  opposite 
to  a  grand  piano,  or  even  in  a  public  room  in  a 
Government  office.  The  ordinary  boarding-house  in 
Vrnjatchka  Banja  was  divided  into  a  number  of 
small  chambers,  which  were  used  indiscriminately 
as  living  rooms  and  bedrooms,  and  even  the  recently 
built  villas  contained  no  bathrooms.  The  habit  of 
public  expectoration  is  as  common  in  Serbia  as  in 
Italy,  but  where  the  Italian  conforms  to  Western 
standards  by  exhibiting  notices  prohibiting  it,  the 
Serb  frankly  recognises  it  and  provides  the  neces- 
sary accommodation.  The  first  notice  we  had  of  the 
coming  of  the  holiday  season  at  the  Banja  was  the 
huge  crop  of  spittoons,  which  sprang  up  one  night, 
like  mushrooms,  all  over  the  park. 

This  primitive  habit  of  life  persisted  in  methods 
of  administration.  The  peasant  farmed  his  land 
easily  and  without  science,  and  so  long  as  it  produced 
enough  to  maintain  him  and  his  family  he  was 
content.  The  official  worked  "in  the  same  way  in  his 
department,  and  everywhere  there  was  a  want  of 
zeal  and  thoroughness.  Q.ne  could  even  get  credit 


130     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

for  stamps  at  the  post  office.    The  favourite  official 
word    was    "  sutra,"    which    means    "  to-morrow." 
If  the  impetuous  English  insisted  on  "  to-day  "  the 
official    would    promise    for    "  to-day,"    intending 
perhaps   to    perform    to-morrow,    and   actually   not 
performing  till  the  day  after  to-morrow.     In  these 
cases  the  only  certain  method  of  securing  that  he 
should  do  his  work  promptly  and  completely  was 
personal  importunity,  urgent  and  unremitting.     We 
were   furnished  with  one   striking  example   of  this 
superficial  performance  of  duty  by  no  less  a  person 
than  the  Director-General  of  the  Sanitary  Service. 
He    visited    our    hospitals,    talked    affably    to    the 
patients,  approved  of  our  arrangements,  and  never 
inspected  a  single  latrine  until  the  Professor  himself 
suggested   that  he   should.     Sometimes  the   official 
would    be    not    only    slack,    but    actually    corrupt. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gordon  have  recorded  how  one  impor- 
tant  personage,   with   power   to   provide   or   refuse 
transport    for   hospital    stores,    was   gratified    by   a 
present  of  some  sheets.    On  another  occasion  a  brick 
merchant,  hearing  of  Mr.  Berry's  intention  to  build 
the   new   slaughter-house,   wrote   to   the    Serb   con- 
tractor of  the  works,  Mr.  Mika  Markovitch,  offering 
in  plain  terms  to  give  him  "  backsheesh  "  *  if  he  would 
procure  the  contract  for  the  writer.     If  the  brick 
merchant  was  not  amazingly  impudent,  there  must 
have  been  widespread  laxity  to  make  such  a  letter 
possible. 

To  this  general  rule  of  easy-going  there  were  some 
conspicuous  exceptions.     These  were  often,  if  not 

*  It  was  interesting  to  see  this  well-known  Turkish  word  in  a  Serbiaq 
letter ;  the  Serbian  language  contains  many  Turkish  words. 


THE  SERB  PEOPLE  AS  WE  FOUND  THEM    1 3 1 

always,  men  who  had  been  trained  in  Western 
countries,  and  the  best  of  them  could  not  have  been 
surpassed  by  any  civil  service  in  the  world.  Dr. 
Churchin,  of  the  Red  Cross  service  at  Kragujevatz, 
his  assistant  Mr.  Markovitch,  and  Mr.  Ristitch,  of 
the  arsenal  at  the  same  place,  were  admirable 
examples  of  energetic  and  painstaking  officials. 
Two  others  we  were  fortunate  enough  to  have  with 
us  at  Vrnjatchka  Banja.  The  military  chief  of  the 
hospitals,  Major  Gashitch,  was  a  doctor  from  Bel- 
grade. He  had  left  his  lucrative  practice  in  the 
capital  to  live  with  his  wife  in  a  single  room  at  the 
Banja,  and  spent  most  of  his  days  and  not  a  little 
of  his  nights  in  his  office.  A  short,  sturdy  man  with 
a  fierce  expression  and  explosive  utterance,  he  worked 
with  great  energy,  and,  unlike  some  of  his  country- 
men, regarded  it  as  his  paramount  duty  to  further 
the  interests  of  his  hospitals,  even  in  disputes  with 
the  Serbian  Government  itself.  His  kindness  to  the 
English  was  unfailing,  and  it  contrasted  rather 
comically  with  his  ferocious  demeanour.  He  used  to 
apologise  for  this  manner  of  his,  and  attributed  it 
to  his  Prussian  training.  The  English  once  wit- 
nessed a  terrifying  exhibition  of  it.  One  of  our 
doctors,  not  yet  knowing  the  Serbs  and  a  little 
forgetful  of  the  etiquette  of  a  military  hospital, 
was  so  rash  as  to  report  a  patient  for  a  series  of 
trifling  acts  of  misconduct  directly  to  the  Major 
himself.  The  Serb  retaliated  by  laying  a  charge 
against  an  Austrian  orderly.  If  he  had  thrown  his 
bread  at  the  orderly,  it  was,  he  said,  because  the  pig 
of  a  man,  while  giving  him  his  dinner,  had  put  his 
thumb  in  the  soup.  The  Major  read  the  Serb  a 


1 32     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

lecture,  and  then  discharged  a  torrent  of  invective 
upon  the  unhappy  Austrian,  who  had  been  guilty, 
at  the  worst,  of  clumsiness.  The  Major's  shouts 
and  stamps  frightened  the  doctor  as  much  as  the 
Austrian,  but  when  the  white  and  trembling  youth 
had  disappeared  he  listened  with  complete  good 
humour  to  our  representations,  and  excused  the 
Austrian  the  flogging  which  he  had  promised  him. 
"  We  Serbs,"  once  confessed  a  prominent  official, 
"  are  still  half-Oriental ";  and  there  was  a  ruthlessness 
in  the  Major's  treatment  of  subordinates  which 
may  have  been  as  much  Asiatic  as  Prussian.  But 
whatever  his  manner,  he  was  always  a  straight- 
forward and  loyal  superior,  and  no  foreign  hospital 
could  have  found  a  better  friend  in  official  quarters. 
Another  Serb  official  whom  we  learned  to  respect  at 
Vrntse  was  Milutin  Jovanovitch,  the  commissaire  of 
the  Drzhavna.  He  was  an  Austrian  subject,  interned 
for  the  period  of  the  war,  and  was  in  consequence  the 
object  of  not  a  little  jealousy  on  the  part  of  those  who 
knew  themselves  to  be  Serbs  politically  as  well  as  by 
race  ;  the  town  engineer  even  went  so  far  as  to  threaten 
to  undo  everything  that  Jovanovitch  had  done  as  soon 
as  the  English  had  gone  home  again.  But  Jovano- 
vitch was  unquestionably  the  best  servant  that  our 
hospitals  had  in  the  place.  He  had  been  an  athlete 
in  his  youth,  and,  though  he  was  now  very  stout,  his 
energy  was  still  prodigious.  No  detail  was  too  small, 
no  problem  too  difficult.  He  was  as  enthusiastic  over 
the  supply  of  food  for  the  patients,  the  making  of  a 
drain  across  the  yard,  and  the  purchase  of  cement  for 
the  slaughter-house  as  he  was  over  the  gelatine  with 
which  he  made  copies  of  documents  and  the  mysterious 


THE  SERB  PEOPLE  AS  WE  FOUND  THEM    133 

chemical  with  which  he  erased  blots  of  ink.  There  was 
a  henhouse  attached  to  the  Drzhavna,  and  he  watched 
over  the  chickens  as  jealously  as  over  his  patients. 
Woe  betide  the  wretched  orderly  who  left  a  gate  open 
and  allowed  so  much  as  a  single  bird  to  escape  !  Not 
content  with  cocks  and  hens,  the  commissaire  bought 
some  geese,  and  had  a  special  pen  with  a  puddle  in  it 
erected  in  the  hospital  yard.  There  he  might  be  seen 
leaning  on  the  fence,  proudly  and  affectionately  con- 
templating his  little  flock  and  reminding  the  spectator 
irresistibly  of  William  the  Conqueror,  who  loved  the 
red  deer  as  if  he  were  their  father.  He  was  only  half- 
jesting  when  he  said  that  if  he  could  get  a  hippo- 
potamus he  would  have  a  perfect  zoological  garden. 
It  was  the  same  zeal  for  completeness  which  made  him 
appropriate  everything  for  the  Drzhavna  on  which  he 
had  any  decent  excuse  for  laying  his  hands.  At  the 
Atina  we  needed  a  table  for  washing  new  patients.  He 
designed  the  table,  and  had  it  constructed  by  the 
carpenters  at  the  Drzhavna.  But  when  it  was  finished 
he  was  so  delighted  that  he  could  not  let  it  go.  For 
want  of  any  better  place  he  put  it  in  the  operating 
theatre.  It  was  not  a  good  operating-table,  but  it  was 
strong  and  beautifully  jointed  and  in  every  way  a  fine 
piece  of  workmanship,  and  accordingly  it  remained  in 
the  Drzhavna. 

Jovanovitch  was  the  Professor's  right-hand  man. 
There  were  three  other  commissaires  attached  to  our 
Unit,  but  there  was  only  one  identified  with  it.  He 
was  always  the  commissaire.  In  all  Mr.  Berry's 
sanitary  projects  outside  the  hospitals,  he  and 
Jovanovitch  were  always  together,  combating  slovenli- 
ness and  procrastination  in  high  quarters  and  low. 


134     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

If  the  commissaire  had  any  fault,  it  was  that  he  loved 
above  all  things  a  ceremony.  He  rolled  his  tongue 
round  a  title  as  if  it  were  old  wine.  Mr  Berry  was 
always  "  Herr  Professor,"  the  Head  Sister  "  Ober- 
schwester,"  and  when  Blease,  during  a  dearth  of 
trained  nurses,  acted  as  night  sister  at  the  Drzhavna, 
he  was  promptly  dubbed  "  Nachtbruder."  If  there 
was  a  chance  of  a  ceremony  he  seized  it.  He  once 
accompanied  a  picnic  party  into  the  hills,  and,  being 
unable  to  climb,  secured  a  pair  of  wheels  drawn  by 
oxen.  Securely  founded  on  a  truss  of  hay,  and 
wreathed  about  with  greenery,  he  rolled  along  on  his 
improvised  chariot  like  a  modern  Bacchus.  Such 
frivolities  he  would  ennoble  with  an  address  to  the 
"Herr  Professor"  and  the  "  Frau  Professorin," 
which,  for  recondite  and  elaborate  language,  could  not 
be  surpassed  at  any  royal  banquet.  When  the  new 
slaughter-house  was  to  be  dedicated,  it  was  Jovano- 
vitch  who  arranged  the  order  of  the  proceedings,  pro- 
vided the  luncheon,  compelled  the  "  Herr  Professor  " 
to  deliver  a  speech,  and  sat  up  till  2  o'clock  in  the 
morning  making  copies  for  distribution.  All  this 
energy  and  love  of  show  went  with  an  inexhaustible 
joviality,  and  if  no  one  could  be  more  pompous,  no  one 
could  assume  more  easily  the  character  of  a  boon 
companion.  With  his  wife  and  baby  he  seemed  the 
perfect  husband  and  father.  He  loved  his  violin,  and 
played  the  wild  native  airs  of  Serbia  with  great  emo- 
tion. Blease  and  two  sisters  once  accompanied  him 
in  a  carriage  to  Trstenik.  The  English  occupied  the 
comfortable  seat  at  the  back,  while  his  huge  form 
inundated  the  little  board  at  the  front,  and  they  rolled 
along,  he  with  Blease's  leg  across  his  knees,  thrumming 


THE  SERB  PEOPLE  AS  WE  FOUND  THEM    135 

it  like  a  guitar,  and  singing  German  student  songs  for 
two  hours  without  a  stop.  A  strange  mixture  of 
pomposity  which  was  never  ridiculous  and  levity 
which  never  interfered  with  business,  and  delighting 
equally  in  his  work  and  the  pleasures  of  society,  he  was 
always  a  valuable  assistant  and  during  the  period  of 
captivity  he  showed  himself  a  staunch  friend  of  the 
English,  while  loyally  serving,  as  in  duty  bound,  his 
Austrian  masters. 

There  can  be  no  exact  parallels  between  different 
races.  But  the  Serbs  have  very  much  in  common 
with  the  Irish.  They  have  the  same  disposition  to 
enjoy  rather  than  improve  life,  the  same  readiness  to 
make  the  most  of  the  present  day  and  disregard  the 
claims  of  the  future.  Superficial  cultivation,  indif- 
ference to  dirt,  lavish  hospitality  and  impulsive 
charity  are  all  aspects  of  this  easy  temper,  which  they 
share  with  the  Irish.  Like  the  Irish,  too,  they  are 
intensely  nationalist  in  politics,  and  they  have  the  same 
passionate  devotion  to  their  little  plots  of  land.  The 
parallel  holds  good  even  as  far  as  the  revival  in 
industry  which  is  taking  place  in  both  countries. 
Scientific  agriculture  is  beginning,  even  in  Serbia,  to 
take  the  place  of  primitive  methods,  and  the  breeding 
of  better  stocks  of  horses,  cattle,  and  pigs  had  received 
much  State  patronage  in  the  years  before  the  war. 
Serbs  of  the  type  of  Gashitch  and  Jovanovitch  might 
also  be  compared  with  those  Irishmen  who,  in  other 
countries  than  their  own,  have  displayed  a  capacity  for 
organisation  and  direction,  of  which  their  political 
adversaries  have  declared  the  whole  race  to  be  devoid. 
The  parallel,  it  must  be  repeated,  ought  not  to  be 
pressed  too  far.  The  Irishman,  for  instance  is  more 


136     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

witty,  more  quarrelsome,  more  fond  of  animals,  more 
chivalrous  towards  women,  than  the  Serb.  But  any 
Englishman  who  made  himself  master  of  the  language 
of  the  country  would  find  himself  hardly  less  at  home 
in  Serbia  than  in  many  parts  of  agricultural  Ireland. 
We  attempt  in  this  chapter  none  of  those  comparisons 
between  the  peoples  of  the  Balkans  which  lead  to 
facile  and  erroneous  political  conclusions.  We  are 
only  concerned  to  show  that,  when  allowance  is  made 
for  their  poverty  and  their  recent  emancipation  from 
the  Turk,  the  Serbs  are  a  people  of  whose  friendship 
Great  Britain  has  no  reason  to  be  ashamed. 

W.  L.  B. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    OUT-PATIENTS. 

Resemblance  to  the  Irish — Quack  Remedies — "  Dalekos  " — 
Curiosity  —  Certain  Cure  Demanded  —  Neglected  Disease  — 
Diphtheria — Gratitude  of  the  Serbian  Peasants. 

"  THE  out-patients."  These  are  cold,  drab  words 
indeed  for  the  sun-bathed,  many-coloured,  varied- 
natured  crowd  which  was  grouped  morning  after 
morning  in  the  courtyard  of  the  Terapia  Hospital 
at  Vrntse. 

One  associates  "  out-patients "  rather  with  the 
London  slums  ;  with  the  English  horror  of  colours  ; 
with  the  English  veneration  for  self-control  (or  rather 
for  lack  of  self-expression  !) ;  with  all  the  qualities 
most  at  war  with  the  spirit  of  a  Serb  crowd.  Ill  they 
might  be; — undoubtedly  were  ;  poor  many  of  them — 
badly  fed  some  ;  in  real  pain — in  gnawing  anxiety 
for  their  dearest ;  but  cold,  drab,  dull,  never.  Always 
there  was  response  to  a  smile  and  little  jokes.  There 
was  a  volubility,  an  alertness,  a  power  of  relaxing 
into  a  picturesque  attitude  in  the  sun  and  waiting, 
practically  regardless  of  time,  all  characteristic  of 
the  nature  of  the  people. 

They  are  like  the  Irish  in  their  gaiety,  their  depres- 
sion, their  mercurial  temperament ;  tears  and  smiles 
all  a-bubble ;  and  in  their  carelessness  of  money,  a 
real  heart-free  neglect  of  it  when  they  have  the 
necessaries. 


138     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

Often  we  tried  to  buy  skirts  and  kanitzas  (the 
home-woven  waist-belts  of  gorgeous  hues),  but  the 
only  skirt  which  was  secured  by  a  member  of  our 
Unit  was  one  which  an  Irishwoman  chaffed  and 
complimented  a  woman  in  a  country  road  into  taking 
off  on  the  spot  and  giving  to  her. 

This  reluctance  to  sell  reminded  me  of  my  futile 
endeavours  to  buy  scarlet  homespun  skirts  in  Achill 
in  Ireland,  though  every  woman  on  the  island  wore 
one  or  more  of  these  desirable  garments. 

The  Unit  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  started 
an  out-patient  department,  for  it  started  itself. 
You  must  picture  a  war-swept  agricultural  land, 
the  men  mostly  away,  the  women  and  children 
working  the  farms  ;  the  doctors  either  in  the  army, 
dead  of  typhus  or  in  battle,  or  decrepit  with  age  and 
infirmities.  There  were  a  few  dug  out — obliged  for 
sheer  self-preservation  to  limit  their  practice  to 
those  who  could  pay  ordinary  fees.  There  were  no 
Queen's  Nurses,  no  civil  hospitals,  no  medical  officers 
of  health,  and  no  poor-law  infirmary.  The  only  free 
medical  advice  to  be  had  was  that  of  the  herb-sellers 
at  the  fairs,  where  bunches  of  most  of  the  common 
wild  plants  were  sold  and  said  to  cure  all  ills.  I 
think  that  there  must  be  some  occult  belief  associated 
with  these  herbs ;  either  they  are  picked  at  the  full 
moon  or  in  churchyards,  or  connected  with  some  allied 
superstition  as  in  the  early  days  in  England.  Other- 
wise it  is  hard  to  explain  the  brisk  trade  in  plants 
which  any  peasant  could  pick  outside  his  own  door. 
They  were  not  prepared  in  any  obvious  way.  The 
leaf  of  a  plantain  was  the  great  stand-by  for  all  wounds 
and  raw  surfaces.  It  was  laid  on  fresh  and  green. 


'THE  OUT-PATIENTS  139 

I  recall  one  woman  coming  to  me  with  bright-green 
lips  !  She  had  plantain  leaves  folded  deftly  over 
them  as  they  were  swollen  and  sore,  and  in  her  case 
the  leaves  served  a  very  practical  purpose  in  protect- 
ing the  cracked  sore  lips  from  the  saliva  and  the  sun. 
She  was  very  pleased  at  being  told  that  she  might 
keep  the  leaves  if  she  put  my  ointment  underneath  ! 

This  limited  and  somewhat  doubted  source  of 
medical  help,  and  perhaps  also  a  certain  curiosity 
and  love  of  a  new  thing,  sent  the  patients  to  the 
foreign  units  for  advice  and  medicine.  When  I 
first  got  out  they  used  to  come  in  pathetic  little 
groups  all  day  long,  and  in  order  to  secure  any  peace, 
after  talking  it  over  with  the  chief,  it  was  decided  to 
tell  them  to  come  at  8  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Even 
then  a  good  sprinkling  of  patients  used  to  arrive  at 
all  hours,  and  unless  they  came  from  very  great 
distances  they  were  sent  away  to  come  again  next 
day. 

It  was  remarkable  how  before  long  everyone  who 
arrived  late  was  a  "  daleko  " — i.e.,  "  from  afar  " — 
and  with  smiles  and  gesticulations  would  explain 
how  they  came  from  "  daleko,  daleko "  and  had 
travelled  for  hours  and  hours  !  Occasionally  one 
caught  them  out,  as  with  one  who,  after  describing 
a  long,  weary  journey,  told  me  the  name  of  the 
village  which  I  happened  to  know  was  only  just  over 
the  hill. 

The  distance  they  travelled  to  get  to  us  was, 
however,  often  very  great,  as  much  as  four,  six,  or 
eight  hours  in  an  ox  wagon  over  appalling  roads,  a 
mode  of  progression  which  appeared  calculated  to 
dislocate  every  bone  in  the  human  body,  and  which 


I4o     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

would  inevitably  have  led  to  a  painful  and  lingering 
death  in  any  English  patient  suffering  as  some  of 
them  did. 

In  innocence  and  ignorance  in  the  early  days  we 
urged  these  patients  not  to  repeat  this,  to  the 
British  mind,  terrible  experience.  But  the  Serbs  are 
not  as  other  men  are  :  after  having  their  wounds 
dressed  and  medicine  given  them,  a  few  days  later, 
regardless  of  this  advice,  the  erstwhile  half-moribund 
patients  would  reappear,  smiling  and  better,  for  more 
dressings  and  medicine.  How  much  was  due  respec- 
tively to  the  medicine,  the  cleaning  up,  the  dressings, 
the  mental  faith,  the  hygienic  advice  as  to  rest,  air 
and  food,  the  steady  wiry  constitution  of  the  Serb, 
the  arrest  of  home-grown  methods  of  cure,  it  would 
be  impossible  to  say.  The  surgeon,  of  course,  said 
it  was  cleanliness  and  faith  ;  the  physicians  surmised 
it  was  medicines  and  constitutions  ;  the  out-patient 
physicians  thought  it  was  due  to  the  incomparable 
skill  with  which  the  whole  was  combined  by  them  ! 
Certain  it  is  that  no  live  Serb  need  be  despaired  of. 

One  class  of  patient  was  very  hard  to  cure.  The 
members  of  it  came  up  day  after  day  with  pain  inside, 
of  which  very  little  external  evidence  could  be  found. 
Medicine  after  medicine  proved  ineffective,  and  after 
a  few  days  they  complained  that  it  was  a  very  strange 
disease  they  had  which  they  felt  convinced  could  only 
be  revealed  by  Rontgen  rays  !  The  fame  of  our  X-ray 
plant  had  gone  far  and  wide,  and,  though  reluctant  to 
break  a  bone  to  test  its  efficacy  for  rendering  the 
human  form  transparent,  they  had  no  objection  to 
having  an  imaginary  internal  pain  !  It  was  explained 
to  them  that  the  brilliancy  of  English  medical  art  was 


THE  OUT-PATIENTS 


141 


such  that  all  such  diseases  were  understood  without 
resorting  to  electrical  apparatus,  and  usually  the  next 
dose  had  the  desired  result ! 

Experience  taught  that  the  physicians  should  never 
betray  the  slightest  doubt  as  to  cure.  In  the  case  of  a 
man  who  had  run  an  awl  into  the  palm  of  his  hand  and 
got  general  blood  poisoning,  with  rigors,  abscesses,  and 
very  high  fever,  an  acknowledgment  of  the  gravity  of 
the  case  probably  proved  fatal.  The  man's  wife  was 
told,  in  order  to  make  her  punctilious  about  the 
dressings,  probably  quite  unnecessarily,  that  if  they 
were  not  carefully  done  the  man  would  die.  The  next 
day  on  reaching  the  house,  after  a  heavy  tramp  in  mud 
almost  to  the  knees  along  a  typical  Serbian  lane,  laden 
with  dressings,  medicines,  soups  and  food,  etc.,  the 
doctor  found  the  man  sitting  up  in  a  state  of  nature, 
all  the  dressings  on  the  floor  and  his  wife  busily  engaged 
in  oiling  him  all  over  with  a  dirty  hen's  feather  ! 

The  discarded  practitioner  retired,  a  sadder  and  a 
wiser  woman.  The  wife  explained  that,  as  there 
seemed  doubt  about  the  English  mission  cure,  she  had 
felt  it  better  to  use  one  which  she  was  told  could  not 
fail.  It  was  impossible  to  resent  the  poor  anxious- 
faced  little  wife's  action,  based  as  it  was  upon  love, 
logic,  and  common  sense.  Poor  things  !  So  hopeful ! 
And  after  the  waste  of  a  precious  week  they  lost  the 
only  chance  the  man  had,  and,  although  he  came  to 
the  Red  Cross  Mission,  it  was  then  too  late,  and  he 
died  in  two  days. 

A  Serbian  physical  peculiarity  is  tenderness  in  the 
pit  of  the  stomach.  They  almost  all  have  it,  and  it  is 
possibly  due  to  the  extreme  tightness  into  which  they 
squeeze  their  waists  from  youth  up.  They  wear  their 


i42     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

kanitzas  tightly  wound  round,  and  I  have  seen  a  man 
take  off  as  many  as  three  of  these  waistbands  of  about 
two  and  a  half  yards  long,  and  these  had  been  rein- 
forced finally  outside  by  a  huge  leather  strap  like  the 
girth  of  a  horse.  They  carry  many  possessions  in  the 
folds. 

There  were  specimens  of  almost  every  known  fever 
amongst  the  out-patients  :  measles,  small-pox,  scarlet 
fever,  rheumatic  fever,  relapsing  fever,  malaria, 
typhus,  diphtheria,  whooping-cough,  tuberculosis. 
There  was  practically  no  enteric,  and,  oddly  enough, 
much  less  infantile  diarrhoea  than  might  have  been 
expected,  possibly  because  the  babies  were  breast-fed. 
There  was  a  good  deal  of  ophthalmia,  which  was  said 
to  have  been  imported  by  the  Turks,  as  they  said  also 
that  the  Austrians  had  imported  the  typhus.  If  for 
nothing  else,  it  would  have  been  worth  while  to  have 
been  there  for  the  sake  of  the  children's  eyes,  many  of 
which  were  undoubtedly  saved  from  blindness. 

The  people  are  intelligent  and  teachable  and  have 
very  good  memories.  What  out-patient  department 
here  could  be  safely  run  with  the  directions  for  taking 
the  medicines  and  treatment  all  given  only  by  word 
of  mouth  ? 

The  language  was  certainly  something  of  a  difficulty. 
At  first  a  V.A.D.,  who  was  a  good  linguist  and  soon 
picked  up  Serbian,  translated  with  the  occasional  help 
of  a  Serbian  cook  who  spoke  German,  but  soon  the 
doctors  contrived  to  assimilate  enough  to  do  a  good 
deal  by  themselves  and  "  tri  put  svaki  dan  "  (three 
times  a  day),  "  chista  vazduk "  (fresh  air),  etc., 
tripped  gaily  off  their  tongues.  Now  and  then  a 
misunderstanding  would  occur,  as  with  a  child  who  was 


THE  OUT-PATIENTS  143 

given  castor  oil  (a  generous  amount)  for  his  grand- 
mother and  also  bismuth  and  soda  with  directions. 
He  returned  next  day  asking  for  more  oil  and  saying 
that  she  was  much  better.  It  took  our  united  efforts  to 
find  out  that  she  had  rubbed  her  stomach  with  the  oil, 
and  begged  for  more  as  it  was  so  efficacious  ! 

One  of  our  orderlies,  talking  to  a  man  in  the  town, 
was  told  that  this  gentleman  was  very  bored  with  the 
dullness  of  Vrntse  this  year,  there  being  no  bands  and 
amusements,  but  that  he  had  to  come  because  his  wife 
suffered  with  "  conflagration  of  the  kidneys  "  and 
needed  the  waters  ! 

The  work  at  "  out-patients  "  taught  certain  lessons. 
It  may  well  be  in  England,  with  all  the  foolish 
babble  of  medicine  and  disease,  with  the  self-dosing, 
the  interchanging  of  advice  and  prescriptions  given 
for  entirely  separate  and  different  conditions,  the 
hypochondriacs  and  the  quacks,  that  a  pessimistic 
doubt  as  to  the  utility  of  much  of  medicine  may  creep 
into  the  heart  of  the  physician — a  faint  suspicion — 
(soon  banished  no  doubt)  whether  the  people  might 
not  be  nearly  as  well  off  with  no  medical  pro- 
fession at  all !  Perish  the  thought !  In  Serbia  it  is 
seen,  spread  out  plainly,  what  happens.  All  the 
terrible  and  often  thought  to  be  overdrawn  pictures 
of  the  text-books  come  to  life.  Neglected  disease 
seldom  seen  at  all  in  this  country  is  there  com- 
paratively common.  No  out-patients  here  would 
be  so  rich  to  the  student  in  "  interesting  cases." 
The  very  list  of  fevers  given  above  is  indication  to 
the  thoughtful  of  the  dire  need  of  active  medical 
officers  of  health.  Apropos  of  this  it  may  be  told 
that  perhaps  the  most  lasting  and  valuable  memorial 


144     A  WD  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Berry's  Mission  in  Vrnjatchka  Banja 
will  undoubtedly  be  the  extraordinary  grip  it  had 
on  the  public  health  of  the  place.  Taking  no  narrow 
view  of  his  work,  Mr.  Berry  set  to  work  to  improve 
the  general  condition  of  the  town  as  much  as  possible 
in  the  time.  He  draihed  a  marsh  close  to  the  Terapia 
under  considerable  opposition  both  from  the  retro- 
grade and  near-sighted  without  the  Mission,  and 
from  the  less  ambitious  within,  who  found  digging 
in  a  marsh  making  drains  rather  a  wide  interpre- 
tation of  V.A.D.  work  !  Nevertheless  he  persevered, 
spending  hours  on  the  drains  himself,  and  had  the 
satisfaction  later  of  an  unsolicited  testimonial  from 
a  resident  in  one  of  the  villas  in  the  valley  that 
never  before  had  there  been  so  few  mosquitoes  and 
so  little  malaria.  The  other  public  works  will  no 
doubt  be  described  elsewhere,  but  in  order  to  show 
the  conscientious  care  (to  which  no  doubt  we  owe 
the  fact  that  the  worst  disease  from  which  any 
member  of  our  staff  suffered  was  a  sore  throat)  with 
which  the  Professor  worked,  I  may  say  that  the  same 
detailed  thought  was  given  to  the  out-patients. 
All  the  wagons  and  vehicles  which  brought  patients 
had  to  be  left  on  the  road  fifty  yards  from  our  front 
gate.  In  the  case  of  those  patients  who  were  incap- 
able of  walking  up  to  the  out-patient  room,  a  matter 
of  250  yards,  the  cart  was  allowed  to  bring  them  to 
the  door,  deposit  them,  go  away  and  return  when 
sent  for.  If  there  was  one  who  could  not  be  got 
out  of  the  cart,  the  patient  had  to  be  attended  to 
then  and  there  and  sent  away.  Directly  after  the 
out-patients  had  gone  an  Austrian  orderly  swept 
up  all  dung  from  the  court-yard.  All  this  was  done 


THE  OUT-PATIENTS  145 

in  order  to  avoid  any  possibility  of  flies  breeding.  The 
flies  at  Nish,  even  in  the  English  resthouse,  were  a 
terrible  pest  and  danger. 

At  8  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  patients  were 
carefully  gone  through  by  Mrs.  Gordon,  our  gifted 
Serbian-speaking  V.A.D.,  and  all  cases  of  probable 
infection  as  far  as  possible  put  into  groups  separated 
from  the  others.  In  the  case  of  diphtheria  and  some 
others,  where  undressing  was  not  required,  they 
were  seen  out  of  doors,  and  the  diphtheria  cases,  if 
refused  admission,  were  given  antitoxin  on  the  spot 
and  sent  home.  The  part  of  the  yard  where  these 
patients  stood  and  spat  was  watered  with  disin- 
fectant ! 

In  one  family  the  distraught  mother  had  lost 
four  children  of  diphtheria  and  brought  her  last  two, 
both  stricken,  to  us.  The  one  who  had  been  first 
attacked,  and  was  very  severely  ill  on  admission, 
died,  but  the  other,  in  whom  the  disease  had  been 
acquired  one  day  later,  had  been  brought  in  time 
and  was  saved.  On  some  occasions,  if  we  had  a 
very  dirty  typhus  patient,  we  had  the  whole  room 
swabbed  well  out  before  we  went  on,  and  the  place 
was  thoroughly  disinfected  immediately  after  out- 
patients, and  also  during  the  day  if  the  "  dalekos  " 
were  infectious.  There  was  nothing  in  the  room 
which  could  not  be  disinfected.  A  small  cupboard 
which  I  succeeded  in  getting,  rather  against  the 
grain,  from  the  Professor  was  only  permitted  if  it 
stood  on  well-disinfected  legs  standing  out  so  that  no 
intelligent  louse  would  face  the  danger  of  climbing 
on  to  it.  The  couch  was  a  plain  iron  frame  with  three 
boards  instead  of  wire  mattress.  These  boards  were 


146     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

movable  and  well  scrub.bed  daily.  If  the  patient  was 
dirty,  the  boards  were  scrubbed  and  turned  over  for 
the  next  one.  We  had  a  plain  wood  table  and  two 
chairs  and  a  screen  of  sheets  pinned  on  a  string.  I 
wore  a  batiste  overall  tight  at  the  neck  and  fasten- 
ing partly  at  the  back,  the  lower  part  being  stitched 
up.  It  had  very  long  sleeves  with  elastic  at  the 
wrists,  and  I  had  linen  gaiters  and  shoes.  Only  once 
in  my  three  months'  work  did  I  catch  a  louse  actually 
on  myself,  though  I  acquired  a  much-envied  notoriety 
for  the  rapidity  and  accuracy  with  which  I  could 
pick  lice  and  fleas  off  patients  while  they  undressed 
and  transfer  the  vermin  to  a  bowl  of  lotion.  In 
order  that  I  may  not  seem  to  claim  too  much  for 
my  deftness  in  this  respect,  I  should  own  that 
I  had  served  an  apprenticeship  years  ago  in  East 
London. 

The  Serbs  are  not  as  dirty  a  folk  as  our  own  East 
Enders,  but  the  feeling  that  each  innocent-looking 
little  louse  might  be  a  typhus  carrier  lent  a  spright- 
liness  and  alacrity  to  my  movements  which  surpassed 
all  London  achievements.  Their  work  on  the  land, 
in  splendid  air  with  plenty  of  exercise,  keeps  the 
Serbs'  skin  clean  and  fresh,  for  no  washing  is  more 
efficient  than  that  which  comes  from  within,  and 
their  home-made  coarse  linen  skirts,  frequently 
washed,  serve  as  mild  loofahs.  The  vermin  which 
they  do  undoubtedly  suffer  from  are  due,  I  believe, 
partly  to  their  closed-up  houses  during  the  winter 
cold  and  also  to  the  fact  that  they  wear  almost  the 
same  clothes  summer  and  winter  and  keep  the 
woollen  ones  for  years  and  years. 

One  patient  we  had  showed  that  even  in  Serbia, 


THE  OUT-PATIENTS  147 

nervous  ailments  are  not  unknown.  I  heard  a  row 
in  the  court  and  looked  out  of  the  window  to  see 
a  screaming  girl  tottering  in  and  half-carried,  being 
supported  in  front  and  on  both  sides  and  behind 
by  willing  helpers,  another  of  whom  was  propping 
up  her  head.  The  diagnosis  was  clear,  and  the 
doctor,  dashing  out,  scattered  the  patients'  helpers 
like  the  petals  of  a  rose  and,  seizing  the  girl  by  the 
hand,  ran  her  rapidly  across  the  court  and  round 
the  corner.  She  was  so  taken  by  surprise  that  the 
shrieks  ceased,  and  she  had  no  time  to  remember 
that  she  could  not  walk  alone,  much  less  run  !  She 
had  a  good  dose  and  walked  home  sedately  without 
any  assistance.  The  poor  girl  had  overworked  her- 
self nursing  a  relation  and  had  not  been  properly 
fed  ;  hence  the  nervous  crisis. 

The  Serbs  are  a  grateful  people,  and  many  were  the 
queer  little  gifts  brought  daily,  from  sucking-pigs 
to  a  dahlia  flower.  Rakija,  sour  milk,  cheese,  eggs 
and  chickens  were  often  brought.  The  chickens 
are  carried  head  downwards  by  the  legs,  and  are  so 
accustomed  to  this  from  their  earliest  youth,  that 
instead  of  squawking,  they  cock  their  heads  at  an 
acute  angle  and  survey  the  world  apparently  unper- 
turbed and  uninconvenienced  by  their  position.  All 
these  tokens  we  accepted  with  thanks  on  behalf  of 
the  "  Ranyeni  Lyudi "  (wounded  men).  Money 
was  also  offered  and  accepted  for  the  Mission,  but 
on  hearing  it  was  not  for  the  personal  use  of  the 
doctor  or  V.A.D.  they  sometimes  took  it  back  again  ! 
In  their  gratitude  they  were  often  demonstrative 
after  the  simple  manner  of  children,  meaning  no 
offence,  and  the  unwary  might  find  herself  warmly 


148     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

embraced  by  the  grateful  patients  or  their  friends. 
Although  the  kindly  feeling  was  welcome,  this 
evidence  was  less  so  owing  to  its  being  offered  in  a 
typhus  and  diphtheria  ridden  country,  and  more 
might  be  exchanged  under  these  circumstances  than 
mere  feelings  ! 

A.  H.  B. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

SANITATION    AND    SIDE-SHOWS. 

Sanitation — The  Draining  of  the  Marsh — The  Street  Drain — 
The  Atina  Road — The  Refuse  Cart — The  Dumping  Ground — The 
Iron  Destructor — The  Slaughter-House — Laying  a  Foundation- 
Stone — A  Prisoners'  Camp — Purchase  of  Cement — Artificial  Legs 
— Distribution  of  Boots — Distribution  of  Clothes — The  Actors. 

IT  was  always  the  Professor's  desire  to  do  some- 
thing more  in  Serbia  than  merely  heal  wounds.  The 
greatest  advantage  which  the  British  peoples  possess 
over  the  Serbs  is  not  that  they  are  more  wise  or 
more  skilful,  but  that  they  are  more  clean,  and  the 
greatest  contribution  that  they  have  to  make  to 
Serbian  civilisation  is  the  idea  of  organised  cleanliness. 
The  Professor,  knowing  Serbia  better  than  most  of 
the  English  who  went  out  with  hospitals,  deter- 
mined from  the  first  that  he  would  help  the  bureau- 
cracy in  the  efforts  which  they  were  making  to  over- 
come the  prevailing  indifference  to  the  rules  of  public 
health.  He  never  pretended  to  be  much  more  than 
an  amateur,  but  in  Serbia  there  is  more  scope  for 
amateurs  than  in  England.  Side  by  side  with  our 
hospital  work  there  went  the  work  of  sanitary  reform, 
and  some  account  must  be  given  here  of  the  more 
important  of  these  enterprises. 

The  draining  of  the  marsh  in  front  of  the  Terapia 
was  the  earliest  of  the  Mission's  experiments  in 
sanitary  engineering.  It  produced  much  controversy 
in  the  Unit.  The  Professor  is  certain  that  it  saved  the 


ISO     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

occupants  of  the  Terapia  and  the  neighbouring 
villas  from  mosquitos  and  malaria.  Others  declared 
that  he  was  merely  spoiling  a  very  decent  little  sewage 
farm.  What  actually  happened  is  this.  The  marsh 
lay  directly  in  front  of  the  Terapia,  and  in  the  winter 
of  1914  was  a  very  dismal  and  dirty  place.  No  grass 
would  grow  on  it  except  at  the  lower  end,  where  the 
sewage  from  the  Terapia  itself  percolated  through 
the  soil.  The  approach  to  the  building  cut  right 
across  it,  and  under  the  stone  bridge  the  little  stream 
had  become  blocked,  flooding  back  and  eventually 
destroying  two  other  wooden  bridges  higher  up. 
Above  the  Terapia  bridge  was  a  mass  of  evil-smelling 
mud,  and  below  it  there  was  no  through  drainage. 
The  Professor  decided  that  when  the  hot  weather 
came  all  these  pools  and  swampy  patches  would 
become  mere  breeding  grounds  for  mosquitos,  and 
he  began  drainage  operations. 

In  the  face  of  apathy  and  even  a  certain  amount 
of  opposition  from  the  local  authorities  and  much 
scoffing  criticism  from  some  members  of  the  Unit, 
the  Professor  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  services 
of  thirty  Austrian  prisoners.  Armed  with  shovels, 
these  men  set  to  work,  deepened  the  channel  of  the 
stream,  and  cut  several  drains  into  it  from  the  sides. 
Various  members  of  the  Unit  in  turn  superintended 
the  wet,  dirty,  and  noisome  business,  and  Mr.  Berry 
himself  was  constantly  to  be  seen,  wearing  huge 
rubber  boots  and  scrambling  through  the  mud  and 
over  the  fences  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  a  child 
making  mud  pies.  But  even  he  was  not  a  professional 
ditcher,  and  the  final  touches  were  not  put  to  the 
work  until  Jones  had  taken  it  in  hand.  Jones  had 


SANITATION  AND  SIDE-SHOWS      151 

been  something  of  a  farmer,  and  his  long  cuts  were 
much  more  effective  than  the  half-hearted  scratches 
of  Blease,  his  immediate  predecessor.  The  local 
Serbs  gave  us  but  little  encouragement,  and  even  the 
neighbouring  farmer  at  first  refused  to  supply  us  with 
wood  from  his  own  big  stack,  when  we  wanted  to 
rebuild  the  broken-down  bridges.  Major  Gashitch, 
independent  as  usual  of  all  local  influences,  gave  his 
approval,  and  the  Crown  Prince,  paying  a  surprise 
visit,  seemed  to  be  pleased  with  our  efforts.  How 
much  benefit  we  actually  produced  we  cannot  of 
course  tell,  as  we  had  never  seen  the  marsh  in  the  hot 
weather.  But  grass  certainly  grew  where  none  had 
grown  before,  and  there  were  no  mosquitos.  Most 
significant  of  all  the  signs  of  change  was  the  silence  of 
the  frogs.  In  the  spring  the  marsh  resounded  with 
a  medley  of  croaks,  murmurs,  and  trills,  filling  the 
deep,  cool  night  with  trembling  music,  ominously 
indicative  of  dampness.  But  directly  the  Austrians 
had  finished  their  work,  and  the  stagnant  waters  had 
flowed  away,  the  silence  in  the  marsh  was  absolute. 
Whether  the  frogs  had  died  or  migrated  we  could  not 
tell.  But  they  were  never  heard  again.  Nor  were 
there  any  mosquitos  that  summer,  and  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  neighbouring  villas  declared  that  it  was 
the  first  summer  in  which  they  had  not  suffered  from 
malaria. 

