The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-29 00:00:00

SMALL NEUTRAL STATES.

The Economist looks with suspicion on the un-
necessary formation of small neutral states, which it
calls the artificial inventions of diplomatists at the
close of t great war. They are certain baits for the
growing ambitions of the future. The chief bait to
France since she recovered her strength as a military
empire has been the prospect of absorbing
Belgium or Luxembourg, or little bits of
French Switzerland. Colourless neutral states,
guarded by guarantees which all the guarantors
are apt to regret, are the great chronic temptations
to war. Had the Emperor of the French seen only
strong States around him, or at least States of well-
marked Individual character, he would not have
indulged in so many rash menaces and calamitous
resolves. The avfnornist is convinced that for the
sale of Europe, the fewer colourless States which on.
this side gravitate to one Power, and on that to
another, the better, and it consequently regards the
rumour of the intended creation of a new neutral State
out of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine with
great disfavour. Instead of serving the design
intended, and proving a buffer between France and
Germany, it would create more political hankerings
than if it was left as part of France, or even taken as
part of Germany.

THE HORRORS OF WAR INCREASED.

The Spectator calls attention to the fact that the
policy of arming whole nations may possess some
merits, but it has the drawback
.of increasing the
horrors of war to a great extent. So vast are the
numbers engaged in these battles that it becomes
quite impossible to organise any plan for the care of
the wounded, and the majority of these so afflicted
must die in lingering pain—tortured with thirst.
Supposing there are fifty thousand on the field after
a battle. They cannot receive anything like effective,
aid, and yet, if they are not removed from the field
within twenty-four hours they will die of pestilence.

Some notion of the sufferings that are endured, may
be formed from the statement that Birmingham and
Sheffield have been stripped of surgical instruments.
The Prussian organisation is an admirable one, but it
is not equal to the strain put upon it, and there have
b,.en rumours of the cholera appearing in the German
army. If this be true there must be before Metz a
4' scene of misery, of suffering in its most heart-
rending forms, such as earth has not seen since, Na-
poleon retreated from Moscow with the relics of half
a million of men." It may be surmised that
during this campaign the losseS have exceeded
1.30,000 men, or in other words that the entire
adult manhood of two cities like Glasgow has been
prostrated. Other kinds of suffering are entailed by
this war. When armies are so large it is impos-
sible for provisions to be carried with them, and
whole provinces are plundered to feed them. At
this moment ten departments of France are under
such severe foreign requisitions that the peasantry
must give up, not only their possessions in the shape
of cattle, crops, &c., but the stores of their own
loud. Whole villages in Alsace are perishing with
hunger, and it may be questioned if the sufferings
before Metz are not equalled by the sufferings en-
dured by the inhabitants of the districts which
the armies have traversed.

THE PRUSSIAN MEDICAL SEi.VICR.

It is not true that all surgeons and medical assis-
tants who are attached to the Prussian army corps
occupy a position of per feet safety while in the field.
The medical service as at present arranged is under
the command of a General Staff Surgeon, whose
principal duty, is to see that in the rear of the
army there shall follow a vanguard, a centre corps
and a reserve corps of surgeons and hospital assist-
ants furnished' with necessary appliances and
medicines. These detachments are all under the
protection of the white flag with the red
cross, and are so far comparatively free from on-
slaught or danger of any kind. Under the chief
officer, however, and distinct from the general army
medical staff; are a'number of surgeons, who are like
captains attached to respective troops, and these
have to accompany the soldiers into battle, and take
the same part as the latter in the conflict. The
position in which these officers are placed renders it
necessary that the men holding them shall possess
more than the ordinary qualifications of a soldier, or
a surgeon, for they have not only to exhaust their
strength in cutting down the foe on the one hand,
but when the fight is over they have to begin a new
work of binding up wounds, and of reviving strength
and life with all tho skill in their power. In c QU-
sideration, however, of all they have to do in the
latter respect, soldierly daring in the field, or indeed
any offensive strategy, is not expecte-I from
the troop surgeons, but they have nevertheless allotted
to them a large share of the general danger.