The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-05-11
SERBIA IS SICK
unto DEATH
-2idemic Of Typhus Has AL
5 ready Taken $4,000 Lives
and More Are
Coming.
PRISONERS BROUGHT IT
Allies and America Have Sent Doc
tors and Nurses to Fight
Against Spread OF
Disease.

by Henry Wood, United Pfess SJaII
Correspondent
copyright 1915 by The United Press]
NISH, Serbia, April 16 tBy courier
to Salonika and mail to New York TO
avoid the English censor at Malta
and the French censor at Mar
seilles)-For three months all Ser
bia has been one great charnel
house Of dead and dying. Deaths to
date have reached grand totai OF
rs ,OOO Although the epidemic OF ty-
phus is now declared to be under
control, It is freely admitted that q
grim harvest of 100 900 human beings
will have been reaped before 1t can
be entirely stamped out. This Is the
most optimistic view of the situation.
Escaping from the two Balkan wars
with only slight epidemics Of cholera.
this heroic little state has beea
| caught in her third war with an cpl
demic Of typhus which has decimated
(! the ranks of her population more
than have the gums Of the Turks ana
4 the Austrians combined.
OF the 5000 victsphs TO dafe. 2b. .oo0
are among the austrian prisoners OF
war. The epidemic was brought BY
them, Serbtans assert. It broke out
early in January. High diplomatic
and Red Cross officials say that at
that time typhus was an epidemic IN
| Austria.
Blame for keeping the rest Of the
world from knowing the terrible
conditions that have existed In Ser
| bia for three months, rests with the
French and English censorship, rath-
er than with the Serbians. France
and England did not want Austria to
know the straits to which their little
allv had been reduced. The first real
story of facts was brought to Eng
land by Sir Thomas Upton, who made
q personal inspection of conditions.
Rough shedding over British press
censorship. he openly declared tnat
unless the most vigorous and extern.
sive help was at once given the little
Balkan state, that had twice defeated
the Austrians in the cause OF the al
lies, stood to lose At least half OF Its
population.
Sir Thomas Lipton's account Of To-
cal conditions failed utterly. however,
to give an adequate idea of the ter
rible situation.
Even now Serbia's declaration that
the disease is under control is based
on the hope that measures taken will
prove effective. rather than on any
great check of the epidemic. That
there has been a slight diminution
now for two weeks past, cannot be
denied, for the fight on the disease
Serbia must depend on foreign help.
The fifteen southern provinces have
been turned. over to the mission OF
the Rockefeller foundation sent out
In conjunction with the Red Cross.
>>~<~>I 0or< ~ aphlo ohn,,f TIe-
kub and Kraguyevats has been turned
over to the English who now have
total OF 500 doctors and nurses there.
The northern part Of Serbia 10 In th..
hands Of Russians, although at Bel
grade. where the disease is especially
strong and fatal, the American Red
Cross units are also fighting the grim
fight. France has just sent mission
of one hundred doctors and sanitary
experts who will endeavor to work
over the sanitation of the whole coun-
try.
Owing to the pitiful condition in
which the little country was. even be-
fore the war started. this foreign help
is declared by the members Of the
various missions themselves to be
wholly inadequate; SO much more,
however. than Serbia has ever had at
any time in the past, that she Is PIN
ming hopes Of her continued existence
to it with almost pitiful confidence.
When the present war broke out,
there was in all Serbia with popu-
lation Of 100000 people. only 900
doctors. The majority Of these had to
60 at once to the army, leaving the
civilian population practically without
medical help. OF this heroic little
band Of doctors. one third have al
ready fallen victims to the epidemic
which they were fighting.
With those who remain. and with
the other doctors who have been sent
by various foreign governments. to-
sether with 40 which the Serbian
government secured by offering SAL
ary Of $3.50 month to any physician
who would come, there are now in all
Serbia still very few more than 1000