A  second  work  of  the  same  kind  was  done  in  the 
streets  of  the  town,  where  we  cleaned  up  the  gutter 
in  the  main  street,  diverted  the  water  from  the 
public  fountain  into  it,  and  constructed  one  or  two 
drains  for  the  worst  of  the  muddy  patches.  This 
was  Gordon's  idea,  and  it  was  carried  out  by  Pokorny, 


152     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

the  Austrian  who  had  built  our  destructors.  It  was 
a  useful  piece  of  work,  because  the  rain  at  Vrntse 
was  often  tropical  in  volume,  and  the  terrifying 
thunderstorms,  which  were  so  common  in  June  and 
July,  would  convert  the  open  spaces  into  lakes  in  a 
few  minutes.  Parts  of  the  two  roads  leading  to  the 
Terapia  we  treated  in  a  similar  way,  cutting  out  the 
undergrowth  which  blocked  the  ditches  and  raising 
or  reconstructing  the  wooden  bridges  which  crossed 
them.  Eleven  little  wooden  bridges  in  all  were 
built  by  the  Mission  in  different  parts  of  the  town. 

Another  piece  of  engineering  was  undertaken  in 
connection  with  our  occupation  of  the  Atina.  When 
we  had  pumped  out  the  filthy  cesspool  and  blocked 
up  the  old  closets  we  found  that  more  was  required 
before  our  new  dry-earth  latrine  would  be  fit  for  use. 
Behind  the  villa,  on  a  slightly  higher  level,  ran  a  road, 
which,  like  most  Serb  roads,  was  in  a  lamentable  state 
of  disrepair.  It  was  not  only  muddy,  but  tilted  to  one 
side,  so  that  all  the  surface  water  from  the  hill  above 
cascaded  into  our  hospital  yard  and  flooded  our  latrine. 
When  we  had  filled  up  the  holes  in  the  yard  and  had 
given  it  the  slope  that  was  necessary  to  drain  it  towards 
the  street,  we  had  to  make  a  new  road  surface.  This 
was  a  task  of  immense  difficulty.  The  stretch  of  road 
involved  was  only  about  fifty  yards  long,  and  there 
was  plenty  of  material  in  the  bed  of  the  river  not  far 
away,  but  the  problem  of  transporting  the  material  to 
the  road  was  almost  insoluble.  Austrian  orderlies 
carried  stones  in  their  hands  or  on  a  rickety  wheel- 
barrow, but  sand  for  packing  the  stones  could  only 
be  carried  in  a  cart,  and  to  get  a  cart  out  of  the  local 
authorities  was  almost  the  most  difficult  of  all  the  Herr 


SANITATION  AND  SIDE-SHOWS       153 

Professor's  tasks.  When  we  did  get  it  we  found  that 
it  carried  hardly  more  than  an  ordinary  English 
navvy  could  have  brought  in  a  barrow,  and  our  road 
was  not  completed  for  about  six  weeks. 

While  we  were  making  this  road  a  typical  experience 
came  in  our  way.  As  we  drained  the  water  away  from 
the  Atina,  before  the  gutter  at  the  side  of  the  road  was 
completed,  it  ran  into  the  back  yard  of  a  house  a  little 
further  down.  One  morning  the  Herr  Professor,  on 
his  sanitary  prowl,  discovered  a  heap  of  filth  deposited 
on  the  road  at  the  gate  of  this  yard.  A  complaint 
brought  out  the  owner  of  the  house,  who  protested 
that  the  water  was  running  from  the  road  into  his 
"  nuzhnik,"  or  manure  heap.  This  "  nuzhnik  "  was 
nothing  more  than  a  corner  of  his  yard,  and  in  order 
to  protect  it  from  the  encroachments  of  our  surface 
drainage  he  had  deposited  some  of  the  accumulations 
of  the  dirt  itself  across  his  gate.  It  was  a  charac- 
teristic piece  of  Serbian  makeshift,  and  a  long  lecture 
from  the  Professor  on  diphtheria  produced  very  little 
change. 

Sanitation  in  Serbia  in  fact  hardly  exists.  It  was 
this  and  many  other  similar  experiences  which  led  Mr. 
Berry  to  insist  on  the  provision  of  a  refuse  cart  for  the 
town.  He  had  to  go  to  the  Government  at  Nish 
before  he  could  persuade  the  town  engineer  to  consent 
to  buy  the  cart.  When  bought  it  proved  to  be  an 
excellent  cart,  capacious,  easily  taken  to  pieces,  and 
easily  cleaned;  further  persuasion  and  a  journey  to 
Trstenik  were  necessary  before  it  was  properly  lined 
with  sheets  of  zinc.  But  after  it  had  been  set  to  work 
the  bad  smells  and  heaps  of  rubbish  seemed  as  con- 
spicuous as  ever,  and  Mr.  Berry  eventually  discovered 


154     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

that  the  precious  engine  of  sanitary  reform  was  being 
used  to  collect  dead  leaves  from  the  grass  in  the  public 
park  !  Similar  trouble  arose  over  the  big  dumping- 
ground  that  lay  outside  the  town.  The  Professor 
persuaded  the  authorities  to  dig  trenches,  but  when 
the  trenches  were  dug  and  the  refuse  was  thrown  into 
them  they  were  often  left  open  to  the  air  instead  of 
being  filled  with  earth.  It  was  not  until  a  big  iron 
destructor  was  sent  out  to  us  from  England  that  any 
systematic  burning  of  the  town  refuse  began.  We 
secured  the  proper  performance  of  the  destruction  by 
training  two  Austrian  prisoners  to  look  after  the 
machine.  But  even  then  the  perverse  ingenuity  of 
the  town  engineer  got  in  our  way,  and  his  precious 
cart  was  found  to  be  collecting  the  mud  from  the 
street  and  carrying  it  off  to  be  burnt.  We  could  never 
be  quite  sure  that  any  system  of  public  health  that  we 
established  would  be  maintained.  The  Serbs  required 
constant  inspection,  as  well  as  machinery  and  instruc- 
tions, and  there  was  one  occasion  when  a  bundle  of 
"  disinfected  "  clothes  from  the  town  disinfector  was 
opened  and  a  large  and  lively  spider  made  its  appear- 
ance from  the  heart  of  it.  As  a  rule,  however,  we 
could  depend  on  our  Austrians.  However  primitive 
they  might  have  been  at  home,  they  had  been  well 
disciplined  in  their  own  army,  and  only  a  little  inspec- 
tion was  needed  to  keep  them  up  to  the  required 
standard. 

The  most  costly  and  elaborate  sanitary  work  of  the 
Berry  Mission  was  the  new  slaughter-house  which  it 
built  for  the  town.  The  Professor  had  three  main 
objects  in  view  when  he  decided  to  build  it.  In  the 
first  place,  his  sanitary  feelings  were  offended  by  the 


SANITATION  AND  SIDE-SHOWS      155 

existing  slaughter-house  (Fig.  17).  This  was  nothing  but 
a  large  wooden  shed,  standing  in  muddy  ground  by  the 
side  of  the  river,  and  encrusted  with  the  dirt  and  blood 
of  years.  In  this  loathsome  place  all  the  animals 
required  for  feeding  the  town  were  killed.  There 
were  no  separate  compartments  for  slaughtering  and 
the  hanging  of  the  meat,  and  a  stream  of  dirty  water 
ran  through  the  building  from  end  to  end.  Mr. 
Berry,  finding  that  representations  to  the  police  and 
the  municipal  authorities  produced  but  very  little 
improvement  in  the  unsatisfactory  building — indeed, 
any  adequate  improvement  of  the  existing  building 
was  out  of  the  question — determined  to  abolish  this 
characteristic  example  of  Serb  indifference  to  public 
health.  The  only  way  in  which  the  slaughter-house 
could  be  made  really  satisfactory  was  to  pull  down  the 
old  and  to  build  an  entirely  new  one. 

In  the  second  place,  towards  the  end  of  the  summer 
months  at  Vrntse,  while  we  were  waiting  for  the  new 
military  offensive,  we  had  comparatively  little  medical 
work  to  do,  and  we  had  on  our  hands,  in  the  service  of 
the  hospitals,  a  large  number  of  Austrian  prisoners 
whose  time  was  by  no  means  fully  occupied.  It 
seemed  a  good  thing  both  for  Vrntse  and  for  the 
prisoners  themselves  that  this  extra  piece  of  work 
should  be  undertaken. 

His  third  motive  was  the  natural  desire  of  the 
members  of  the  Mission  to  leave  behind  them  some 
permanent  record  of  their  activities  in  Vrntse  and 
a  permanent  object-lesson  in  sanitation.  In  the 
whole  of  Serbia,  we  were  told,  there  existed  but  three 
modern  slaughter-houses. 

The    slaughter-house    therefore    occupied    a    large 


156     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

share  of  Mr.  Berry's  attention  during  August  and 
September.     It  was  obvious  that  the  cost   of  the 
new  undertaking  ought  not  to  be  defrayed  out  of 
funds   subscribed   for   hospital   purposes.      But   for- 
tunately, soon  after  the  work  was  begun,  the  members 
of  the  Liverpool  Reform  Club  subscribed  a  consider- 
able sum  towards  the  expenses  of  the  Mission,  and 
expressed  a  desire  that  part  should  be  applied  to 
some  useful  object  not  directly  connected  with  the 
hospital.    This  source  produced  £100.    The  Professor 
himself,  who  had  decided  not  to  accept  any  fees  for 
his  work  for  any  private  patients  in  Serbia,  applied 
whatever   money  he   received   in   that   way   to   the 
slaughter-house.     For  the  balance  he  and  Mrs.  Berry 
made  themselves  responsible.     The  work  was  done 
almost  entirely  by  our  Austrian  staff,  among  whom 
were     many     highly-skilled     workmen,     thoroughly 
familiar    with    the    details    of    building    operations. 
We  had  several  carpenters  and  masons,  bricklayers, 
a    stone-cutter,    metal    workers    of    various    kinds, 
and  Pokorny,  our  head  mason,  who  had  built  our 
destructors    and    drains,    was    a    thoroughly    trust- 
worthy   foreman.      All    these    workmen    took    the 
greatest  pride  and  interest  in  their  work. 

The  plan  of  the  building  was  as  follows,  and  com- 
prised three  main  divisions.  The  first  was  a  lofty 
square  apartment  for  the  actual  slaughtering.  The 
walls  and  floor  were  to  be  lined  with  concrete,  and 
in  the  centre  was  a  drain. 

Beyond  this  was  a  second  room  of  similar  size  in 
which  the  flaying  and  cutting  up  was  to  be  done, 
the  carcases  being  transported  from  one  room  to 
the  other  by  means  of  a  little  carriage  and  large 


SANITATION  AND  SIDE-SHOWS       157 

hook  travelling  on  overhead  iron  rails.  This  room 
was  to  be  provided  with  a  series  of  large  iron  hooks 
round  the  walls  for  the  temporary  hanging  of  the 
meat.  Other  accessories  were  a  stove,  a  cauldron, 
and  a  pump  for  supplying  the  large  overhead  cistern 
with  water. 

The  third  division,  for  the  permanent  storage  of 
the  meat,  was  on  a  deeper  level  than  the  rest  of  the 
building,  and  was  surrounded  by  a  double  wall 
enclosing  a  space  of  seventy  centimetres  (twenty- 
eight  inches),  which  could  be  filled  with  snow  and  ice 
through  openings  at  the  top.  Within  the  quad- 
rangle thus  formed  were  six  small  chambers  fitted 
with  hooks,  on  either  side  of  a  Central  passage.  The 
outer  wall  of  the  ice-chamber  was  very  thick,  to 
ensure  coolness  in  the  summer  months.  Overhead 
was  a  large  loft,  the  floor  of  which  was  of  brick  and 
concrete  on  iron  girders.  The  roof,  which  unfortu- 
nately was  never  finished,  was  to  have  been  of 
wood  and  tiles,  with  large  louvred  openings  for  free 
ventilation. 

Over  the  main  entrance  was  to  have  been  an 
elaborate  and  beautiful  bas-relief  of  a  Serbian  ox, 
designed  and  modelled  in  clay  by  Miss  Dickinson. 
The  model  was  finished,  and  we  had  found  among  our 
Austrians  a  professional  monumental  sculptor  who 
was  prepared  to  execute  the  work  in  stone. 

The  plan  of  the  building  was  sketched  by  Jovano- 
vitch,  and  drawn  to  scale  by  Smolik,  a  Czech  architect 
and  prisoner,  who  was  lent  to  us  by  our  friend  the 
district  surveyor  at  Trstenik.  Jovanovitch,  who 
before  the  war  had  been  the  manager  of  a  large  iron 
business  in  Vienna,  was  an  expert  in  ironwork,  and 


158     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

had  energy  and  brains  enough  to  make  himself 
master  of  everything  connected  with  building  which 
he  had  not  known  before.  He  therefore  became  the 
Professor's  chief  helper,  travelling  about  with  him 
to  negotiate  with  officials  and  buy  materials,  and 
visiting  the  site  every  day  to  direct  operations. 
Mika  Markovitch,  the  timber  merchant,  another 
good  friend  of  the  Mission,  provided  seasoned  timber, 
and  Jones  was  constantly  on  the  spot  to  see  that  the 
men  kept  at  their  work. 

Before  anything  could  be  done  permission  had  to 
be  obtained  from  no  less  than  four  authorities. 
These  were  the  township,  the  district  authority  at 
Trstenik,  the  chief  doctor  of  the  baths,  Dr.  Botta, 
of  Krushevatz,  and  the  Government  at  Nish,  which 
controlled  all  Serbian  watering-places.  Permission 
was  obtained  without  difficulty,  but  only  after  some 
tedious  travelling.  The  choice  of  a  site  was  not  so 
easy.  The  Government  would  not  allow  fresh  build- 
ing on  the  old  site,  which  belonged  to  the  town,  and 
had  decided  that  all  future  work  of  that  kind  should 
be  done  on  State^and  only.  The  town  engineer  of 
course  declared  that  there  was  no  other  land  to  be 
got,  and  for  a  time  the  State  and  the  township  were 
at  loggerheads.  The  Professor  pacified  the  local 
authorities  by  a  present  of  a  reaping-machine,  and 
a  suitable  site  was  found  about  500  yards  to  the 
north  of  the  old  building.  The  owner  was  absent  on 
military  service,  but  was  fetched  home  to  negotiate 
for  the  sale  of  his  plot.  He  asked  two  and  a  half 
dinars  a  square  metre,  which  the  Professor  thought 
exorbitant  and  refused  to  pay.  We  discovered 
that  an  official  of  the  town  immediately  afterwards 


SANITATION  AND  SIDE-SHOWS       159 

made  him  a  private  offer  of  two  and  a  half  dinars, 
which  the  owner  refused ;  but  this  attempt  at  a  job 
was  frustrated  by  the  dispatch  of  a  Government 
official  from  Nish,  who  bought  the  land  for  a  price 
which  was  never  disclosed  to  us. 

When  the  trenches  had  been  dug  and  a  few  courses 
of  stone  laid,  the  foundation-stone  was  placed  in 
position  and  the  building  dedicated,  according  to  the 
Serbian  custom,  by  a  religious  ceremony.  On  a 
blazing  day  in  August  those  of  us  who  could  leave 
our  work  went  down,  with  all  the  rank  and  fashion 
of  Vrntse,  to  see  the  Princess  Alexis  Karageorgevitch 
lay  the  stone.  A  group  of  four  priests,  clad  in  the 
brilliant  but  tinselly  garments  of  the  Greek  Church, 
chanted  prayers  and  responses,  read  a  passage  from 
the  Gospels,  and  delivered  a  short  sermon. 

A  crucifix  was  offered  for  the  kisses  of  the  more 
important  members  of  the  congregation,  and  one  of  the 
priests  sprinkled  us  with  holy  water,  shaken  from  a 
bunch  of  herbs.  The  stone  was  then  duly  laid,  and 
Mr.  Berry,  cumbered  with  modesty  and  the  difficulties 
of  a  foreign  language,  delivered  an  address  formally 
presenting  the  building  to  the  town.  Then  a  young 
ram  was  killed,  and  there  followed  one  of  those 
enormous  lunches  which  accompany  all  ceremonies  in 
Serbia. 

After  the  choice  of  site,  the  next  problem  was  that 
of  water  supply.  The  town  engineer  said  that  it  was 
impossible  to  bring  water  from  the  town,  so  a  local 
well-digger  was  employed.  He  dug  a  well  seven 
metres  deep,  and  lined  it  from  the  bottom  upwards 
with  unmortared  stones,  the  top  being  well  covered  in 
with  cement.  Mr.  Berry  and  Jovanovitch  discovered 


160     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

an  English  force-pump  at  Krushevatz  and  a  large 
wine-vat  in  a  farm  near  Chachak.  These  furnished 
us  with  a  constant  supply  of  water  and  a  reservoir. 
The  actual  materials  for  the  building  were  picked  up 
here  and  there.  The  lime  was  brought  in  ox-wagons 
from  a  mountain  quarry  several  miles  away.  Bricks 
were  bought  at  various  yards,  within  a  radius  of  three 
or  four  miles  of  Vrntse.  The  sand  was  carried  in  ox- 
wagons  from  the  Morava,  and  one  day  we  nearly  lost 
a  wagon  and  two  oxen  in  the  river.  They  had  gone 
across  to  a  small  island,  and  were  cut  off  by  a  sudden 
rise  of  the  water.  The  workmen  returned  in  the  even- 
ing and  reported  that  the  oxen  were  drowned. 
Jovanovitch  cross-examined  them,  detected  the  un- 
truth, and  drove  off  at  daybreak  to  the  river,  accom- 
panied by  a  soldier  with  a  rifle.  The  oxen  were  then 
standing  up  to  their  necks  in  water.  Jovanovitch 
ordered  some  peasants  to  bring  a  boat  across,  but  they 
refused.  Then  he  ordered  the  soldier  to  fire  in  the 
air,  and  the  peasants  surrendered  at  discretion.  The 
boat  was  brought,  some  of  the  rescuers  rowed  across 
and  cut  the  oxen  loose  from  the  cart,  and  Jovanovitch 
returned  in  triumph  with  the  rescued  beasts,  leaving 
the  cart  to  be  swept  away.  Most  of  the  stone  was  of 
excellent  quality  and  came  from  Orlovatz.  The  wood 
was  partly  obtained  in  Vrntse  itself,  where  there  was  a 
certain  amount  of  seasoned  timber.  The  rest  had  to 
be  cut  from  the  State  forest  in  the  mountains.  The 
Ministry  of  Agriculture  gave  the  necessary  permission. 
But  the  official  in  charge  of  the  department  at  Nish 
said  that  he  had  no  power  to  make  a  free  grant  of 
wood.  The  Professor,  thoroughly  tired  by  a  hot  day 
spent  in  running  from  one  Ministry  to  another, 


FIG.    17. — THE   OLD    (EXISTING)    SLAUGHTER-HOUSE. 


FIG.    l8. — THE    NEW    SLAUGHTER-HOUSE    (UNFINISHED),    WESTERN    END. 


SANITATION  AND   SIDE-SHOWS       161 

shrugged  his  shoulders  and  ejaculated,  "  It  seems  very 
difficult  to  make  a  present  to  the  Serbian  Government," 
whereupon  the  official  changed  his  mind.  A  free  grant 
of  150  trees  was  made,  and  an  officer  of  the  Department 
of  Forestry  went  up  into  the  hills  to  mark  the  trees. 

Then  a  gang  of  Austrian  prisoners  under  Josef 
Jurashinovitch,  the  Drzhavna  carpenter,  went  up  to 
cut  the  timber.  They  had  no  guard  with  them  and 
lived  in  absolute  freedom.  We  sent  up  food,  under- 
clothing, and  soap  by  ox-wagons.  Half  the  gang 
slept  in  the  saw-mill  of  Mika  Markovitch  and  the  others 
under  a  rough  shelter  an  hour's  journey  away.  After 
two  or  three  weeks  we  got  the  bad  news  that  some  of 
the  men  had  been  drinking  rakija,  and  that  a  quarrel 
had  broken  out  between  them  and  the  neighbouring 
peasants.  We  therefore  sent  up  a  gendarme  to  keep 
order.  Under  the  circumstances,  the  Professor  deter- 
mined to  pay  a  personal  visit,  and  a  party  set  out  from 
the  Terapia,  including  Blease,  who  was  to  be  left 
behind,  if  necessary,  to  see  fair  play  between  the 
gendarme  and  the  prisoners. 

The  hills  which  roll  up  from  the  valley  at  this  point 
are  for  the  most  part  covered  with  thick  forest,  though 
the  highest  summit,  Gotch,  is  quite  bare.  The  track 
winds  up  through  the  woods  to  a  height  of  something 
under  4,000  feet.  On  the  lower  slopes  the  trees  are 
oak,  but  above  they  are  beech,  and  it  is  not  until  the 
crest  of  the  ridge  has  been  passed  that  the  pines  begin. 
On  the  actual  crest  there  is  a  stretch  of  open  park  land, 
with  three  gigantic  oaks  by  the  side  of  the  road,  and  a 
magnificent  view  over  the  billowy  foliage  of  the  lower 
hills  and  across  the  Morava  valley  towards  Kraguje- 
vatz.  The  path  to  the  saw-mill  runs  past  the  two  or 


162     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

three  scattered  houses  which  represent  the  village  of 
Gotch,  and  the  saw-mill  lies  in  a  densely  wooded  glen 
on  the  southern  side.  It  is  a  rambling  wooden 
structure  overshadowed  by  gigantic  trees,  and  a  black 
earth  track  passes  through  groves  of  beech  100  feet 
high  to  the  slope  on  which  the  woodmen  had  fixed 
their  camp. 

The  story  of  the  quarrel  fortunately  proved  to  be 
exaggerated,  and  we  found  the  gendarme  and  the 
prisoners  all  living  together  on  friendly  terms. 
Nevertheless,  as  Blease  had  come  up  equipped  with  the 
camp  bed  of  one  member  of  the  Unit,  the  sleeping  bag 
of  another,  and  the  cooking  equipment  of  a  third,  and 
prepared  for  all  the  hardships  and  excitements  of  a  life 
in  the  woods,  it  was  decided  that  he  should  remain  for  a 
few  days.  The  rest  of  the  party  went  off  in  the  dark 
and  left  him  at  the  saw-mill.  There  he  spent  four 
days  and  nights.  Six  of  the  Austrians  slept  in  the 
forest  by  their  work,  under  a  rough  shelter  of  boughs 
and  leaves.  Six  others  and  the  gendarme  slept  with 
Blease  at  the  mill,  sharing  the  single  room,  the  rickety 
verandah,  and  the  stable  attached  to  it.  The  gen- 
darme slept  in  the  room,  Blease  on  the  verandah,  and 
the  prisoners  in  the  stable.  It  required  much  per- 
suasion to  induce  the  gendarme  to  consent  to  this 
arrangement,  and  he  retaliated  by  insisting  on  pulling 
Blease's  boots  off  and  piling  the  blankets  on  him 
before  retiring  himself  to  rest.  Each  morning  at 
daybreak  the  others  tramped  away  to  work,  while 
Blease  stayed  behind  and  wrestled  with  the  problems 
of  breakfast.  Then  he  followed  the  men  through  the 
echoing  forest,  guiding  himself  at  last  by  the  sound 
of  the  axe  and  the  saw.  His  work  was  light  enough, 


SANITATION  AND  SIDE-SHOWS      163 

and  he  had  little  to  do  but  listen  to  requests  for  more 
food  and  clean  clothes  to  be  brought  up  in  the  next 
wagon.  The  gendarme  was  equally  idle,  but  the  men 
worked  steadily,  Josef  marking  out  the  logs  in  red  and 
four  others  cutting  them  into  planks  with  a  huge  saw, 
one  standing  on  the  log  and  three  working  from  below. 
After  four  days  Blease  came  down  to  earth  again.  In 
about  six  weeks  all  the  planks  were  sawn,  and  about 
half  had  been  brought  down  and  made  ready  for  the 
roof,  when  the  arrival  of  fresh  wounded  compelled  the 
withdrawal  of  many  of  the  workmen  to  the  hospitals. 
The  increasing  difficulty  of  getting  ox-wagons  further 
hindered  the  progress  of  the  building  operations,  and 
the  roof  was  never  finished. 

The  purchase  of  cement,  of  which  a  large  quantity 
was  needed,  was  made  in  much  the  same  way  as  that 
of  the  other  materials.  A  letter  to  a  well-known 
cement  company  in  the  north  of  Serbia  elicited  the 
reply  that  all  their  stock  had  been  requisitioned 
for  Government  use. 

At  Vrntse  cement  could  be  bought  only  at  the 
prohibitive  price  of  25  dinars  per  100  kilos,  and  there 
was  very  little  to  be  had  even  at  that  price.  Then 
the  Professor  and  Jovanovitch  heard  of  some  at 
Krushevatz  which  was  offered  at  16  dinars.  Mr. 
Berry  was  inclined  to  accept  these  terms,  but  Jovano- 
vitch persuaded  him  to  wait,  as  he  had  heard  from 
our  friend  the  district  surveyor  at  Trstenik,  Mr.  Pera 
Popovitch,  that  the  Franco-Serbian  Railway  Com- 
pany had  a  large  stock  at  Kraljevo  which  they  would 
probably  be  willing  to  sell.  So  we  telephoned  to  the 
municipal  authorities  at  this  town,  but  they  said 
they  knew  nothing  of  any  cement  there.  Not  satisfied, 


164     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

Jovanovitch  and  the  Professor  on  the  following  day 
drove  over  to  Kraljevo,  taking  with  them  the  Mayor 
of  Vrntse.  Again  the  Mayor  of  Kraljevo  appeared 
to  be  innocent  of  any  knowledge  of  cement.  "  But," 
said  the  visitors,  "  is  there  not  here  a  Franco-Serbian 

company  and  a  Russian  engineer,  Mr.  K ?  " 

"  Certainly."  Mr.  K was  sent  for,  and  directly 

he  entered  the  room  and  before  he  had  time  to 
communicate  with  anyone  else  Jovanovitch  said  to 
him,  "  Have  you  any  cement  to  sell  ?  "  "  Oh,  yes, 
we  have  plenty  at  our  magazine  a  mile  away,"  was 

the  reply.  Mr.  K was  forthwith  driven  off  to 

the  magazine,  where  cement  of  excellent  quality  was 
found.  An  adjournment  to  a  neighbouring  cafe 
was  made,  a  contract  was  drawn  up  and  signed, 
and  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour  we  were  the  possessors 

of  10,000  kilos  of  cement,  which  Mr.  K kindly 

allowed  us  to  buy  at  the  price  the  company  itself  had 
paid  for  it,  namely,  755  dinars,  less  than  a  third 
of  the  price  asked  at  Vrntse.  We  subsequently 
obtained  from  the  same  source  another  5,000  kilos  at 
the  same  price. 

We  never  fathomed  the  reasons  why  the  authorities 
of  Kraljevo  had  been  so  reluctant  to  give  us  the 
information  we  wanted,  but  we  think  that  they  had 
probably  received  orders  to  hold  all  cement  for  some 
other  purpose. 

It  was  the  same  Mr.  K who  afterwards,  with 

the  permission  of  his  courteous  chief  at  Nish,  helped 
us  to  obtain  some  huge  iron  girders  of  which  we  were 
in  need.  To  get  these,  however,  a  Government 
requisition  order  had  to  be  obtained.  This  was 
readily  granted,  but  another  amusing  and  interesting 


SANITATION  AND  SIDp-SHOWS      165 

day  had  to  be  spent  in  meeting  the  military  com- 
mission, who  had  to  sit  on  the  girders  at  Kraljevo 
before  they  could  be  yielded  up. 

The  whole  business  of  building  the  slaughter-house 
had  been  very  much  delayed,  chiefly  by  the  difficulty 
of  procuring  transport  for  materials.  Even  Jovano- 
vitch  could  not  get  ox-wagons  when  there  were  none 
to  be  had.  The  result  was  that  a  building  which 
ought  to  have  been  finished  in  six  weeks  was-  unfor- 
tunately still  without  floor  or  roof  when  the  Austrians 
entered  the  town  (Fig.  18).  Everything  else  was 
practically  complete.  What  has  become  of  the 
incomplete  building  and  the  unused  materials  we 'do 
not  know.  Most  of  the  wood  had  been  carried  away 
before  the  Mission  left  for  England,  and  the  Austrians 
would  probably  appropriate  the  iron  and  cement. 
But  we  still  cling  to  the  hope  that  after  the  war  the 
building  will  be  finished  and  not  suffered  to  remain 
a  mere  empty  shell. 

Apart  from  sanitation,  we  had  other  kinds  of  work 
to  do  which  may  be  conveniently  grouped  together 
under  the  title  of  "  side-shows."  Thus  we  had  great 
difficulty  in  providing  for  men  who  had  lost  legs  or 
feet.  One  or  two  artificial  legs  came  out  from  Eng- 
land, but  they  had  been  made  to  fit  special  cases, 
and  it  seemed  wasteful  to  alter  them  for  others.  The 
manufacture  of  legs  of  our  own  was,  on  the  other 
hand,  not  at  all  easy,  because  leather,  which  forms  a 
large  part  of  all  these  artificial  limbs,  was  very 
expensive,  and  the  elaborate  fitting  of  the  leather 
to  the  stump  required  workmanship  of  the  most  skilled 
kind.  We  had  to  fall  back  on  beechwood,  iron  and 
flannel  bandages,  with  an  occasional  strap.  Giuseppe 


166     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

Silla,  the  Italian  carpenter  from  Trieste,  confessed 
to  a  "  passion  "  for  contrivances  of  this  sort  in  wood, 
and  the  inventive  Szilagyi,  our  electrician  and  metal 
worker,  provided  iron  joints  and  hinges.  Blease, 
who  began  in  complete  ignorance  of  the  work,  was 
the  designer-in-chief,  and  picked  up  ideas  as  he  went 
along.  We  advanced  by  degrees  from  mere  stumps, 
which  supplied  the  places  of  amputated  feet,  to  a  leg 
with  a  knee-joint.  There  are  eight  or  ten  men,  Serbs 
and  Austrians,  now  stumping  about  the  country 
on  legs  of  our  manufacture.  The  more  elabo- 
rate of  our  designs  would  no  doubt  excite  the  derision 
of  any  regular  instrument-maker.  But  we  feel 
nevertheless  that,  with  our  inadequate  materials, 
to  enable  a  man  with  a  leg  and  a  half  to  walk  and 
work  without  the  aid  of  a  crutch  was  a  very  creditable 
performance. 

Almost  the  most  melancholy  of  all  our  duties  was 
the  distribution  of  boots.  Serbia  is  one  of  the 
muddiest  countries  in  Europe,  and  the  native  shoe 
is  less  suitable  for  walking  in  mud  than  that  of  any 
other  country  except  Albania.  The  Serbian  opanka 
is  made  of  leather.  It  covers  the  toes  fairly  well, 
but  the  bulk  of  the  foot  rests  on  a  flat  sole  with  a 
rim  about  an  inch  deep,  and  any  water  or  mud  of 
greater  depth  penetrates  at  once  through  the  stock- 
ing and  inundates  the  whole  foot.  To  a  people  accus- 
tomed to  such  shoes  a  real  boot  is  a  god-send,  and  it 
was  seldom  that  a  peasant  or  a  soldier  failed  to  ask 
the  price  of  our  boots  if  he  had  more  than  a  minute's 
conversation  with  us.  From  time  to  time  cases  of 
boots  reached  us  from  England,  originally  destined 
for  discharged  patients.  But  the  news  of  the  arrival 


SANITATION  AND  SIDE-SHOWS       167 

of  one  of  them  drew  upon  us  applications  from  all 
sorts  of  people.  Our  own  Austrian  prisoners  we  shod 
as  a  matter  of  course.  Then  orderlies  from  other 
hospitals,  our  own  commissaires,  the  station-master, 
the  police,  members  of  a  travelling  orchestra,  even 
officers  in  the  army,  begged  for  boots.  There  are 
very  few  tanneries  in  Serbia,  and  consequently 
leather  was  very  scarce  ;  it  cost  fifteen  dinars  to  sole 
and  heel  a  single  pair  of  boots  ;  and  the  reason  why 
we  could  never  open  the  windows  of  the  railway 
carriages  was  that  all  the  straps  had  been  cut  away 
by  the  soldiers  to  repair  their  footgear.  In  these 
circumstances  those  who  had  charge  of  the  limited 
store  of  boots  had  a  very  painful  duty  to  perform. 
To  refuse  the  appeal  of  a  man  with  his  feet  wrapped 
in  soaking  cloth,  merely  because  he  was  the  orderly 
of  another  hospital,  or  a  civilian  Serb  with  no  claims 
upon  us,  required  a  great  effort.  But  to  give  way 
was  to  invite  a  swarm  of  fresh  applicants,  each  of 
them  as  hard  a  case  as  the  first.  Mr.  Berry  and  Blease 
were  often  reduced  to  treating  the  matter  in  the 
style  of  Spenlow  and  Jorkins.  The  Professor  would 
evade  responsibility  by  referring  the  applicant  to 
Blease,  who,  in  his  turn,  would  ascribe  his  inability 
to  grant  the  request  to  the  rigid  instructions  of  the 
Herr  Professor.  Neither  took  any  pleasure  in  dis- 
criminating, but  the  supplies  were  rapidly  becoming 
exhausted,  and  the  only  safe  rule  was  to  give  boots 
only  to  those  who  actually  worked  for  our  own 
hospitals. 

Clothes  presented  by  no  means  such  a  difficult 
problem.  We  had  large  stocks  of  civilian  suits,  useless 
for  military  patients,  but  invaluable  for  civilians  and 


1 68     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

Austrian  orderlies.  Sometimes  we  would  equip  a 
coachman,  or  even  a  commissaire.  But  there  were  a 
number  of  elaborate  garments  for  which  we  were  at 
first  unable  to  find  any  use.  Even  Jovanovitch  could 
not  provide  for  twenty  morning  coats  with  tails,  or  for 
more  than  a  couple  of  double-breasted  waistcoats. 
These  more  gorgeous  garments  therefore  lay  neglected 
in  our  store-room.  At  length  we  succeeded  in  getting 
rid  of  them.  There  appeared  in  Vrnjatchka  Banja  a 
company  of  actors,  who  heard,  like  everybody  else, 
that  there  were  clothes  at  the  Terapia.  A  "  walking 
gentleman  "  carried  off  one  suit,  and  before  long  we 
had  got  rid  of  a  dozen.  A  comedian  was  even  good 
enough  to  relieve  us  of  some  violently  patterned  check 
waistcoats,  obviously  intended  for  a  stage  bookmaker. 
Thus  we  disposed  of  a  mass  of  clothing,  all  useless  for 
men  who  did  manual  labour,  and  some  of  it  in  a  style 
in  which  even  a  prisoner  would  have  been  ashamed  to 
be  found  dead. 

W.  L.  B. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    SUMMER    MONTHS. 

End  of  Typhus  and  subsequent  Slackness  of  Hospital  Work — 
Changes  in  the  Unit — Difficulty  of  Amusement  in  Vrntse — 
Gordon's  Banjo — The  Theatre — Excursions— Miss  Reckitt's 
Car — Peripatetic  Medicine  Men — Roads  in  Serbia — "  Kuku- 
Mene  " — The  Terapia  Drains — Reasons  for  remaining  in  Serbia 
— Letters  from  Conimander-in-Chief  and  Crown  Prince — Civil 
Surgery — John  Willy— The  indiscreet  English  Doctor. 

BY  the  end  of  April,  when  our  efforts,  combined  with 
the  fine  weather  and  the  resumption  of  an  open-air  life 
by  the  people,  had  put  an  end  to  typhus  in  Vrntse,  we 
found  ourselves  with  less  medical  and  surgical  work 
than  sufficed  to  employ  our  energies  to  the  full.  Only 
three  or  four  batches  of  wounded  came,  all  evacuated 
from  other  hospitals,  and,  as  there  was  no  fighting  of 
any  serious  kind  until  the  autumn,  the  late  spring  and 
summer  were  chiefly  occupied  with  the  sanitary  work 
described  in  the  last  chapter,  and  the  medical  and 
surgical  work  was  rather  humdrum,  our  civil  patients 
providing  us  with  most  of  our  fresh  interest.  Under 
these  circumstances  many  members  of  the  Unit  began 
to  have  leisure  to  amuse  themselves,  and  we  were  made 
not  a  little  uncomfortable  by  reading  in  English  news- 
papers of  the  horrors  and  dangers  which  we  were 
supposed  to  be  still  facing.  In  fact,  the  tales  of  the 
bad  times  in  Serbia  continued  to  appear  for  at  least 
two  months  after  the  bad  times  had  come  to  an  end, 
and  only  the  original  members  of  the  Unit  experienced 
any  real  hardships  or  were  exposed  to  any  serious 


i  yo     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

dangers  from  disease.  That  these  original  members 
suffered  nothing  worse  than  one  mildly  septic  throat 
between  them  is  a  fact  on  which  they  may  justly 
flatter  themselves  ;  they  avoided  real  perils  by  taking 
proper  precautions.  Later  arrivals  were  never  at  any 
time  in  such  danger  as  faced  all  the  foreign  missions 
who  were  surprised  by  the  first  onset  of  the  typhus 
epidemic.  The  members  of  the  original  mission  had 
all  enlisted  for  a  minimum  period  of  three  months,  and 
when  this  was  over  a  gradual  disintegration  of  the  Unit 
set  in,  accompanied  by  infusion  of  fresh  blood.  By 
June  9th  all  the  medical  staff  had  gone  home  except  the 
two  heads  of  the  Unit,  all  the  sisters  except  one,  Sister 
West,  and  all  the  orderlies,  men  and  women,  except 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gordon,  Mrs.  Eldred,  and  Mr.  Gwin. 
The  first  new  arrivals  were  a  party  of  six,  four  sisters 
and  a  V.A.D.,  Miss  Barber,  under  the  escort  of  Mr. 
Blease.  One  of  the  sisters,  Miss  Harriott  Davies, 
became  Sister-in-charge  on  Sister  Robertson's  depar- 
ture. The  next  reinforcement  was  received  in  May, 
when  Miss  A.  J.  Dickinson  joined  the  Mission  to  under- 
take the  supervision  of  the  housekeeping,  stores  and 
kitchen.  She  was  accompanied  by  Miss  Margaret 
Hyett,  V.A.D.,  and  Miss  Mabel  Ingram,  medical 
student.  The  latter,  although  not  yet  in  the  third  year 
of  her  medical  studies,  knew  a  good  deal  about  elec- 
tricity, and,  after  some  tuition  from  Dr.  Williams,  was 
able,  on  his  departure,  to  take  on  the  X-ray  depart- 
ment, which  she  ran  with  much  credit  to  herself  and  to 
the  Mission  during  the  remainder  of  our  stay  at  Vrntse. 
Dr.  Helen  Boyle  arrived  shortly  afterwards  with 
two  lady  orderlies,  Miss  Thackeray  and  Miss  Walters  ; 
the  former  proved  most  useful  as  a  masseuse,  and  the 


THE  SUMMER  MONTHS  171 

latter  brought  her  little  Humberette  car,  referred  to 
later.  Dr.  Boyle,  besides  a  Ford  motor  car,  also 
mentioned  later,  was  bringing  a  most  useful  contribu- 
tion in  the  shape  of  a  Thresh  steam  disinfector,  but 
this,  through  some  confusion,  was  left  on  the  boat  at 
Salonica,  whence  it  went  on  a  prolonged  Mediterranean 
tour,  sojourning  en  route  at  Alexandria  and  Malta,  and 
not  arriving  at  Vrntse  till  September.  In  June 
another  party  of  ten  arrived,  consisting  of  Dr.  Ada 
McLaren  and  Dr.  Isobel  Inglis,  with  five  sisters,  two 
lady  orderlies,  and  one  gentleman  ditto,  Mr.  Herbert 
Jones.  By  August  the  Unit  had  assumed  the  form 
which  it  retained  until  a  few  days  before  the  enemy 
entered  Vrntse,  except  that  two  lady  orderlies  in  the 
last  party  left  and  two  additional  members  arrived  in 
September.  The  latter  were  Miss  Ria  Murray,  V.A.D., 
and  Dr.  J.  B.  Christopherson,  who  holds  the  important 
post  of  Director  of  Civil  Hospitals  at  Khartoum,  and 
is  an  old  friend  of  the  Professor.  Having  obtained 
two  months'  leave  of  absence,  he,  with  characteristic 
energy,  offered  his  services  to  the  Mission  and  came 
over  to  help  in  its  work. 

At  one  point  during  the  changes,  in  the  early  part 
of  the  summer,  we  were  actually  under-staffed,  and 
for  nine  nights  an  English  orderly  had  to  act  as  night 
sister  at  the  Drzhavna,*  though  the  fleas  gave  him 
infinitely  more  trouble  than  the  patients.  The 
actual  hospital  work  from  April  till  September  was 
never  great,  and  it  was  easy  to  arrange  for  two  or 
three  hours  of  freedom  daily  for  all  but  a  few  members 
of  the  Unit.  Our  leisure  time  during  this  period  of 

*  The  Drzhavna  was  now  again  under  our  sole  control  and  was  no  longer 
run  jointly  by  the  two  British  missions,  as  it  had  been  during  the  earlier 
months  when  typhus  was  prevalent. 


