A letter received from a member of one of the foreign Red Cross
missions in Servia paints a gloomy picture of conditions in Nish.
The town was crowded with wounded, fresh batches were still
pouring in, and here tobacco factories were being utilized for
their reception. There was serious shortage of dressings and other
appliances. At one hospital visited by the writer, the attendants
were merely putting on bandages, the supply of proper dressings
being exhausted.
The number of surgeons and other workers, despite the arrival of
foreign missions, was too small to deal with the enormous number of
wounded. As a consequence, the work was taxing their powers to the
utmost.
The Servians were meeting their difficulties with the greatest
courage and cheerfulness, but the situation was extremely grave,
and further assistance in the shape of personal service, money, and
stores was urgently required.
"FORWARD, MY CHILDREN!"
According to a letter received recently by the parents of Lori G.
Periard, a French infantryman, when he wrote the letter on November
5, he was resting at Montrol, a village back of Tresne en Oise for
two days after a twenty-four-hour shift at "advance work," the
driving back of the Germans.
"It is four o'clock in the afternoon," he writes. "We are at rest
for two days in Montrol, a small village a little back from Tresne,
where has been fought the frightful battle of October 8, of which
mayhap you have heard. I was in that battle.
"There I saw my captain killed at my side as he shouted to us,
'Forward, my children! Courage!' The poor one! He was indeed one
brave! I saw my best friends killed beside me. Myself, I got but a
spent bullet in my pocket.
"Now we are advancing with caution. We take the advanced post every
third day. That is to say this: We advance on Tresne, where the
Germans are, with short dashes.
"The Prussians are only 400 yards away from us. We sprint and fall
flat, and then we work all night to make some trenches to shelter
us. The charges are always made at dark. In the morning Ave relieve
ourselves by crawling back, while other soldiers who have had
sheltered positions crawl to relieve us. I say crawl, because if
the Prussians should catch sight of us they would honor us with a
fusillade en regle....
"During the day we hide behind mounds of earth which we throw up,
and we fight foot for foot any attempt they make to advance. They do
not like our cold steel, and many times we must give it to them."