New Britain herald., 1917-04-26
APPRECIATION OF RELIEF WORK SHOWN
Letters From Abroad Received by
 Surgical Dressings Committee

from Rome for the president of the Italian Red Cross:
 II am happy to acknowledge re- ceipt of the cases mentioned in your letters of April IT. May and June 12. I have had the pleasure of ex- pressing already my greatest satisfac- tion and approbation to this generous institution for the brotherly help always sent us. Still I am happy to express again our deepest gratitude to our good friends beyond the seas: to those who spend their best ener- gies in soothing the woes caused by the cruel war. The eminent mem- bers of this noble institution may be proud of the merciful work they do for the, suffering.'
 Mrs. Fitzgerald, who is at one of the London Casualty Clearing stations in France. writes:
 1T am now very near the front: in fact on ground recently evacuated by the enemy and we receive the wound ed direct from the field dressing sta tion. It is practically a continuous stream through to the base hospitals and I could use no end of fracture pillows, congresses, and gauge and cotton pads, etc. We are in tents and it has been raining so hard that it is no drier inside than out. Many thanks to your committee for all the help you send. It is so nice to be able to give the wounded what they need with a fairly free hand. A few days ago I received seven wonderful cases from you. I can not tell you har Q everyone is with the way and you were most particularly gen. erous this time in sending so much. These supplies have been distributed where most needed and everyone is grateful to your committee. The cases came just as I was adding to my work by taking over another tent and so was able to equip it most beautf- fully. I have charge of three tents now, each with 8 capacity of from 50 to 70 stretchers and they are gen. orally fairly well filled. I have no other nurse with me and just two orderlies in each tent, so it keeps me pretty busy. The orderlies are army trained men and some are remark ably good, so that get on very we'll with their assistance. I do not know if ever told you that I use your cases by making shelves with the lid and standing them up on end. They hold the supplies beautifully and the tin boxes get 1ettered. on the outside and look very fine indeed when we'll polished. The nails are used to put in the shelves. so you see there is nothing wasted that you send us.
 Please tell your committee again and again how grateful am for the supplies and I wish I could begin to 1 tell them how many nice things have been said about their generosity
 Extract from letter of Mrs. c. K. Austin, who is the head of the Paris depot:
 ''The wounds are so terrific that the small pads are of very little use unless the doctors use many at time, and this is not really practical be- cause the pus oozes between them. have been asked for the larger size so many times lately, and we have so little time for making quantity here. will you think, I wonder, that we are always changing? It is not we, but the conditions and the demands. You can not send us too many one-yard gauge packings. They use these in enormous quantities, and they are really more useful than the half yards. They are not only used for packing, but for dressing stumps. Alas! there are so many! A friend of mine was at a hospital just outside Paris a few days ago. There he saw eleven men with both arms and legs
 gone, and one of them blind. The
 wounds from the Somme have, some
 of them. been simply too gha.stly for
 description, and the hospitals are full
 to overflowing. When will 1t ever end: I wonder if you can have the faintest
 idea of the things we see. hardly
 think it possible. And the men are
 so patient.
 Boston has been more than gener-
 ous to the hospitals we supply. The
 material is perfect and we never have
 to touch a thing. hope you are able
 to let all your workers and sub-com-
 mittees know how grateful weN are.
 Did I tell you in my last letter
 about the pillows we are making for
 the trains. at the request of the Ser
 vice de Sante? We are able to get
 off 25o week, that is to say, enough
 for one train. We are just sending
 off our fourth lot.
 It is such a comfort to feel that at least that number of poor fellows are going to have 8 really soft comfort able pillow to rest their heads upon. We need heaps of the small ones also, for they say it takes ten or twelve of the latter to make very badly wounded man as comfortable as possible for the transit We are making all we can of these too, but We seem to be almost showed under with work for we have to rememb Der