172     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

comparative  inactivity  was  occupied  in  various  ways. 
It  was  not  easy  to  amuse  ourselves  in  Vrntse,  and  no 
holiday  resort  ever  offered  so  few  facilities  for 
indulgence  or  extravagance.  There  were  very  good 
cakes  *  and  coffee  in  the  restaurants  ;  but  the  wine 
was  poor  and  beer  hardly  ever  to  be  seen  ;  so  that  if 
we  had  wanted  dissipation  the  native  rakija  afforded 
almost  the  only  means  of  getting  it.  When  we  add 
that  an  orange  cost  6d.  and  a  lemon  \d.  it  will  be 
understood  that  we  were  seldom  tempted  to  indulge 
to  excess,  at  any  rate  at  our  own  expense,  in  the 
pleasures  of  the  table.  There  was  hardly  greater 
opportunity  for  more  refined  occupations.  We  had 
no  piano  at  the  Terapia,  and  as  we  had  most  of  us 
come  out  prepared  for  hardships  and  perpetual 
labour,  with  no  time  for  recreation,  we  could  only 
muster  a  handful  of  books  between  us.  Fortunately 
we  had  plenty  of  newspapers  sent  from  home. 
Gordon's  banjo  and  melodious  howlings  provided 
us  with  most  of  our  music,  and  never  did  such  an 
extraordinary  collection  of  nigger  melodies,  music- 
hall  songs,  and  reminiscences  of  annual  dinners  of 
the  Ancient  Order  of  Buffaloes  receive  such  patient 
attention  and  such  unstinted  applause.  One  al 
fresco  rendering  of  "  Pherson's  Feud  "  to  a  mixed 
audience  of  Serbs  and  British  will  remain  an  abiding 
memory  with  all  of  us,  and  what  the  Serbs  thought 
of  it  as  an  ancient  Scottish  war  song  they  could 
hardly  express  in  words.  We  had  three  days  of  more 

*  These  cakes  were  very  good  and  of  many  varieties.  The  Serbs  knew 
nothing  of  biscuits,  and  the  plainest  English  biscuit  was  a  treat  to  them. 
But  one  patient  presented  with  some  biscuit  and  jam  calmly  licked  the 
jam  off  the  biscuit  and  threw  the  latter  on  to  the  floor.  He  said  he  thought 
it  was  a  piece  of  wood  1 


THE  SUMMER  MONTHS  173 

serious  music  when  the  travelling  orchestra  came  from 
Nish.  This  was  the  only  public  entertainment  pro- 
vided in  the  town  during  our  stay,  and  for  the  most 
part  we  had  to  use  our  own  resources.  There  was  no 
cinema  nearer  than  Skoplje,  and  the  serious  drama 
we  could  not  understand.  Our  gifts  of  clothes  to 
the  actors  in  fact  brought  us  in  touch  with  the  Serbian 
stage.  The  theatre  was  erected  in  the  garden  of  a 
cafe,  and  the  performance  began  after  dinner.  Only 
one  of  the  season's  plays  was  familiar  to  us.  It  was 
"  Sherlock  Holmes."  But  the  English  classic  was 
presented  when  we  were  hard  at  work  again,  and 
none  of  us  went  to  see  it.  On  the  two  or  three  nights 
when  we  were  present  the  plays  were  apparently 
commonplace  melodrama,  and  we  did  not,  and  could 
not,  take  very  much  interest  in  them.  The  theatre 
was  in  fact  merely  an  excuse  for  dining  out,  and  on 
the  only  occasion  on  which  Mr.  Berry  himself  was 
there  he  was  obviously  struggling  with  sleep  rather 
than  improving  his  knowledge  of  the  Serbian  tongue. 
The  others  confined  themselves  to  admiring  the 
prompter.  He  sat  in  a  box  at  the  front  of  the  stage, 
repeating  in  a  very  loud  voice  every  word  of  every 
part,  so  that,  if  we  had  understood  anything  that  was 
said,  we  should  have  enjoyed  a  reading  and  a  per- 
formance of  the  play  simultaneously.  As  it  was  we 
recognised  an  occasional  word  with  a  sort  of  sup- 
pressed cheer,  and  every  time  that  a  person  on  the 
stage  said  "  Good-day  "  or  "  Good-night  "  or  repeated 
the  blessed  word  "  dobro  "  (good),  which  was  the 
one  word  that  every  English  person  knew,  we  felt 
that  we  were  really  entering  into  the  spirit  of  the 
piece.  The  theatre  was  of  very  little  use  to  us,  and 


174     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

if  we  wanted  recreation  we  were  obliged  to  look  else- 
where. As  a  rule  we  contented  ourselves  with  walks 
up  the  hills  or  along  the  valley  behind  the  Terapia. 
In  one  of  the  rivers  we  could  get  a  swim  (Fig.  20). 
Once  or  twice  there  were  gargantuan  picnics  at 
Miritch's  mill  by  the  Morava  or  Markovitch's  house 
beyond  the  crest  of  Gotch.  Some  of  the  members 
of  the  Unit  enjoyed  riding,  and  they  could  sometimes 
get  a  horse  or  two  from  the  town.  On  these  excursions 
we  seldom  failed  to  meet  would-be  patients,  who 
almost  always  insisted  on  an  immediate  consul- 
tation, and  would  reduce  themselves  to  an  embar- 
rassing state  of  nudity  by  the  wayside  before  we  could 
tell  them  to  come  to  the  Terapia  at  the  proper  hour 
next  day.  There  was  one  occasion  when  the  Pro- 
fessor worked  cures  wholesale,  riding  up  into  a 
village  in  the  mountains  with  four  bottles  of  pills, 
which  he  dealt  out  to  all  who  complained  of  feeling 
unwell.  It  was  of  course  hopeless  to  try  and  attend 
medical  cases  which  could  not  be  brought  to  the 
hospital,  and  a  little  quackery  of  this  sort  could  do 
no  harm.  Occasionally,  when  we  could  obtain  trans- 
port, we  ventured  further  afield.  One  party  borrowed 
a  trolly  from  the  polite  but  unsympathetic  station- 
master,  who  could  not  understand  why  these  rich 
English  should  work  so  hard  in  the  heat.  On  this 
they  went  down  the  line  to  Kraljevo,  and  then 
walked  to  the  neighbouring  monastery  of  Zitcha. 
Here  was  the  ancient  coronation  church,  in  which 
damaged  but  brilliantly  coloured  frescoes  recalled 
the  glories  of  Stefan  Nemanja  (twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries)  and  Dushan  (fourteenth  century)  in  the 
days  before  the  devastating  heel  of  the  Turk  was  set 


THE  SUMMER  MONTHS  175 

upon  the  land.  More  often  we  were  provided  with 
the  major's  carriage,  a  big  wagonette  drawn  by  a 
large  young  brown  horse  and  a  little  old  grey.  This 
equipage  could  take  us  as  far  as  Trstenik.  Sometimes 
we  went  there  only  for  shopping.  But  if  we  wished 
we  could  go  a  few  miles  further  to  the  monastery  of 
Ljubostinja  and  drink  wine  or  coffee  among  the 
beehives  with  the  old  white-bearded  priest.  The 
monastery  lies  in  a  valley,  which  branches  to  the 
north  from  that  of  the  Western  Morava.  After  the 
death  of  Lazar,  the  last  of  the  Serbian  Tsars,  on  the 
field  of  Kossovo  in  A.D.  1389,  his  widow  Militsa  spent 
the  remaining  years  of  her  life  in  this  place,  where 
her  tomb  is  still  to  be  seen.  She  was  a  benefactress 
of  the  monastery,  but  the  story  that  she  founded  it 
is  probably  not  correct.  She  was  a  sister  of  the  nine 
famous  Jugovitches,  who  perished  with  their  Tsar 
at  Kossovo,  and  descendants  of  the  family  still  live 
at  Trstenik.  Mr.  Berry  found  one  of  them  in  the 
person  of  an  official  of  the  town,  and  an  apposite 
quotation  from  one  of  the  national  ballads  made 
him  our  friend  for  life. 

When  we  had  a  motor  at  our  disposal  we  could  go 
as  far  as  Nish  or  Kragujevatz,  and  when  one  of  us 
went  on  business  others  generally  accompanied  him 
for  pleasure.  The  railway  ran  to  both  places,  but 
by  circuitous  routes,  and,  as  only  one  train  left 
Vrntse  in  a  day,  a  few  hours  of  the  night  had  always 
to  be  spent  at  the  junction  of  Stalatch.  Accordingly 
we  preferred  the  car.  At  first  we  had  none,  but  in 
April  we  succeeded  in  borrowing  a  small  Renault 
from  the  Franco-Serbian  company  at  Kraljevo.  We 
returned  this  after  a  month  or  two,  about  the  same 


176     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBI4 

time  that  Miss  Thackeray  and  Dr.  Boyle  brought  the 
new  Ford  car  kindly  presented  to  the  Mission  by  Miss 
Reckitt,  of  Hove.    The  Ford  had  shed  all  its  spare 
parts   and  removable  gear  in   the  station   yard  at 
Nish,  and  it  was  some  time  before  it  was  in  working 
order :     even    sparking-plugs    had    been    extracted. 
But  after  substitutes  for  the  missing  parts  had  been 
obtained  from  the  arsenal  at  Kragujevatz  it  proved 
an  admirable  car  for  its  purpose,  and  its  combination 
of  strength,  lightness,  and  high  clearance  made  it 
much  more  useful  for  long  journeys  and  bad  roads 
than   the   little   low   Humberette   brought   by   Miss 
Walters.      It    suffered   one    or    two    slight    injuries, 
which  were  repaired  free  of  charge  at  the  arsenal, 
and    the   only   serious    disaster    occurred   when    an 
official  at  Krushevatz  took  it  out  for  a  "  joy  ride  " 
and  sent  himself  and  his  passengers  into  hospital  and 
the  car  itself  to  the  repair  shop.    Although  he  some- 
times used  the  Humberette  for  his  daily  tours  about 
the  town,  the  Ford  was  the  Professor's  business  car, 
and  his  frequent  journeys  to  Nish  and  Kragujevatz 
were  by  its  aid  made  much  shorter  and  infinitely 
more  pleasant.    On  one  of  these  journeys  to  Kragu- 
jevatz Mr.  Berry  and  Sister  Hammond  were  visiting 
an  anti-aircraft  battery  at  the  moment  when  Austrian 
aeroplanes     attacked     the     arsenal.       Gordon     was 
actually  in  the  arsenal  when  the  bombs  fell,  and  a 
man  was  killed  close  to  him.*     But  as  a  rule  our 
expeditions  were  made  without  any  adventures,  and 
the  greatest  excitements  were  provided  by  the  con- 
dition of  the  roads. 

*  This  and  other  adventures  are  described  in  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gordon's 
book,  "  The  Luck  of  Thirteen  "  :  Smith,  Elder  &  Co.,  1915. 


FIG.    ig.— A    SERBIAN    MILITARY    CAMP. 


FIG.    20.— THE    WESTERN    MORAVA    RIVER. 


THE  SUMMER  MONTHS  177 

The  roads  of  Serbia,  though  no  worse  than  those 
of  other  Balkan  States,  are  very  unlike  those  of 
Western  Europe,  and  the  vehicles  which  run  on  them 
are  as  remarkable  as  the  roads  themselves.  The 
Serbian  carriage  is  the  typical  carriage  of  the  Balkans, 
and  every  example  looks  as  if  it  dated  from  the  reign 
of  Maria  Theresia,  to  whom  its  design  is  ascribed. 
It  is  rather  like  an  enlarged  bath-chair  with  a  little 
board  in  front,  so  that  one  or  two  people  can  sit. 
with  their  backs  to  the  driver,  and  it  is  always  in  a 
state  of  dilapidation.  If  anything  does  give  way 
during  a  journey,  the  break  is  mended  with  cord  of 
the  thickness  of  clothes  line.  If  a  wheel  comes  off 
and  cannot  be  replaced,  a  small  log  is  fixed  in  its 
place  and  acts  like  the  runner  of  a  sledge.  There  are 
two  horses,  obviously  not  intended  to  run  together 
in  harness,  and  safety  is  only  secured  by  the  slow 
rate  of  progression.  The  roads  are  often  good,  though 
it  is  a  common  experience  to  find  a  road  which  begins 
well,  suddenly  disappearing  altogether,  and  leaving 
the  car  to  bump  over  bare  rock  or  labour  through 
dust  or  mud.  The  best  of  the  valley  roads  are 
wide,  and,  though  there  is  no  macadam  on  the  sur- 
face, the  foundation  is  often  hard  enough.  It  is  only 
when  rain  falls  that  any  difficulty  is  encountered 
on  these  roads,  though  the  effects  of  rain  sometimes 
endure  for  weeks  after  the  fine  weather  has  returned. 
The  whole  of  the  dusty  surface  is  then  converted  into 
liquid  mud,  and  as  there  is  no  crowning  this  never 
runs  to  one  side.  In  the  towns  there  is  some  attempt 
at  clearing  it  away,  unless  the  streets  are  paved  with 
stone  blocks  which  allow  it  to  sink  into  the  inter- 
stices between  them.  But  in  places  like  Vrntse, 

H.c.o.  W 


1 78     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

where  the  streets  are  unpaved,  the  method  of  cleaning 
was  to  scrape  the  mud  off  the  road  into  the  ditch, 
so  that  even  such  drainage  as  existed  was  soon 
blocked  and  the  last  state  of  the  roads  was  worse 
than  the  first.  Here  and  there  on  all  these  tracks 
hollows  are  completely  filled  with  mud  and  the 
wheels  of  a  vehicle  plunge  in  to  the  depth  of  a  foot 
or  more.  This  mud  is  sometimes  made  beautiful 
in  a  very  strange  way  ;  there  is  a  species  of  blue 
butterfly  which  used  to  alight  on  it  in  great  bunches, 
and  on  one  journey  to  Kragujevatz  our  car  was  con- 
tinually coming  upon  them  and  seeming  to  splash 
up  a  sapphire  cloud  of  blue  butterflies  as  well  as  the 
filthy  mud  itself.  Occasionally  the  car  would  stick 
fast  in  the  worst  places  (Fig.  14),  and  the  passengers 
would  have  to  get  out  and  push  or  pull  down  a 
fence  to  lay  timber  in  front  of  the  wheels.  On  one 
expedition  the  Professor  and  the  Frau  Doktor 
were  pulled  out  of  the  mud  three  times,  the  first 
by  men,  the  second  by  two  oxen,  and  the  third  by 
four  oxen,  and  they  were  so  delayed  that  they  had 
to  spend  the  night  on  the  high  road.  On  subsequent 
journeys  they  always  took  sleeping  bags  with  them. 
Once  or  twice  the  car  stuck  in  a  ford,  or  found  a 
river  where  there  should  have  been  nothing  but 
road.  Another  obstacle  was  the  drain  which  occa- 
sionally ran  across  even  a  good  road,  invisible  at  a 
distance  and  suddenly  leaping  out  of  the  dust  to 
give  the  car  a  frightful  jolt.  Every  bridge  provided 
two  channels  of  this  kind,  where  the  road  surface 
ended  and  the  planks  began.  A  long  journey  would 
thus  furnish  plenty  of  excitement.  The  only  thing 
which  did  not  seriously  trouble  us  was  the  traffic. 


THE  SUMMER  MONTHS  179 

We  seldom  encountered  anything  worse  than  a 
bullock-cart,  and  the  bullock-cart  always  did  one 
or  other  of  two  things :  it  either  fled  from  us  at  a 
great  distance,  the  occupants  leaping  to  the  ground 
and  pushing  and  banging  at  the  oxen  long  before 
there  was  any  need  to  move  at  all,  or  it  waited  until 
we  were  right  upon  it  and  then  ran  headlong  into  the 
ditch,  shedding  its  passengers  and  cargo  as  it  went. 
On  one  occasion  the  agile  oxen  varied  the  performance 
by  climbing  a  steep  bank  about  four  feet  high.  In 
any  case,  everything  deserted  the  road  for  the 
adjacent  ditch  or  field  and  gave  us  no  trouble. 

One  of  our  more  frequent  experiences  was  what 
we  used  to  call  the  "  kuku-mene  "  in  the  cemeteries. 
The  "  kuku-mene "  (woe  is  me)  forms  the  burden 
of  the  wailing  for  the  dead  which  is  practised  in 
Serbia.  One  day  in  every  week,  usually  Saturday, 
is  set  apart  for  the  ceremony,  and  on  that  day  the 
women  of  the  family,  sometimes  with  one  or  two 
men,  take  their  station  about  the  grave,  cover  it  with 
food  and  drink  and  lighted  candles,  and  work 
themselves  up  into  hysterical  weeping,  which  con- 
tinues for  hours.  The  cemeteries  are  picturesque 
places.  That  of  Vrnjatchka  Banja  lies  on  the  top 
of  a  hill  in  view  of  the  Terapia,  and  when  the  wind 
set  from  there  we  could  hear  the  shrill  lamentation 
without  going  out  of  our  own  garden.  Other  ceme- 
teries lay  among  the  fields,  sometimes  entirely  hidden 
by  the  crops  of  maize.  Some  graves  were  marked 
with  plain  wooden  crosses,  others  with  stones,  and 
over  some  hung  tattered  banners  fluttering  in  the 
breeze.  It  was  quite  common  for  the  English,  when 
walking  about  the  country,  to  hear  the  wild  crying 


i8o      A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

borne  upon  the  wind  and,  turning  aside  into  the 
cemetery,  find  the  women  'crouched  about  the 
flickering  candles,  weeping  and  wailing,  and  then  to 
be  pressed  to  partake  of  fruit,  or  maize  bread,  or 
trout,  or  rakija,  and  to  offer  prayers  for  the  soul  of 
the  departed.  The  bulk  of  the  food  is  always  dis- 
tributed to  the  poor,  and  we  have  seen  the  Austrian 
prisoners  who  acted  as  grave-diggers  called  up  to 
receive  this  charity  from  the  hands  of  their  enemies 
and  captors. 

One  of  our  summer  adventures  was  anything  but 
amusing.  The  Terapia,  for  all  its  imposing  appearance, 
was  not  a  very  solid  building,  and  such  parts  as  the 
brick  and  stucco  cornices  at  the  outside  were  in  a  state 
of  gradual  but  persistent  decay.  The  worst  fault  we 
did  not  discover  until  the  summer.  The  baths  on  the 
ground  floor  discharged  into  a  set  of  seventeen  drain- 
pipes, which  ran  through  a  tunnel  under  the  floor  of  the 
corridor.  These  pipes,  of  inferior  earthenware,  were 
carried  on  brick  supports,  instead  of  being  firmly 
embedded  in  concrete.  Workmen,  in  laying  or  repair- 
ing the  drains,  had  stepped  on  them  at  various  points, 
and  no  less  than  sixteen  of  them  were  broken  in  one 
place  or  more  when  the  building  came  into  our  hands. 
The  result  may  be  imagined.  When  our  Austrian 
masons  and  bricklayers  had  finished  the  work  of 
reconstruction  no  less  than  300  buckets  of  mud  had 
been  taken  from  the  tunnels. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  lack  of  hard  work 
which  affected  most  of  the  Unit  during  the  months  of 
June,  July,  and  August  was  accepted  by  any  of  them 
without  dissatisfaction.  There  was  plenty  of  grumb- 
ling and  an  excessive  readiness  to  vent  displeasure 


THE  SUMMER   MONTHS  181 

upon  the  head  of  the  Professor,  as  if  he  were  respon- 
sible for  the  sluggishness  of  the  Austrian  General 
Staff.  It  was  with  some  difficulty  that  fresh  members 
of  the  Unit,  whose  terms  of  service  had  expired,  were 
induced  to  remain  in  Serbia.  But  the  case  was  not  so 
simple  as  it  appeared.  Mr.  Berry  more  than  once 
warned  the  Unit  that  wounded  might  come  soon,  and 
on  each  occasion,  though  some  people  spoke  as  if  he 
had  been  guilty  of  wilful  deception,  he  was  acting  upon 
estimates  properly  made  by  the  Serbian  military 
authorities.  At  one  time  a  large  force,  which  had 
actually  been  set  in  motion  towards  the  Serbian 
frontier,  was  diverted  to  the  Carpathians  to  cope  with 
the  advancing  Russians.  But  all  through  the  summer 
the  Serbs  knew  that  they  might  be  attacked  at  any 
moment,  and  they  were  determined  that  a  fresh 
invasion  should  not  find  them  unprepared.  They 
therefore  begged  all  foreign  hospital  missions  to  remain 
in  the  country.  The  Berry  Unit,  like  most  of  the 
others,  complained  and  obeyed,  longing  for  the  larger 
opportunities  of  others  in  France,  Gallipoli,  and  Italy. 
The  crash  that  followed  in  the  autumn  abolished  the 
occasion  to  chafe  at  inactivity,  and  six  arduous  weeks 
satisfied  them  of  the  Tightness  of  the  Serbian  dis- 
positions. The  following  letters  were  written  in  order 
to  induce  the  mission  to  remain  : — 

"MILITARY  HEADQUARTERS  MEDICAL  DEPARTMENT 

"(No.  17173). 
"To  the  Chief  of   the   English  Medical  Mission,  Prof.  Dr. 

James  Berry. 

"  The  head  of  the  Reserve  Hospital  in  Vrntse  has  informed 
me  that  the  period  of  service  of  your  mission  terminates  at 
the  end  of  May.  In  sending  you  the  accompanying  communi- 


1 82      A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

cation  from  the  Commander-in-Chief  acknowledging  all  the 
trouble  you  and  your  mission  have  taken  with  our  wounded 
and  sick,  I  take  the  opportunity  of  asking  the  Committee* 
that  sent  you  to  work  in  Serbia,  to  allow  your  mission  to 
remain  longer  in  our  country,  to  which  you  have  already 
done  such  good  service  and  to  which,  if  military  operations 
begin  again,  you  will  now  be  of  immense  value. 

"  I  take  this  opportunity  of  assuring  you  of  the  most 
complete  satisfaction  which  I  felt  when  I  visited  your  hos- 
pitals in  Vrntse. 

"  (Signed)  COLONEL  DR.  LAZAR  GENTCHITCH, 

"  Head  of  the  Army  Medical  Department. 

"  KRAGUJEVATZ,  May  13-26,  1915." 

(Copy  of  letter  from  the  Crown  Prince  of  Serbia  circu- 
lated to  the  various  British  missions  in  Serbia.) 

"  KRAGOUIEVATZ,  July  16-29,  1915. 

"  Dear  Sir  Ralph, — Appreciating  the  great  services  ren- 
dered by  all  British  Units  in  Serbia  who  have  been  doing  their 
noble  duty  so  devotedly  and  indefatigably,  I  wish  to  express 
to  them  my  own  and  my  people's  sincere  gratitude. 

"  Persuaded  that  their  fruitful  work  is  still  necessary  to 
my  Army  as  well  as  to  my  people,  I  hope  that  they  will  be 
able  to  remain  with  us  yet  awhile  and  that  the  day  of  their 
departure  from  Serbia  may  be  far  distant. 

"  Yours  very  sincerely, 

"  (Signed)  ALEXANDER. 
"  SIR  RALPH  PAGET,  K.C.M.G.,  Nish." 

Appeals  of  this  sort  could  not  be  resisted,  and  we 
stayed  in  Serbia,  although  many  of  us  showed  little 
readiness  to  believe  that  "  they  also  serve  who  only 
stand  and  wait."  The  Professor  himself  showed  his 
own  dissatisfaction  at  having  so  little  military  surgery 
by  indulging  in  civil  practice.  At  first  he  had  refused 

*  A  slight  error  here.  We  were  not  sent  by  any  committee,  but  our- 
selves appointed  a  committee. — J.  B. 


THE  SUMMER  MONTHS  183 

to  occupy  the  beds  with  civilians  unless  their  needs 
were  urgent,  but  as  it  became  more  probable  that  there 
would  be  no  freshly-wounded  soldiers  for  some  time 
to  come,  we  gradually  admitted  the  civilians — men, 
women,  and  children — more  and  more  freely.  Three 
tracheotomies,  half-a-dozen  hernias,  a  hand  torn  in  a 
machine,  an  artery  in  the  foot  cut  with  a  sickle,  an  arm 
badly  broken  by  an  ox-cart,  and  several  cases  of 
tumours,  tuberculous  bones  and  joints,  provided  some 
miscellaneous  practice,  and  most  of  these  civilian 
surgical  cases  did  very  well.  The  medical  cases  were 
not  quite  so  satisfactory,  as  so  many  were  cases  of 
tuberculosis  and  digestive  troubles,  which  required 
dieting,  fresh  air,  and  residence  in  special  conditions 
rather  than  drugs.  Some  of  these  were  sent  to  the 
Baraque,  and  several  unhappy  children  were  relieved 
of  the  intestinal  worms  which  either  caused  or 
aggravated  their  symptoms.  The  work  among  the 
out-patients  has  been  described  already. 

One  of  the  most  pathetic  of  these  civil  cases  was 
that  of  "  John  Willy  "  ;  his  real  name  we  forget,  if  we 
ever  knew  it.  He  was  a  boy  of  thirteen  or  fourteen  and 
one  of  the  many  cases  of  parasitic  disease  contracted 
through  drinking  bad  water.  Most  of  these  children 
had  worms  ;  he  had  the  other  form,  that  of  hydatid 
cyst,  and  the  growth  was  removed  by  operation.  For 
long  enough  he  lay  in  the  ward  at  the  Terapia,  having 
his  wound  dressed  every  day,  and  crying  "  Yoi,  yoi !  " 
as  pitiably  as  any  stricken  soldier.  He  grew  steadily 
better  and  began  to  walk  about  the  ward — a  lad  in  a 
man's  coat  and  pyjamas  and  wearing  an  enormous 
straw  hat,  beneath  which  his  face  seemed  nothing  but 
two  enormous  eyes  and  a  wistful  smile.  He  was  on 


1 84     A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

the  point  of  going  home  when  he  became  seriously  ill 
with  peritonitis,  and  in  a  few  days  he  was  dead.  No 
other  patient  left  us  with  such  a  sense  of  deprivation. 
We  had  been  waiting  only  for  bright  sunlight  to  take 
a  photograph  of  him  before  he  went  home,  and  it  was 
on  the  finest  of  the  fine  days  that  he  died.  There  was 
an  Austrian  prisoner  who  always  came  with  a  bullock- 
cart  to  carry  away  the  dead  soldiers.  He  came  by 
mistake  when  "  John  Willy  "  died,  and,  going  into  the 
mortuary,  found,  instead  of  the  man  he  expected,  the 
slight  figure  of  the  boy  laid  on  the  table  with  a  spray 
of  oak  leaves  on  his  breast.  It  was  the  only  occasion 
on  which  the  Austrian  was  ever  seen  to  be  moved  by 
the  duties  of  his  office,  and  the  tears  were  running  down 
his  cheek  as  he  drove  the  empty  cart  away. 

Another  civilian  patient  provided  us  with  comedy 
rather  than  pathos.  Over  him  there  was  an  encounter 
between  an  English  and  a  Serb  doctor  which  seems 
worthy  of  record,  though  the  names,  for  various 
reasons,  are  suppressed.  The  Englishman,  who  was 
justifiably  self-confident,  but  rather  too  sensitive, 
had  charge  of  a  bad  typhoid  case.  The  patient  was 
a  young  Serb  of  good  family,  and  his  mother  and  sisters 
were  continually  coming  in  great  distress  to  the  hos- 
pital where  he  lay,  and  worried  the  doctor  to  dis- 
traction. The  Serbian  doctor,  a  connection  by 
marriage,  made  the  thing  worse  by  suggesting  remedies 
and  offended  the  Englishman's  professional  dignity,  in 
addition  to  making  him  nervous  and  irritable  by  mere 
importunity.  The  climax  came  when  a  dignitary 
appeared,  without  notice  and  in  the  absence  of  the 
English  doctor,  and  tried  to  force  his  way  into  the 
patient's  bedroom  with  two  other  personages,  no  less 


THE  SUMMER  MONTHS  185 

important  than  the  medical  advisers  of  the  King  and 
the  Crown  Prince.  The  news  of  this  high-handed 
proceeding  produced  a  violent  explosion  from  the 
Englishman  when  he  returned,  and  the  layman  was 
persuaded  to  apologise  for  his  conduct.  But  the  two 
doctors  asked  for  permission  to  see  the  patient,  and  it 
was  granted.  As  the  English  doctor  could  speak  only 
English,  interpreters  had  to  be  provided,  and  the 
negotiations  were  carried  on  in  French  by  the  patient's 
brother-in-law  and  an  English  volunteer  orderly. 
But  for  this  the  English  doctor  would  have  got  himself 
into  trouble.  On  hearing  that  the  King  took  such  a 
deep  interest  in  the  young  man  that  he  had  sent  his 
own  doctor  to  see  how  he  was  progressing,  all  his 
accumulated  resentment  came  to  the  explosion  point. 
He  was  the  doctor  in  charge,  and  for  a  fortnight  he 
had  been  beset  with  mother  and  sisters  and  brother-in- 
law  and  doctors,  and  now  there  was  the  King.  He 
leaped  into  the  air  and  beat  his  right  fist  in  his  left 

palm  :  "  D the  King  !     D the  King !     D 

the  King  !  "  he  cried.  "  What  does  he  say  ?  "  asked 
the  puzzled  Serb.  "  He  says,"  glibly  replied  the 
English  interpreter,  "  that  in  his  own  hospital  the 
English  doctor  is  king."  If  the  art  of  the  diplomat  is 
to  state  offensive  things  in  an  inoffensive  manner, 
that  paraphrase  was  a  diplomatic  masterpiece.  The 
English  doctor  is  probably  unaware  to  this  day  how 
he  was  saved  from  the  penalties  of  Use  majestf. 

W.  L.  B. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE   AUSTRIAN    INVASION. 

Meeting  at  Kragujevatz — The  Military  Situation — Relations 
between  Serbia  and  Bulgaria — Albania — Mobilisation  of  Bulgaria 
— Air  Raid  at  Kragujevatz — Nish  Decorated — Non-arrival  of 
the  French — Gloom  in  Serbia — Arrival  of  Freshly-wounded  at 
Vrntse — Progress  of  Austro-Germans — Refugees  at  Vrntse — Other 
British  Missions  arrive — Period  of  Anxiety — Our  Austrian 
Prisoners  leave — Departure  of  Serbian  Officials — Approaching 
Cannonade — Waiting  for  the  Invaders. 

As  the  summer  wore  on,  and  the  long-expected 
renewal  of  active  hostilities  on  the  Serbian  frontier  did 
not  take  place,  the  number  of  patients  in  our  hospitals 
gradually  diminished.  On  August  9th  the  total 
number  of  in-patients  was  but  180,  on  September  8th 
only  167,  and  of  these  about  one-tenth  were  civilians. 
On  July  2yth  a  meeting  of  the  heads  of  the  British 
units  then  in  Serbia  had  been  summoned  at  Kraguje- 
vatz to  discuss  the  situation  with  Sir  Ralph  Paget, 
the  British  Commissioner.  We  were  necessarily 
ignorant  of  the  details  of  the  military  situation  and 
did  not  know  what  prospect  there  was  of  the  resump- 
tion of  active  hostilities.  The  Serbs  were  known  to  be 
holding  the  line  of  the  Danube,  Save,  and  Drina  rivers 
in  the  north  and  north-west,  while  a  considerable 
portion  of  their  army  was  guarding  the  Bulgarian 
frontier  on  the  east  and  south-east.  It  seemed 
improbable  that  the  Serbian  army,  now  so  much  re- 
duced in  numbers,  would  assume  the  offensive  on  the 
northern  front ;  any  advance  into  Austria-Hungary 


THE  AUSTRIAN  INVASION  187 

would  leave  both  flanks  of  the  army  unprotected  and 
expose  it  to  attack  on  either  side.  But  there  was  much 
talk  of  the  Serbian  army  being  reinforced  by  French 
and  English  troops,  and  if  these  came  in  sufficient 
numbers  it  seemed  reasonable  to  believe  that  an 
advance  into  the  level  plains  of  Hungary  might  be 
made.  On  the  other  hand,  if  nothing  else  happened, 
a  fresh  invasion  of  Serbia  by  the  Central  Powers  was 
to  be  expected  sooner  or  later. 

In  either  case  it  seemed  likely  that  there  would  be 
plenty  of  active  work  before  long  for  all  the  British 
missions.  There  had  been  a  general  feeling  among  the 
British  that  it  was  a  pity  that  so  many  doctors  and 
nurses  should  remain  comparatively  idle  in  Serbia 
while  medical  help  was  apparently  so  urgently  needed 
in  Malta  and  elsewhere.  At  the  Kragujevatz  meeting 
it  was  unanimously  agreed  that  those  of  the  units  who 
could  do  so  should  stay  in  Serbia  at  least  a  few  weeks 
longer.  As  related  in  the  last  chapter,  our  own  Unit 
had  received  a  letter  from  the  military  authorities 
begging  us  to  remain,  and  a  circular  letter  from  the 
Crown  Prince  had  recently  been  sent  to  all  British 
units  thanking  them  for  their  services  and  expressing 
the  hope  that  the  day  of  their  departure  would  be  far 
distant.  It  was  clear  that  the  horrors  of  the  previous 
winter,  due  largely  to  the  lack  of  doctors,  nurses,  and 
sanitary  material  of  all  kinds,  were  still  fresh  in  the 
minds  of  the  Serbian  authorities. 

A  few  words  may  here  be  introduced  as  to  the 
political  situation  with  regard  to  the  relations  between 
Bulgaria  and  Serbia.  No  one  in  Serbia  had  forgotten 
the  tragic  events  which  led  to  the  Serbo-Bulgarian 
war  of  1913.  In  1912  Serbia  and  Bulgaria,  who  for 


1 88     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

a  thousand  years  had  been  jealous  rivals  and  bitter 
enemies,  had  at  last  been  induced  to  join  hands 
together  with  Montenegro  and  Greece  and  to  form  the 
Balkan  Alliance.  The  results  of  the  victorious  war 
waged  by  these  allied  nations  against  the  Turks  had 
led  to  the  acquisition  of  much  more  territory  than 
had  been  considered  possible  before  the  war  began, 
and  unfortunate  disputes  as  to  the  distribution  of 
this  newly-won  territory  at  once  arose.  Practically 
the  whole  of  Albania  had  been  conquered  by  the 
Serbs,  and  much  more  of  Thrace  had  been  captured 
by  the  Allies  than  had  been  anticipated.  By  the 
terms  of  a  secret  treaty  between  Serbia  and  Bulgaria 
a  large  district  of  Macedonia  was  to  have  passed  to 
Bulgaria.  But  Bulgaria  had  obtained  far  more  of 
Thrace  than  had  been  expected,  and  Serbia,  by  the 
action  of  Austria  and  the  Powers,  had  been  prevented 
from  retaining  even  that  minimum  portion  of  Albania, 
including  the  strip  of  sea  coast,*  to  which  she  laid  claim 
and  on  the  retention  of  which  her  future  develop- 
ment so  largely  depended.  It  seemed,  therefore,  to 
Serbia  that,  as  she  had  been  deprived  of  the  legitimate 
fruits  of  conquest  in  Albania,  while  Bulgaria  had 
been  allowed  to  retain  much  more  territory  in  Thrace 
than  she  had  originally  expected  to  obtain,  it  was 
unfair,  under  the  greatly  changed  conditions,  that  so 
much  of  Macedonia  also  should  pass  to  Bulgaria.  If 
the  terms  of  the  secret  treaty  were  to  be  rigidly  kept, 
Serbia,  having  been  deprived  by  the  Powers  of  access 
to  the  sea  on  the  west,  would  now  be  shut  off  more 
than  ever  from  the  ^Egean  Sea  on  the  south,  by  the 

*  About  50  kilometres  from  Alessio  to  Durazzo,  together  with  all  that 
part  of  Albania  between  lines  drawn  from  Alessio  to  Djakova  and  from 
Durazzo  to  Lake  Ochrida. 


THE  AUSTRIAN  IN  FA  SIGN  189 

interposition  of  a  broad  band  of  Bulgarian  land 
between  her  and  Greece. 

Serbia  therefore  claimed  a  revision  of  the  terms  of 
this  secret  treaty,  and,  as  Bulgaria  would  not  agree, 
the  dispute  was  submitted  to  the  arbitration  of  the 
Russian  Emperor,  in  accordance  with  another  clause 
in  the  treaty,  and  with  the  consent  of  all  four  belli- 
gerents. It  was  then  that  Bulgaria,  on  the  night  of 
June  29th,  1913,  without  any  declaration  of  hos- 
tilities, suddenly  and  treacherously  attacked  her 
former  ally.  In  the  short  war  that  followed,  Serbia 
and  Greece,  much  to  the  annoyance  of  Austria,  were 
completely  victorious  over  the  Bulgarians.  Mace- 
donia remained  in  Serbian  hands,  while  Greece 
retained  Salonica  and  Kavala. 

It  can  easily  be  understood,  therefore,  that  there 
was  in  the  summer  of  1915  but  little  good  feeling 
between  Serbia  and  Bulgaria,  and  it  is  not  surprising 
that  Serbia  both  feared  and  distrusted  her  treacherous 
neighbour.  In  the  preceding  winter,  as  we  had 
entered  Serbia  and  our  train  had  crawled  over  the 
bridges  temporarily  repaired  after  recent  Bulgarian 
raids,*  we  had  realised  that  the  Bulgarian  frontier 
was  only  some  six  miles  from  the  main  line  of  Serbian 
railway,  and  that  an  attack  in  force  at  this  point  by 
Bulgaria  would  cut  Serbia  off  completely  from  the 
south,  and  indeed  practically  isolate  her  entirely 
as  far  as  railway  communication  was  concerned. 
As  we  looked  at  the  map  we  remarked  in  February 

*  Not  long  afterwards,  in  April,  1915,  another  similar  raid  took  place  at 
the  same  point,  but  was  repelled  by  the  Serbian  troops.  Kesponsibility 
for  all  these  raids  was  disclaimed  by  the  Bulgarian  Government,  but  there 
can  be  but  little  doubt  that  the  latter  connived  at,  if  they  did  not  actually 
instigate,  these  raids. 


190     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

that  we  had  entered  a  "  trap,"  and  that  if  Bulgaria 
chose  to  be  nasty  the  door  of  the  trap  would  close 
upon  us.  And  close  it  did  before  we  left  Vrntse  ! 

All  through  the  summer  there  was  much  talk 
among  the  Serbs  of  war  with  Bulgaria,  and  much 
hatred  of  their  hereditary  enemies  was  freely  expressed 
by  Serbs  of  all  classes  of  society.  The  opinion  was 
prevalent  in  Vrntse  that  it  would  be  much  better 
to  attack  Bulgaria  at  once  and  not  wait  for  Bulgaria 
to  attack  them.  "  The  war  would  be  over  in  a  fort- 
night," said  an  optimistic  and  certainly  over-con- 
fident Serb  gentleman  to  me  one  day.  What  the 
opinion  of  the  Government  and  higher  military 
authorities  was  upon  this  question  of  war  with 
Bulgaria  we  had  of  course  no  opportunity  of  learning, 
but  that  such  an  offensive  war  would  have  been  very 
popular  among  the  soldiers  and  the  mass  of  the 
people  we  had  no  doubt  at  all. 

Towards  the  end  of  September  came  the  news  of 
Bulgaria's  mobilisation.*  All  passenger  traffic  on 
the  railways  was  stopped.  Some  of  us  who  were  at 
Nish  at  that  time  saw  thousands  of  troops  with  guns 
and  stores  of  all  kinds  being  rushed  through  to  the 
Bulgarian  frontier.  At  Vrnjatchka  Ban] a  day  and 
night  troop-trains  could  be  heard  running  down  our 
valley  of  the  western  Morava  on  their  way  to  the 
Eastern  front.  On  September  3oth  a  small  party  of 
us  had  occasion  to  go  to  Kragujevatz,  the  military 
headquarters  and  seat  of  the  arsenal.  We  arrived 
just  in  time  to  see  the  end  of  an  Austro-German 

*  This  seems  to  have  actually  begun  on  September  23rd.  According  to 
the  author  of  "The  Times  History  of  the  War  "  (Vol.  VII.,  p.  372),  "  there 
is  good  reason  to  believe  that  a  secret  treaty  by  which  Bulgaria  practically 
bound  herself  to  the  course  which  she  afterwards  took  had  been  signed  as 
far  back  as  August  I7th." 


'THE  AUSTRIAN  INVASION  191 

aeroplane  raid.  Wild  excitement  prevailed.  A  German 
aeroplane  had  just  been  brought  down  in  the  centre 
of  the  town  and  all  Kragujevatz  was  jubilant.  The 
mangled  and  scorched  bodies  of  the  unfortunate 
aviators  brought  home  to  us  very  vividly  the  horrors 
of  war.  The  remains  of  the  aeroplane,  which  we 
inspected  at  the  arsenal,  showed  the  name  of  a 
Stuttgart  maker.  Early  on  the  following  morning  we 
were  roused  by  the  sound  of  fresh  firing,  and  were 
interested  spectators  of  another  air  raid  in  which 
many  bombs  were  dropped,  several  civilians  and  one 
Austrian  prisoner  being  killed.  One  bomb  fell  with- 
out exploding  in  the  soft  ground  of  the  Stobart  camp, 
at  which  we  were  staying,*  and  another  did  much 
damage  to  their  stock  of  marmalade,  and,  by  a  few 
feet,  just  missed  killing  a  nurse.  The  object  of  the 
raid  was  evidently  the  arsenal,  into  which  two  or 
three  bombs  were  actually  dropped.  A  Serb 
workman  was  killed,  and  a  couple  of  bullets  pene- 
trated a  large  petrol  tank,  but  otherwise  no  harm 
was  done. 

On  October  8th  a  visit  to  Nish  showed  the  town 
gaily  decorated  with  flags  in  excited  anticipation  of 
the  arrival  of  French  troops,  who  were  expected  from 
Salonika  on  the  morrow,  but  who  never  came. 
Crowds  of  refugees  were  coming  in  from  Posharevatz, 
which  had  just  been  heavily  bombarded  from  the  air. 
No  one  seemed  to  know  whether  the  line  from  Salonika 
was  still  open  or  not.  Among  the  officials,  both  Serb 

*  On  several  occasions  on  our  visits  to  Kragujevatz  we  enjoyed  the  kind 
hospitality  of  Mrs.  St.  Clair  Stobart,  whose  admirable  and  well-arranged 
camp  was  situated  on  the  racecourse  just  outside  the  town.  The  sanitary 
arrangements  of  this  camp  are  especially  worthy  of  mention.  Sometimes 
we  stayed  with  the  Scottish  women  at  their  hospital  in  the  town,  where 
since  an  early  stage  of  the  war  they  had  been  doing  excellent  work. 


