New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-03-11
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from Tie Tribune Bureau
Washington. March TO- A thrilling
Story of the looting of Belgrade fol
lowing its evacuation by the Servians
and its later evacuation by the Aus
TRANS. together with description of
the narrowing scenes in the Red Cross
hospital at that time, are contained in
letter received by Miss Mabel 7.
Boardman. Of the American Red Cross,
from Dr. Edward W. Ryan, director of
the Scryian unit.
ION December . the Austrians came
Dr. Ryan writes, "and then our real
work began. The Servians had evacu-
ated the city forty-eight hours pre-
vious to this, leaving no one in charge.
As there were many robbers about
many Of the stores were broken INTO
and looted. There was also a great
deal of shooting in the streets. Early
in the morning of the first day many
people came 10 me for protection, com
planning that their houses had been
broken into during the night, and as
there was no police OF any kind the
situation was rather serious. As this
condition was allowed to go on until
the afternoon without any attempt to
remedy IT, I became rather alarmed.
81 left the hospital about o'clock
and went around TO see some Of the
men ! had met before the evacuation.
They then called some more men in
and | asked them what they intended
TO do in the matter; they replied that
b,,~ Il hot 20 do fhpL
were not officials, so had no authority
to act and supposed that they would
wait until the Austrians came. ] then
suggested the formation OF a citizens
committee, who would have the power
to appoint policemen and run the town
until somebody came to take over the
government.
Citizens Killed in Streets.
This plan was followed out with I
fairly good results, and while there /.
was a great deal Of lootinG and shoot f.
ing, with many deaths as result, some
of them among the newly appointed ,
police. I am sure that without some /
thing along this line the situation /.
would have been too terrible for de- F.
scription.
MANY people were being held up in
broad daylight, and, as it was neces- ,
sarv for them to be on the street, espe- /
cially the poor people, who had no /
food, something had to be done. There /
were about 5000 poor people VINO had .
to be fed, and as | did not have enough .
food for the patients il made it very .
hard.
81 did, however, get some bread for .
them, but as you can readily see, IT was /
Just before the Servians went away
they turned over to me all Of the hos
pitfalls in the city. making me director. /
and, of course, il was necessary for
somebody TO provide food, coal, etc. p.
for them, 80 it fell TO me. / neglected f.
TO say that on leaving the Servians
took with them all but about one hun
dred of their wounded. | went around
20 see the hospitals five in all, the day
after, and made arrangements to have
men 20 into the country and bring in
all the food they could get their hands
on, but before they could return the
Austrians arrived.
Army Sent Food.
"When the general came ] told him
that ! was left in charge Of the hos
pitfalls of the city, and, as the food ques-
ton was a very serious one, ! would
have to ask him to give or sell TO me
sufficient food to maintain them. He
promised TO do all in his power for me,
which he did not think would be much,
in so far as he was having great diff
fculties in providing food for his army,
which had had no bread for thlrty-slX
hours. lie did, however, send me 1000
later on.
About forty-cight hours after the
first troops entered the city the wound
ed began to arrive, and it seemed that
they would never stop coming. We
worked day and night until we could
no longer continue, and | ordered all
the nurses to bed, a | could see no
end to it. We had wounded men
everywhere. thousands OF them, with
others piling in on top Of us all the
time.
"Our nerves after the first few days, .
especially the nurses. were all gone TO
smash. We would work all day long,
operating only at night. Starting our
day at 6 O'Clock in the morning, We
would dress. dress, dress all day. put
ting the operations off until the night.
About o'clock at night we would start
TO operate, and work right on through
until 8 or o'clock in the morning.
Many nights we got no sleep at all
the most we got any night was three
hours.
"The halls, floors Of wards, and every
place where a man would fit we had
two, three or four. The beds in the
wards were all put side By side, and
instead Of seeing beds, all you could
see was a mass Of suffering humanity
with every class Of wound or injury
imaginable. 1t is not easy TO describe
the conditions that existed at that time.
as it seems more or less like bad
dream.
1--WE had in this hospital for several
days three thousand wounded men, and
on one day we had in the grounds nine
thousand. On this particular day |
had TO step work and tell them that
they must take them away TO Semlin
or some other town IN Hungary, as II
would be impossible for us to do any
thing for them, and that it was greatly
interfering with the little we were able
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