192     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

and  foreign,  pessimism  was  very  marked,  and  not  a 
few  indignant  remarks  were  heard  about  the  Allies 
who  had  "  deserted  "  Serbia  in  her  time  of  need. 
There  was  among  the  people,  and  to  a  certain  extent 
among  the  officials,  a  strong  feeling  that  Serbia,  who 
in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  war  had  done  so  much 
for  the  Allied  cause  by  decisive  victories  over  the 
Austrians,  should  not  have  been  left  single  handed 
to  repel  a  simultaneous  invasion  by  three  nations. 
Although  necessarily  ignorant  of  the  military  reasons 
which  forbade  the  granting  of  much-needed  help  to 
the  sorely-tried  little  nation,  we  could  not  help 
wondering  whether  these  criticisms  were  not  perhaps 
to  some  extent  justified. 

On  October  8th  the  British  Commissioner  informed 
us  that  it  was  the  wish  of  the  Serbian  military  autho- 
rities that  the  British  units  should  withdraw  if  the 
Serbian  army  found  it  necessary  to  retreat,  as  it  was 
expected  they  would.  By  so  doing  it  was  hoped  that 
their  personnel  and  stores  would  be  preserved  for 
future  service,  and  they  would  obviously  be  of  more 
service  to  Serbia  and  to  the  allied  cause  than  if  they 
stayed  on  and  became  prisoners.  They  were  to  hold 
themselves  in  readiness  to  take  this  step  when  the 
expected  military  orders  to  this  effect  arrived,  which 
however,  in  our  case,  they  never  did. 

Two  days  later  freshly-wounded  began  to  dribble 
into  our  hospitals,  and  we  heard  tales  of  severe 
fighting  on  the  northern  frontier.  But  it  was  not 
until  the  iyth  that  we  received  a  large  batch  of 
severely-wounded  (Fig.  21). 

The  arrival  of  the  freshly-wounded  was  a  novel 
experience  for  most  of  the  Unit,  especially  for  the 


FIG.    21. — THE     RECEIVING- ROOM     STAFF     AT     THE     TERAPIA.    WAITING     FOR     THE 

FRESHLY    WOUNDED.        EACH     PATIENT     ARRIVED     THROUGH    A    WINDOW     ON     THE 

LEFT. 


Austro-Hungarian  sentry  and  British  prisoners  at 
the  Terapia.  In  the  background  is  seen  an  Austrian 
ex-prisoner 


THE  AUSTRIAN  INVASION  193 

orderlies  and  V.A.D.'s.  Few  of  them  had  seen  as  yet 
any  freshly-wounded  cases  in  Serbia,  and  more  than 
half  the  Unit  had  not  even  witnessed  the  coming  of 
those  patients  whom  we  had  received  on  half-a-dozen 
occasions  from  other  hospitals.  There  had  been  more 
than  one  false  alarm,  and  the  lay  members  of  the 
Mission  felt,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  thoroughly 
disappointed.  It  was  not  that  they  wanted  to  see 
men  in  pain  or  took  a  cold-blooded  view  of  their 
patients.  But  they  had  gone  to  Serbia  to  look  after 
wounded,  and  their  tempers  had  in  some  cases 
suffered  not  a  little  through  having  so  little  surgical 
work  to  do.  At  last,  as  mentioned,  on  October  lyth, 
we  were  definitely  informed  that  wounded  were 
coming  and  that  most  of  them  were  serious 
cases.  The  hospital  had  been  ready  for  some  time 
past,  but  most  of  the  day  was  spent  in  preparing 
the  receiving  room,  getting  out  overalls,  soap  and 
towels  for  the  washing  staff,  and  arranging  the 
operating  theatre.  The  spirits  of  the  Unit  rose  at 
once,  and  some  of  the  members  were  never  so  utterly 
frivolous  as  during  the  hour  or  two  of  waiting  before 
our  grim  work  was  to  begin.  The  more  sober  people 
were  rather  scandalised  at  the  contrast  between 
this  gaiety  and  the  tragedy  of  what  was  to  come. 
But  the  patients  themselves  saw  none  of  it,  and  no 
one  worked  the  worse,  when  the  time  came,  for 
having  laughed  and  sung  during  the  period  of  anti- 
cipation. 

The  first  wounded  came  about  half-past  7  in  the 
evening,  when  it  was  already  quite  dark.  We  were 
all  at  our  posts  at  that  time,  and  the  bustle  indoors 
was  so  great  that  we  did  not  hear  the  noise  of  the 


194     A  &ED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

motor  ambulance  on  the  gravel.  A  knock  at  the 
door  brought  out  an  English  orderly,  the  window  of 
the  receiving  room  was  thrown  open,  and  the  work 
began.  We  had  been  waiting  for  it  for  months. 
Nobody  got  to  bed  till  half-past  2  the  next  morning, 
and  some  of  our  enthusiastic  orderlies  described  it 
as  the  happiest  time  of  their  lives.  The  ambulance 
and  the  ox-wagons  drew  up  in  the  light  that  poured 
from  the  open  window.  The  ambulance  was  easily 
unloaded,  but  to  get  a  badly  wounded  man  out  of 
an  ox-wagon  was  not  always  easy,  and  often  the 
loose  side  of  the  cart  had  to  be  taken  out  before  the 
man  could  be  lifted  with  sufficient  gentleness  on  to 
a  stretcher.  The  stretchers  were  pushed  through  the 
window,  English  and  Austrians  together  lending  a 
hand.  Inside,  the  undressing  and  washing  went 
on  without  ceasing.  On  trestle  beds  under  the 
windows  two  men  at  a  time  were  stripped  and 
shaved.  Then  they  were  carried  into  the  nearest 
bathroom  and  washed,  while  their  clothes,  always 
dirty  and  generally  verminous,  were  put  into  sacks 
and  labelled. 

Dr.  McLaren  was  in  attendance  in  the  receiving 
room  to  examine  and  dress  the  wounds  and  to  send 
the  cases  up  to  the  ward  or  into  the  operating  theatre 
as  required.  The  more  serious  cases  were  hurried  off 
to  the  theatre,  where  the  Professor,  with  the  Frau 
Doktor  as  anaesthetist,  waited  in  the  glare  of  the 
electric  lamps,  the  Primus  stoves  roaring  under  the 
sterilisers  in  the  next  room.  We  had  thirteen  men 
on  the  table  that  night, — three  of  them  bad  head 
cases — and  the  theatre  staff  was  as  tired  as  anybody 
else  when  the  last  man  was  sent  upstairs.  The 


THE  AUSTRIAN  INVASION          195 

Austrian  prisoners  worked  furiously,  and  more  than 
once  a  weary  orderly,  after  hours  of  continuous 
labour,  refused  to  allow  an  Englishman  to  take  a 
hand  with  the  stretchers.  The  devotion  of  these 
men  drew  praise  from  everybody.  Prince  Alexis, 
who  had  come  in  during  the  proceedings,  watched 
the  Austrians  carrying  the  wounded  from  the  carts, 
and  broke  out  into  exclamations  at  their  unwearying 
industry.  It  should  be  repeated  here  that  the 
orderlies  seemed  to  work  for  the  wounded  themselves, 
and  not  merely  as  obeying  the  orders  of  their  Serb 
captors  or  the  English  to  whom  they  had  been 
assigned.  The  spirit  with  which  they  worked  was  as 
fine  as  their  arms  were  strong.  At  half-past  2  every- 
body went  to  bed.  But  at  3  o'clock  there  came  more 
knocking  at  the  door,  and  two  belated  sufferers  had 
to  be  taken  from  an  ox  wagon  and  washed  and  put 
to  bed  before  we  could  all  sleep.  The  next  morning 
we  were  roused  again  at  6  o'clock  by  an  ambulance 
full  of  officers,  who  had  to  be  sent  away  to  the  Kruna, 
because  we  had  no  accommodation  for  them. 

While  the  freshly-wounded  were  being  admitted  to 
the  Terapia,  patients  were  also  being  received  into  the 
Drzhavna  by  Dr.  Christopherson,  assisted  by  Dr. 
Isobel  Inglis  and  Sisters  Amott  and  Brock.  A  few 
slightly-wounded  had  come  in  during  the  preceding 
day  after  walking  up  from  the  station,  and  before 
long  the  place  was  full  to  overflowing. 

Among  the  cases  received  on  October  iyth  were 
several  perforating  wounds  of  the  brain  and  numerous 
compound  fractures  of  the  thigh.  All  wounds  had 
been  inflicted  at  least  two  or  three  days  previously, 
and  most  were  already  septic.  We  were  struck 


196     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

nevertheless,  by  the  care  that  had  been  taken  in  the 
preliminary  dressing  and  splinting  of  the  patients. 
Nearly  all  the  wounds  had  been  caused  by  shrapnel,  a 
few  by  rifle  fire,  scarcely  any  by  bayonet.  An  exten- 
sive wound  of  the  frontal  lobe  with  much  loss  of  brain 
substance  was  treated  by  being  laid  freely  open,  nearly 
half  the  left  frontal  bone  having  to  be  removed  with 
trephine  and  forceps  ;  a  large  hernia  cerebri  ensued, 
but  this  gradually  receded,  and  in  a  few  weeks  the 
patient  made  a  good  recovery  and  seemed  but  little 
the  worse  for  his  injury.  Another,  with  a  depressed 
but  non-perforating  shrapnel  wound  of  the  right 
occipital  lobe,  was  on  admission  completely  blind  in 
both  eyes  ;  the  depressed  bone  was  removed.  About 
three  days  later  he  had  recovered  his  sight  so  far  that 
he  could  distinguish  and  name  coins  shown  to  him, 
and  was  doing  very  well  indeed.  Two  days  later  he 
suddenly  complained  of  violent  pains  in  the  head  and 
died  in  a  few  hours.  Another  man,  under  the  care  of 
Dr.  Christopherson  at  the  Drzhavna  Hospital,  had 
been  shot  through  the  centre  of  the  head  of  the  left 
humerus  ;  a  conical  German  bullet  was  extracted  from 
the  lower  part  of  the  right  axilla  in  the  mid-axillary 
line.  The  patient  made  an  excellent  and  speedy 
recovery,  but  how  the  great  vessels  of  the  mediastinum 
escaped  injury  is  difficult  to  explain.  Another  man 
was  shot  transversely  through  the  centre  of  the  thorax, 
the  bullet  passing  between  the  oesophagus  and  the 
heart ;  a  left  empyema  developed.  For  a  time  the 
patient  was  very  ill,  but  seemed  to  be  on  the  high 
road  to  recovery  when  he  was  transferred  to  another 
hospital  and  we  lost  sight  of  him.  From  the  first 
night  until  the  coming  of  the  Austrian  invaders  the 


'THE  AUSTRIAN  INVASION          197 

Terapia  and  Drzhavna  were  full,  and  one  after 
another  the  other  hospitals  were  filled  too,  until  we 
had  to  revert  in  some  cases  to  the  Serb  practice  of 
putting  two  men  in  one  bed. 

The  School,  the  Baraque,  and  the  Atina  were  filled 
only  with  the  overflowings  from  the  Terapia  and  the 
Drzhavna.  The  Merkur  was  in  theory  only  to  be  used 
for  the  same  purpose,  but  on  one  strenuous  day  it  was 
suddenly  flooded  with  cases  of  slightly-wounded,  and  a 
receiving  staff  had  to  be  improvised.  The  Drzhavna 
was  prepared  for  anything.  The  patients  in  this 
hospital  were  on  the  whole  less  seriously  wounded  than 
those  who  came  to  the  Terapia,  and  their  arrival  caused 
less  excitement.  But  for  the  same  reason  there  was  a 
more  constant  flow  of  cases  in  and  out.  Sometimes 
the  majority  of  the  beds  would  be  emptied  as  soon  as 
the  clothes  of  their  occupants  could  be  recovered  from 
the  disinfector.* 

The  whole  staff  was  continually  at  work  looking 
after  the  arrivals  and  departures,  as  well  as  tending  the 
patients  who  remained.  There  were  three  entrances 
to  the  Drzhavna,  and  by  all  three  during  October 
patients  used  to  trickle  in  at  all  hours  of  the  day,  and 
the  sister  in  charge,  Sister  Amott,  involved  in  the  care 
of  sixty  patients,  would  find  every  now  and  then  a 
strange  figure  sitting  by  the  stove  in  the  middle  of  her 
ward,  waiting  patiently  till  she  had  time  to  notice 
him.  Sometimes,  as  on  the  first  day,  the  Drzhavna 
cases  would  come  in  large  numbers.  At  one  moment 
the  yard  would  be  empty,  and  at  another  one  of  the 
staff,  going  to  the  door,  would  find  himself  face  to  face 

*  The  Thresh  steam  disinfector,  which,  not  long  before,  had  arrived  after 
its  circuitous  journey,  had  been  set  up  at  the  Drzhavna,  and  during  this 
time  of  stress  proved  to  be  of  the  greatest  value. 


198     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

with  a  semi-circle  of  weary  and  dishevelled  men,  all 
staring  at  him  and  all  silent.  It  was  profoundly 
moving  to  come  in  this  way  suddenly  upon  Serbian 
wounded.  They  stood  round  in  little  herds,  asking 
for  nothing  and  making  no  complaint,  but  waiting, 
like  animals,  until  those  who  had  power  to  save  them 
or  leave  them  should  take  note  of  their  necessities. 

On  October  151)1  news  came  that  the  Austrians  were 
occupying  Posharevatz,  Semendria,  Belgrade,  and 
Obrenovatz  ;  also  that  the  Bulgars  had  penetrated 
the  Eastern  frontier  at  two  points,*  although  it  was 
rumoured  that  they  had  been  driven  back  again. 
Major  Gashitch  warned  us  that  we  might  receive 
orders  to  move  at  very  short  notice.  Packing-cases 
were  brought  out  by  our  engineer  and  made  ready  for 
immediate  use. 

From  the  i6th  till  the  i8th  Vrntse  was  full  of 
rumours.  War  on  Bulgaria  had  been  declared  by  the 
Great  Powers  ;  Varna  and  Bourgas  were  being  bom- 
barded by  the  Russians ;  Strumnitza  had  been  occupied 
by  the  French,  Tsaribrod  by  the  Serbs  ;  the  National 
Bank  had  been  transferred  to  Prisrend  and  the  military 
headquarters  to  Krushevatz.  A  strange  jumble  of 
truth  and  fiction,  but  at  the  time  we  had  no  means  of 
separating  the  one  from  the  other. 

On  the  2 1st  a  large  number  of  slightly-wounded 
arrived,  and  as  the  train  which  brought  them  had  many 
severely-wounded  on  board,  who  went  on  to  the  Serb 
hospital  at  Chachak,  we  were  indignant  at  what 
seemed  to  us  a  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the  mili- 

*  We  afterwards  learnt  that  in  reality  Bulgaria  by  this  time  had  invaded 
Serbia  at  some  eight  different  points,  and  that  fighting  had  begun  on 
October  nth,  although'the  formal  declaration  of  war  upon  Serbia  had  not 
been  made  until  the  i4th. 


THE   AUSTRIAN  INVASION          199 

tary  authorities.  Months  before,  when  entreated  by 
the  Serb  military  authorities  to  prolong  our  stay  in 
Serbia,  we  had  been  repeatedly  assured,  both  verbally 
and  in  writing,  that  when  fresh  fighting  began  only  the 
most  severe  surgical  cases  would  be  sent  to  us.  On 
pressing  the  major  for  an  explanation  we  learnt  that  a 
secret  order  had  been  received  that  for  the  present 
only  slightly-wounded  were  to  be  sent  to  the  foreign 
missions,  as  an  order  for  their  withdrawal  to  the  south 
was  to  be  expected  at  any  moment. 

On  the  2yth  another  trainload  of  wounded,  mostly 
not  very  severe  cases,  arrived,  and  we  were  all  kept 
busy.  On  the  28th  important  news  arrived.  Uzhitsa 
to  the  west,  at  the  head  of  our  valley,  was  being 
evacuated,  and  all  British  missions  to  the  north  of 
us  were  being  withdrawn  to  the  line  of  the  Western 
Morava  ;  our  little  town  lay  some  three  miles  south 
of  this,  between  Kraljevo  and  Krushevatz.  Kragu- 
jevatz,  fifty  miles  by  road  to  the  north,  was  being 
evacuated,  the  headquarters  staff  moving  thence  to 
Krushevatz.  The  seat  of  government  was  being 
transferred  to  Kraljevo.  About  this  time  officials 
of  the  Public  Health  and  some  other  departments, 
together  with  many  ex-ministers,  sought  refuge  at 
Vrnjatchka  Banja,  the  fashionable  health  resort  of 
Serbia.  The  place  threatened  to  become  inconve- 
niently overcrowded,  and  we  began  to  fear  shortage 
of  food.  The  2nd  British  Farmers'  Unit  under  Mr. 
Parsons,  the  Scottish  Women's  Unit  under  Dr.  Alice 
Hutchison,  and  several  members  of  the  Wounded 
Allies'  Mission  under  Dr.  Aspland  arrived,  and 
considerable  rearrangement  of  our  hospitals  took 
place.  The  Farmers,  who  had  been  obliged  to  leave 


200     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

Belgrade  very  hurriedly  during  the  bombardment, 
took  over  our  Merkur  hospital,  and  the  Scottish 
Women  for  a  short  time  had  the  Atina. 

The  British  Commissioner  now  paid  us  a  hurried 
visit  to  explain  the  arrangements  he  had  been  trying 
to  make  with  the  Serbian  authorities  for  the  with- 
drawal of  the  British  units  to  the  south  or  west. 
Only  a  very  few  ox  wagons  were  obtainable,  and  it 
was  obvious  that  most  of  the  units  at  Vrnjatchka 
Banja  would  have  to  stay  and  be  captured  ;  only 
individual  members,  who  for  one  reason  or  another 
desired  to  escape,  would  have  the  opportunity  of 
making  their  way,  mostly  on  foot,  across  the  moun- 
tains to  the  Adriatic.  Three  of  our  Unit,  together 
with  several  of  the  British  Red  Cross  Unit  (mostly 
English  orderlies),  went  off  together  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Mr.  Gordon.  The  adventures  and  trials  which 
they  met  with  on  their  difficult  trek  to  San  Giovanni 
di  Medua  are  described  in  the  next  chapter. 

The  number  of  our  Unit  remained,  however,  at 
the  average  strength  of  twenty-five,  having  been 
reinforced  by  the  addition  of  the  British  chaplain 
and  two  refugee  ladies  from  Belgrade  and  Nish. 

We  were  now  passing  through  a  very  trying  and 
a  very  depressing  period.  We  heard  cannon  daily, 
and,  though  rumours  of  Austro-German  repulses 
still  persisted,  it  was  evident  that  the  Serbian  army 
was  retreating  and  that  the  enemy  was  advancing 
steadily.  We  discussed  the  prospects  with  our 
prisoners,  who  were  no  more  happy  in  their  minds 
than  we  were  ourselves.  "  They  may  be  on  us  any 
day  now,"  remarked  the  ex-Carlton  waiter  gloomily. 
Indeed,  from  the  time  that  it  became  known  that  the 


THE  AUSTRIAN  INVASION          201 

Serbian  army  was  retiring  and  that  the  Austro- 
Germans  were  approaching  there  was  little  sign  of 
jubilation  among  the  prisoners.  It  is  true  that  the 
prospect  for  them  was  not  a  bright  one  ;  it  was  not 
likely  the  Serbians  would  leave  them  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  invaders,  and  probably  much  suffering 
might  thus  be  before  them  ;  also  it  was  generally 
believed  that  the  Slav  prisoners  who  had  been  cap- 
tured unwounded  were  likely  to  be  shot  when  retaken 
by  the  Austrians.  But  there  was  certainly  very  little 
desire  on  the  part  of  the  prisoners  to  return  to  the 
fighting  line.  It  was  said  that  some  of  the  Magyars 
were  keen  on  fighting  again,  but  certainly  this  was 
not  the  case  as  a  rule  with  either  the  Germans  or 
Slavs.  Very  bitter  was  the  tone  in  which  a  sergeant 
of  German  race,  and  a  smart  young  soldier,  spoke 
of  returning  again  to  be  "  Kanonenfutter."  It 
emphasised  all  the  difference  between  forced  and 
voluntary  service.  Another  young  German-Austrian 
spoke  of  his  experience  of  the  war  with  much  horror. 
"  Es  ist  nicht  menschlich  "  ("  It  is  not  human  "), 
he  said,  and  all  he  wished  was  to  remain  with  us  till 
the  war  was  over. 

On  November  1st  all  the  Austrian  prisoners  except 
four  were  withdrawn  from  our  hospitals  and  replaced 
by  sixteen  Serbian  youths  with  no  personal  knowledge 
whatever  of  hospital  work.  On  the  same  day  our 
Serbian  military  head,  although  giving  no  direct 
orders,  strongly  advised  us  to  withdraw  also,  aban- 
doning all  our  stores  and  personal  luggage.  Dr. 
Charles  Mack,  an  American  doctor,  kindly  consented 
to  take  charge  of  the  hospital  if  we  decided  to  leave, 
and  the  great  majority  of  our  members  were  anxious 


202     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

to  go.  We  knew  of  a  direct  short  route  across  the 
mountains  to  Rashka,  a  place  which  the  Heads  of  our 
Mission  had  visited  many  years  before,  and  thence  it 
would  have  been  possible  to  get  across  via  Novi 
Bazar  and  Berane  to  the  Adriatic.  But  this  would 
have  meant  walking  the  whole  way,  carrying  pro- 
visions for  at  least  a  fortnight.  For  this  it  was 
essential  we  should  have  at  least  three  or  four  horses 
to  carry  food  and  blankets.  We  were  quite  deter- 
mined not  to  attempt  the  ordinary  route  via  Kraljevo 
and  the  long,  narrow  Ibar  gorge,  which  was  also 
known  to  us,  as  it  was  the  main  route  by  which  the 
Serbian  army  was  retreating,  and  was  likely  to  be 
choked  by  refugees.  Our  hesitation,  which  lasted 
for  a  few  hours,  was  ended  when  we  found  that  the 
horses  we  had  expected  to  obtain  were  not  available. 
On  the  following  day  all  our  Austrian  prisoners 
were  restored  to  us,  and  the  contingent  of  Serbian 
youths,  who  in  the  meantime  had  been  washed  and 
cleared  of  lice,  in  their  turn  withdrew. 

A  week  of  considerable  anxiety  ensued.  The 
hospitals  were  evacuated  as  far  as  possible.  All 
patients  who  were  well  enough  were  sent  to  their  com- 
mandos ;  those  not  well  enough  for  this  but  capable 
of  being  moved  were  sent  home,  if  their  homes  were 
in  districts  not  yet  occupied  by  the  enemy. 

On  November  5th  all  the  prisoners  in  Vrntse  of 
German,  Hungarian,  and  Jewish  race  were  marched 
away  to  share  in  the  great  Serbian  retreat  across 
Albania  to  the  Adriatic.  The  Slav  prisoners  in  the 
place  remained  till  next  day  ;  then  most  of  the 
Serbian  hospital  officials  departed,  taking  with  them 
Czechs,  Croats,  Slovaks,  and  other  prisoners  of  Slav 


THE  AUSTRIAN  INVASION          203 

nationality.  In  our  own  case,  however,  in  order  that 
the  hospital  should  not  be  wholly  deprived  of  ser- 
vants, the  prisoners  were  given  the  choice  of  going  or 
staying.  The  majority  chose  to  go — some  aware 
that  the  circumstances  of  their  capture  would  not 
bear  investigation,  and  therefore  afraid  of  the  fate 
which  would  await  them  ;  others,  with  no  such  cause 
for  anxiety,  deliberately  preferring  to  face  the 
certain  horrors  of  a  march  across  a  starving  country 
rather  than  to  fight  against  men  of  their  own  race  in 
a  war  they  hated.  The  hardships  of  that  march 
to  the  Adriatic  are  well  known,  and  many  of  the 
prisoners  perished  on  the  way. 

A  good  many  of  the  Slav  prisoners,  however,  were 
left  behind  in  Vrntse,  probably  largely  because  they 
were  simply  forgotten  in  the  general  rush.  Some  of  the 
forgotten  ones  tried  to  get  away  on  their  own  account ; 
one,  formerly  an  orderly  of  our  own,  came  up  on  the 
following  day  to  beg  a  great-coat,  saying  he  had 
obtained  a  pass  and  was  going  to  escape  in  civil  dress 
with  an  Englishman.  Another,  a  Roumanian,  who 
was  probably  overlooked  because  he  was  neither 
German,  Magyar,  Jew  nor  Slav,  was  seized  by  a  deep 
desire  to  walk  to  Italy  on  his  own  account,  but  was 
refused  a  pass  and  told  he  must  remain. 

The  three  or  four  days  that  elapsed  between  the 
departure  of  the  last  Serbian  fugitive  and  the  arrival  of 
the  invaders  was  a  very  strange  period.  There  was  a 
sudden  calm  ;  rumours  entirely  ceased  ;  the  street 
was  deserted ;  ox  wagons  had  disappeared,  most 
having  gone  off  with  the  refugees.  We  just  waited, 
and  strangely  enough  the  predominant  feeling  in  the 
place  was  a  desire  that  the  Austrians  would  hurry  up 


204     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

and  come.  For  Vrntse  felt  uncomfortably  deserted  ; 
the  police  officials,  the  hospital  commissaires,  in  fact 
almost  everyone  on  whom  the  maintenance  of  law  and 
order  depended,  had  gone.  There  was  fear  of  looting 
and  other  deeds  of  violence  from  stray  soldiers  or  bad 
characters  left  behind.  Some  burglaries  were  reported 
at  Trstenik,  and  looting  went  on  merrily  at  the  station, 
whence  the  station-master  also  had  departed,  but 
nothing  of  the  kind  occurred  at  Vrntse. 

Day  by  day  the  sound  of  distant  cannonade  became 
louder  and  louder  as  the  Austro-German  forces 
approached.  Rumour  said  that  a  stand  would  be 
made  in  our  valley  at  Trstenik,  a  narrow  place  some 
three  miles  to  the  east  of  us.  It  was  said  that  the 
digging  of  trenches  had  actually  begun.  It  seemed 
probable  that  we  should  find  ourselves  in  the  very 
centre  of  a  battle.  Late  in  the  evening  of  the  6th  a 
violent  explosion,  which  shook  the  building,  caused 
some  of  us  to  exclaim,  "  Here  is  the  first  shell."  But 
it  was  caused  by  our  own  people  blowing  up  the  great 
bridge  of  Trstenik.  Our  Serb  commissaire  at  the 
Terapia  had  sought  safety  in  flight,  but  the  Austro- 
Serbian  one  at  the  Drzhavna,  M.  Milutin  Jovanovitch, 
remained  with  us  and  rendered  invaluable  service. 
Our  wood  supply  gave  out,  and  as  no  more  was  forth- 
coming we  began  with  our  own  hands  to  cut  down  the 
trees  in  the  grounds  of  the  Terapia. 

So  passed  the  last  days  of  waiting  and  watching  for 
the  invaders,  while  away  among  the  hills  to  the  south 
Britons,  Serbians,  and  Austrian  prisoners  were  taking 
part  in  that  great  retreat  which  will  rank  among  the 
tragedies  of  the  war. 

J.  B. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    ESCAPE    OF   THE   THREE. 

Reasons  for  Flight — Choice  of  Route — Kraljevo — Food  and 
Transport  Difficulties — The  Gorge  of  the  Ibar  and  its  Human 
Torrent — Austrian  Prisoners  at  Rashka — Novi  Bazar — In  the 
Hills — Podgoritsa — The  Lake  of  Scutari — Mattresses  or  Foreigners 
— Scutari — English  as  she  is  Spoke — Two  Ways  Home — Horse 
Exercise — The  Adriatic  Mission — So  Near  and  Yet  so  Far — 
Hours  of  Idleness — On  Board  the  Harmonic — The  Submarine — 
Reflections  on  Ourselves  and  the  Serbs — Official  Neglect  and 
Popular  Generosity. 

WHEN  it  became  clear  that  Vrnjatchka  Banja  was 
destined  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  the  ques- 
tion arose  whether  the  Mission  should  stay  or  go.  All 
could  go  only  if  transport  were  provided  by  the 
Government.  Without  that  a  small  party  might  slip 
away,  leaving  behind  all  their  heavy  baggage,  but 
there  was  little  chance  for  the  Unit  as  a  whole.  By 
the  end  of  October  it  was  certain  that  the  transport 
would  not  be  available,  and  the  problem  then  was  to 
decide  which  members  of  the  Mission  ought  to  get 
away  at  once  and  which  of  them  were  able  to  undertake 
the  arduous  and  possibly  perilous  journey,  a  great  part 
of  which  would  have  to  be  accomplished  on  foot.  As 
it  was  uncertain  whether  the  Austro-Germans  would 
hold  to  the  Geneva  Convention,  it  was  considered  that 
men  of  military  age,  who  were  not  qualified  doctors, 
ought  to  go,  to  escape  the  risk  of  internment  till  the 
end  of  the  war.  Jones  and  Lingner  thought  it  better 
to  stay,  and  only  Gordon  and  Blease,  who  had  urgent 


206     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

private  reasons  for  returning  speedily  to  England, 
finally  decided  to  escape.  With  Gordon  went  Mrs. 
Gordon,  and  the  two  together  were  formally  entrusted 
by  Sir  Ralph  Paget  with  the  guidance  of  any  other 
English  men  and  women  who  chose  to  accompany 
them.  An  order  signed  by  Major  Gashitch  entitled 
them  to  a  daily  ration  of  bread.  Transport  they 
hoped  to  get  at  Kraljevo.  But  they  were  prepared 
from  the  first  to  rely  upon  their  own  supplies  of  food 
and  their  own  legs.  On  the  afternoon  of  October  3oth 
the  three  left  the  Terapia,  taking  with  them  a  ruck- 
sack each,  some  portable  food,  a  few  blankets,  and 
Blease's  camera. 

The  Bulgars  were  by  this  time  in  safe  possession  of 
Skoplje,  and  the  only  line  of  retreat  was  from  Kraljevo 
towards  the  south.  Kraljevo,  as  appears  from  the 
maps,  is  the  point  at  which  several  roads  from  east, 
west,  and  north  converge,  and  due  south  from  it  runs 
the  only  high  road  which  offers  a  chance  of  escaping  the 
Austro-Germans  and  Bulgars  alike.  A  map  in  Blease's 
possession  showed,  further  on,  a  practicable  route 
through  Montenegro  to  the  coast  of  the  Adriatic  at 
San  Giovanni  di  Medua,  and,  though  there  was  more 
than  one  discussion  of  alternatives,  the  refugees  never 
wavered  in  their  preference  of  this  route  over  the 
others.  At  Kraljevo  and  elsewhere  the  authorities 
urged  them  to  go  to  Mitrovitsa,  in  the  hope  of  escaping 
through  Skoplje  to  Salonica.  But,  unless  the  Bulgars 
were  driven  back,  that  plan  was  founded  on  sand,  and 
could  only  have  ended  in  a  hopeless  entanglement 
with  a  host  of  other  fugitives,  military  and  civil,  in  a 
district  emptied  of  supplies,  and  an  ultimate  scramble 
over  the  worst  part  of  the  mountains  to  the  same  point 


THE  ESCAPE  OF  THE  THREE        207 

on  the  Adriatic.  With  a  definite  preference  for  the 
route  which  they  eventually  took,  the  three  mounted 
the  roof  of  a  crowded  railway  carriage  at  a  few 
minutes  before  midnight  and  rumbled  along  to 
Kraljevo.  The  early  morning  they  spent  on  the  floor 
of  the  stifling  telegraph  office  in  the  company  of  others 
like  themselves,  and  then,  dirty  and  sleepy,  emerged 
into  the  town  to  look  for  transport.  Kraljevo  they 
had  last  seen  as  a  quiet  and  picturesque  little  country 
place  with  a  few  people  scattered  about  the  streets. 
It  was  now  surging  like  a  river  in  spate.  The  road 
from  the  station,  churned  up  into  mud,  was  filled  with 
a  torrent  of  carts,  animals,  and  human  beings : 
soldiers,  wounded  and  unwounded  ;  transport  drivers  ; 
English,  French,  and  Russian  doctors  and  nurses  ; 
Austrian  prisoners,  and  refugees  of  all  classes.  The 
animals  strained,  the  carts  groaned,  men  on  horse- 
back splashed  shouting  through  the  traffic,  and  an 
endless  procession  of  foot  passengers  picked  its  way  in 
either  direction  along  such  dry  tracks  as  it  could  find. 
The  market-square  boiled  like  a  pot,  and  the  restless 
crowd  overflowed  into  the  restaurants  about  its  edge. 
Inside,  everybody  chattered  restlessly,  and  hardly 
anybody  seemed  to  eat.  Meat  could  be  bought,  and 
there  were  a  few  eggs,  but  most  of  the  people  seemed 
to  have  nothing  but  black  coffee,  and  one  man  who 
brought  in  a  loaf  of  bread  created  as  much  sensation 
as  if  he  had  brought  in  a  nugget  of  gold.  Bread,  in 
fact,  was  not  to  be  got,  except  on  a  military  order,  and 
it  required  prodigious  exertions  on  the  part  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Gordon  to  wrest  from  the  reluctant  authorities 
even  a  third  of  their  prescribed  allowance.  For  the 
first  time  in  his  life  Blease  tried  to  buy  bread  at  a  shop, 


208     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

and  was  told  that  there  was  none  to  buy.  They  had 
enough  food  of  other  kinds  to  keep  them  for  some  days, 
but  he  will  never  forget  the  feeling  of  helplessness 
which  for  a  moment  seized  him  when  he  realised  that 
he  was  there,  in  the  midst  of  thousands  of  hungry 
people,  and  the  money  in  his  pocket  gave  him  no 
advantage  over  the  poorest  of  them  all. 

In  Kraljevo  the  party  stayed  three  days,  waiting 
for  transport,  and  every  day  the  signs  grew  more 
ominous.  During  a  raid  on  the  bread  sacks  at  the 
station  they  heard  the  people  crying  out  that  they  had 
not  eaten  for  four  days.  Ever  since  reaching  Kral- 
jevo they  had  heard  the  sound  of  the  guns,  warning 
even  the  purposeless  chatterers  in  the  restaurants  that 
they  must  make  up  their  minds  quickly  and  go.  The 
French  aeroplanes  had  left  one  by  one,  flying  steadily 
to  Rashka.  Near  the  station  workmen  were  hastily 
dismantling  Austrian  and  Turkish  cannon,  trophies 
brought  from  the  arsenal  at  Kragujevatz,  and  now 
to  be  left  behind.  Dr.  Beavis's  English  field  hospital 
went  off  in  its  Ford  cars  to  Mitrovitsa,  abandoning  all 
its  heavy  baggage.  Detachments  of  the  Stobarts  and 
the  Scottish  Women's  Hospital,  without  drugs,  instru- 
ments or  stores,  went  off  in  Serbian  military  cars. 
The  civilian  refugees  poured  out  on  foot,  in  ox  carts, 
in  horse  wagons,  or  in  carriages,  and  overhead  enemy 
aeroplanes  watched,  in  cold  blood,  the  unceasing 
exodus.  There  seemed  to  be  no  spare  vehicles  of  any 
kind,  and  one  English  motor,  laden  with  hospital 
stores,  was  actually  stolen  by  the  military  as  it  stood, 
deserted  for  a  moment  by  its  driver,  in  the  main  street. 
At  last  Dr.  Churchin,  who  served  the  British  missions, 
in  this  hour  of  defeat  and  disorganisation,  with  the 


THE  ESCAPE  OF   THE   THREE        209 

same  unwearying  persistence  as  in  the  profound  quiet 
of  the  preceding  six  months,  snatched  ten  horse  carts 
out  of  the  whirling  stream  of  traffic.  Food  was  taken 
from  a  truck  of  hospital  stores  :  a  big  bag  of  rice,  cocoa, 
corned  beef,  condensed  milk,  biscuits,  sugar,  and 
curry  powder.  On  the  morning  of  November  3rd  a 
party  of  about  twenty  men  and  women,  with  the  food, 
two  big  tents,  and  their  personal  baggage,  left 
Kraljevo  for  the  south. 

As  far  as  Rashka  the  road  followed  the  course  of  the 
river  Ibar.  For  the  first  six  miles  it  ran  over  a  flat 
plain,  then  climbed  a  hill,  and  descended  by  a  great 
zig-zag  into  a  narrow  gorge,  which  wound  south  for 
fifty  miles.  Along  this  gorge  ran  side  by  side  the  road 
and  the  river,  the  road  now  a  hundred  or  two  hundred 
feet  above  the  water,  now  sinking  until  it  was  almost 
on  the  same  level.  The  scenery  was  not  very  impres- 
sive, except  at  one  magnificent  horse-shoe  curve, 
where  the  great  ruined  fort  of  Maglitch  frowned  down 
upon  the  fugitives  out  of  the  gathering  darkness.  But 
they  had  no  eye  for  scenery.  They  moved  with  a 
vast  unending  procession  of  men,  animals,  and 
vehicles  of  every  kind.  For  three  days  and  two  nights 
they  tramped  and  rode  along  the  gorge,  and  it  seemed 
as  if  all  the  world  tramped  and  rode  with  them. 
Empty  wagons  were  coming  north,  but  were  like  mere 
ripples  on  the  surface  of  the  tide.  A  string  of  field- 
kitchens  drawn  by  oxen  ;  a  Serbian  ambulance  train  ; 
a  caravan  of  gipsies,  bargaining  by  the  wayside  for  the 
sale  of  horses  which  they  had  doubtless  stolen  further 
north  ;  two  battalions  of  the  last  Serb  levies,  boys  of 
sixteen  and  seventeen,  armed  with  one  rifle  among 
five,  fed  with  bread  one  day  in  three,  once  trying  to 


210     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

raid  the  provision  cart  of  the  English,  and  constantly 
offering  to  buy  their  rice  and  cocoa,  sometimes  beaten 
by  their  officers,  but  on  the  whole  cheerful  enough,  and 
every  one  of  them  bearing  a  brilliant  rug  across  his 
shoulders  ;  troops  of  Austrian  prisoners  ;  officers  on 
horseback  ;  officers  and  civilians  in  carriages  ;  the 
Crown  Prince  ;  the  King's  cousin  ;  wagons  laden  with 
public  or  private  stores,  one  at  least  carrying  nothing 
more  valuable  than  a  number  of  deck  chairs  ;  great 
military  automobiles  storming  through  the  press  of 
slower  traffic  ;  and,  slipping  in  and  out  where  they 
found  a  way,  the  foot  passengers,  whose  homes  were 
already  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  and  who  were 
going  south,  not  because  they  had  anything  to  find 
there,  but  only  because  the  enemy  was  behind. 

The  great  mass  showed  no  signs  of  panic,  only  of 
patience.  But  isolated  scenes  of  horror  were  not 
wanting.  At  one  place  a  horse  was  pushed  over  the 
edge  of  the  road,  and  scrambled  back,  trembling 
and  sweating,  two  hundred  feet  above  the  remorse- 
less river.  At  another  a  cart  and  two  oxen  had 
fallen  eighty  feet,  and  the  passers-by  could  see  the 
oxen  drowned  in  the  water  and  the  hapless  peasants 
saving  pieces  of  crockery  that  had  been  scattered 
in  the  fall.  There  was  no  more  hope  for  an  animal 
that  fell  on  the  road  than  for  one  that  fell  in  the  river. 
Neither  stream  would  wait.  The  English  saw  a  great 
cart  urged  over  the  body  of  a  living  ox,  and  Gordon 
shot  a  horse  which  had  collapsed  in  the  very  middle 
of  the  track  and  was  being  crushed  before  their  eyes. 
The  worst  time  of  the  Serbian  exodus  had  not  yet 
come.  There  was  no  snow,  and  nothing  was  to  be 
seen  of  the  trail  of  dead  and  dying  men  and  animals 


THE  ESCAPE  OF  THE   THREE        211 

which  was  afterwards  drawn  across  the  savage 
mountains  of  Albania.  But  it  required  little  imagina- 
tion to  picture  what  would  eventually  be  the  fate  of 
this  retreating  host,  confined,  but  for  the  outlet  to 
the  west,  in  a  district  which  could  do  no  more  than 
support  its  native  population  even  in  time  of  peace. 

The  first  night  in  the  gorge  brought  no  rest.  They 
tried  to  sleep  in  the  open,  pulling  their  carts  to  the 
side  of  the  road,  while  the  main  current  roared 
beside  them.  But  within  two  hours  a  shouting 
transport  officer  urged  the  drivers  into  flight  again, 
and  before  the  Gordons  could  overtake  him  and 
persuade  him  that  they  were  of  the  Red  Cross  and 
should  be  allowed  to  rest  the  carts  were  half  a  mile 
away.  Two  more  uneasy  hours  were  spent  on  the 
side  of  the  gorge,  with  the  rain  wetting  their  faces, 
and  the  Serbian  boys,  in  their  neighbouring 
bivouacs,  diverting  themselves  by  firing  rifles  and 
throwing  hand  grenades  into  the  rocks.  Then  they 
rose  before  dawn  to  push  on  to  a  more  open  place. 
Five  hours  they  trudged  before  they  found  it,  and  it 
was  only  a  wide  part  of  the  road.  There  they  broke 
their  fast,  threw  away  all,  except  the  sides  of  the 
tents,  to  relieve  the  horses,  and  then  went  on  again, 
till  the  evening  of  the  second  day  brought  them  into 
open  fields  by  the  village  of  Ushtye.  There  they 
made  long  low  tents  out  of  the  sides  of  the  big 
tents,  and  slept  in  a  damp  field,  with  the  rain  thun- 
dering on  the  canvas,  while  the  boy  soldiers  camped 
above  them  on  the  bare  hillside  beside  great  fires 
which  flamed  and  glowed  all  night  long.  The  next 
day,  breaking  in  mist  and  rain,  put  them  at  the 
head  of  the  procession  of  fugitives  and  brought  them 


212     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

to  the  little  town  of  Rashka.  There  they  found 
the  Government,  the  Staff,  the  foreign  attaches, 
the  French  aeroplanes,  the  royal  band  forlornly 
carrying  off  its  instruments ,  and  all  the  other  signs  of 
flight. 

From  Rashka  some  of  the  party  followed  the  fatal 
track  to  Mitrovitsa,  to  find  the  exits  in  the  south  in 
the  hands  of  the  Bulgars,  and  to  struggle  back,  over 
unspeakably  bad  roads  and  in  deadly  snow,  to  the 
coast  which  they  might  have  reached  so  easily  by 
the  other  route.  It  required  little  deliberation  to 
confirm  Gordon  and  the  rest  in  their  preference  for 
the  south-westerly  to  the  south-easterly  direction, 
and  after  two  nights  under  tents  a  party  of  ten  men 
and  two  women  set  off  in  the  carts  for  Novi  Bazar. 
The  second  woman  was  Miss  Brindley,  of  the  Stobart 
Unit. 

On  the  day  of  their  departure  Blease  had  a  melan- 
choly experience.  All  along  the  road  there  had  been 
gangs  of  Austrian  prisoners,  some  working  at  repairs, 
others  merely  hurrying  away  with  the  retreating  Serbs 
(Fig.  23).  Two  or  three  of  these  gangs,  each  several 
hundred  strong,  had  camped  at  Rashka  on  the  open 
hillside  by  the  English  tents,  and  Blease,  climbing 
up  to  the  shattered  Turkish  blockhouse  on  the 
summit,  passed  through  them  among  the  dying  fires. 
As  he  came  down  he  was  suddenly  addressed  by 
name.  It  was  like  being  accosted  by  a  ghost  out  of 
a  graveyard.  The  man  who  spoke  was  Madjaroschi, 
a  Hungarian  who  had  left  our  service  at  the  Terapia 
some  weeks  before.  Asked  if  he  wanted  to  be  retaken 
and  fight  again  in  the  ranks,  he  replied  :  "  Why 
not  ?  One  man  must  live  and  another  must  die." 


THE  ESCAPE  OF  THE   THREE        213 

Further  down  the  hill  Blease  encountered  some 
Germans,  who  said  that  they  had  had  one  loaf  of 
bread  between  five  men  three  days  before  and  were 
to  receive  another  that  day.  "  There  is  nothing 
good  in  war,"  said  the  Englishman.  "  Nothing  at 
all,"  replied  the  German.  All  these  men,  ill-fed, 
ill-clothed,  and  without  shelter,  were  faced  with  two 
alternatives — to  escape  to  their  own  armies  and  face 
death  once  more  on  the  field,  or  to  go  on  with  the 
Serbs  and  meet  it  more  dreadfully  in  the  rocks 
and  snows  of  Albania.  To  those  who  remembered 
how  the  Austrian  prisoners  at  Vrnjatchka  Ban]  a 
welcomed  their  captivity  in  the  hands  of  the  English, 
and  how  they  looked  with  horror  upon  the  advance 
of  their  own  armies  into  Serbia,  it  was  a  very  grievous 
thought  that  they  too  would  soon  be  at  Rashka, 
dirty,  verminous,  unfed,  and  without  shelter,  with 
the  same  poor  chance  of  life  as  Madjaroschi  and  the 
Germans.  In  fact,  many  Austrians  seem  to  have  got 
through  alive  and  are  now  in  Sardinia.  But  how 
many  of  our  own  Vrntse  men  are  safe,  and  how  many 
have  fallen  in  fresh  battles  or  become  the  food  of 
crows  and  wolves  on  the  pitiless  mountains  of  the 
west,  we  shall  probably  never  know. 

The  fugitives  were  now  left  almost  to  their  own 
resources.  No  more  assistance  was  to  be  expected 
from  the  Serbian  authorities,  who  had  by  this  time 
abandoned  all  pretence  of  doing  anything  but  keep 
their  beaten  armies  together,  and  the  one  course 
for  the  English  was  to  cut  themselves  adrift.  The 
distance  to  Novi  Bazar  was  only  four  hours,  but  it 
brought  them  into  a  new  world.  Not  only  was  the 
town  thoroughly  Turkish  in  character,  the  white- 


214     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

washed  stone  houses  giving  place  to  architecture  of 
rubble  and  wood,  but  it  showed  hardly  any  of  the 
signs  of  disorganisation  which  marked  Rashka  no 
less  than  Kraljevo.  Rashka  was  full  of  wandering 
and  aimless  people  and  broken  and  abandoned 
automobiles  and  carts.  Novi  Bazar,  except  that  the 
bread  shops  were  under  armed  guards,  was  carrying 
on  its  ordinary  life,  and  the  shopkeepers  gossiped 
and  chaffered  as  if  the  enemy  were  a  thousand  miles 
away  and  still  faced  by  an  unbeaten  and  well-equipped 
army.  There  was  not  a  hint  of  that  terrible  proces- 
sion which  thundered  down  the  road  to  Mitro- 
vitsa,  thirty  miles  to  the  east,  fleeing  from  the 
wrath  to  come.  The  two  things  in  Novi  Bazar  which 
made  the  most  vivid  impression  upon  those  who 
saw  them  were  the  magnificent  cats  which  strolled 
about  the  shops  and  the  gentleman,  armed  with  a 
razor  and  a  piece  of  looking-glass,  who  sat  shaving 
himself  in  the  drain  which  ran  down  the  middle 
of  the  street.  The  atmosphere  of  confusion  and 
uncertainty  had  been  left  behind,  and  the  party 
never  encountered  it  again.  Two  nights  were  spent 
outside  the  town,  and,  reinforced  by  Stajitch,  a 
young  Serb,  who  did  invaluable  service  as  inter- 
preter, courier,  and  bargainer  in  strange  places,  the 
fugitives  clambered  up  into  the  hills  towards  the 
village  of  Tutin. 

Much  of  that  day's  journey  was  done  on  foot,  and 
the  English  learnt,  after  some  heart-breaking  sprawl- 
ing through  the  muddy  tracks,  that  when  a  peasant 
in  those  parts  says  that  your  destination  is  three 
hours'  journey  away  he  means  six.  The  whole 
party  was  exhausted  by  the  time  they  reached 


THE  ESCAPE  OF  THE   THREE        215 

Tutin,  three  hours  after  nightfall,  and  the  floor 
of  the  Nachelnik's  office  was  as  welcome  as  the 
softest  of  beds  could  have  been.  Tutin  was  a  village 
of  stone  houses  with  high  wooden  roofs,  and  lay  in 
a  treeless  upland  valley  3,000  feet  above  the  sea. 
From  this  point  the  carts  could  not  go.  The  baggage 
was  therefore  lashed  on  to  pack-horses,  and  the 
English  went  on  foot.  It  should  be  stated  that  until 
they  reached  Scutari  they  had  nothing  to  pay  for 
transport.  Nothing  could  surpass  the  willingness 
of  the  officials  and  common  people  in  the  country 
districts  to  make  the  escape  of  the  English  easy. 

The  first  march  extended  over  eleven  hours,  and 
consisted  largely  of  monotonous  tramping  round 
the  shoulders  of  the  hills  with  the  ultimate  objective 
in  full  view  the  whole  time.  After  dark  they  stumbled 
down  a  precipitous  descent,  crossed  a  bridge,  and 
arrived  in  a  gentle  shower  of  rain  at  Rozhai,  the 
first  village  in  Montenegro.  There  they  spent  a  night 
on  the  floor  of  the  village  inn,  too  weary  even  to 
complain  of  the  cockroaches  with  which  it  was 
infested.  Next  day  they  started  off  again  with  fresh 
pack-horses  and  climbed  over  a  pass  to  Vrbitsa. 
There  they  occupied  the  floor  of  a  friendly  cottage, 
sleeping  thirteen  together  in  one  small  room,  after 
a  dreadful  slaughter  of  bugs.  Another  day  carried 
them  down  to  Berane,  a  long,  straggling  town  built 
of  wood  and  lying  in  a  valley  of  extraordinary  beauty. 
There  the  bridge  was  broken  and  they  crossed  the 
swirling  river  in  a  boat.  They  found  three  beds 
in  a  homely  inn  at  Berane  and  a  shop  full  of  "  Turkish 
delight,"  of  which  they  consumed  vast  quantities. 
Lunch  was  made  memorable  by  the  cook,  who  not  only 


216     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

sampled  the  food  as  she  cooked  it,  using  her  fingers 
instead  of  a  fork,  but,  finding  it  unevenly  divided 
between  two  tables,  snatched  up  sundry  pieces  and 
carried  them  from  one  to  the  other.  The  only  other 
excitement  was  the  cleaning  of  their  boots  by  the 
hospitable  landlady.  She  plunged  them  into  a  tub  of 
water,  and  they  remained  wet  for  a  whole  week. 
A  short  journey  along  the  valley  on  the  following 
day  ended  at  Andrijevitsa,  the  junction  between 
their  route  and  that  from  Ipek,  by  which  the  less 
fortunate  refugees  were  afterwards  to  travel. 

Here  the  fatigues  of  the  voyage  should  have  ceased. 
The  rough  tracks  over  the  hills  by  which  they  had 
come  merge  at  Andrijevitsa  into  a  well-engineered 
and  macadamised  road,  practicable  for  automobiles 
and  carriages.  A  telegram  to  Podgoritsa  was  to  have 
summoned  a  military  car  big  enough  to  take  all  the 
party  and  their  baggage  down  to  civilisation  and  the 
coast.  Unhappily,  the  rivers  had  washed  away 
bridges  and  eaten  out  sections  of  the  road,  and  there 
was  nothing  for  it  but  to  push  on  for  two  more  days 
on  foot.  By  this  time  one  or  two  men  were  suffering 
from  diarrhoea,  and  it  was  fortunate  that  more 
horses  could  be  got  at  Andrijevitsa  than  were 
required  for  the  baggage  alone.  A  long  stage  was 
accomplished  by  alternate  walking  and  riding,  and 
twice  where  the  bridges  had  disappeared  the  dis- 
gusted travellers  could  see  their  well-metalled  road 
running  smoothly  along  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river,  while  they  sprawled  and  scrambled  through 
indescribable  mud  and  undergrowth  at  the  rate  of  a 
mile  and  a  half  an  hour.  After  a  night  spent  in  wet 
clothes  on  a  floor  at  Yabuka  the  expedition  arrived 


THE  ESCAPE  OF  THE  THREE       217 

at  Lieva  Rieka,  from  which  automobiles  could   run 
the  whole  way  to  Podgoritsa. 

The  march  had  been  completed  just  in  time.  The 
weather  had  been  good  while  the  party  was  tramp- 
ing over  the  rolling  hills,  and  they  left  Lieva  Rieka 
in  a  military  automobile  just  as  the  snow  began  to 
fall.  By  the  time  they  had  traversed  the  barren 
rocks  between  that  place  and  Podgoritsa  the  moun- 
tains were  all  white.  Podgoritsa  was  a  dull  town, 
lying  at  the  edge  of  a  shingly  desert,  the  monotonous 
sweep  broken  by  nothing  but  three  stunted  trees, 
the  skeleton  of  a  dead  horse,  a  few  flocks  of  sheep, 
and  the  scattered  travellers  who  passed  across  it  to- 
wards the  lake  of  Scutari.  Three  days  were  spent 
here  while  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gordon  and  Miss  Brindley 
went  to  Cettinje  to  interview  the  British  Minister. 
Nothing  varied  the  monotony  of  this  halt  but  an 
attack  of  pleurisy,  which  sent  one  of  the  party  to 
bed,  and  the  discovery  of  a  large  stock  of  chocolate 
in  a  shop.  Then  another  automobile  carried  the 
thirteen  down  to  the  lake,  where  they  waited  several 
hours  for  the  steamer  which  the  authorities  had 
promised.  Here  their  luck  seemed  for  the  first  time 
to  fail  them.  When  the  steamer  arrived,  the  captain 
refused  to  leave  the  quay.  He  had  come  for  a  cargo 
of  "  mattresses,"  and  knew  nothing  of  any  refugees. 
After  fruitless  argument,  the  English  spread  their 
blankets  in  an  empty  storehouse  and  prepared  for 
another  night  on  the  boards,  while  Stajitch  hurried 
back  to  communicate  with  the  Prefect  of  Podgo- 
ritsa. Just  as  sleep  was  falling  upon  the  occupants 
of  the  magazine  Stajitch  returned.  There  had  been 
a  mistake  in  a  telegram.  The  Serb  word  "stramatsa  " 


218     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

means  "  things  strewn,"  and  consequently  "  mat- 
tresses "  ;  while  "  stranatsa  "  means  "  strangers." 
Ill-humour  vanished  in  a  shout  of  laughter,  and  at 
10  o'clock  at  night  the  steamer  set  off,  to  churn  its 
way  at  three  miles  an  hour  to  Scutari.  In  that  town 
decent  accommodation  was  found  in  a  hotel,  and  for 
the  first  time  since  leaving  Kraljevo  there  was  an 
opportunity  for  real  washing.  At  Scutari  all  the 
troubles  and  difficulties  of  the  flight  seemed  to  be  at 
an  end.  The  town  had  some  modern  streets  and 
shops,  and  the  precious  money,  which  had  been 
hitherto  reserved  for  emergencies,  was  now  freely 
spent  in  the  purchase  of  native  stuffs  and  curios  of  all 
sorts.  One  delightful  old  gentleman,  who  concealed 
the  religion  of  a  Christian  beneath  the  costume  of 
a  Turk,  and  combined  the  courtly  manners  of  an 
Albanian  chieftain  with  the  commercial  aptitude 
of  a  Jew  pedlar,  must  have  made  several  pounds  of 
profit  out  of  the  band  of  refugees.  At  Scutari,  too, 
they  found  signs  of  the  nearness  of  home  in  the 
scattered  English  phrases  which  greeted  them  in 
the  streets.  At  Berane  and  Podgoritsa  they  had 
encountered  Montenegrins  who  spoke  English  with 
a  Yankee  accent,  but  at  Scutari  it  was  real  English. 
A  child  would  hold  out  its  hand  for  a  copper  and 
say  "  Garn  wid  yer ! "  and  an  occasional  "  Hello, 
Johnny  !  "  or  "  Good-morning,  Jack  !  "  showed  that 
this  "  pure  well  of  native  English  undefiled  "  had 
been  sunk  during  the  international  occupation  of  the 
time  of  the  Balkan  wars.  All  these  things  strength- 
ened the  feeling  that  here  at  last  was  the  end  of  the 
time  o-f  trouble.  But  the  sense  of  security  had  no 
real  justification.  One  of  the  party  saw  a  Turkish 


THE  ESCAPE  OF  THE   THREE        219 

gentleman  walking  down  the  main  street  with  a 
tattered  boot  on  one  foot  and  a  slipper  on  the  other. 
No  boots  had  been  imported  into  Scutari  for  months, 
and  if  it  was  difficult  for  boots  to  come  in,  it  would 
be  difficult  for  refugees  to  get  out.  There  was  also 
a  vast  army  of  other  fugitives,  military  and  civilian, 
approaching  Scutari  from  the  east,  and  unless  the 
thirteen  could  procure  transport  immediately,  they 
might  be  overtaken  and  delayed  in  favour  of 
the  Serb  Government,  the  foreign  ministers  and 
attaches,  and  other  people  of  more  importance  than 
themselves.  There  were  two  possible  ways  of  escape. 
One  was  by  an  Italian  steamer  from  San  Giovanni  di 
Medua,  twenty-five  miles  away,  and  the  Italian  consul 
declared  that  that  was  the  better.  On  the  other  hand 
the  Governor  of  Scutari,  which,  though  technically  in 
Albania,  had  been  for  some  months  in  the  hands  of 
the  Montenegrins,  advised  a  journey  on  horseback 
down  the  coast  to  Durazzo.  From  there  a  steamer 
could  carry  the  English  people  safely  to  Italy,  while 
the  harbour  of  San  Giovanni  was  beset  with  sub- 
marines. After  three  or  four  days  of  hesitation  and 
debate  it  was  decided  to  go  on  horseback  to  Alessio, 
and  there  come  to  a  fresh  determination,  whether 
to  ride  on  to  Durazzo  or  to  embark  at  San  Giovanni. 
With  the  express  promise  of  the  Montenegrins  that 
fresh  horses  would  be  provided  at  Alessio,  the  expe- 
dition once  more  started  on  its  way. 

As  very  few  of  the  party  had  ever  ridden  anything 
more  formidable  than  a  pack-horse,  the  departure 
from  Scutari  must  have  been  a  remarkable  spectacle. 
The  journey  itself  was  performed  at  a  walking  pace, 
and  as  the  start  had  been  delayed,  two  stages  were 


220     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

required  instead  of  one.  On  the  first  day  there  was  a 
dramatic  encounter  with  the  advance  guard  of  the 
British  Adriatic  Mission,  on  its  way  to  bring  relief 
to  the  refugees  from  Serbia.  The  relief  expedition  was 
in  no  better  case  than  the  refugees,  an  Austrian  sub- 
marine having  sent  all  their  baggage  to  the  bottom  of 
the  sea  the  night  before.  It  was  a  grimly  humorous 
experience  for  those  who  were  fleeing  before  the  enemy 
to  be  asked  if  they  could  lend  any  spare  underclothing 
to  their  countrymen  fresh  from  England.  Changes 
of  underclothing,  like  soap  and  razors,  had  long  since 
become  superfluities,  accepted  with  indifference  and 
lost  without  regret. 

The  night  of  that  day  was  spent  at  Barbaloush  in  a 
Turkish  inn,  where  the  horses  slept  on  the  ground  floor 
and  the  travellers  on  the  floor  above.  Arrived  at 
Alessio,  a  picturesque  accumulation  of  rubble  across  a 
shaking  bridge  dominated  by  a  Venetian  citadel,  the 
fugitives  plunged  into  a  series  of  ludicrous  mishaps. 
They  were  told  that  a  motor  boat  was  then  in  the 
harbour  of  San  Giovanni  and  would  take  them  down 
the  coast  to  Durazzo.  The  bolder  spirits  dashed  off 
as  fast  as  their  horses  could  carry  them,  the  less 
experienced  riders  ambling  more  safely  in  the  rear. 
By  the  time  that  the  tail  of  the  procession  was 
approaching  San  Giovanni  the  head  was  coming  back 
at  full  speed.  For  some  obscure  reason  the  boat  could 
not  take  the  English  on  board  at  San  Giovanni ;  they 
must  go  back  to  Alessio  and  drop  down  the  river  in 
small  craft  and  embark  at  the  mouth.  Back  rode  the 
cavalcade,  and  as  there  was  need  for  haste,  Blease 
unfolded  his  long  legs  from  his  horse  and  walked. 
Once  more  in  Alessio,  they  learnt  that  the  boat  would 


THE  ESCAPE  OF   THE   THREE        221 

not  have  them  after  all,  and  they  received  another 
staggering  blow  in  the  information  that  the  Albanian 
authorities  in  Alessio  had  heard  nothing  about  them, 
that  the  promised  horses  had  not  been  obtained,  and 
that  it  was  not  at  all  likely  that  horses  could  be  found 
at  all.  There  was  nothing  to  be  done  but  occupy  the 
floor  of  the  Grand  Hotel,  a  picturesque  hovel,  which 
provided  one  bedroom  and  a  landing  for  the  thirteen, 
their  escort  of  two  gendarmes,  and  two  officers,  one 
Serb  and  the  other  Albanian,  who  drank  heavily  at 
dinner  and  coughed  and  expectorated  all  night. 

Next  morning  the  two  Gordons  and  Blease  set  off 
in  a  blinding  gale  of  rain  and  snow  to  San  Giovanni. 
There  they  hoped  to  find  a  ship  for  Durazzo,  or  even 
Brindisi,  or  the  people  at  the  Italian  wireless  station 
might  be  able  to  help.  They  arrived  wet  to  the  skin, 
and  were  cordially  welcomed  both  by  the  Italians  and 
by  the  Montenegrin  captain  of  the  port.  Nothing  was 
easier  than  to  do  what  they  wanted.  There  were  no 
submarines  about  that  day.  A  sailing  ship  would  take 
them  to  Durazzo  in  four  hours,  and  waited  only  for 
their  baggage.  Gordon  thereupon  rushed  back  to 
Alessio,  while  Mrs.  Gordon  and  Blease  dried  their 
clothes,  with  streaming  eyes  and  noses,  over  a  smoking 
wood  fire.  By  the  time  that  Gordon  had  brought  up 
the  main  body  the  shipman  had  changed  his  mind. 
Probably  he  was  afraid  of  submarines,  but  his  pretext 
was  that  the  wind  had  set  in  from  a  new  quarter. 
Mrs.  Gordon,  capable  of  any  degree  of  exertion,  was 
for  pushing  on  on  foot  to  Durazzo.  But  her  husband 
knew  his  men  better,  and  the  expedition  took  posses- 
sion of  the  floor  of  yet  another  inn,  determined  that, 
whatever  happened,  it  would  walk  no  more.  Like 


222     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

King  Charles  II.,  they  would  not  go  on  their  travels 
again. 

Five  weary  days  passed  without  any  event  of  impor- 
tance, and  the  stock  of  provisions  in  the  inn  steadily 
diminished.  Efforts  to  get  a  sailing  vessel  for  Durazzo 
were  fruitless.  The  submarines  held  the  whole  place 
in  terror.*  When  the  Adriatic  Mission's  ship  had  been 
sunk  a  visit  had  been  paid  to  San  Giovanni.  One 
torpedo  had  been  rushed  up  on  to  the  beach,  and 
another  lay  in  the  mud  at  the  bottom  of  the  harbour. 
The  excuse  for  keeping  in  port  was  the  unfavourable 
wind,  but  the  real  reason  was  probably  cowardice. 
A  French  aeroplane  passed  over  the  harbour  on  the 
third  day,  going  south  to  Valona.  No  sooner  was  it 
within  earshot  than  the  harbour  was  black  with  boats, 
pulling  desperately  for  the  shore  ;  and  long  after  thf 
aeroplane,  travelling  at  forty  miles  an  hour,  had 
crossed  the  utmost  limits  of  the  little  bay  the  seamen 
were  still  tugging  at  the  oars,  and  leaping  into  the 
shallows  and  scrambling  up  the  cliffs,  as  though  the 
devil  himself  were  behind  them.  Nothing  could  be 
done  with  the  coasting  ships.  An  Italian  steamer, 
the  Benedetto,  lay  in  the  harbour  and  a  French  steamer 
a  little  beyond  her,  but  they  showed  no  signs  of  moving, 
and  in  any  case  the  Frenchman  refused  to  take  any 
passengers.  The  Italian  would  sail,  some  day,  under 
escort,  but  no  definite  information  was  given  for  fear 
of  spies.  The  English  fraternised  with  two  French- 
men, who  had  got  through  by  the  north  of  Montenegro 
and  had  already  waited  for  ten  days  at  San  Giovanni. 

*  It  is  difficult  to  understand  why  the  Italian  Navy  should  have  failed 
to  keep  the  port  open.  The  day  after  the  English  refugees  left,  every  ship 
in  it  was  sunk  by  the  Austrians,  and  the  starving  Serbs,  who  came  later, 
found  biscuits  and  bacon  floating  in  the  sea  and  thrown  upon  the  beach. 


THE  ESCAPE  OF  THE   THREE        223 

An  English-speaking  Serb,  coming  on  foot  from  Ipek, 
whom  they  had  first  encountered  near  Andrijevitsa 
and  again  at  Podgoritsa,  hung  about  the  inn,  trying  to 
find  out  when  a  steamer  would  put  out.  Little  else 
varied  the  monotony  of  the  stay  at  San  Giovanni. 
Most  of  the  English  sat  in  the  inn  and  played  cards. 
An  attempt  at  football  laid  half  the  players  breathless 
on  their  backs  after  the  first  goal,  and  the  wind  and 
snow  coming  over  the  northern  rocks  made  less 
strenuous  outdoor  life  impossible  for  the  greater  part 
of  each  day.  One  or  two  visits  were  made  to  the 
dreadful  barracks  on  the  cliff,  where  a  number  of 
Montenegrin  soldiers  and  Albanian  carters  occupied  a 
great  unfurnished  room,  blown  through  and  through 
by  the  ice-cold  wind  and  darkened  by  the  smoke  of  a 
dozen  fires,  round  which  lay  the  victims  of  exposure, 
wrestling  with  pleurisy  and  pneumonia,  without 
bedding  and  without  drugs,  a  long  day's  journey  from 
the  nearest  doctor. 

At  last  a  broad  hint  came  from  the  wireless  station 
that  a  steamer  would  come  in  under  escort  next  day, 
and  the  cruiser  that  brought  her  in  would  take  the 
Benedetto  out.  The  inn  was  full  of  jubilation.  But 
within  two  hours  came  definite  news  that  the  Serbian 
Government  was  at  Scutari,  and  that  the  Benedetto  was 
to  be  kept  back  for  its  use.  Only  one  thing  was  pos- 
sible. Passages  must  be  obtained  on  the  French  ship. 
Lieutenant  Fabiano,  of  the  wireless  station,  provided 
a  letter  of  recommendation,  and  the  Gordons  used 
their  utmost  eloquence.  The  captain,  explaining  that 
he  had  neither  food  nor  cabin  accommodation,  and  that 
if  the  ship  was  torpedoed  there  would  not  be  boats 
enough  for  all,  at  last  gave  way.  At  half-past  7  on 


224     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

the  next  morning  the  party  was  roused,  grasped  the 
baggage,  and  rushed  down  to  the  beach,  and  at 
9  o'clock  the  Harmonie,  of  Marseilles,  put  out  to  sea. 
The  stern  cable  was  cut,  as  the  second  torpedo  was 
supposed  to  be  entangled  in  it.  Within  an  hour  there 
appeared,  almost  simultaneously,  the  Austrian  sub- 
marine and  the  Italian  cruiser  and  her  convoy.  The 
submarine  was  chased  away,  and  nothing  worse  befell 
the  fugitives  than  sea-sickness.  At  9  o'clock  at  night 
they  reached  Brindisi,  and  slept  on  the  floor  of  the 
cabin,  on  their  baggage,  or  on  coils  of  rope,  while  the 
locomotives  on  the  quay  whistled  a  lullaby.  Three 
days  more  brought  them  to  London,  rather  tired  of 
rice,  which  they  had  eaten,  curried  or  sugared,  twice  a 
day  for  nearly  five  weeks,  but  otherwise  none  the  worse 
for  their  adventure. 

The  chief  credit  for  the  success  of  the  expedition 
seems  to  belong  to  Gordon,  though  how  much  was  due 
to  Mrs.  Gordon's  command  of  the  Serb  language  cannot 
be  estimated.  The  thanks  of  all  the  rest  are  also  due 
to  Cutting  and  Watmough,  both  British  Red  Cross 
Society's  men,  who  lit  fires  and  cooked  under  all  sorts 
of  impossible  conditions.  The  rest  did  little  more  than 
pull  their  own  weight,  but  as  West,  of  the  Serbian 
Relief  Fund,  began  the  journey  with  a  dangerously 
septic  place  on  his  arm,  and  Mawson,  a  Red  Cross 
chauffeur,  was  badly  hampered  by  his  attack  of 
pleurisy,  they  deserve  special  praise  for  doing  even 
that.  The  most  extraordinary  fact  in  the  story  of 
their  escape  is  that  of  all  the  thousands  of  men,  women, 
and  children  who  fled  from  Serbia  before  the  Austrians, 
a  mere  handful  took  the  same  route  as  Gordon's  party. 
So  far  as  the  English  themselves  know,  only  six 


THE  ESCAPE  OF  THE   THREE        225 

Serbs  followed  in  their  footsteps.  Everybody  else, 
drawn  by  the  fatal  lure  of  the  railway,  came  by  the 
routes  to  the  south,  and  crossed  in  the  snow  the  high 
mountains,  where  a  man  may  go  a  day's  journey  in 
fine  weather  and  see  hardly  a  blade  of  grass,  and  the 
leafless  trees  seem  not  to  grow  out  of  the  earth,  but 
to  be  thrust  into  cracks  between  the  stones,  like  darts 
scattered  from  some  gigantic  aeroplane.  Thousands 
of  people  perished  miserably  who  might  have  been 
saved  had  they  only  studied  the  maps. 

But  the  fault  was  not  only  that  of  the  refugees 
themselves.  The  Serbian  Government  must  bear 
some  of  the  blame.  It  was  primarily  the  duty  of  the 
officials  to  study  the  maps  and  control  the  flight. 
There  was  sufficient  Austrian  labour  in  the  country  to 
rebuild  the  few  bridges  that  were  broken  down  and 
repair  the  bad  places  in  the  road,  and  it  would  not  have 
been  difficult  to  provide  stores  of  food  at  regular 
intervals.  A  little  foresight  would  thus  have  made 
the  route  taken  by  Gordon  and  his  party  easy  and 
safe  for  thousands  of  Serbians.  But  the  Government 
was  so  ignorant  of  the  chances  of  escape  in  this  direc- 
tion that  it  even  recommended  the  English  to  take  the 
road  to  Mitrovitsa,  in  defiance  of  their  own  better 
judgment.  This  blundering  was  thoroughly  character- 
istic. Foresight,  preparation,  and  anxiety  to  prevent 
the  loss  of  life  were  never  Serbian  virtues,  and  the 
people  and  Government  in  their  hour  of  disaster  were 
almost  callous  in  their  neglect  of  precautions  against 
hardships  which  they  afterwards  bore  with  exemplary 
patience  and  fortitude. 

One  other  general  reflection  must  be  made.  If  the 
officials  were  at  fault  in  not  providing  more  wisely  for 


226     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

the  escape  of  civilians,  and  if  the  civilians  themselves 
were  amazingly  wanting  in  independence  of  judgment, 
there  can  be  no  question  that  all  the  refugees  behaved 
with  wonderful  magnanimity.  Gordon's  party  was 
for  three  days  in  the  midst  of  the  stream  of  flight, 
surrounded  by  a  host  of  Serbs,  of  whom  most  were 
hungry  and  many  were  armed.  There  was  one 
attempt,  by  some  young  recruits,  to  pilfer  from  a  pro- 
vision cart,  but  so  far  were  even  these  from  using 
violence,  that  they  laid  down  their  rifles  in  order  to 
get  at  the  food,  and  one  of  them  left  his  weapon  behind 
when  he  ran  off.  Everyone  could  see  that  the 
English  had  food,  but,  though  many  offered  to  buy  it, 
no  man,  however  great  his  own  hunger,  ever  tried  to 
extort  so  much  as  a  biscuit.  As  the  English  refugees 
were  practically  defenceless  in  that  terrible  confusion, 
this  abstention  from  violence  was  beyond  praise.  It 
was  the  most  striking  example  of  the  Serbian  virtues 
of  hospitality  and  patience  in  adversity  that  we 
received.  English  people  in  Serbia  have  complained 
of  many  inconveniences  and  discomforts.  But  the 
memory  of  these  has  been  obliterated  by  the  single 
fact  that,  when  the  Serbians  were  perishing  in 
thousands  of  starvation  and  exposure,  not  one  English 
man  or  woman  who  started  on  the  great  retreat 
suffered  any  abuse,  or  was  ever  allowed  to  be  in  danger 
of  death  through  want  of  food. 

W.  L.  B. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   AUSTRIANS    IN    VRNTSE. 

Arrival  of  Austrians — Sentinel  at  the  Terapia — Arrangement 
of  Hospitals — Frost-bitten  Soldiers — Soldiers'  Gratitude  and 
Docility — Ex-prisoners  replaced  by  Soldiers — Austrian  Desire 
for  Peace  —  Friendly  Behaviour  —  Hungary  Paramount  — 
"K.  u.  K." — Commissariat  Arrangements — Dislike  of  Germans — 
Ignorance  of  Red  Cross  Convention  and  of  British  Empire — A 
Magyar  Priest — Story  of  Little  "  Dushan  " — Lack  of  Enthu- 
siasm about  War  among  Austro-Hungarians. 

ON  the  evening  of  November  9th  the  Austrian 
troops  entered  our  little  town  without  tclat  and  with- 
out disturbance  of  any  kind.  Next  day  a  Hungarian 
lieutenant  visited  our  hospital,  formally  took  it  over, 
and  left  a  sentinel  at  the  gate.  This  sentinel,  like 
many  of  the  first  instalments  of  Austrian  troops  who 
appeared,  was  an  Austrian  Serb.  He  fraternised  at 
once  with  our  prisoners,  or  rather  ex-prisoners,  with 
the  patients,  and  with  ourselves.  One  of  our  first 
proceedings  was  to  take  the  photograph  which  appears 
in  Fig.  22.  This  sentinel  gave  a  harrowing  account  of 
the  privations  endured  on  the  march  from  Belgrade, 
and  informed  us  that  the  Austrians  were  far  from 
happy,  since  the  Italians  were  advancing  far  into 
Austria^on  the  one  side  and  the  Russians  doing  the 
same  ontthe  other.  This  was  strange  news  to  receive 
from_an|Austrian  soldier.  Unfortunately,  like  most 
of  what  we  heard  in  those  days,  from  whatever  source, 
it  turned  out  to  be  a  mere  fairy  tale.  The  correctness 
of  the  first  part  of  his  information,  however,  was  quite 
borne  out  by  the  appearance  of  the  soldiers  we  saw. 

15-3 


228     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

Very  dilapidated  and  weary  they  looked  as  regiment 
after  regiment  marched,  or  rather  straggled,  past  into 
the  mountains  after  the  retreating  Serbians  ;  the 
ex-prisoners,  who  still  continued  to  work  in  the  town 
just  as  before  the  Austrians  came,  presented  a  much 
more  prosperous  and  even  smarter  appearance,  in 
spite  of  all  the  months  of  captivity  through  which 
their  uniforms  had  had  to  serve  them. 

After  one  day  the  sentinel  was  removed  from  our 
hospital  and  we  were  free  to  go  about  as  we  liked. 
During  the  next  few  days  we  had  numerous  Austro- 
Hungarian  visitors  at  the  hospitals — generals,  colonels, 
a  count,  and  finally  Prince  Lobkowitz,  who  took  com- 
mand of  the  whole  district.  Colonel  Dr.  Pick  was  in 
charge  of  all  the  medical  arrangements,  and  his  first 
act  was  to  confirm  the  appointment  of  the  Heads  of  our 
Unit,  saying  he  did  not  wish  to  interfere  in  any  way 
with  our  management  of  the  hospitals  and  giving  us 
the  necessary  Austrian  authority  to  continue  our 
hospital  work  under  his  nominal  supervision.  He 
consulted  freely  with  us  and  Major  Gashitch  as  to  the 
best  means  of  rearranging  the  medical  work  at 
Vrnjatchka  Banja.  The  Baraque  and  School  had 
both  been  emptied  before  the  arrival  of  the  Austrians, 
but  the  latter  was  quickly  filled  with  crowds  of  frost- 
bitten Hungarians  returning  from  the  mountains, 
very  severe  cold  having  set  in  on  the  iyth.  Our  own 
hospitals  were  now  reduced  to  two,  the  Terapia  and 
the  Drzhavna,  the  latter,  as  heretofore,  remaining 
under  the  charge  of  Dr.  Christopherson.  Both  were 
overcrowded  with  Serb  wounded.  At  the  former, 
patients  overflowed  into  the  corridors,  where  we  put 
them  on  improvised  trestle-beds  and  mattresses. 


THE  AUSTRIANS  IN  FRNTSE        229 

The  evacuation  of  the  slighter  cases  was  then  rapidly 
carried  out,  and  as  frost-bitten  Hungarians  continued 
to  pour  into  the  town  we  were  asked  to  admit  some  of 
them  for  whom  no  other  accommodation  could  be 
found.  This  we  naturally  consented  to  do.  Only 
comparatively  slight  cases  reached  Vrntse,  but  the 
hospitals  were  crowded  with  these.  They  generally 
appeared  to  arrive  without  previous  notice  and  without 
any  provision  having  been  made  for  them.  One 
point  which  struck  us  about  these  soldiers  was  their 
extreme  docility  and  also  their  gratitude  for  small 
favours.  One  evening  a  hundred  men  turned  up  at 
the  School — mostly  cases  of  frost-bite,  still  able  to 
walk — whose  wounds  had  not  been  dressed  for  several 
days.  The  authorities  said  they  could  have  no  food 
till  noon  next  day.  It  was  obviously  not  part  of  our 
duty  to  make  up  for  deficiency  in  the  enemy  commis- 
sariat, so  the  men  went  to  sleep  supperless.  They 
accepted  this  arrangement  quite  contentedly,  and  were 
prepared  to  go  breakfastless  also,  but  common 
humanity  made  us  provide  them  next  morning  with 
tea  and  some  bread,  for  which  they  were  extremely 
grateful.  A  similar  instance  occurred  a  few  days 
later.  We  were  asked  one  evening  to  take  into  our 
main  hospital  thirty  men  who  had  just  arrived  and  for 
whom  no  other  accommodation  could  be  found.  They 
could  only  be  accommodated  with  hay  on  bare  boards 
in  three  small  rooms,  and  were  told  they  would  get  no 
rations  till  dinner-time  next  day.  The  accommoda- 
tion they  accepted  with  satisfaction,  the  information 
about  food  with  stoicism,  and  they  were  proportion- 
ately grateful  when  our  hospital  cook  managed  to 
provide  them  with  a  supper  of  thin  soup.  This  is  one 


23o     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN   SERBIA 

of  the  topsy-turvy  things  which  gave  a  comic  side 
to  the  tragedy  of  our  last  months  in  Serbia.  Here 
were  Austrian  soldiers  contentedly  accepting  remark- 
ably short  commons  and  sleeping  on  the  floor,  while 
Serbian  patients  and  orderlies  were  getting  ordinary 
rations  and  sleeping  in  comfortable  beds  under  their 
very  eyes.  These  soldiers  were  nearly  all  Hungarian, 
chiefly  Magyars,  as  were  most  of  the  regiments  we 
had  to  deal  with  during  the  months  we  worked  under 
the  Austrians. 

For  the  first  three  weeks  all  the  prisoners  who 
were  in  the  place  when  the  Austrians  came  were  left 
in  statu  quo  to  continue  the  work  on  which  they  were 
engaged,  and  those  in  our  hospitals  remained  working 
there  as  before.  Then  came  an  order  that  all  the 
prisoners  were  to  go,  and  they  left  for  Austria, 
expecting  to  have  a  fortnight's  furlough  at  home  before 
being  sent  again  to  the  front.  In  their  place  we  were 
then  given  Hungarian  soldiers  to  do  the  work  of  the 
hospital,  and  they  occupied  the  same  position  as  the 
former  prisoners,  being  put  under  the  command  of  the 
Heads  of  the  Mission,  and  requiring  passes  signed  by 
us  to  allow  them  to  go  into  the  town.  If  they  mis- 
behaved we  punished  them.  Thus,  when  on  one 
occasion  a  soldier  came  in  drunk,  he  was  promptly 
reprimanded  by  the  Professor  and  locked  up  in  a  spare 
room,  a  proceeding  which  was  fully  approved  by  the 
authorities  when  reported  to  them.  This  condition 
of  things  also  seemed  rather  topsy-turvy,  but  the 
soldiers  accepted  it  quite  as  a  matter  of  course.  They 
were  very  pleased  to  be  out  of  the  fighting  line  and 
quite  willing  to  work  for  us.  Most  of  them  knew  no 
German  or  Serbian,  but  the  Heads  of  the  Unit  knew  a 


THE  AUSTRIANS  IN  PRNTSE        231 

little  Hungarian,  which  is  always  a  sure  way  to  win 
Magyar  devotion.  As  the  regiments  moved  on,  the 
soldiers  were  changed — an  awkward  proceeding  for 
the  work  of  the  hospital.  A  party  of  Roumanians 
from  Transylvania  stayed  longest,  probably  because 
they  were  of  less  use  in  the  campaign  than  the  Magyars. 
They  spoke  only  Roumanian,  but  they  were  excellent 
workers.  When  they  heard  they  were  to  go,  the 
corporal  in  charge  implored  the  Professor,  in  a  fervid 
mixture  of  Roumanian  with  broken  Magyar  and  Serb, 
to  intercede  with  the  authorities  that  they  might  stay 
on  ;  but  intercession  was  in  vain. 

It  was  noticeable  that  among  the  soldiers  we  came 
across,  in  whatever  capacity,  we  found  no  shade  of 
animosity  towards  ourselves  as  representatives  of  an 
enemy  country.  Their  interest,  indeed,  in  the  war 
seemed  often  of  the  slightest,  and  universally  their  one 
desire  was  that  the  war  should  end,  so  that  they  could 
return  to  their  homes.  Against  the  Italians  there  did 
appear  sometimes  a  slight  expression  of  bitterness, 
but  with  regard  to  all  the  other  Allies,  including  the 
Serbs,  there  seemed  a  curious  absence  of  animosity. 
Most  of  the  troops  we  saw  in  Serbia  had  come  from 
either  the  Russian  or  the  Italian  front  and  were 
heartily  sick  of  fighting.  Just  before  Christmas  there 
was  a  very  general  belief  among  the  Austrians  that 
peace  was  near  at  hand.  Probably  it  was  peace 
based  on  Austro-German  success  that  was  expected, 
but  we  do  not  think  that  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
Austrian  army  cared  much  about  the  terms  on  which 
peace  would  be  made  so  long  as  it  were  peace  indeed. 
One  evening  we  took  into  our  hospital  a  party  of 
soldiers,  for  whom  there  was  no  room  elsewhere,  who 


232     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

arrived  in  a  state  of  extreme  excitement,  declaring 
that  a  truce  of  three  months  had  been  agreed  on  by 
all  the  belligerents  ;  they  said  their  officer  had  called 
them  up  and  read  it  to  them  from  a  newspaper  as 
official.  In  consequence  they  fully  believed  they 
were  on  their  way  home.  So  strong  was  their  con- 
viction and  so  great  their  jubilation  that  they  infected 
the  members  of  the  Mission,  and  made  us  half  believe 
that  some  great  and,  it  was  to  be  hoped,  satisfactory 
event  had  occurred.  Next  day,  alas,  there  was 
disillusion. 

With  regard  to  the  behaviour  of  the  Austrian  soldiers 
to  the  Serbian  population,  that  was  undoubtedly 
good,  as  far  as  observation  in  a  limited  area  went. 
There  were  practically  no  stories  of  atrocities  or  deeds 
of  violence,  and  little  serious  pillaging,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  half-starved  soldiers  were  for  many  weeks 
wandering  about  the  neighbourhood  and  constantly 
begging  for  food  at  villas  and  cottages.  With  the 
soldiers  in  the  town  the  village  women  drove  a  thriving 
trade  in  apples  and,  I  fear,  also  in  rakija,  the  native 
spirit.  Indeed,  in  many  ways,  the  place  seemed  so 
little  changed  that  it  was  difficult  sometimes  to  realise 
that  it  was  in  the  hands  of  invaders.  There  were  the 
same  grey  uniforms  in  the  market-place  and  streets, 
the  wearers  loafing  about  and  fraternising  with  the 
peasants ;  there  was  little  to  show  that  whereas 
formerly  they  were  the  conquered  now  they  were  the 
conquerors.  In  our  hospital  Serbian  and  Austrian 
patients  were  on  perfectly  friendly  terms.  This 
friendly  behaviour  on  the  part  of  the  soldiers  was  the 
more  surprising  because,  as  already  mentioned,  they 
were  largely  Magyars,  and  between  Magyars  and 


THE  AUSTRIANS  IN  FRNTSE        233 

Serbs  is  long-standing  animosity ;  also  there  is  no 
doubt  that  in  the  first  invasion  of  Serbia  the  perpetra- 
tion of  terrible  atrocities  stained  the  fair  fame  of 
Hungary. 

Our  own  part  of  Serbia  seemed  wholly  in  the 
hands  of  the  Hungarians.  The  Hungarian  flag — the 
materials  for  which  were  begged  from  our  hospital 
stores — floated  over  the  "  Stadt  Komando,"  and 
official  notices  were  headed  "  K.  u.  K."  ("  Kaiserlich 
und  Koniglich  "),  not  "  K.  K."  ("  Kaiserlich  Konig- 
lich  "),  as  is  usual  in  Austria.  The  insertion  of  the 
word  and  seems  in  some  way  satisfactory  to  Hungarian 
national  pride,  probably  as  marking  more  separation 
between  Empire  and  Monarchy  than  is  denoted  by  the 
closer  proximity  of  "  K.  K."  !  All  the  principal 
officials  were  Hungarians  with  the  exception  of  Prince 
Lobkowitz,  who  was  Bohemian,  and  who  won  the 
good  opinion  of  all,  Britons  and  Serbs  included,  by 
his  kindness,  energy,  and  uprightness.  Many  were 
civilians  holding  commissions,  combatant  or  medical. 
An  "  Oberlieutenant,"  who  did  a  great  deal  of  the  real 
work  of  the  place  after  Prince  Lobkowitz  left,  the  next 
commandant  speaking  only  Magyar,  was  a  lawyer 
from  Budapest.  Most  of  the  medical  officers,  of  whom 
we  had  several  in  succession,  had  left  civilian  practices. 
In  the  officers,  as  in  the  soldiers,  we  found  no  signs  of 
animosity  towards  England  ;  they  still  seemed  to  look 
on  the  English  with  the  friendly  sentiments  which 
have  always  been  felt  towards  us  by  the  Hungarians, 
and  to  consider  the  war  as  an  interlude,  which,  when 
it  was  over,  would  leave  things  just  as  they  were 
before.  The  officers,  especially  the  doctors,  struck  us 
as  beingSefficient  and  hard-working,  and  as  trying  to 


234     ^  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN   SERBIA 

do  the  best  for  the  place  and  the  inhabitants  that 
circumstances  allowed. 

The  Austro-Hungarians  showed  themselves  quite 
ready  to  work  with  the  few  Serbian  officials  who 
remained  in  the  place.  The  mayor  had  fled,  but  an 

elderly  Serb  doctor,  Dr.  G ,  was  made  mayor  in 

his  place,  while  the  energetic  and  capable  Mr.  Mika 
Markovitch  became  vice-mayor.  The  commissariat 
arrangements  were  carried  out  by  the  mayor  and  vice- 
mayor.  Prices  were  fixed  officially  for  articles  like 
bread,  milk,  and  eggs  ;  if  these  were  exceeded  the 
sellers  were  liable  to  punishment.  Bread  and  milk 
could  only  be  bought  on  a  ticket,  and  when  milk 
became  scarce,  as  it  often  did  after  Christmas,  the 
tickets  were  given  as  far  as  possible  only  to  families 
with  children.  But  as  the  prices  fixed  were  much  lower 
than  what  would  have  been  the  market  rate  in  such  a 
time  of  scarcity,  the  peasants  used  to  sell  their  milk 
and  other  produce  surreptitiously,  and  those  who  had 
money  and  knew  where  to  go  could  generally  get  what 
they  required. 

The  hospitals  were  supplied  from  a  central  magazine 
in  charge  of  our  former  commissaire  at  the  Drzhavna, 
Mr.  Jovanovitch,  who  was  made  head  commissaire  by 
the  Austrians.  His  knowledge  of  languages,  especially 
of  Magyar,  made  him  of  great  value  to  the  Hungarian 
conquerors,  and  he  carried  out  his  very  onerous  duties 
under  the  new  conditions  with  the  same  zeal  and 
industry  which  he  had  always  shown  under  the  old. 
Peasants  were  required  to  bring  a  certain  portion  of 
their  milk  to  the  magazine  every  day  ;  they  were  at 
liberty  afterwards  to  sell  the  remainder. 

The  Hungarians  certainly  attempted  to  do  some- 


THE  AUSTRIANS  IN  FRNTSE        235 

thing  with  regard  to  sanitation,  and  waged  a  fairly 
successful  war  against  the  louse,  the  dreaded  carrier  of 
typhus.  The  Thresh  disinfector  remained  at  the 
Drzhavna  and  was  kept  busily  at  work.  There  was, 
however,  often  a  great  deal  of  muddle  ;  the  com- 
missariat arrangements  for  the  troops  were  certainly 
defective,  and  if  we  had  suffered  from  orders  and 
counter-orders  under  the  Serbs,  this  was  still  worse 
under  the  Austrians.  Perhaps  the  fact  that  the  rail- 
ways were  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  Germans  had 
something  to  do  with  many  of  the  difficulties  which 
arose.  If  the  Hungarians  are  unwilling  foes  of  the 
English,  as  we  think  they  are,  they  are  quite  as 
obviously  unwilling  allies  of  the  Germans.  It  was 
generally  easy  to  find  a  common  topic  of  interest  in 
conversing  with  Hungarian  officers,  and  that  consisted 
in  making  scathing  remarks  about  the  Germans  !  Of 
course  a  common  subject  of  conversation  was  the 
Geneva  Convention  and  its  application.  We  were 
always  assured  that  they  intended  to  adhere  to  the 
Geneva  Convention,  but  we  were  surprised  to  find  how 
little  was  known  of  the  terms  of  this  Convention  by 
all  the  Austro-Hungarians  with  whom  we  came  in 
contact.  The  Medical  Director-General  of  the 
Austrians  in  Serbia  visited  us,  and  we  overheard  him 
telling  another  officer  that  all  members  of  the  missions 
would  be  interned  until  the  end  of  the  war.  This  was 
clearly  a  contravention  of  the  Geneva  Convention,  and 
in  all  discussions  with  the  Austrians  on  this  subject  we 
continued  to  point  this  out.  The  general  opinion  of 
the  Austro-Hungarians  at  Vrntse  seemed  to  be  that 
we  should  not  be  required  to  treat  Austrians,  but  that 
we  should  either  be  kept  till  the  end  of  the  war  to 


236  A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

treat  Serbians  in  Serbia  or  be  sent  to  look  after  the 
prisoners  in  a  prisoners'  camp  somewhere  in  Austria- 
Hungary.  Later  the  prevalent  opinion  appeared  to 
be  that  all  the  women  would  be  sent  home,  but  all  the 
men,  medical  or  otherwise,  would  be  retained  through- 
out the  war.  The  best  informed  of  our  Austro- 

Hungarian  friends  was  Captain  Dr.  Otto  P ,  an 

elderly  Hungarian,  who  before  the  war  had  practised 
as  a  civilian  surgeon  at  Pancsova  and  who  became  our 
medical  commandant  after  Colonel  Pick's  departure. 
To  his  courtesy,  practical  good  sense,  and  kindly  feel- 
ing towards  us  we  were  much  indebted  during  our 
three  months  under  his  charge.  The  following  inci- 
dent illustrates  the  curious  ideas  about  English 
government  which  are  prevalent  even  among  intelli- 
gent and  well-informed  Hungarians.  After  a  long 
conversation  which  the  Professor  had  with  him  one 
day  on  the  subject  of  the  politics  and  history  of  Hun- 
gary, he  said  suddenly,  "  Well,  you  English  treat  your 
colonies  so  badly  !  "  "  How  so,"  said  the  Professor. 
"  Well,  you  do  not  allow  them  to  buy  or  sell  except 
with  the  mother  country,"  was  his  answer  ;  and 
nothing  Mr.  Berry  could  say  would  move  him  from  his 
fixed  belief  that  such  were  the  trade  relations  between 
England  and  her  colonies.  Equally  surprising  ignor- 
ance about  circumstances  nearer  home  was  displayed 
by  another  Hungarian  doctor  of  good  family  and 
education,  who  made  the  common  but  ridiculous 
assertion  that  "  the  Serbs  had  killed  the  Austrian  Arch- 
duke." He  seemed  much  interested  and  surprised  to 
learn  that  Cabrinovitch,  Prinzip,and  the  other  assassins 
were  Austrian  Slav  subjects,  and  not  Serbs,  as  the 
Austrians  endeavour  to  make  the  world  believe. 


THE  AUSTRIANS  IN  FRNTSE        237 

The  most  dramatic  figure,  however,  that  we  came 
across  was  a  young  Magyar  priest,  who  in  uniform 
looked  very  unpriestlike.     He  came   to  us  with  a 
message   from   the   Austrian   Red   Cross   about   our 
correspondence  and  quite  took  the  British  missions 
under  his  protection.     He  had  studied  in  Italy,  spoke 
Italian  perfectly,  and  English  and  French  tolerably. 
He    held    open-air    services    and    was    an    eloquent 
preacher,  preaching  first  in  Magyar,  then  translating 
into   German,   and   finally   saying   a   few   words   in 
English  if  any  members  of  British  missions  happened 
to  be  present.     He  studied  Serbian  customs  and  learnt 
Serbian  airs.     He  made  some  of  our  nurses  teach  him 
"  It's  a  long  way  to  Tipperary,"  and  sang  it  at  the 
officers'  mess.     Even  the  upper-class  Serbians,  who 
not    unnaturally    felt    very    bitterly    towards    the 
Austrians,    and    generally    declined    to    meet    them 
socially,  made  an  exception  in  his  case,  freely  recog- 
nising his  spirit  of  toleration  and  genuine  Christianity. 
One  day  he  told  the  following  pretty  story  from  his 
experience  : — During  the  Austrian  advance,  when  with 
his  regiment  as  chaplain,  the  priest,  with  some  of  the 
officers,  spent  the  night  in  a  lonely  cottage  where  there 
was  only  a  woman  with  a  little  boy  five  or  six  years 
old.     The    mother,    who   had    been   told   to   expect 
terrible  treatment  from  the  Austrians,  was  in  great 
trepidation,   and  when  the  priest  called  the  child, 
petted  him  and  gave  him  chocolate,  she  watched  in 
terror  from  a  corner.     "  Dushan,  will  you  go  with  me 
to    Hungary  ?  "    said    the    priest    in    fun.     Dushan 
looked  uncertain,  but,  seeing  his  mother  waving  an 
energetic  negative  from  her  corner,  thought  it  wise 
to  say  "  No  !  "     Next  morning  the  Austrians  left,  but 


238     A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

they  had  not  gone  far  when  they  heard  little  feet 
pattering  behind  and  the  small  Dushan  appeared 
carrying  some  postcards.  "  These  are  from  father, 
who  is  a  prisoner,"  he  cried,  "  and  mother  says  I  may 
go  with  you."  But,  alas,  they  were  going,  not  to 
Hungary,  but  to  Montenegro,  so  a  soldier  was 
despatched  to  take  Dushan  home. 

Some  time  later,  however,  the  priest  got  a  few 
weeks'  leave  and  started  for  Hungary.  At  Belgrade 
he  bethought  him  of  Dushan,  and  he  asked  the  com- 
mandant for  leave  to  take  the  child  with  him.  The 
commandant  was  inclined  to  jeer,  but  gave  the 
required  permission.  So  the  priest  went  to  the  village, 
fetched  Dushan,  and  dropped  him  at  the  prisoners' 
camp  at  Temesvar,  to  the  huge  delight  of  both  father 
and  child,  picking  him  up  on  his  return  journey  and 
restoring  him  to  his  mother.  This  story,  which  those 
who  know  the  narrator  have  no  difficulty  in  believing, 
has  appeared  in  Hungarian  papers. 

As  the  result  of  our  intercourse  with  Austro- 
Hungarians  several  points  made  a  deep  impression  on 
our  minds.  The  first,  and  a  very  obvious  one,  is  the 
enormous  power  of  the  German  and  Austrian  military 
system.  Except  for  this  power  in  the  hands  of  an 
autocratic  Government,  it  is  hardly  conceivable  that 
Austria-Hungary  would  be  fighting  against  us  now. 
With  the  conflicting  nationalities  of  which  the  Empire 
is  composed,  and  with  the  rooted  discontent  with  the 
Government  that  exists  so  widely,  public  opinion 
cannot  be  made  to  order,  as  seems  to  be  done  so 
successfully  in  Germany. 

No  one  can  mix  with  Austro-Hungarian  soldiers 
without  feeling  what  a  purely  artificial  thing  for  them 


THE  AUSTR1ANS  IN  VRN1SE        239 

in  many  respects  this  war  is.  The  Serbian  soldier 
has  his  heart  in  the  war — he  knows  he  is  fighting  for 
the  independence  of  his  country  ;  the  history  of  his 
ancestors,  the  deeds  of  national  heroes,  are  living 
influences  even  to  the  illiterate  peasant.  The  Czech, 
the  Croat,  the  Slovak  have  no  such  impetus — their 
national  history  is  in  abeyance.  With  the  Magyar  it  is 
different — his  national  history  is  a  very  living  influence ; 
but,  though  Hungary  may  have  to  lose  some  of  her 
territory  if  a  loser  in  the  war,  somehow  the  spirit  which 
must  have  characterised  the  Magyars  in  their  revolt 
against  Austria  last  century  seems  quite  absent  now. 

It  is  from  a  philosophical  point  of  view  an  extra- 
ordinary spectacle  to  see  these  masses  of  men,  torn 
from  their  homes  for  months,  now  running  into  years, 
engaged  in  the  murderous  work  of  killing  others,  wit- 
nessing horrible  scenes  of  carnage  affecting  their  friends 
and  comrades,  with  no  great  enthusiasm  to  carry  them 
on,  and  preserving  the  same  kindly,  friendly  spirit 
to  both  friends  and  foes  which  characterised  them 
before  the  war.  They  are  like  a  flock  of  sheep  driven 
they  know  not  where  :  "  Theirs  not  to  reason  why, 
theirs  but  to  do  and  die."  This  is  a  quotation  which 
may  apply  to  both  sheep  and  heroes,  and  indeed  the 
Austro-Hungarian  soldier  is  a  kind  of  mixture  of  both. 

Another  question  which  often  presented  itself  was, 
What  is  the  real  psychology  and  explanation  of  the 
atrocities  committed  in  this  war  in  accordance  with 
the  German  theory  of  "  frightfulness  "  ?  There  is 
indubitable  evidence  that  horrible  atrocities  were 
practised  at  Shabatz  and  elsewhere  in  the  first 
invasion  of  Serbia  by  Austrian  troops  of  Magyar  and 
German  nationality.  It  is  admitted  that  on  subse- 


24o     A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

quent  invasions  there  were  no  atrocities,  and,  as 
already  mentioned,  the  Magyars  we  came  across 
behaved  in  what  may  be  described  as  an  exemplary 
manner.  This  was  certainly  not  due  to  the  presence 
of  restraint,  for  they  were  constantly  to  be  met  with 
wandering  about  without  officers.  It  decidedly  tends 
to  show  that  the  responsibility  for  atrocities  is  to  be 
laid  at  the  doors  of  those  in  authority  more  than  on 
the  perpetrators,  and  that  if  the  "  bete  humaine  "  is 
present  in  most  natures  it  requires  not  merely  letting 
loose,  but  considerable  prodding,  before  it  comes  out 
of  its  hidden  dwelling-place  and  displays  its  horrors. 
The  want  of  enthusiasm  about  the  war  in  the  Austro- 
Hungarians  was  not  due  to  depression  caused  by  a 
sense  of  failure  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  opinion  that  the 
Central  Empires  were  winning  seemed  universal, 
though  probably  the  victory  would  not  be  all  that  the 
Germans  looked  for  at  the  beginning.  We  ourselves 
left  Austria-Hungary  very  depressed  on  this  score, 
and  were  much  relieved  to  find  a  very  different 
complexion  put  upon  the  case  in  Switzerland.  But, 
though  expecting  victory  and  longing  for  peace,  there 
did  not  seem  to  be  much  satisfaction  in  contemplating 
the  probable  result  of  the  war.  A  paramount  Ger- 
many was  certainly  not  regarded  as  an  unmixed 
blessing.  We  are  not  sure  that  Hungary  is  even  very 
keen  on  keeping  Serbia,  supposing  that  this  is  to  be 
Hungary's  share  of  the  spoils  of  victory.  The  Mag- 
yars know  that  every  increase  in  the  Slav  population 
of  the  monarchy  means  a  smaller  proportion  of 
Magyar  race,  and  will  tend  to  lessen  Magyar  power 
when  the  political  emancipation  of  the  Hungarian 
Slavs  comes,  as  come  it  must.  F  M  D  B 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

CAPTIVITY. 

Sense  of  Failure — Reorganisation  of  Work — The  Kitchen  Staff 
— Rations — The  Farmyard — A  Cold  Spell — Burst  Pipes — Mr. 
Jones — Our  Commissaire — Departure  of  Patients — Walks  in 
the  Neighbourhood — A  Serbian  Cottage — Condition  of  Peasants 
— Refugees  in  Vrntse — Commissariat  Arrangements — English 
Lessons — Slavas — Our  Isolation — Prevalence  of  Rumours — 
Lectures — Christmas  Tree — Theatricals — A  Serbian  Testimonial 
of  Appreciation  of  our  Work. 

ON  November  1st,  when,  as  recorded  in  Chap.  XIV., 
our  Austrian  prisoners  were  for  the  first  time  marched 
away,  we  were  allowed  to  retain  one  to  work  in 
the  hospital,  and  the  "  brand  snatched  from  the 
burning"  was  the  sergeant  at  the  School.  On  my 
way  home  after  wishing  the  others  good-bye  I  called 
in  at  the  School  to  arrange  about  the  accommodation 
for  the  Serbian  boys  who  were  to  replace  the  prisoners  ; 
and  the  sergeant  accompanied  me  on  to  the  Terapia. 
He  was  delighted  to  be  back  at  his  beloved  School,  and 
was  much  pleased  at  the  cordial  manner  in  which  the 
Serbian  patients  had  welcomed  his  return.  Noting 
that  I  looked  sad,  he  said  :  "  You  have  no  cause  for 
fear  ;  no  one  will  harm  anybody  in  the  Mission  ;  our 
people  always  respect  the  Red  Cross."  "  It  is  not 
that  which  troubles  me,"  I  replied  ;  "  I  am  thinking 
of  the  fate  of  our  prisoners,  of  the  fate  of  Serbia,  and 
how  this  is  the  end  of  all  our  work."  And  as  I  looked 
at  the  familiar  view — a  view  I  never  saw  without 
delight — the  great  grey  hou.se.  standing  ajone  and  the 

«,c.u.  1C 


242     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

beautiful  hills  behind  sloping  up  to  the  forests  of 
Gotch — it  appeared  to  me  as  if  everything  bore  a 
different  aspect  and  the  word  Failure  seemed  written 
over  the  whole  scene.  We  had  organised  a  great 
hospital  scheme,  had  trained  men  each  to  do  his  own 
special  work,  and  just  as  the  real  work  began,  the 
work  we  had  been  waiting  for,  the  work  for  which  we 
had  prepared,  we  saw  everything  collapse  and  our 
trained  workers  taken  away.  And  Serbia — Serbia 
whom  we  loved  both  for  her  own  sake  and  as  an  Ally 
in  the  great  cause  for  which  we  are  all  working, 
Serbia  with  her  glorious  past  and  her  heroic  present 
— was  prostrate  under  the  heel  of  the  invader  with 
none  to  rescue  or  to  help  ! 

A  minor  but  rather  acutely-felt  item  of  failure  was 
the  unfinished  slaughter-house.  If  the  Serbians  had 
only  been  more  expeditious  over  the  preliminaries,  or 
if  the  Austrians  had  but  postponed  their  arrival  for  a 
fortnight,  it  would  have  been  completed,  and  at  least 
have  remained  a  permanent  achievement  to  be 
utilised  at  some  future  time  ;  but,  alas,  the  slaughter- 
house stood  without  a  roof  and  with  the  unused 
materials  stacked  around.  These  materials  would 
undoubtedly  shortly  vanish,  and  the  chances  of  the 
slaughter-house  ever  being  completed  seemed  small. 

We  found  it  difficult  to  buckle  to  and  continue  our 
work  again  under  the  changed  and  depressing  con- 
ditions, but  most  of  the  Unit  rose  splendidly  to  the 
occasion.  Work  was  reorganised,  and  many  members 
took  on  jobs  which  they  had  certainly  not  come  out  to 
do.  In  the  place  of  about  thirty  prisoners  at  the 
Terapia  there  remained  only  eleven,  but  as  we  had 
now  only  two  hospitals  to  work,  several  members  of 


CAPTI7ITT  243 

the  Unit  had  time  on  their  hands.  Our  laundry  staff 
had  all  gone,  but  the  Sister  in  charge,  Sister  Davies, 
nobly  threw  herself  into  the  breach,  and  for  the  rest  of 
our  time  at  Vrntse  worked  in  the  laundry  herself  with 
a  couple  of  Austrians  and  a  variable  number  of  other 
assistants.  Other  sisters  undertook  different  depart- 
ments of  housework  hitherto  performed  by  prisoners, 
such  as  cleaning  of  corridors,  stairs,  bedrooms,  and 
baths. 

In  losing  Julius  we  were  left  without  a  cook  for  the 
staff.  Poor  Julius  !  He  was  one  of  the  few  prisoners 
who  showed  any  signs  of  satisfaction  at  the  prospect 
of  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Austrians.  Fond  as 
he  was  of  us,  I  think  he  would  have  been  quite  pleased 
to  see  the  grey  uniforms  of  the  conquerors  appear  at 
the  gates  and  would  have  cheerfully  marched  away 
with  them.  Instead  of  that  he  had  to  march  off  to 
Italy,  and  with  a  lame  leg  to  boot  ! 

It  is  said  that  when  the  Hour  strikes,  the  Man 
appears  !  This  was  true  of  our  kitchen  emergency, 
for  a  culinary  genius  stepped  into  the  breach.  Provi- 
dence had  sent  him  to  Serbia  in  the  same  ship  as  some 
members  of  our  Unit,  with  diplomatic  papers  to  the 
Serbian  Government  in  his  pocket  and  an  open  mind 
as  to  his  further  career.  He  came  on  to  Vrntse  as  a 
visitor,  was  annexed  by  the  Mission,  and  became  an 
orderly.  His  previous  experience  in  cookery  only 
amounted  to  a  few  amateur  experiments,  but  he  gave 
such  evidence  of  talent  that  he  was  made  Chef  with  a 
kitchen  staff  under  his  orders.  Second  in  command 
was  Dr.  Inglis,  who  by  the  loss  of  the  Merkur  had  been 
thrown  out  of  medical  employment.  Excellent  as  a 
cook,  she  was  too  soft-hearted  and  anxious  to  see 


244     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

everyone  well  fed  to  bear  sway  satisfactorily  in  a 
prisoners'  kitchen  !  Mrs.  Sandeman,  official  kitchen- 
maid,  refugee  from  another  mission,  forgetting  that 
somewhere  across  the  waters  she  had  a  staff  of  servants 
and  a  home  of  her  own,  peeled  potatoes  as  if  to  the 
manner  born,  and  was  up  daily  at  unearthly  hours  to 
give  early  risers  their  breakfasts.  Dr.  McLaren,  also 
shorn  of  much  of  her  medical  work,  washed  dishes 
vigorously,  and  was  warranted  to  get  more  plates  and 
cups  clean  in  a  given  time  than  anyone  in  Serbia. 
One  of  her  admirers  wrote  the  following  verse,  which 
was  wrapped  up  in  a  Christmas  cracker  : — 

"  Dr.  Ada  sadly  wishes 

Surgeon's  part  to  play, 
But  instead  she  washes  dishes 

All  the  livelong  day  ; 
And  so  long  the  foe  at  Nish  is 
Thus  she's  bound  to  stay  !  " 

Others  helped  in  the  kitchen  at  times — Miss  Dickinson, 
whose  activities  in  marketing  were  sadly  restricted, 
owing  to  there  being  little  in  the  market  to  buy,  and 
Mrs.  Eldred,  who  came  in  the  intervals  of  working  in 
a  dispensary  where  there  was  little  to  dispense.  The 
kitchen  staff,  and  more  especially  the  Chef,  had  to 
bear  the  brunt  of  many  attacks  and  to  keep  vigilant 
watch  and  ward.  What  with  nurses  who  considered 
they  were  within  their  rights  in  laying  hands  on  any- 
thing they  fancied  for  their  patients,  what  with 
zealous  patriots  who  thought  the  stores  ought  to  be 
eaten  up  as  rapidly  as  possible  so  that  they  should  not 
fall  into  the  clutches  of  the  Austrians,  what  with 
enthusiastic  philanthropists  who  hungered  to  scatter 
sugar  and  salt  broadcast  among  the  peasants,  the 


245 

position  of  guardian  of  the  stores  was  no  sinecure  ; 
and  to  join  the  kitchen  staff  was  certainly  not  the  way 
to  make  a  bid  for  popularity  ! 

The  Austrians  sent  us  daily  rations — black  bread, 
varying  in  amount  from  one-half  to  one-fifth  of  a  loaf 
per  head  ;  meat,  frequently  consisting  of  the  nearly 
meatless  ribs  of  some  ancient  cow  or  ox,  accompanied 
by  portions  of  those  organs  sold  under  the  cryptic 
term  of  "  lights,"  which  looked  more  suitable  for  a 
physiology  demonstration  than  for  the  kitchen. 
Sometimes  we  received  coffee  or  haricot  beans, 
besides  various  little  screwed-up  paper  packets  con- 
taining minute  quantities  of  whatever  delicacies  the 
magazine  possessed — such  as  tea,  sugar,  or  a  few  leaves 
of  herbs  or  vegetables.  But  with  the  help  of  Heinz's 
beans  and  Mackonochie  rations  wonderful  stews  were 
produced  from  these  unpromising  ingredients  ;  while 
as  to  our  puddings,  their  fame  spread  far  and  wide. 
Members  of  other  units  used  to  beg  for  invitations  on 
"  pudding  days."  But  on  inquiring  for  the  recipe  of 
some  chef  tfceuvre  the  ingredients  were  generally 
found  to  be  scraps  of  stale  black  bread,  Benger's  food, 
with  a  flavouring  of  jam  or  apples  ! 

The  Christmas  dinner  was  a  triumph.  It  was 
rumoured  beforehand  that  none  of  the  ordinary  in- 
gredients of  a  plum  pudding  were  to  be  had,  not  even 
the  plums.  All  the  same  a  pudding  not  unworthy  of 
Buszard  was  produced,  which,  if  it  was  slightly  lacking 
in  plums,  was  rich  in  coins,  thimbles,  and  other  keep- 
sakes ;  while  the  turkey,  with  its  concomitants,  was 
"  haute  cuisine  "  indeed  ! 

It  was  not  only  the  members  of  the  Unit,  however, 
who  were  moved  out  of  their  respective  grooves.  In 


246     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

view  of  possible  hard  times  ahead,  we  had,  before  the 
Austrians  arrived,  set  up  quite  a  little  farmyard — 
sheep,  a  goat,  a  couple  of  calves,  and  a  goodly  collec- 
tion of  chickens  and  geese.  Under  the  new  regime, 
for  fear  of  thieves  by  night,  the  quadrupeds  slept  in  a 
small  room  beside  the  kitchen,  while  one  of  the  bath- 
rooms was  devoted  to  the  use  of  the  poultry  !  Food 
for  the  beasts  was  scarce,  especially  when  the  snow 
was  on  the  ground,  but  Benger,  besides  being  the 
foundation  of  puddings,  pastry,  cakes,  and  sauces, 
came  in  also  to  supplement  the  scanty  diet  of  the 
calves.  Benger's  food  had  been  sent  out  in  large 
quantities.  Serbians  are  so  far  like  English  in  that 
they  do  not  take  readily  to  unaccustomed  diet,  and 
few  of  the  articles  of  food  we  had  brought  out  were 
appreciated,  jam  being  the  chief  exception  ;  conse- 
quently there  was  much  Benger  in  hand  when  hard 
times  came,  and,  like  other  things  and  people,  it  also 
served  many  purposes  for  which  it  had  not  been 
intended. 

Until  November  i6th  we  had  beautiful  weather,  and 
we  rejoiced  greatly  at  this  when  we  thought  of  the 
many  fugitives  on  the  mountains  of  Serbia  and 
Montenegro.  But  during  the  night  of  the  ijth  there 
was  a  severe  blizzard,  and  in  the  morning  the  snow 
lay  thick  upon  the  ground.  A  few  days  previously 

Captain  von  F ,  then  the  chief  medical  officer  at 

Vrntse,  had  gone  to  Rashka  in  our  motor  driven  by 
Sava,  an  interned  Austrian  Serb,  who  had  been  with 
us  many  months  as  chauffeur  and  mechanician,  and 
who,  since  the  departure  of  the  prisoners,  was  the  only 
man  who  could  run  the  engines  at  the  Terapia. 
Captain  von  F promised,  on  the  "  Ehrenwort  "  of 


CAPIIVHY  247 

an  Austrian  officer,  that  Sava  should  be  sent  back  in 
two  days  ;  but  in  spite  of  this  "  word  of  honour  "  he 
did  not  return  for  over  a  week,  and  then  it  was  not 

thanks  to,  but  in  spite  of,  von  F ,  who  wanted  to 

take  him  further.  The  motor,  of  course,  we  did  not 
see  again. 

The  loss  of  Sava  meant  that  during  this  bitter 
weather  we  could  have  neither  electric  light  nor  hot 
water  in  the  pipes  and  radiators.  In  consequence  of 
this,  and  also  of  the  fact  that  the  pipes  had  been  laid 
in  as  superficial  a  manner  as  possible,  the  water 
throughout  the  house  froze  and  produced  innumerable 
fractures.  There  was  a  frost  nightly  of  over  20°  F., 
and  the  water  in  our  bedroom  jugs  froze  hard  and 
could  not  be  thawed  for  about  ten  days.  The  stoves 
in  the  kitchens  and  a  small  stove  each  in  the  wards  and 
common-room  were  our  only  means  of  heating.  We 
were  certainly  somewhat  chilly.  But  what  were  our 
discomforts  compared  with  the  sufferings  of  the  fugi- 
tives on  the  mountains  !  Nobody  was  the  worse  in 
health  on  account  of  the  cold,  and  spirits  were  kept 
up  manfully. 

After  the  frost  came  the  thaw,  and  the  ceilings 
poured  down  water  for  several  days,  for  pipes  had 
burst  in  innumerable  places,  and  we  had  neither  means 
nor  men  to  repair  them.  At  last  a  plumber  was 
discovered  in  the  person  of  one  of  our  Austrian 
patients  and  the  floods  were  stayed  ! 

If  some  members  of  the  Unit  found  their  work 
diminished,  others  found  that  it  was  increased.  This 
was  perhaps  especially  the  case  with  Mr.  Jones,  our 
only  remaining  orderly  since  the  kitchen  had  claimed 
the  Chef.  "  Little  Brother  "  Jones  had  the  super- 


248     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

vision  of  all  the  outdoor  work  ;  he  was  also  at  the 
beck  and  call  of  everybody  within  doors.  When 
things  went  wrong,  as  for  instance  in  the  case  of  the 
pipes,  he  was  blamed  as  a  matter  of  course,  sharing  in 
this  respect  the  prerogatives  of  the  Heads  of  the  Unit ! 
He  was  taskmaster  over  all  the  Austrian  orderlies,  and 
he  had,  in  common  with  several  of  the  nurses,  the 
faculty  of  being  able  quite  effectively  to  communicate 
with  and  order  about  persons  between  whom  and 
himself  there  were  not  even  the  rudiments  of  a  common 
language.  This  had  the  advantage  that  it  did  not 
matter  what  language  the  men  talked,  and  he  got  on 
equally  well  with  relays  of  Austrians  who  talked 
successively  Czech,  Hungarian,  and  Roumanian. 
Jones  was  in  fact  both  the  scapegoat  and  the  bulwark 
of  the  Mission.  The  writer  of  the  following  Christmas 
motto  regarded  him  in  the  latter  light : — 

"  '  Little  Brother  '  Jones's  task 
Is  to  do  whate'er  we  ask. 
If  the  men  their  labours  shirk, 
*  Little  Brother '  makes  them  work. 
If  the  house  is  in  a  plight, 
'  Little  Brother '  sets  it  right. 
Everyone  who  sighs  or  groans 
Flies  to  'Little  Brother'  Jones !  " 

Another  person  who  may  be  regarded  as  a  "  bulwark 
of  the  Mission "  was  our  sub-commissaire,  Mr. 
Krsmanovitch,  who  remained  behind  when  the  com- 
missaire  departed  in  November,  and  during  the  re- 
mainder of  our  stay  at  Vrntse  exercised  the  duties  of 
commissaire  for  the  Terapia,  the  School,  and,  after  the 
British  Red  Cross  Mission  left,  the  Zlatibor.  His 
invariable  tact,  cosmopolitan  training,  and  thorough 


CAPTIVITY  249 

knowledge  of  German  stood  him  in  good  stead  under 
difficult  circumstances,  and  he  got  on  with  everybody, 
friends  and  enemies  alike. 

With  the  School  we  had  little  to  do  after  the  first  few 
weeks,  but  our  hospital  kitchen  cooked  the  food  for  its 
very  variable  number  of  inmates,  and  it  was  the  com- 
missaire's  business  to  arrange  for  the  supplies.  Thus 
when  a  party  of  men  arrived  at  the  School,  which  they 
generally  did  suddenly  and  unexpectedly,  it  was  the 
commissaire  on  whom  devolved  the  duty  of  obtaining 
their  rations  from  the  magazine.  When  orders  came, 
as  they  often  did,  that  twenty  or  thirty  Terapia 
patients  must  leave  in  less  than  twenty-four  hours,  it 
was  the  commissaire  who  had  to  see  that  their  clothes 
were  forthcoming,  prepare  lists  of  names,  and  fill  in 
particulars  galore.  Generally  at  the  last  moment  a 
counter-order  arrived  and  the  patients  remained. 
Then  later  on  fresh  papers  had  to  be  made  out.  Thus 
did  the  Austrians  thoughtfully  keep  the  commissaire's 
mind  employed,  so  that  he  had  not  much  time  to  dwell 
on  the  melancholy  circumstances  around. 

We  had  been  told  quite  early  in  the  Austrian 
occupation  that  the  British  hospitals  would  be  quickly 
evacuated  and  that  as  soon  as  the  patients  could 
travel  they  would  be  moved  on.  But,  owing  probably 
to  difficulties  of  transport,  the  removal  of  the  patients 
was  often  delayed.  Still,  little  by  little,  our  hospitals 
emptied.  The  patients  generally  left  in  parties  at 
variable  intervals.  The  Austrians  sent  up  wagons 
drawn  by  horses  instead  of  the  patient  Serbian  oxen. 
The  wagons  were  drawn  up  outside  the  large  doors  of 
the  ward,  and  those  patients  who  were  unable  to  walk 
were  carried  out  in  their  beds  and  were  sometimes 


25o     A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

transported,  beds  and  all,  to  a  hospital  at  Krushevatz, 
the  beds  being  sent  back  a  few  days  later.  Those 
were  sad  days  on  which  we  lost  our  patients  ;  most 
had  been  with  us  since  the  middle  of  October,  some 
much  longer.  Though  some  went  primarily  to  another 
hospital,  we  knew  all  were  going  ultimately  into 
captivity,  and  what  that  would  mean  for  them,  who 
could  tell ! 

After  the  departure  of  the  Roumanian  orderlies, 
early  in  January,  there  were  but  few  soldiers  left  in 
Vrntse,  and  we  were  allowed  only  four  as  servants, 
all  of  whom  were  required  either  in  the  machine- 
house  or  for  outdoor  work.  We  had  therefore  no 
Austrian  orderlies  in  the  wards,  but  a  nice  Serb  boy, 
named  Christopher,  formerly  a  patient,  became  an 
excellent  orderly,  and  was  assisted  by  another  con- 
valescent, a  youth  from  a  mountain  village  near 
Gotch.  Owing  chiefly  to  shortage  of  wood,  it  was 
impossible  to  keep  the  big  ward  warm,  and  when  the 
number  of  patients  had  sufficiently  diminished  they 
were  all  moved  into  the  small  wards,  where  Sisters 
Hammond,  Hall,  and  Thomas  did  nursing  with 
intervals  of  housework. 

As  our  hospitals  became  emptier  and  work 
diminished  we  were  able  to  explore  the  country  and  to 
profit  by  the  wonderful  "  Riviera  "  weather  which  we 
had,  with  occasional  intervals  of  cold  and  wet,  from 
the  beginning  of  December  onwards.  Beautiful  walks, 
long  or  short,  were  to  be  had  in  every  direction,  and 
frequently  we  took  tea  or  lunch  out  on  the  mountains. 
Ten  minutes'  climb  up  the  hill  behind  the  Terapia 
enabled  one  to  obtain  an  extensive  view  over  the 
surrounding  country,  stretching  away  on  one  side  to 


CAPTIVITY  251 

the  mountains  on  the  Bulgarian  frontier  and  on  the 
other  to  the  hills  about  Chachak,  which  the  tide  of  the 
Austrian  invaders  reached  in  1914,  and  whence  it  was 
then  rapidly  and  decisively  thrown  back.  Half  an 
hour's  walk  over  rough  grass  or  along  a  deeply-rutted 
track  led  to  the  forests  of  Gotch,  which  consisted 
chiefly  of  beech  trees,  the  stems  tall  and  straight  as 
pines  and  devoid  of  branches  except  near  the  top. 
Every  valley  opened  up  new  beauties  and  topics  of 
interest.  There  were  many  little  cemeteries  to  be 
found,  often  on  the  tops  of  hills  and  away  from  any 
habitations.  The  flags  that  waved  over  the  graves 
of  soldiers  were  a  very  effective  decoration,  and  on  the 
tombstones  there  were  often  quaint  drawings — some- 
times a  rude  portrait  of  the  deceased,  sometimes 
representations  of  weapons  or  musical  instruments. 

Serbian  mountain  villages  consist  generally  of 
scattered  cottages,  some  of  which  may  be  a  mile  apart 
one  from  the  other.  Almost  every  cottage  possesses  a 
wide  verandah  which  gives  it  a  very  picturesque 
aspect  (Fig.  16).  The  interior  of  many  of  the  cottages 
struck  us  as  poverty-stricken  and  comfortless  in  the 
extreme  ;  though  probably  that  was  by  no  means  the 
opinion  of  the  inhabitants,  the  standard  of  comfort  in 
those  regions  being  very  different  from  that  existing 
in  our  own  country.  A  cottage  consisted  frequently 
of  but  two  rooms,  the  outer  one  a  sort  of  ante-room 
containing  very  little  except  what  looked  like  mere 
lumber.  The  inner  one  was  the  living  room,  with 
earth  or  possibly  brick  floor,  small  windows  not  made 
to  open,  a  wide  chimney  with  the  fire  on  the  hearth 
beneath.  The  furniture  comprised  a  large  bed  made 
of  planks  and  covered  with  the  many-coloured  rugs 


252     A   RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

of  the  country,  often  dingy  from  age,  some  pots  and 
pans,  a  wooden  stool  or  two,  and  sometimes  a  rough 
table.  On  the  wall  hung  the  clothes  of  the  occupants 
— like  the  rugs,  generally  dingy  and  ragged  from  the 
effects  of  time.  A  not  uncommon  addition  to  the 
furniture  was  a  loom,  which  took  up  a  great  deal  of 
the  available  space  and  which  was  used  to  weave  the 
materials  for  the  clothes  and  rugs  of  the  family. 
However  poor  and  uninviting  the  house,  the  occupants 
always  received  an  English  visitor  with  the  unem- 
barrassed courtesy  characteristic  of  the  Slav  peasant, 
and  it  was  difficult  to  escape  from  the  poorest  hovel 
without  having  some  form  of  hospitality  pressed  upon 
one,  usually  the  invariable  rakija. 

There  did  not  seem  to  be  any  great  want  of  food 
among  the  peasants  during  the  time  we  remained  at 
Vrntse.  There  were  plenty  of  animals  to  be  seen 
about — cows,  goats,  and  even  pigs  ;  but  in  many 
cases  peasants  had  had  to  give  up  some  of  their  animals 
to  the  Austrians,  only  a  receipt  in  paper  being  given 
in  return,  and  occasionally  one  came  across  some  very 
piteous  stories  of  the  loss  of  animals  on  which  the 
owner's  livelihood  had  depended.  Certain  articles  of 
food,  however,  were  badly  needed  and  were  quite 
unobtainable,  especially  salt  and  sugar. 

Another  opportunity  afforded  by  our  comparative 
leisure  was  that  of  making  and  cultivating  the  ac- 
quaintance of  Serbians  of  the  upper  classes  more  than 
had  been  possible  heretofore.  Vrntse,  being  essen- 
tially a  summer  health  resort,  had  few  permanent 
residents  of  the  better  classes,  but  many  of  the  refugees 
from  the  invasions  of  1914  still  remained,  and  since 
the  beginning  of  the  present  invasion  fugitives  had 


CAPTIVHT  253 

been  arriving  in  great  numbers,  so  that  every  available 
room  in  the  place  was  occupied.  A  great  number  of 
these  last  refugees  had  had  to  escape  hurriedly,  and 
found  themselves  without  change  of  clothes,  blankets, 
or  any  of  the  ordinary  necessaries  of  life.  As  there 
was  practically  nothing  of  this  kind  to  be  bought, 
their  condition  was  often  very  pitiable.  We  still  had 
considerable  stores  of  clothing  when  the  Austrians 
arrived,  and  these  proved  of  great  value  to  many 
destitute  families.  The  Austrians  did  not  interfere  in 
any  way  with  our  possession  of  these  stores  or  with 
our  distribution  of  them  as  we  liked. 

Scarcity  of  food  also  pressed  heavily  on  many  of  the 
refugees.  The  supply  of  bread  was  at  times  very 
short.  The  black  bread  supplied  to  the  hospitals  and 
the  British  missions  came  from  Kraljevo,  and,  though 
there  were  often  rumours  of  cessation  of  supply,  we 
had  only  one  day  on  which  no  bread  came,  and  as  a 
rule  we  had  sufficient  quantity.  But  bread  for  the 
civilian  population,  which  was  baked  in  Vrntse,  was 
often  very  scarce  ;  the  amount  allowed  per  head  was 
very  small,  and  sometimes  there  was  none  to  be  had 
for  two  or  three  days.  Many  articles  of  food,  such  as 
flour,  sugar,  salt,  and  fresh  vegetables,  were  scarcely 
to  be  had  at  any  price.  Some  of  the  residents  who 
had  been  a  considerable  time  in  the  place  had  laid  in 
stores  of  flour  and  other  things  and  were  thus  able  to 
supplement  the  official  allowance.  Soon  after  the 
Austrian  occupation  a  proclamation  was  issued 
requiring  everybody  to  make  a  return  of  the  stores  in 
their  possession.  How  far  these  returns  were  made  we 
cannot  say,  but  we  never  heard  of  any  stores  belonging 
to  private  families  being  requisitioned. 


254     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

Peasants  used  frequently  to  ask  us  to  sell  sugar  and 
salt,  or  to  exchange  these  for  eggs  or  other  com- 
modities, but  this  we  always  refused  to  do,  partly 
because  our  store  of  these  articles  was  now  not  large 
and  partly  because  we  thought  such  proceedings 
would  be  likely  to  lead  to  trouble  with  the  authorities. 
One  of  the  other  Missions  which  had  a  considerable 
quantity  of  sugar  exchanged  this  for  eggs  on  a  large 
scale.  The  result  was  that  the  supply  of  eggs  to  the 
market  became  suddenly  arrested.  The  Austrian 
authorities  looked  for  the  cause  of  this  phenomenon 
and,  finding  what  was  going  on,  confiscated  all  the 
stores  of  the  offending  Mission — a  somewhat  high- 
handed proceeding — and  doled  them  out  subsequently 
in  small  quantities  with  their  rations. 

Many  of  the  Serbian  ladies  wished  to  learn  English, 
and  several  of  the  members  of  the  Unit  employed  their 
spare  time  in  giving  English  lessons,  sometimes  learn- 
ing Serbian  themselves  in  return.  Many  people  in 
Vrntse  were  living  in  one  room,  though  possessors  of 
good  houses  elsewhere.  Few  knew  whether  their 
houses  were  still  standing,  or  whether,  if  the  houses 
were  still  there,  any  of  their  belongings  still  remained 
in  them.  Among  the  Serbians  hospitality  goes  hand 
in  hand  with  patriotism,  and  the  two  are  elemental 
virtues  which  never  vanish  in  spite  of  the  most  adverse 
conditions.  One  could  not  pay  a  visit  even  in  these 
hard  times,  still  less  give  a  lesson,  but  coffee  and  dainty 
cakes,  made  out  of  the  hostess's  scanty  store  of  precious 
sugar  and  flour,  were  brought  out  and  pressed  upon 
the  visitor.  Even  "  slavas  "  were  still  celebrated, 
though  on  a  simplified  scale,  and  many  were  the  slavas 
we  attended.  The  slava  is  an  institution  peculiar  to 


CAPVIVHY  255 

Serbia,  and  said  not  to  exist  in  any  of  the  other  Slav 
countries.  It  dates  from  the  days  of  the  conversion  of 
the  Serbs  to  Christianity.  Each  warrior  who  became 
Christian  was  baptised  in  the  name  of  a  patron  saint, 
and  this  saint  became  the  patron  saint  of  the  family  ; 
the  slava  is  celebrated  yearly  on  the  day  of  that  par- 
ticular saint.  The  slava  begins  with  a  religious 
ceremony,  but  continues  as  a  sort  of  prolonged  "  at- 
home."  Friends  are  expected  to  call,  and  when  they 
arrive  are  offered  a  peculiar  cake,  the  chief  ingredients 
of  which  are  whole  wheat  and  sugar  ;  it  appears  to 
have  been  in  its  origin  a  sacrificial  offering  to  the  dead. 
With  this  cake  glasses  of  wine  are  usually  handed  ; 
these  should  be  merely  sipped  and  returned  to  the  tray, 
and  should  not  be  retained  and  emptied,  as  is  often 
done  by  the  unwary  or  uninitiated  foreigner.  Various 
relays  of  little  cakes  follow,  though  cake  is  too  solid  a 
name  for  the  ethereal  morsels  of  confectionery  of 
immense  variety  which  are  met  with  everywhere  and 
are  indeed  a  speciality  of  the  country. 

Many  of  us  felt  that  these  latter  weeks  at  Vrntse 
enabled  us  to  gain  an  insight  into  Serbian  life  and 
character  which  we  should  not  otherwise  have  obtained. 
One  could  not  but  admire  deeply  the  unselfishness, 
generosity,  and  cheerfulness  under  misfortune  dis- 
played by  very  many  of  the  refugees.  One  lady,  the 
wife  of  the  vice-mayor,  was  a  very  striking  personality. 
She  was  tall,  with  a  face  of  the  type  of  a  Luini 
Madonna,  and  looked  her  best  in  the  peasant  dress  she 
wore  in  her  mountain  home  in  Gotch.  She  felt  the 
condition  of  her  country  most  intensely,  and  whenever 
any  allusion  was  made  to  the  Austrians  or  to  the  state 
of  Serbia,  she  would  burst  into  strains  of  impassioned 


256  A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

eloquence  reminding  one  of  a  prophetess  of  old.  One 
could  imagine  that  she  would  be  able  to  move  a  great 
audience  profoundly  and  to  spur  men  on  to  deeds  of 
heroism  and  daring.  Her  husband  was  more  cosmo- 
politan ;  he  could  recognise  good  even  in  the  enemy, 
but  he  was  no  less  patriotic.  Although  remaining  at 
home  and  serving  his  country  by  working  loyally  with 
the  Austrians,  his  heart  was  with  the  fugitive  Serbian 
army,  and  when  they  return  he  will  probably  be  one  of 
the  first  to  depart  and  join  them. 

It  may  be  thought  that,  what  with  walks  and  picnics, 
slavas  and  visits  to  friends,  as  well  as  the  friendly 
treatment  we  received  from  our  captors,  our  period  of 
captivity  was  more  like  a  pleasant  holiday  than  a 
painful  ordeal ;  and  so  from  one  point  of  view  it  was. 
But  there  was  another  side  to  the  picture,  and  one 
which  was  very  trying  to  most  members  of  the  Unit. 
Absence  of  any  news  from  home,  uncertainty  about 
our  own  fate,  whether  we  might  not  be  retained  as 
prisoners  to  the  end  of  the  war,  were  causes  of  much 
anxiety  to  most  ;  and  the  feeling  that  we  were  no 
longer  in  any  way  free  agents,  that,  however  well 
treated,  we  were  really  at  the  mercy  of  the  conquerors, 
was  not  exactly  pleasant.  The  last  newspaper  and 
letter  received  from  England  was  dated  October  3rd. 
Our  position  was  indeed  unprecedented  in  the  experi- 
ence of  any  of  our  party  !  From  the  time  that  com- 
munication with  Salonica  had  been  cut  off  we  were 
like  people  living  in  a  little  oasis  of  sunshine  sur- 
rounded by  a  wall  of  impenetrable  fog.  Since  the 
Austrian  occupation  the  oasis  had  become  smaller  and 
the  fog  thicker.  Krushevatz  and  Kraljevo  were  some 
twenty  odd  miles  on  either  side  of  us,  but  they  were 


FIG.    25. — THE    UNIT    IN    FANCY   DRESS.      CHRISTMAS,   1915. 


FIG.    26. — HUNGARIAN    STAFF   AT   THE    "  COMMANDO  "   IN    VRNJATCHKA    BANJA. 
THE    COMMANDANT    IS    ON    THE    EXTREME    RIGHT. 


257 

within  the  fog,  and  for  any  knowledgethat  we  possessed 
about  what  occurred  in  them  they  might  have  been  as 
far  removed  as  Paris  or  Petrograd.  Only  Rumour  told 
of  what  went  on,  and  Rumour  saw  wonderful  visions 
through  the  mist.  The  capture  of  100,000  English 
and  French  prisoners  at  Salonica,  the  fall  of  Metz  and 
Strasburg,  the  evacuation  of  Belgium,  were  a  few  of 
the  sensational  items  given  out  on  apparently  excellent 
authority,  while  the  fall  of  Constantinople  and  the 
entrance  of  Roumania  into  the  war  on  our  own  side 
were  served  up  so  frequently  that  they  attracted  no 
attention. 

Sometimes  Rumour  displayed  before  our  eyes  a 
mirage  of  rescue  !  We  heard  of  Italians  in  Montenegro 
and  in  Bosnia,  listened  to  cannon  one  day  and  were 
assured  that  an  Italian  army  was  already  in  our  valley. 

Not  content  with  creating  fairy  tales  out  of  war 
news,  Rumour  showed  the  same  activity  in  evolving 
them  out  of  occurrences  in  the  town  itself.  The  vice- 
mayor  drove  up  one  day  to  take  some  of  the  Mission 
for  an  outing  ;  that  evening  the  town  said  that  he  had 
commandeered  the  hospital  stores  by  order  of  the 
Austrians  and  that  their  removal  had  been  witnessed. 
A  Serbian  lady  calling  one  Sunday  morning  stated 
that  the  Austrians  were  celebrating  a  great  victory 
and  that  the  park  was  all  decorated.  We  avoided  the 
town  in  consequence,  but  when  a  little  later  someone 
did  go  down,  all  that  was  to  be  seen  in  the  way  of 
decoration  was  the  usual  altar  for  outdoor  service 
with  a  fir  branch  on  either  side.  This  appeared  to 
be  the  only  origin  of  the  whole  story. 

Newspapers  are  often  regarded  as  disseminators  of 
lies,  but  their  activity  in  this  direction  is  nothing 


258     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

compared  with  the  way  in  which  lies  disseminate 
themselves  when  there  are  no  newspapers  ! 

The  Serbian  population  buoyed  itself  up  greatly 
with  these  rumours,  for  the  vast  majority  of  them  were 
on  their  own  side,  but  how  far  they  really  believed 
them  is  doubtful.  The  same  rumours  were  served  up 
daily  with  meals  at  the  Terapia,  and  aided  or  impaired 
mental  nutrition  according  to  the  type  of  mind 
receiving  them.  Few  minds  are  strong  enough  wholly 
to  disregard  rumours  and  to  avoid  their  raising  false 
hopes  in  spite  of  the  counsels  of  reason,  but  the  effect 
is  different  on  different  minds.  On  some,  whose 
tendency  is  towards  chronic  depression  and  worrying 
over  the  dark  side  of  things,  hope,  even  if  false,  may 
act  as  a  narcotic  or  possibly  tonic.  With  regard  to  the 
generality  of  minds,  especially  those  prone  to  seize  on 
and  accept  any  good  news  presented,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  consequent  rise  in  spirits  is  not  more  than 
counterbalanced  by  the  fall  when  the  news  proves 
untrue ;  while  for  the  type  of  mind  which  feels 
adversity  acutely  at  first  but  possesses  the  faculty  of 
accepting  the  inevitable  and  making  the  best  of 
things,  false  hope  means  constant  stirring  up  of  the 
depths  and  a  renewal  of  the  struggle. 

Various  types  of  character  were  to  be  found  in  our 
Unit  :  some  felt  the  situation  acutely  and  oscillated 
between  buoyant  hope  and  deep  despair  ;  others  were 
philosophical  and  were  ready  to  accept  even  intern- 
ment for  the  rest  of  the  war  with  equanimity.  By 
way  of  occupying  the  minds  of  the  Unit  and  the  hours 
of  the  evening,  the  Professor  introduced  lectures, 
archaeological,  geological  and  historical,  which  were 
delivered  both  at  the  Terapia  and  at  the  villa  occupied 


CAPTIVITY  259 

by  the  2nd  Farmers.  Mr.  Parsons,  Head  of  the  latter 
Mission,  joined  in  the  game  by  giving  some  interesting 
lectures  on  India.  Sports  were  also  organised  between 
the  two  Missions,  but  never  came  off  on  account  of 
weather  or  mud  ;  but  some  matches  of  rounders  were 
carried  out  successfully  on  a  field  sufficiently  remote 
to  avoid  the  attendance  of  the  whole  population  of 
Vrntse  at  so  unwonted  a  spectacle. 

As  Christmas  approached  we  felt  that,  in  spite  of 
the  present  gloom  and  the  uncertain  future,  it  behoved 
us  to  do  something  to  show,  however  feebly,  what  an 
English  Christmas  was  like.  So  a  small  fir  was  dug 
up  and  placed  in  the  ward,  where  it  soon  became  a 
creditable  Christmas-tree.  It  was  decided  that  the 
Unit  should  all  appear  in  fancy  dress,  and  much 
ingenuity  was  displayed  in  the  manufacture  of 
costumes  from  a  very  limited  choice  of  materials 
(Fig.  25).  A  good  many  Serbian  friends  were  invited, 
and  various  children  drifted  in  uninvited  through  the 
doors  at  the  end  of  the  ward.  The  proceedings  began 
by  carols  sung  by  some  dozen  of  the  members,  who 
processed  round  the  darkened  ward  draped  in  white 
and  swinging  hurricane  lamps.  Then  the  Christmas- 
tree  was  lighted,  visitors  and  patients  received  presents 
and  were  regaled  on  coffee  and  cakes.  Everybody 
fraternised  and  was  cheerful — Serbian  visitors,  Serb 
and  Austrian  patients,  even  the  Roumanian  soldier 
orderlies. 

The  Christmas  dinner  has  already  been  alluded  to  ; 
after  its  stimulating  influence  the  Unit  sang  "  Auld 
lang  syne  "  and  other  national  airs  with  such  zest 
that  it  was  surprising  that  an  Austrian  patrol  did  not 
come  round  to  ascertain  the  cause  of  the  hilarity. 


26b     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

The  Serbian  Christmas  Day  occurs  thirteen  days 
later  than  ours.  There  are  numerous  strange  customs 
connected  with  it,  but  most  of  these  were  left  in 
abeyance  on  this  melancholy  Christmas  of  1915.  The 
Serbian  Christmas  Day,  as  far  as  we  saw  it,  was  much 
like  a  universal  slava. 

Our  first  attempt  to  cheer  up  the  Serbians  having 
proved  encouraging,  we  proceeded  a  step  further. 
The  Professor  bethought  himself  of  an  archaic  farce, 
"  Box  and  Cox,"  in  which,  in  ancient  days,  he  had 
won  laurels  on  the  family  stage.  From  the  depths  of 
his  retentive  memory  this  ancient  farce  was  exhumed 
and  committed  to  writing.  The  Chef,  who  besides 
being  a  budding  diplomatist  was  not  unknown  on  the 
stage  of  a  London  theatre,  condescended  to  take  the 
part  of  Cox,  while  Mrs.  Eldred,  as  the  landlady, 
showed  that  she  excelled  in  low  comedy.  A  large 
Serbian  audience  with  the  two  principal  Austrian 
doctors  and  some  of  our  patients  thoroughly  enjoyed 
seeing  the  Professor,  who  was  generally  regarded  as  a 
most  staid  and  sober  individual,  desporting  himself 
with  the  greatest  gusto  in  rollicking  farce.  A  short 
sketch  of  the  piece  was  first  read  out  in  Serbian  and 
German  to  the  spectators  that  they  might  be  able  to 
follow  the  action. 

The  kitchen  staff  organised  the  next  entertainment 
and  gave  some  scenes  from  "  Romeo  and  Juliet  "  and 
from  "  Richard  III.,"  acted  on  a  stage  artistically 
draped  with  white  sheets  and  hung  with  red  carpets. 
Miss  Hyett  was  a  charming  and  sympathetic  Juliet, 
and  the  Chef  thrilled  the  audience  as  Clarence  in 
the  Tower  by  his  histrionic  talent. 

Our  third  and  last  effort  was  perhaps  the  most 


CAPTIVITY  261 

popular.  We  dramatised  the  story  of  Pepelyouga, 
the  Serbian  Cinderella,  culled  from  Petrovitch's 
"  Hero  Tales  and  Legends  of  the  Serbians,"  and  wove 
into  the  drama  allusions  to  other  Serbian  myths  and 
national  heroes.  With  the  help  of  costumes  and 
spindles  borrowed  or  bought  from  peasants,  and  with 
Pirot  carpets  on  the  walls,  the  setting  was  made  as 
typically  Serbian  as  possible.  Donna  Quixota  made 
her  debut  as  an  actress  in  the  role  of  the  heroine.  She 
threw  herself  into  the  part  and  quite  scored  a  triumph, 
but  it  took  some  coaching  and  persuasion  from  the 
authoress  and  the  producer  (the  Chef)  to  induce 
her  to  condescend  to  accept  in  a  proper  spirit  any 
love-making  from  the  Prince,  or  to  sacrifice  her 
democratic  prejudices  so  as  to  appear  in  jewellery  and 
silk  attire.  However,  the  fact  that  these  were 
Serbian  and  not  British  mitigated  the  humiliation. 
Sister  Griffin  acted  the  part  of  a  wicked  step-sister 
with  spirit,  and  Mrs.  Eldred  appeared  as  the  cow, 
which  in  the  Serbian  story  takes  the  place  of  the  fairy 
godmother,  and  which  was  very  successfully  manu- 
factured out  of  boards  and  an  old  felt  rug.  Five  of 
the  sisters  looked  charmingly  pretty  as  a  group  of 
Serbian  village  maidens  spinning  on  a  supposed 
pasture,  but  we  fear  that  the  audience  must  have  been 
secretly  much  amused  at  their  methods  of  handling 
their  spindles. 

After  this  performance,  which  took  place  less  than  a 
fortnight  before  our  departure,  a  very  charming  and 
very  gratifying  little  ceremony  took  place.  Our  late 
commissaire,  Mr.  Boshko  Markovitch,*  stepped  for- 

*  Mr.  Markovitch,  who  had  left  Vrntse  before  the  Austrians  arrived, 
had  not  succeeded  in  effecting  his  escape.  After  having  narrowly  escaped 
being  massacred  by  a  band  of  Bulgarians,  he  fell  in  with  Austro-Germana 


262      A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

ward  and  read  a  previously  prepared  address  in  which 
he  expressed  on  the  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  Vrntse 
their  gratitude,  friendship,  and  appreciation  of  our 
work  in  the  warmest  and  most  flattering  terms.  We 
were  greatly  pleased  and  touched  by  this  quite 
unexpected  tribute,  more  especially  as  we  felt  deeply 
that  British  help  had  been  so  largely  unavailing,  and 
that  our  own  work  had  been  cut  short  while  we  had  as 
yet  accomplished  but  little.  The  address  was  signed 
by  all  present,  and  though  at  the  time  of  writing  it  is 
deposited  in  Vienna,  we  hope  to  receive  it  again  and 
to  keep  it  as  permanent  evidence  that  the  work  of  our 
Mission  was  valued  and  appreciated  by  the  people  of 
Serbia. 

and  had  been  sent  back  to  Vrntse,  where  he  was  allowed  to  remain  at 
liberty  and  live  at  home.  Several  other  refugees,  among  them  the 
stationmaster,  also  an  old  friend  of  the  Mission,  had  similarly  been  sent 
home. 

F.  M.  D.  B. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

DEPARTURE    FROM   VRNTSE. 

Austro-Hungarian  "  Olympus  " — "  Practical  Joke  Depart- 
ment "and  the  British  Missions — "Wounded  Allies"  and  "British 
Red  Cross  "  Missions  leave — Serbian  Refugees  ordered  to  leave — 
"  Fairy  Godmother  Department " — A  Cosmopolitan  Tea — Last 
Days  at  the  Terapia — Farewells  at  the  Station — Reflections  on 
the  Fate  of  Serbia. 

MOST  people  have  read  the  "  First  Hundred 
Thousand "  and  are  familiar  with  the  delightful 
description  contained  therein  of  the  supreme  military 
and  civil  authorities  under  the  title  of  "  Olympus  " 
and  of  the  three  departments  through  which  they 
work.  "  Olympus  "  is  probably  much  the  same  all  the 
world  over,  and  when  we  read  that  description  we  felt 
it  tallied  very  closely  with  our  own  experience  of 
the  higher  authorities  in  Austria-Hungary.  Of  the 
"  Round  Game  Department  "  we  saw  little ;  we 
were  probably  beneath  its  ken.  We  fancy,  however, 
that  the  local  authorities  saw  a  good  deal  of  it  and 
were  much  harassed  by  its  rules.  But  our  position  as 
prisoners  offered  an  inviting  field  for  the  activities  of 
the  "  Practical  Joke  Department,"  and  one  of  which 
they  did  not  neglect  to  take  advantage.  Ours  was 
the  first  Mission  which  attracted  their  attention. 
There  came  a  sudden  order,  which  fell  like  a  bolt  from 
the  blue,  that  the  Berry  Mission  was  to  move  on  the 
following  day  to  Krushevatz.  We  appealed  to  the 
local  divinities  and  expressed  our  desire  to  remain 
with  them  till  "  Olympus  "  deigned  to  send  us  home 


264      A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

according  to  the  Geneva  Convention.    The  second  in 
command,  a  Hungarian  "  Oberlieutenant,"  went  over 
to  Krushevatz  and  worked  the  oracle  with  such  effect 
that  next  day  the  order  was  rescinded.    In  the  mean- 
time we  had  been  packing  feverishly,  with  the  result 
that  all  the  hospital  stores  were  thoroughly  mixed  up 
and  various  articles  vanished  for  ever — so  the  prac- 
tical joke  was  not  wholly  without  effect !     But  the 
"  Practical    Joke    Department "    having    lost    one 
victim  looked  round  for  another,  and  the  order  came 
that  the  British  Red  Cross  Mission  was  to  move  to  the 
same  place  in  twenty-four  hours.    To  make  a  hospital 
unit  pack  up  and  move  their  accumulations  of  a  year 
in  twenty-four  hours  was  of  the  nature  of  quite  a  good 
practical  joke,  and  its  piquancy  was  increased  by 
complete  lack  of  information  about  what  luggage  and 
stores  they  would  be  allowed  to  take  with  them  and 
what  they  would  require  at  their  next  destination. 
Whether  there  was  any  available  transport  or  any 
accommodation  to  be  had  at  the  end  of  the  journey 
were  matters  that  did  not  concern  "  Olympus."    On 
the  present  occasion  the  local  authorities  ascertained 
that  there  was  no  accommodation  in  crowded  Krus- 
hevatz, so  the  journey  was  postponed.    In  a  few  days 
an   irate   telegram   was   received :     "  Why  has   the 
British  Mission  not  left  ?  "     So  the  harassed  autho- 
rities hurried  the  Mission  off  to  the  station,  whence 
they  were  sent  back  again,  the  railway  authorities 
refusing  to  take  them  further.     Baulked  again,  the 
"  Practical    Joke    Department "    ordered    a    smaller 
Mission  to  move.     The  Head  of  the  Mission  received 
permission  to  go  to  Krushevatz  for  the  day  to  make 
arrangements.     He  went,  but  did  not  return.     We 


DEPARTURE  FROM  VRNTSE    265 

seemed  to  be  surrounded  by  "  bournes  whence  no 
traveller  returns  !  "  A  little  later,  after  two  fruitless 
journeys  to  the  station,  the  rest  of  the  Mission 
departed,  and  they  also  disappeared  behind  the  veil. 
The  "  Practical  Joke  Department  "  did  not  leave 
our  colleagues  of  the  British  Red  Cross  Mission 
unmolested  for  long,  and  at  last,  after  several  vicis- 
situdes, they  were  moved  on  to  Krushevatz,  their 
hospital  being  handed  over  to  us.  In  the  meantime 
the  "  Practical  Joke  Department  "  turned  its  atten- 
tion to  the  Serbian  refugees,  and  a  peremptory  order 
was  published  to  the  effect  that  everyone  was  to 
return  to  their  homes  at  Belgrade  or  elsewhere  by  a 
certain  day  under  pain  of  summary  punishment. 
The  unfortunate  people,  most  of  whom  did  not  know 
whether  they  had  any  homes  standing,  went  off 
accordingly,  as  many  at  least  as  the  few  trains 
running  would  take,  with  the  result  that  they  found 
that  they  could  not  get  beyond  the  junction  with  the 
main  line,  and  had  either  to  camp  out  permanently  at 
the  little  village  of  Stalatch  or  retire  to  the  over- 
crowded town  of  Krushevatz.  This  at  first  very 
successful  joke  fell  flat,  however,  after  a  time,  prob- 
ably because  the  local  authorities  did  not  show  much 
zest  in  the  game.  Orders  to  go  under  threat  of 
punishment,  even  with  advertisement  of  a  special 
train  on  a  special  day,  attracted  little  attention,  and 
people  did  not  trouble  even  to  go  to  the  station.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  those  special  trains  were  not  still 
waiting  to  materialise  when  the  last  British  Mission — 
i.e.,  we  ourselves — left  Vrntse. 

If  there  is  one  thing  which  hurts  a  Hungarian  it  is 
that  his  country  should  appear  inhospitable,  even  to 


266      A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

an  enemy,  and  the  way  in  which  the  unfortunate 
British  Missions  had  been  victimised  and  sent  from 
"  pillar  to  post  "  by  the  "  deities  of  Olympus  "  gave 
our  well-meaning  Commandant  (Fig.  26)  and  his 
assistants  at  Vrntse  much  concern. 

Thanks  to  their  efforts  the  last  two  Missions — the 
2nd  Farmers  and  ourselves — left  without  any  hitch, 
even  without  having  to  spend  the  day  at  the  station, 
which  was  the  minimum  of  discomfort  attained 
hitherto.  They  much  preferred,  indeed,  to  be  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  third  department,  the  little  one  of 
the  three,  the  "  Fairy  Godmother  Department,"  and 
we  found  that  of  this  one  also  a  counterpart  exists 
in  Austria-Hungary.  One  morning  the  regimental 
doctor  drove  up  quite  unexpectedly  accompanied  by 
an  officer  of  high  rank,  a  visitor  to  the  place.  With  a 
face  quite  beaming  with  pleasure  he  informed  us  that 
a  telegram  had  just  been  received  saying  that  the 
whole  Mission  was  to  be  sent  direct  to  Vienna,  and 
from  there,  he  understood,  straight  home.  There 
were  still  doubters  at  Vrntse  who  told  us  that  this  too 
was  a  practical  joke,  and  that  the  men  at  all  events 
would  be  interned  at  Vienna.  The  day  before  we  left, 
however,  a  postcard  arrived  from  the  Head  of  the 
Farmers'  Mission — the  last  one  to  leave — saying  the 
Mission  had  just  reached  Vienna  and  was  leaving  at 
once  for  Switzerland,  so  then  all  doubts  were  set  at 
rest. 

By  what  means  the  "  Fairy  Godmother  Depart- 
ment "  had  been  moved  to  take  action  for  the  British 
Missions  we  do  not  know.  We  had  been  told  in  the 
early  days  of  our  captivity  by  Prince  Lobkowitz  that 
negotiations  were  going  on  about  us  in  high  quarters, 


DEPARTURE  FROM  FRNTSE          267 

but  we  had  no  definite  intelligence  either  then  or 
afterwards  as  to  what  was  actually  occurring.  As 
soon  as  we  heard  that  travelling  to  Belgrade  was 
possible  the  Heads  of  the  British  units  at  Vrntse  had 
held  meetings  to  discuss  the  best  method  of  proceeding 
to  obtain  our  release  according  to  the  provisions  of  the 
Geneva  Convention.  A  letter  was  drawn  up  to  the 
Austro-Hungarian  authorities  and  signed  by  the  Heads 
of  all  the  units.  In  this  we  pointed  out  that  as  our 
work  had  greatly  diminished  our  presence  could  not  be 
considered  indispensable  and  the  conditions  which 
admitted  of  our  retention  had  ceased  to  exist.  We 
therefore  prayed  that  the  rules  of  the  Geneva  Con- 
vention might  be  carried  out  and  our  Missions  be 
sent  home.  We  also  wrote  to  the  International  Red 
Cross  Society  at  Geneva  and  to  the  American  Ambas- 
sador at  Vienna  enclosing  a  copy  of  this  letter.  We 
received  no  reply  to  any  of  these  communications, 
and  we  subsequently  heard  that  one,  at  any  rate, 
never  reached  its  destination. 

The  day  after  we  received  the  welcome  news  that 
we  were  to  leave,  we  assisted  at  what  seemed  a 
strangely  cosmopolitan  gathering  to  occur  in  war  time. 
We  were  invited  by  a  neighbour,  a  retired  Belgian 
diplomat,  and  his  wife,  German  by  birth  but  intensely 
Serbian  in  her  sympathies,  to  meet  the  Hungarian 
Commandant,  one  of  the  doctors,  and  the  priest, 
as  well  as  one  or  two  Serbian  ladies.  We  listened  to 
songs  in  various  languages — Serbian,  Magyar,  Italian, 
and  French — and  afterwards  our  health  was  drunk, 
and  we  were  wished  God-speed  in  most  cordial  terms 
by  both  Allies  and  enemies.  One  of  the  latter  made 
the  somewhat  naive  admission  that  while  war  lasted 


268      A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

it  was  necessary  to  speak  well  of  certain  countries  and 
ill  of  others,  but  that  whatever  he  might  say  he  should 
always  make  a  mental  reservation  in  respect  of  the 
work  done  by  English  Missions  in  Serbia. 

The  "  Fairy  Godmother  Department "  did  not 
insist  on  our  departure  taking  place  in  twenty-four 
hours,  but  allowed  us  five  days  for  preparation. 
During  these  five  days  the  Terapia  was  in  a  veritable 
state  of  siege.  As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  the 
Mission  was  leaving  Rumour  became  at  once  active 
and  spread  the  report  that  there  would  be  wholesale 
distribution  of  food  and  stores.  The  inhabitants  of 
Vrnste  and  peasants  from  far  and  wide  flocked  to  the 
gates.  Many  of  the  peasants  brought  brightly- 
coloured  belts  and  stockings,  their  own  hand-work, 
either  as  thank-offerings  for  help  given  in  the  past  or 
in  the  hope  of  exchanging  them  for  more  desirable 
commodities.  But,  alas  !  we  were  able  to  do  but 
little  for  these  poor  people.  Our  stock  of  clothes  was 
by  this  time  nearly  exhausted,  and  we  were  not  sup- 
posed to  distribute  either  the  remains  of  our  food 
stores  or  the  hospital  appurtenances.  Still,  we 
managed  to  convey  a  fair  number  of  blankets  and  also 
articles  of  food  to  various  persons  we  knew  to  be 
destitute,  which  was  winked  at  by  the  authorities. 

The  day  of  our  departure  saw  one  of  those  abrupt 
changes  in  the  weather  with  which  our  year  in  Serbia 
had  made  us  very  familiar.  Instead  of  the  balmy  air 
and  almost  summer  sunshine  of  the  day  before,  we 
woke  to  driving  snow  and  icy  wind.  In  spite  of  the 
unpleasant  weather,  crowds  of  friends  came  up  to  the 
Terepia  to  wish  us  good-bye  ;  and  we  were  loaded 
with  supplies  of  delicious  cakes  and  other  articles  of 


DEPARTURE  FROM  VRNTSE          269 

food  for  the  journey,  besides  various  other  souvenirs. 
Packing,  having  been  much  interfered  with  during  the 
last  few  days  by  the  stream  of  visitors,  was  still  going 
on,  and  the  general  confusion  was  increased  by  the 
arrival  of  some  Austrian  officials  to  hold  a  court  of 
inquiry  on  a  very  unpleasant  incident  which  had 
occurred  the  night  before.  We  had  been  told  that  we 
were  to  leave  behind  all  our  hospital  stores,  such  as 
beds,  bedding,  and  dressings,  but  might  take  all  the 
surgical  instruments  as  well  as  all  personal  belongings. 
Late  the  preceding  afternoon  Sister  Davies  packed 
the  instruments  in  a  large  case  and  told  our  chauffeur 
in  German  to  nail  it  up.  No  more  was  thought  about 
the  matter  until  late  the  same  evening,  when  the 
packing-case  was  wanted  for  labelling  and  was 
nowhere  to  be  found.  The  chauffeur  was  sent  for  and 
questioned.  His  knowledge  of  German  was  imperfect, 
and  he  alleged  that  the  order  as  he  understood  it  was 
that  after  fastening  up  the  packing-case  he  was  to 
put  it  outside  the  front  door.  This  he  had  done,  shut 
the  door,  and  gone  away.  The  packing-case  had  in 
the  meantime  completely  disappeared,  and,  though 
looked  for  in  outhouses  and  other  possible  places  of 
concealment,  it  could  not  be  found.  It  was  too  late 
to  do  anything  that  night,  but  early  next  day  the 
authorities  were  informed  of  the  loss.  The  hurried 
inquiry  held  by  the  military  police  before  we  left 
failed  to  elucidate  the  mystery.  The  most  probable 
explanation  seemed  to  be  that  some  of  the  peasants, 
of  whom  there  were  many  loitering  about  the  grounds, 
carried  off  the  heavy  case  in  the  dark,  imagining  it 
contained  flour  or  other  food  ;  it  was  a  chest  which  at 
one  time  we  had  actually  used  for  flour.  That,  how- 


270      A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

ever,  is  a  mere  hypothesis,  and  it  is  certainly  more 
than  doubtful  whether  we  shall  ever  know  what 
actually  occurred. 

About  10  o'clock  there  drove  up  to  the  door  the 
same  procession  of  vehicles  which  we  had  seen  take 
away  the  other  Missions.  In  front,  two  carriages  ; 
behind,  wagons  provided  with  hay  to  sit  on.  First 
came  the  big  wagonette  which  had  met  us  on  our 
arrival  and  in  which  we  had  so  often  driven,  but  the 
familiar  figures  associated  with  it  were  all  gone.  The 
Major  and  his  wife  had  returned  to  Belgrade  some 
weeks  before,  the  two  horses,  brown  and  grey,  had 
been  taken  away  by  the  Austrians,  and  the  Bohemian 
coachman  had  gone  with  the  other  prisoners  on  the 
great  retreat. 

Anyone  who  liked  was  at  liberty  to  go  to  the  station, 
and  a  great  many  of  our  Serbian  friends  availed  them- 
selves of  this  permission.  Some  of  the  Hungarians 
came  also  ;  the  Commandant  was  there  himself,  and 
the  medical  director,  who  was  prevented  coming  by 
the  unexpected  arrival  of  a  high  functionary,  sent  an 
officer  to  bear  his  farewells.  The  Hungarians  wished 
us  good-bye  before  the  train  left,  but  the  Serbians 
stayed  with  us  to  the  end,  many  of  them  doubtless 
fervently  wishing  that  they  could  accompany  us. 

As  we  steamed  out,  rejoicing  in  the  prospect  of  so 
soon  seeing  home,  friends  and  our  own  country 
untrodden  by  the  invader,  we  thought  with  something 
like  despair  of  those  we  were  leaving  behind.  It  was 
true  that  so  far,  in  the  parts  under  our  own  cognisance, 
the  hand  of  the  invader  had  not  pressed  with  great 
harshness,  but  in  spite  of  that  the  future  was  very 
black.  What  would  these  people  we  were  leaving 


DEPARTURE  FROM   FRNTSE          271 

behind  do  when  the  stock  of  money  they  had  with 
them  was  exhausted  ?  Nearly  all  of  them  had  lost 
their  means  of  livelihood  and  had  no  means  of  com- 
munication with  the  outside  world.  How  would  the 
country  produce  food  for  the  population  left  in  it, 
with  its  deserted  villages,  lack  of  labour,  lack  of 
animals,  lack  of  seed  for  sowing  ?  And  where  was 
help  to  be  found  ?  Was  it  from  Hungary  ?  In 
Hungary,  we  were  told,  prices  were  in  some  cases 
higher  even  than  at  Vrntse  and  rumblings  of  revolu- 
tion were  already  beginning  to  be  heard.  It  was 
not  likely  that  the  Hungarian  people  could  help 
Serbia  even  if  they  wished  to  do  so. 

Still  less  was  much  to  be  looked  for  from  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Government.  That  Government,  which 
had  driven  its  people  into  a  war  in  which  they  have 
no  heart  and  from  which  they  will  derive  no  benefit, 
and  which  shoots  down  its  subjects  in  cold  blood 
when  they  withstand  its  oppressions,  is  not  likely  to 
play  the  part  of  a  kindly  foster-mother  to  Serbia. 

And  now  behind  the  Austrian  Government  stands 
Germany — Germany,  that  wonderful  example  of 
scientific  skill  which  has  so  moulded  a  nation  as  to 
produce  a  Frankenstein  monster,  without  tenets  of 
morality  or  sentiments  of  pity  to  hinder  it  in  its 
march  to  its  desired  ends.  Whenever  the  Serbians 
stand  in  the  way  of  these  ends  they  will  get  no  pity. 

Germany  stands  equally  behind  Bulgaria,  who, 
with  Austria,  shares  the  administration  of  Serbian 
territory.  If  there  is  one  thing  the  Serbians  dread 
more  than  Austrian  domination  it  is  to  be  given  over 
to  the  Bulgarians.  While  we  were  at  Vrntse  a  rumour 
sprang  up  that  the  Hungarians  were  to  be  replaced  by 


272      A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

Bulgarians,  and  this  produced  something  akin  to 
panic  among  the  inhabitants.  With  the  animosity 
caused  by  recent  treachery  added  to  hereditary 
enmity  the  bitterness  against  Bulgaria  is  indescribable, 
and  Serbia  in  the  hands  of  the  Bulgarians  might  well 
be  subjected  to  Balkan  barbarities  sharpened  by 
German  science. 

Even  if  the  Allies  should  advance  at  some  future 
date  and  drive  out  Bulgarians  and  Austro-Germans, 
it  is  terrible  to  contemplate  what  would  be  the  fate  of 
the  wretched  Serbian  population  during  the  process, 
and  doubtful,  indeed,  whether  many  would  be  left 
alive  to  welcome  the  deliverers. 

Altogether,  as  we  looked  at  the  clouds  which  hung 
over  Serbia  it  was  difficult  to  see  any  trace  of  a 
"  silver  lining."  And  thus  we  left,  half  wishing  we 
could  have  stayed,  though  knowing  that  if  we  had 
done  so  our  efforts  to  help  would  have  been  of  small 
avail. 

F.  M.  D.  B. 


FIG.    27  — PALACE    CHAPEL    OF    THE    TSAR    LAZAR    AT    KRUSHEVATZ     (l4TH    CENT.). 
THE    DETACHED    BUILDING   ON    THE    LEFT    IS    MODERN. 


FIG     28. — SERBIAN   COTTAGE   DECORATED   WITH    FIGURES   OF    NATIONAL    HEROES. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  JOURNEY  HOME  AND  CONCLUDING  REMARKS 

Arrangements  for  Food  and  Luggage — Our  Guards — Krushe- 
vatz — Hanoverian  Soldier — Belgrade — A  Friendly  German — 
Budapest  —  Vienna  —  Detention  at  Bludenz —  Reception  at 
Zurich — Courtesy  of  the  French — Southampton — Our  Year 
Over — Personnel  of  the  Unit — Units  in  General — Our  Twenty- 
three  Fellow-Prisoners — Concluding  Remarks. 

ON  February  i8th,  19 1 6,  our  whole  party  of  twenty- 
five  embarked  in  the  third-class  carriage  that  had 
been  reserved  for  us  and  started  for  Belgrade, 
Budapest,  Vienna,  and  home. 

Every  member  of  the  party  had  been  provided 
with  a  sleeping  bag  and  a  small  linen  sack  containing 
enough  provisions  for  three  or  four  days  together 
with  a  plate,  knife,  fork,  spoon,  and  cup.  One 
member  had  charge  of  an  enormous  glass  carboy 
filled  with  our  beautiful  Vrntse  drinking  water,  so 
that  we  should  be  independent  of  all  local  water 
supplies.  Every  package,  large  or  small,  bore  two 
labels  with  conspicuous  red  stripes  and  a  distinctive 
number.  The  numbers  corresponded  to  the  lists 
in  duplicate,  which  were  in  the  possession  of  Mr. 
Jones,  who  acted  as  baggage  master,  and  of  the 
Heads  of  the  Unit.  Throughout  the  journey,  and 
especially  at  every  change  of  carriage,  these  lists 
were  frequently  checked,  to  ensure  that  nothing 
should  be  lost  or  stolen  on  the  way.  It  is  due  to 
the  careful  watchfulness  of  our  "  Little  Brother  " 


274     A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

that  we  eventually  reached  London  without  the 
loss  of  a  single  package  of  any  kind,  although  the 
total  number  was  not  less  than  120. 

As  far  as  Vienna  we  had  the  pleasure  of  travelling 
under  armed  escort  in  the  shape  of  two  Hungarian 
non-commissioned  officers.  One  was  a  well-to-do 
farmer,  the  other  a  commercial  traveller,  and  both 
had  seen  much  service  in  the  present  war.  The 
latter,  an  elderly  man,  had  won  for  himself  a  high 
military  decoration  for  saving  the  life  of  an  Austrian 
general.  During  the  famous  retreat  of  1914,  although 
himself  wounded,  he  had  swum  across  the  river  Save 
with  the  wounded  general  on  his  back.  Both  were 
very  pleasant  fellows  and  did  much  to  make  our 
journey  comfortable,  besides  telling  us  many  inte- 
resting facts  about  the  war.  They  were  evidently 
very  proud  of  having  been  chosen  to  accompany  us. 

We  knew  that  at  Krushevatz  we  should  have  but 
half  an  hour  in  which  to  change  trains.  Here  it  was 
immediately  obvious  that  we  were  in  the  hands  not 
of  Austrians,  but  of  Germans,  as  there  was  a  total 
lack  of  that  courtesy  which  had  always  characterised 
the  former  in  all  their  dealings  with  us.  Not  only 
were  the  German  officials  curt  and  almost  rude  in 
their  answers  to  our  request  that  our  heavy  luggage 
might  be  moved  from  one  train  to  the  other,  but 
they  did  not  take  any  steps  to  comply  with  our  re- 
quest, although  there  was  ample  time  for  the  purpose. 
Consequently  we  missed  the  connection  and  had  to 
wait  some  six  or  seven  hours  at  Krushevatz.  This 
was  a  matter  of  but  little  moment,  as  many  of  our 
members  had  never  before  visited  Krushevatz,  and 
we  were  glad  of  the  opportunity  of  showing  them  so 


THE  JOURNET  HOME  275 

characteristic  a  specimen  of  ancient  Serbian  architec- 
ture as  the  Royal  Palace  Chapel  of  Lazar  (Fig.  27), 
the  last  of  the  Serbian  Tsars,  who  perished  on  the 
fatal  field  of  Kossovo  in  A.D.  1389.  The  beautiful 
interlacing  stonework  of  the  circular  windows,  the 
carved  double-headed  Serbian  eagles,  and  the  effec- 
tive double  or  treble  red  lines  of  bonding  brickwork, 
reminiscent  of  Imperial  Roman  work,  of  which  it  is 
doubtless  a  direct  descendant,  did  not  fail  to  excite 
the  admiration  of  even  the  most  inartistic  of  our 
party.  Of  the  secular  buildings  of  the  palace  itself 
nothing  now  remains  save  a  solitary  tower  with  a 
gateway  at  its  base. 

Our  guards  also  had  never  seen  Krushevatz,  and, 
although  nominally  in  charge  of  the  party,  soon  gave 
up  any  attempt  to  lead  and  allowed  one  of  us  to  act 
as  cicerone  and  to  take  them  wherever  we  pleased. 
Krushevatz  was  in  a  terribly  dirty  and  dilapidated 
state,  having  been  much  damaged  by  the  enemy  and 
by  a  great  explosion  some  months  before.  It  was 
sad  to  see  whole  rows  of  shops  with  which  we  had 
been  very  familiar  in  the  past  now  roofless  and 
completely  gutted. 

Our  enforced  delay  gave  us  also  the  opportunity  of 
visiting  some  former  acquaintances  of  the  Brunn 
(Moravian)  Medical  Mission,  who  were  working  here 
and  who  received  us  very  kindly  ;  one  of  the  doctors, 
whom  we  had  previously  met  at  Vrntse,  invited 
several  members  of  the  party  to  tea  at  his  rooms. 
As  we  were  walking  in  the  town  we  heard  shouts 
from  a  window,  and  found  they  proceeded  from  some 
former  Serbian  patients  who  were  now  in  a  Krushe- 
vatz hospital  and  who  were  delighted  to  see  us  again. 


276     A  RED   CROSS   UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

At  Krushevatz  railway  station  an  amusing  little 
incident  occurred.  As  I  walked  up  the  platform 
I  passed  a  little  group  of  non-commissioned  officers 
and  soldiers,  Germans  and  Austrians,  and  heard  one 
of  them  ask,  "  Who  are  all  these  ladies  ;  they  seem 
to  be  talking  English  ?  "  "  Yes,"  said  I,  answering 
the  question  ;  "  we  are  the  English  Mission  from 
Vrnjatchka  Banja."  "  Oh,  then  perhaps  you  can 
read  this  ?  "  said  another  man  pushing  forward  and 
holding  out  his  sleeve,  on  which  was  embroidered  in 
large  letters  the  word  "GIBRALTAR."  "Cer- 
tainly ;  but  how  did  you  come  by  that  ?  "  said  I  with 
some  surprise,  not  being  as  well  versed  in  military 
regimental  history  as  perhaps  I  should  have  been. 
"  Oh,  we  were  fighting  side  by  side  with  the  English 
some  time  ago."  "  Indeed,  then  we  were  friends 
once  ;  let  us  shake  hands,"  and  I  held  out  mine. 
But  he  folded  his  arms  and  turned  away.  "  If  you 
do  not  like  the  word,  why  not  cut  it  off."  I  called 
after  him  chaffingly  ;  "  that  is  easily  done."  He 
drew  himself  up,  scowled  at  me,  and  said  proudly, 
"  My  Kaiser  gave  me  that  ;  it's  a  mark  of  honour  "  ; 
then  turned  on  his  heel  and  walked  away.  The 
other  men,  mostly  Austrians,  were  evidently  annoyed 
at  the  rudeness  of  their  comrade,  saying  it  was  war- 
time and  that  they  hoped  I  would  excuse  him.  I 
laughed  and  said  we  had  just  come  from  Vrntse, 
where  we  had  been  under  the  Austro-Hungarians, 
who  never  behaved  to  us  with  anything  but  polite- 
ness, and  the  sympathy  of  the  rest  of  the  crowd  was 
obviously  on  my  side.  I  subsequently  learnt,  what 
perhaps  I  ought  to  have  known,  that  a  Hanoverian 
contingent  had  shared  in  the  glories  of  the  defence  of 


THE  JOURNEY  HOME  277 

Gibraltar  in  the  eighteenth  century  and  had  thus 
acquired  the  right  to  bear  the  word  "  Gibraltar  " 
on  their  sleeves  for  ever  after. 

An  uncomfortable  night  journey  in  another  third- 
class  carriage  brought  us  by  daylight  to  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Lapovo,  where  our  train,  leaving  the 
valley  of  the  main  Morava,  turned  off  to  pursue  the 
route  to  Belgrade.  Very  empty  and  deserted  was 
the  unfortunate  country  through  which  we  passed. 
The  railway  traffic  was  practically  wholly  in  the 
hands  of  the  German  military.  At  some  stations 
there  was  special  provision  for  refreshments  for 
soldiers,  which  our  escort  always  arranged  that  we 
should  partake  of.  At  one  place  there  was  a  wooden 
shed  where  tea,  coffee,  and  biscuits  were  being 
distributed  gratis.  On  another  occasion  we  saw 
soup  being  ladled  out  to  the  soldiers,  who  scrambled 
out  of  the  train  for  the  purpose  ;  so  we  lined  up 
too.  A  few  words  of  Magyar  acted  as  usual  as  a 
talisman,  and  on  this  occasion  produced  the  result 
of  three  soldiers  trying  to  fill  Mrs.  Berry's  mug  at 
once. 

We  were  interested  to  see  how  busy  the  enemy 
were  in  the  construction  of  extensive  sidings  at  some 
of  the  stations  through  which  we  passed.  These 
were  evidently  intended  for  the  accumulation  of 
military  trains.  The  work  was  being  done  by 
Russian  prisoners.  The  elaborate  but  as  yet  un- 
finished trenches  which  were  being  constructed  at 
strategic  points  in  the  valley  near  Belgrade  were  also 
of  interest. 

Our  arrival  at  Belgrade  early  on  the  following 
afternoon  was  marked  by  the  same  lack  of  courtesy 


278      A  RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN   SERBIA 

on  the  part  of  the  German  authorities  that  we  had 
noticed  at  Krushevatz.  For  a  long  time  no  one  paid 
any  attention  at  all  to  us  ;  then  we  were  uncere- 
moniously bundled  into  a  large  waiting-room  and 
left  there  till  6  o'clock  next  morning,  when  the  train 
left  for  Belgrade.  We  spent  the  night  very  com- 
fortably in  our  sleeping  bags  on  the  floor  and  tables, 
being  disturbed  only  by  stray  passengers  who  kept 
on  walking  through  our  improvised  dormitory.  Our 
two  Hungarians  were  furious  with  the  Germans  for 
their  rudeness,  and  kept  on  saying  apologetically  : 
"  Wait  till  you  get  into  Hungary,  and  then  you  will 
see  how  different  it  will  be.  There  everybody  will  be 
polite  to  you."  And  they  were  quite  right,  as  events 
proved. 

As  the  through  train  by  which  we  were  to  go  to 
Budapest  stopped  only  twenty  minutes  at  Belgrade, 
we,  remembering  Krushevatz,  were  anxious  about 
our  heavy  luggage,  of  which  we  had  about  sixty 
pieces.  At  the  suggestion  of  our  Hungarian  friends 
arrangements  were  made  with  some  Russian 
prisoners  that  they  should  help  in  transhipping  our 
luggage  when  the  time  came.  When  the  train  came 
in,  sure  enough  the  German  station  officials  refused 
to  put  the  luggage  into  the  train,  saying  there  was 
no  time.  But  our  Hungarian  couriers  (we  can  hardly 
call  them  guards)  were  not  to  be  baulked.  They 
worked  furiously,  and,  helped  by  Dr.  Christopherson, 
Mr.  Jones,  the  Chaplain  and  others,  they  succeeded 
in  getting  the  last  trunk  into  the  van  just  as  the  train 
was  moving  off,  the  railway  officials  doing  nothing  to 
help  us.  We  afterwards  heard  that  another  British 
Mission  which  had  passed  through  Belgrade  a  week 


THE  JOURNET  HOME  279 

or  two  before  us  had  been  less  fortunate  and  had  lost 
the  whole  of  their  luggage  at  this  station. 

The  journey  through  Sirmia  and  across  the  level 
plain  of  Central  Hungary  was  quite  interesting.  It 
was  Sunday  and  swarms  of  Hungarian  peasants  were 
to  be  seen  on  the  platforms.  Many  of  them  tried  to 
get  into  our  carriage,  where  there  was  plenty  of  room. 
But  our  Hungarians,  who  took  as  much  care  of  us  as 
a  hen  with  a  brood  of  chickens,  kept  them  at  bay. 
To  one  party  who  tried  to  force  their  way  in  they  said 
that  we  had  just  come  from  a  cholera  camp,  where- 
upon the  would-be  invaders  fled  precipitately.  On 
another  occasion  half-a-dozen  farmers  succeeded  in 
effecting  an  entrance  and  refused  to  budge.  The 
conductor  of  the  train  took  their  part,  and  a  fierce  and 
wordy  argument  ensued  between  the  civilian  and  the 
military  authorities.  The  latter  said  we  were  not  to 
be  interfered  with,  the  former  insisting  that  pas- 
sengers had  a  right  to  occupy  the  empty  seats. 
Finally  the  quarrel  became  so  violent  that  our 
guards  buckled  on  their  swords  and  took  down  their 
rifles,  and  for  a  moment  we  thought  that  blood  was 
about  to  be  shed  on  our  behalf.  However,  a  com- 
promise was  arranged  by  which  four  of  the  intruders, 
who  were  going  only  as  far  as  the  next  station,  were 
allowed  to  stay.  In  a  few  minutes  our  visitors  were 
exchanging  cigarettes  and  chatting  amicably  with 
our  guards,  a  subject  of  conversation  mutually 
satisfactory  to  both  having  been  discovered — namely 
abuse  of  "  these  pigs  of  Germans." 

Shortly  afterwards  we  were  agreeably  surprised  by 
the  entry  of  a  pleasant  young  man  in  the  uniform  of 
the  German  Imperial  Guard  and  wearing  the  Iron 


280     A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN   SERBIA 

Cross.  He  sat  down  among  us  and  stayed  a  long  time, 
telling  us  that  he  came  from  Hamburg,  which  was 
"  half-English,"  that  he  had  visited  England  many 
times  in  his  yacht,  and  had  played  in  a  champion- 
ship tennis  tournament  at  Wimbledon.  "  The 
English  and  the  Hamburgers  are  cousins,"  he  said, 
"  for  the  English  came  from  our  neighbourhood," 
which  was  true  enough,  as  the  original  Engel-land 
was  close  to  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe.  He  spoke  almost 
perfect  English,  and  took  such  a  fancy  to  our  party 
that  upon  arrival  at  Budapest  he  insisted  on  taking 
nearly  the  whole  Mission  to  see  the  sights  of  the 
town  while  our  luggage  was  being  transported  to 
another  railway  station.  In  Budapest  we  walked 
about  in  perfect  freedom  and  seemed  to  attract 
but  little  attention — certainly  none  of  an  unfriendly 
character.  We  felt  that  what  our  escort  told  us  at 
Belgrade  about  the  courtesy  we  should  meet  with  in 
Hungary  was  quite  justified.  In  fact  our  treatment 
by  the  Hungarians  throughout  our  captivity  bore 
out  a  little  remark  made  to  us  once  when  we  were 
discussing  with  a  Hungarian  officer  our  position  as  a 
Red  Cross  unit  in  enemy  hands.  He  admitted  that 
we  were  technically  neither  "  prisoners  of  war  "  nor 
"  interned."  In  reply  to  the  conundrum  "  Then 
what  are  we  ?  "  he  answered,  "  Let  us  say  guests." 
And  as  the  Austro-Hungarian  authorities  supplied 
us  with  rations,  left  us  our  stores,  and  asked  very 
little  of  us  in  return,  "  guests  "  was  perhaps  a  descrip- 
tion not  so  very  far  wide  of  the  mark. 

We  arrived  at  Vienna  late  at  night,  and  being 
unable  to  obtain  accommodation  at  any  hotel,  as 
they  were  all  full,  we  induced  the  station  authorities 


THE  JOURNET  HOME  281 

to  put  three  first-class  carriages  on  to  a  siding,  and 
in  them  we  slept  most  comfortably.  A  whole  day 
at  Vienna  was  spent  by  some  of  us  in  official  business 
at  the  American  Embassy  and  elsewhere,  while  most 
of  the  party  wandered  about  the  city  with  complete 
freedom  and  without  the  necessity  of  having  even 
a  pass.  We  met  with  no  discourtesy  or  unpleasant- 
ness of  any  sort.  The  Red  Cross  seemed  to  be  looked 
on  everywhere  with  respect,  soldiers  being  always 
ready  to  salute,  in  spite  of  the  enemy  uniform. 
Some  of  our  party  saw  in  a  shop  some  "  Gott  strafe 
England"  brooches,  which  they  wished  to  buy  as 
curiosities.  The  shop  people  were  much  embarrassed 
and  refused  to  sell  them,  saying  "  Those  are  German, 
not  Austrian  ;  you  cannot  buy  them."  Sir  Rudolf 
Slatin,  late  of  the  Soudan,  an  old  friend  of  Dr.  Christo- 
pherson's,  now  actively  engaged  on  Red  Cross  work 
in  his  native  country,  met  us  on  arrival  at  the  station 
and  was  most  kind  and  hospitable. 

We  were  told  that  photographic  negatives  and 
prints  as  well  as  picture  post-cards  would  be  stopped 
at  the  frontier  and  that  they  should  be  deposited  with 
the  police,  but  we  were  allowed  to  retain  our  cameras 
and  unused  films.  The  police  officials  were  courteous 
and  lenient,  and  no  examination  of  our  luggage  was 
made.  Gold,  of  course,  had  to  be  given  up,  but  we 
received  in  exchange  a  cheque  on  a  Swiss  bank  and 
Austrian  paper  money  at  the  rate  of  44^  kronen  for 
the  English  sovereign  or  its  equivalent.  The  American 
Embassy  kindly  took  our  tickets  and  arranged  for  our 
journey  in  comfort  to  Switzerland,  and  Sir  Rudolf 
Slatin  came  to  see  us  off,  bestowing  a  farewell  gift  upon 
our  nurses  in  the  shape  of  a  huge  box  of  chocolates. 


282     A  RED   CROSS   UNIT  IN   SERBIA 

Altogether  we  had  spent  a  most  enjoyable  and 
interesting  day  in  the  capital  of  the  enemy. 

On  the  following  day  at  Bludenz,  in  the  Vorarl- 
berg,  within  sight  of  the  Swiss  frontier,  we  were  met 
by  the  Austrian  military  commandant,  who  told  us 
that  he  regretted  that  we  should  have  to  be  detained 
there  for  a  few  days  before  being  allowed  to  leave 
the  country.  This  was  to  ensure  that  any  military 
information  we  might  have  obtained  on  our  journey 
through  Serbia  and  Austria  should  be  stale  before  we 
reached  Switzerland  and  freedom.  There  was  nothing 
unreasonable  in  this,  and  we  contrived  to  spend  a  very 
enjoyable  nine  days  in  this  beautiful  mountain  spot, 
enjoying  a  full  view  of  the  snowy  Alps  and  being  free, 
within  certain  limits,  to  wander  about  and  take  long 
walks  into  the  surrounding  country. 

Both  military  and  civilians  behaved  to  us  with 
courtesy.  The  hotel  proprietors  treated  us  as  ordinary 
tourists.  The  peasants  and  the  townspeople  always 
gave  us  the  familiar  Tyrolese  greeting  "  Griiss  Gott  !  " 
and  showed  much  friendly  interest  in  us  and  our 
doings  in  Serbia.  It  was  interesting  to  read  every  day 
the  official  bulletins  at  the  post  office,  which  seemed  to 
show  that  Austrians  and  Germans  were  making  con- 
tinual progress  in  all  directions. 

All  articles  of  food,  especially  meat,  butter  and  milk, 
were  distinctly  scarce,  and  everybody  seemed  very 
tired  of  the  war. 

On  March  2nd  we  passed  through  Feldkirch,  where 
we  and  our  luggage  were  subject  to  a  fairly  thorough 
but  entirely  courteous  search.  All  articles  of  copper, 
of  which  we  had  but  few,  and  a  few  stray  souvenirs 
such  as  tops  of  shells  and  an  old  Russian  bayonet,  the 


THE  JOURNET  HOME  283 

gift  of  a  Hungarian  officer,  were  taken  away  from  us, 
but  our  little  stock  of  food  was  not  interfered  with. 
Some  had  brought  on  their  photographs  instead  of 
leaving  them  at  Vienna  and  were  much  rejoiced  when 
the  photographs,  having  been  examined,  were  all 
allowed  to  pass.  As  we  crossed  the  frontier  we  felt  like 
so  many  Rip  van  Winkles  or  inhabitants  of  Barbarossa's 
underground  castle  suddenly  emerging  into  sunlight. 
A  gloriously  fine  day  enhanced  the  beautiful  scenery 
through  which  we  passed  to  Zurich  on  this  our  first 
day  of  freedom  from  captivity.  As  we  had  not  seen 
an  English  newspaper  of  later  date  than  October  3rd, 
and,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  had  received  no 
letters  during  the  same  period,  we  were  propor- 
tionately delighted  to  hear  what  had  been  going  on. 
Both  Sir  Cecil  Hertslet,  Consul-General  at  Zurich,  and 
the  British  Minister  at  Berne,  met  us  at  the  station 
and  were  most  hospitable  and  kind.  The  former  was 
good  enough  to  give  us  a  long  epitome  of  the  war  news 
of  the  last  five  months,  of  which  we  were  practically 
in  complete  ignorance,  and  which  was  a  real  treat  to 
all  of  us. 

Our  "  Fairy  Godmother  " — to  return  to  the  simile 
in  the  preceding  chapter — seems  to  have  both  watched 
over  us  throughout  our  journey  from  Vrntse  and 
handed  us  on  to  her  sisters  in  the  countries  through 
which  we  passed.  In  Switzerland  not  only  were  we 
welcomed  and  feted  by  our  country  men  and  women, 
but  even  in  German-speaking  Zurich,  when  some  of  the 
party  went  into  a  restaurant  where  music  was  going 
on  in  the  evening,  all  the  company  present  started 
singing  "  It's  a  long  way  to  Tipperary  "  in  their  honour. 
When  we  reached  Pontarlier  and  entered  France, 


284     A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN  SERBIA 

although  it  was  quite  late  in  the  evening,  we  found  a 
table  prepared  for  us  and  were  met  by  a  member  of  the 
Municipal  Council,  who  apologised  for  the  absence  of 
the  Mayor  on  account  of  the  notice  of  our  arrival 
having  been  so  short.  The  military  authorities,  with 
equal  courtesy,  on  their  own  initiative  provided  us 
with  free  passes  as  far  as  Havre,  and  saw  that  two 
entire  first-class  carriages  were  reserved  for  us  to 
Paris.  Only  in  Britain  was  there  no  "  Fairy  God- 
mother." From  Havre  we  had  to  take  our  own 
tickets  ;  at  Southampton  we  were  curtly  informed 
by  the  railway  officials  that  seats  in  the  London 
train  could  not  be  reserved  for  our  party.  Then  we 
knew  indeed  that  we  were  once  more  in  dear  Old 
England  ! 

Our  year  of  exile  was  over  :  we  had  seen  much, 
learnt  much,  endured — well,  considerably  less  than 
anxious  friends  at  home  imagined.  Only  four  of  the 
original  Unit  who  left  England  in  January,  1915,  were 
with  the  return  party  in  March,  1916.  We  had  had 
various  alterations  of  personnel,  but  we  may  say  that 
practically  all  who  joined  us  were  animated  by  enthu- 
siasm and  zeal,  which  caused  them  to  work  well 
together.  Nearly  all  the  members  of  the  original 
Mission  had  been  carefully  selected  by  the  Heads  of 
the  Unit  themselves,  and  were  tied  to  them  by  a  bond 
of  loyalty  which  was  very  difficult  to  shake,  even  under 
the  most  trying  circumstances.  Many  of  the  trained 
nurses  had  themselves  held  posts  as  matrons  or  ward 
sisters  of  hospitals.  They  knew  the  value  of  hospital 
discipline,  acted  loyally  up  to  it,  and  were  of  great 
use  in  instilling  the  same  spirit  into  their  less  experi- 
enced colleagues. 


THE  JOURNET  HOME  285 

A  similar  spirit  of  loyalty  and  devotion  to  duty  was 
to  be  observed  among  nearly  all  the  V.A.D.'s,  whose 
energy  and  willingness  to  undertake  any  task,  however 
laborious  or  uninteresting,  that  fell  to  their  lot  was 
most  remarkable  and  encouraging.  Especial  praise 
should  perhaps  be  awarded  to  Mrs.  Eldred,  who  for 
months  toiled  away  at  the  important  but  compara- 
tively dull  post  of  storekeeper,  relieved  only  at  times 
by  the  more  exciting  work  of  helping  in  the  operating 
theatre  or  relieving  one  of  the  nurses  in  the  wards. 

If  a  little  friction  occasionally  occurred  between  the 
trained  nurses  and  the  untrained  volunteers,  who  were 
so  anxious  to  share  in  the  work  of  nursing  the  sick  and 
wounded,  it  was  not  serious  and  did  not  cause  any 
real  trouble. 

Of  one's  medical  colleagues  and  the  eagerness  with 
which  they  threw  themselves,  one  and  all,  into  their 
work  it  is  difficult  to  speak  with  too  much  praise. 

The  English  orderlies  (or  rather  the  English-speak- 
ing, for  two  were  Americans)  all  possessed  the  rare  and 
valuable  qualities  of  submission  to  constituted  autho- 
rity, combined  with  a  spirit  of  enterprise,  energy,  and 
initiative  that  made  their  services  most  valuable  and 
never  to  be  forgotten. 

We  had  purposely  brought  with  us  none  of  the  class 
of  the  paid  English  orderlies  who  are  often  taken  by 
English  units  to  do  the  rougher  work.  Not  that  such 
men  do  not  work  well,  but  we  knew  that  an  abundance 
of  cheap  Austrian  prisoner  labour  was  to  be  had,  and 
we  knew  that  these  would  be  more  adaptable  to 
the  habits  of  the  country.  The  relations  between  our 
orderlies  and  the  Austrians  were  those  of  officers  and 
soldiers,  and  discipline  was  maintained  without  any 


286     A  RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN   SERBIA 

emphasis  on  the  distinction  between  the  free  man  and 
the  prisoner,  which  would  have  been  the  only  sanction 
in  the  case  of  orders  given  by  Englishmen  of  the  same 
military  rank  as  the  Austrians  themselves.  A  paid 
English  orderly  could  hardly  command  the  same  sort 
of  affectionate  loyalty  as  did  men  like  our  volunteer 
orderlies,  who  would  unquestionably  have  held  com- 
missioned rank  in  the  Austrian  Army.* 

It  is  not  quite  so  easy  to  manage  a  voluntary  unit  in 
a  foreign  country  as  some  may  think.  The  difficulty 
of  doing  so  is  accentuated  when  the  unit  happens  to  be 
in  the  enemy's  hands  and  delicate  negotiations  have 
to  be  carried  on. 

Some  people  seemed  to  think  that  when  the  Unit 
became  captive  the  causes  of  its  cohesion  disappeared 
and  it  was  a  case  of  every  man  for  himself.  The 
various  Austrian  commandants,  especially  the  Prince, 
who  was  always  accessible  to  everyone,  complained 
occasionally  of  their  time  being  taken  up  by  members 
calling  with  individual  requests,  complaints,  or  sugges- 
tions, and  these  proceedings  sometimes  gave  rise  to 
embarrassing  misunderstandings. 

Excellent  material  for  a  book  might  be  found  in 
a  general  account  of  Foreign  Units  in  Serbia  ;  these 
played  an  important  part,  and  are  to  a  great  extent  an 
instance  of  a  new  field  of  human  activity  developed 
by  this  war.  "  How  to  choose  the  right  people  " 
would  be  a  sub-section  for  which  those  who  are  ac- 
quainted with  selecting  bodies  seem  to  think  there  is 
much  need.  "  Hints  for  Heads  of  Units  in  their 
difficult  task  "  would  also  form  a  useful  chapter,  and 

*  It  should  be  mentioned  that  no  one  in  our  Mission,  except  the 
trained  sisters  and  one  of  the  junior  medical  officers,  received  any  salary. 


THE  JOURNET  HOME  287 

should  deal  with  the  following  subjects  : — How  to 
combine  the  discipline  required  by  an  organisation  in 
war-time  with  full  scope  for  individual  initiative  and 
the  utilisation  of  individual  talent  in  the  members  ; 
how  to  find  out  and  attend  to  complaints,  and  not 
be  unduly  moved  by  criticism ;  how  to  know  what  to 
expect  from  human  nature  and  to  be  neither  unduly 
optimistic  nor  surprised  at  anything  which  occurs  ; 
how  in  fact  to  drive  "  a  team  of  zebras "  as  the 
Head  of  a  Mission  once  described  the  members,  so 
that  the  coach  shall  neither  upset  on  the  way  nor 
take  a  wrong  turning  !  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
chapter  would  proceed  from  the  sympathetic  pen 
of  a  Head,  for  we  tremble  to  think  what  might 
be  contained  in  one  written  by  a  discontented 
member  ! 

In  our  own  Unit  we  met  with  criticism  of  course, 
doubtless  much  of  it  justified.  A  candid  friend 
would  tell  us  one  day  that  we  were  "  despots  "  and 
that  the  Unit  was  on  the  point  of  revolt,  while  the  next 
day  we  might  be  informed  that  we  did  not  know  how 
to  exert  our  authority !  We  have  been  told,  however, 
that  our  Unit  had  less  friction  than  any  in  Serbia. 
How  far  this  is  truth  and  how  far  fiction  we  do  not 
know.  Two  events  gave  us  much  satisfaction  and 
cheered  us  up  when  we  were  inclined  to  be  down- 
hearted. One  was  the  unsolicited  testimonial  from 
the  Serbians  recorded  at  the  end  of  Chapter  XVI., 
and  the  other  was  a  beautiful  souvenir,  equally 
unsolicited  and  even  more  unexpected,  which  was 
presented  to  us  by  our  twenty-three  fellow-prisoners 
shortly  after  our  return  home.  Some  verses  written 
hurriedly  to  be  used  in  returning  thanks  on  this 


288      A   RED  CROSS   UNIT  IN   SERBIA 

occasion  fairly  well  represented  our  feelings  and 
may  well  be  used  to  end  this  little  volume. 

In  conclusion  we  would  make  a  few  general  remarks. 
We  described  our  position  during  our  captivity  as  that 
of  persons  surrounded  by  thick  fog,  and  said  that  in 
this  fog  Rumour  discerned  strange  visions.  We  still 
look  at  a  wall  of  fog — the  Veil  which  hangs  over  the 
war  and  the  future — and  we  still  see  visions.  These 
are  some  of  the  visions  we  see  in  the  mist :  Serbia, 
restored  to  independence,  reviving  from  the  martyr- 
dom through  which  she  has  passed,  enlarged,  not  by 
the  conquest  of  an  unwilling  population,  but  by  joyful 
union  with  her  brothers  in  race,  Croats,  Bosniaks, 
Slovenes,  so  many  of  whom  served  as  volunteers  in 
her  armies,  or  gave  themselves  up  as  willing  prisoners 
from  the  ranks  of  the  invaders. 

We  see  the  Austrian  Empire  consigned  to  the 
limbo  of  antiquity,  or  decently  buried  as  befitting 
what  she  is,  the  dead  bones  of  a  medieval  empire. 
"  Every  people  has  the  right  to  choose  the  sovereignty 
under  which  it  shall  live  "  is  one  of  the  principles 
enunciated  by  President  Wilson  in  his  recent  historic 
speech  on  the  possibility  of  a  League  of  Nations.  If 
this  principle  is  to  be  the  basis  of  the  European  States 
in  the  future  there  will  be  many  changes  in  the  lands 
which  now  constitute  the  realms  of  Austria. 

Hungary,  in  her  attitude  to  the  British  Missions,  was 
a  chivalrous  foe,  and  Hungary  in  the  past  viewed 
England  and  English  institutions  with  admiration  and 
affection.  May  Hungarian  patriotism  cease  to  look  on 
Hungary  from  the  point  of  view  of  Arpad,  the  Magyar 
conqueror,  as  a  preserve  for  Magyar  development 
safeguarded  by  Magyar  predominance,  but  rather 


THE  JOURNET  HOME  289 

from  the  wider  outlook  of  the  welfare  of  humanity, 
with  equal  rights  and  opportunities  for  all  the  dwellers 
upon  the  soil. 

Lastly — and  this  is  more  than  a  vision — may  the 
work  of  the  British  Missions  and  other  intercourse 
between  Serbians  and  Britons  during  this  war  result 
in  a  permanent  bond  between  our  two  races.  Each 
has  much  to  learn  from  the  other  and  a  closer  friend- 
ship between  the  two  will  be  for  the  benefit  of  both. 

J.  B. 


To  our  Twenty-three  "  Fellow-Prisoners "  on  the 
Occasion  of  their  Presentation  of  a  Testimonial 
of  their  regard,  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Berry  at  the 
Imperial  Hotel,  London,  Thursday,  March  23^, 
1916. 

WE  said  when  we  quitted  dear  Serbia, 

Where  so  much  of  our  effort  seemed  vain, 
We  would  never,  oh  !  never,  oh  !  never, 

Be  Heads  of  a  Mission  again. 
We  thought  of  our  many  shortcomings, 

We  knew  it  was  frequently  said, 
That  whatever  went  wrong  with  the  Unit, 

Was  always  the  fault  of  the  Head. 


290     A   RED  CROSS  UNIT  IN   SERBIA 

We  feared  when  at  last  they  were  finished, 

Those  months  of  detention  and  cramp, 
That  the  Unit  would  all  spring  asunder, 

Like  a  shattered  electrical  lamp. 
But  this  day  on  our  thoughts  and  our  feelings 

A  different  complexion  now  sheds, 
And  coals  which  are  brilliantly  burning, 

You  are  heaping  indeed  on  our  heads. 

I  think  of  the  days  which  are  over, 

When  the  Austrians  stood  at  the  gates, 
When  Doctors  were  washing  the  dishes 

And  Sisters  were  scrubbing  the  grates. 
When  a  Diplomat  reigned  in  the  kitchen, 

The  Chaplain  cleaned  boots  in  the  hall, 
And  anything  else  that  was  wanted, 

The  V.A.D.'s  tackled  it  all ! 

And  I  think  that  if  Serbia  or  Russia, 

Or  anywhere  else  in  the  world, 
Should  ask  for  a  British  contingent 

Again  at  their  heads  to  be  hurled, 
That  in  spite  of  the  Past  and  its  troubles, 

The  summons  might  not  be  in  vain, 
And  some  of  us  still  would  be  willing, 

To  go  off  together  again. 


APPENDIX    I 


LIST   OF   MEMBERS    OF   THE    UNIT. 


No.                                        NAME. 

ARRIVAL 

AT 

VRNJATCHKA 
BANJA. 

DEPARTURE 

FROM 

VRNJATCHKA 
BANJA. 

*i.  James  Berry,                                                     „ 
B.S.,  F.R.C.S.     .      .     Senior  Surgeon     |  Wl 
*2.  F.  May  Dickinson  Berry,  (  Anaesthetist          i   „  T 
M.D.,  B.S.                  .  !       and  Physician  )   l 

('  19*5  (N.S.) 
j     Feb.  M 

Feb.  18,  1916 

3.  Laurence  E.  Panting, 

M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.C.S. 

Surgeon                      •      • 

May  9,  1915 

4.  Ernest  Ulysses  Williams, 
M.R.C.S.,  L.R.C.P.    . 

(  Radiographer  and 
(       Physician 

i  : 

May  27,  1915 

5.  Dorothy  Chick, 
M.R.C.S.,  L.R.C.P.   . 

House-Surgeon  . 

5> 

May  5,  1915 

6.  Miss  K.  Parkinson  . 

Dresser  •      •      •      .      . 

t7-  Mr.  Donald  C.  Norris  . 

15 
)) 

April  26,  1915 

8.  Miss  S.  Irvine  Robertson 

Sister  in  Charge 

55 

June  9,  1915 

9.  Miss  Lena  Barber  . 

Nursing  Sister   . 

May  95  '9'S 

10.  Miss  Florence  Bartleet. 

»              ... 

M 

May  26,  1915 

ii.  Hon.  Florence  Colborne 

. 

u 

June  95  '9'S 

12.  Miss  Julia  Gore       .      . 

„              ... 

55 

May  26,  1915 

13.  Miss  Margaret  Hurley  . 

»»             ... 

55 

June  9,  19'  5 

14.  Miss  Annie  J.  Pearce    . 

i>             ... 

55 

15.  Miss  Jessie  Sutherland. 

^ 

,9 

*i6.  Miss  Catherine  West    . 

... 

55 

Feb.  18,  i9l6 

•17.  Mrs.  Elsie  F.  Eldred    . 

Lady  Orderly     .      .      . 

55 

55 

1  8.  Mrs.  Cora  j.  Gordon     . 

„              ... 

„             till 

Aug.  7,  i9'5 

19.  Miss  Dorothea  Oakley. 

,,              ... 

&  Sept.  27,  till 
Feb.  ii 

Oct.  30,  i9'5 
May  19,19'$ 

20.  Mrs.  J.Agnes  Panting. 

„              ... 

„ 

May  9,  191$ 

21.  Miss  Ena  M.  Stevenson 

5)                        ... 

n 

H 

22.  Mr.  Jan  Gordon 

Gentleman  Orderly. 

„    till 

Aug.  7,  191$ 

&  Sept.  27,  till 

Oct.  30,  1915 

23.  Mr.  William  Gwin  .      . 

55                                  • 

Feb.  u 

Oct.  i,  1915 

24.  Mr.  Cecil  de  B.  Howard 

»                    •      • 

55 

April  26,1915 

25.  Mr.  Francis  H.  Schwind 

5» 

May  27,1915 

26.  Miss  Lucia  Creifirhton   . 

Cook    "  

May  19,  1915 

27.  Mr.  Walter  Lyon  Blease 

Gentleman  Orderly. 

55 

April  1  8 

Oct.  30,  1915 

*28.  Miss  Harriott  Davies    . 

Sister  in  Charge 

» 

Feb.  18,  1916 

292 


APPENDIX  I. 


No.                                        NAME. 

ARRIVAL 

AT 

VRNJATCHKA 
BANJA. 

DEPARTURE 

FROM 

VRNJATCHKA 
BANJA. 

I9IS  (N.S.) 

29.  Miss  Agnes  Miller  . 

Nursing  Sister  . 

April  1  8 

July  20,  1915 

*3o.  Miss  Ruth  C.  Thomas  . 

,,             ... 

n 

Feb.  18,  1916 

*3i.  Miss  Susan  Hall     . 

» 

)} 

*32.  Miss  Margaret  Barber  . 

Lady  Orderly    .      .      . 

5> 

j) 

*33.  Miss  Annie  J.  Dickinson 

,,              •      .      . 

May  12 

•)•> 

*34.  Miss  Margaret  Hyett    . 

„              ... 

» 

H 

*35-  Miss  Mabel  Ingram 

Dresser  and  Radiographer 

») 

» 

36.  A.  Helen   Boyle,  M.D., 

L.R.C.P.,L.R.C.S.Ed. 

Physician     .... 

May  28 

Aug.  15,  1915 

37.  Miss  Ethel  M.Thackeray 

Lady  Orderly    . 

>J 

33 

38.  Miss  E.  Mary  Walters  . 

„               ... 

»> 

July  20,  1915 

*39-  Ada  McLaren,  M.B., 

D.P.H.      .      . 

Surgeon        .... 

June  23 

Feb.  18,  1916 

*40.  Isobel  Inglis,  M.B., 

Ch.B  

Physician     .... 

)3 

)> 

*4i.  Miss  Fanny  Amott 

Nursing  Sister  . 

» 

3? 

*42.  Miss  Alice  Brock    .      . 

... 

13 

3) 

*43-  Miss  Elizabeth  Cameron 

... 

53 

*44.  Miss  Mary  E.  Griffin     . 

,,             .      . 

M 

n 

*45-  Miss  Gertrude  M. 

Hammond     . 

,,             ... 

,j 

33 

46.   Mrs.  Dorothy  Co  wen    . 

Lady  OrderlyJ  .      .      . 

11 

July  16,  1915 

47.  Mrs.  Olive  Jourdain 

,,              ... 

)) 

Sept.  21,  1915 

*48.  Mr.  Herbert  Jones  . 

Gentleman  Orderly. 

June  28 

Feb.  18,  1916 

*49-  Miss  Ria  Murray    . 

Lady  Orderly    .      .      .           Sept.  6 

3J 

*5o.  Mr.  George  Lingner 

Gentleman  Orderly 

Sept.  13 

„ 

*5i.  J.  B.  Christopherson, 

M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.C.S., 

F.R.C.P.       .      .      . 

Surgeon  ..... 

*§2.  Rev.  George  Simpson  . 

Refugee  Visitor.      .      . 

1) 

October 

*53-  Mrs.  Madeline  Simpson 

»)             ... 

53 

„ 

*54.  Mrs.  Sarah  Branson 

„             .      •      • 

» 

J> 

Those  marked  thus  *  were  prisoners  at  Vrnjatchka  Banja  under  the  Austro-Hungarians 
from  November  10,  1915,  till  February  18,  1916. 
t   Now  Lieut.  D.  C.  Norris,  R.A.M.C. 


APPENDIX    II 

STATEMENT  OF  EXPENDITURE, 
JANUARY,  1915 — MARCH  ?TH,  1916.* 

£  s.  d. 

Instruments  (including  splints,  X-ray  plant,  etc.)        .         •  355  2  3 

Surgical  Dressings   .         .         .         .         .         .         .          .  471  2  i 

Drugs 291  2  9 

Hospital    Equipment   (including   beds,   bedding,   pyjamas, 

hardware,  etc.)          .         .         .         .         .         .  835  i  10 

Part  Cost  of  Thresh  Disinfector 34  12  u 

f  Food  Stores  from  England        ......  534  14  9 

Clothes  sent  from  England 237  10  o 

Boots        „      „          „              86  6  6 

Outfit  (nurses'  uniforms,  etc.)  ......  228  o  3 

| Salaries  (trained  nurses  and  one  junior  medical  officer)        .  902  15  9 

Housekeeping  at  Vrntse  (food  and  washing  for  staff)  .          .  615  14  6 
Hospital   Maintenance   (including   ironmongery,    materials, 

payment  for  needlework,  tobacco  for  patients,  etc.)      .  120  4  6 
Buildings     and     Repairs      (including      typhus      baraque, 

£156  zs.  6d.} 230  14  6 

Miscellaneous  (including  telegrams,  etc.)    .          .          .         .  37  18  o 

Wages  and  Gratuities  to  Serbians  and  Austrian  Prisoners    .  158  14  8 
Travelling  Expenses  (54  members)  outward      £373  95.  $d.    ) 

„                „                   „            homeward  £769  5*.  4<*.  j.  * 

Carriage,  Packing,  etc 9112 

Maintenance  Charges  in  London,  petty  cash,  etc.)        .          .  260  2  10 

Total      .         .         .    6,633  *4  3 

Expenditure  on   Slaughter-house   (not   defrayed   from  the 

general  funds  of  the  Mission)      .....  423  12  o 

Total 


*  These  tables  are  approximate  as  the  exact  auditing  of  the  accounts  has 
not  yet,  at  the  time  of  going  to  press,  been  completed. 

f  Food  stores  from  England  were  used  partly  for  the  staff  and  partly 
to  supplement  the  rations  of  the  patients.  The  Serbian  Government 
allowed  3  dinars  per  head  daily  for  rations  for  the  staff  and  provided 
rations  for  the  patients. 

I  A  doctor  and  nurse  sent  out  to  Vrntse  by  our  Committee  in  September 
were  prevented  by  the  Bulgarians  from  reaching  their  destination.  They 
have  not  been  reckoned  as  members  of  the  Mission,  nor  are  the  expenses 
incurred  in  connection  with  them  included  in  these  accounts. 


RXOBURV,    A  ..NEW,  &   CO.    LD.,    fRINTEKj     LONDON    AND   TONBRIDGK. 


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