Norwich bulletin., 1921-12-23
EXPERIENCES OF CONNECTICUT
 NURSE IN NEAR EAST

Miss Sylvia Eddy Of Avon has return ed to her home in this country after two thrilling years in the near east during the course of which she had experiences more stirring than those which came to many members of the American Ex- peditionary Force-an organization with which Miss Eddy was to be affiliated at just about the time the armistice put an end to her hopes. Under shell fire for hours at a time. nursing the sick and the wounded; doing also various peace time works of mercy, Miss Eddy had splendid opportunity to observe and learn the actual conditions in the near east Briefly she summarizes the con- ditions there as "pitifus"
 This Cornnecticut nurse was sent first to Aintab in Cilicia where she was assigned to a hospital. This was just about the time that the Turks be- came belligerent again and much of her time during the early days of her stay in Aintab was occupied in nursing civil fans who had been wounded by the rife and shell fire of the MosIers Several times the hospital was shelled. always at night but Miss Eddy and the other nurses of the near east relief remained at their poses. for, as she expressed it, There was work to be done"
 After a time the Turks turned their guns upon a detachment of French soI- dlers who were in the town. as well as unon the Christian people. The soldiers of the tri-color Were quick to retaliate. Tn tho meantime, however, the Turks had secured control of the town. so there r.as nothing for the French troops to do but lombard with battery of artillery which had been sent from another point. In Aintab there was besides the hos pital a near east relief arphanaEe which was caring for hundreds Of chil- dren who had been left without fathers and mothers because of the atrocities 0! l the Mohammedans. When the lombard ment order was heard. tho near east re. | lief officials decided to take the chill l dren to another orphansge some miles away. The party left on foot, with-ar ! escort of troops. and Miss Eddy left witt
 it.
 1 After a brief stay at another orphan
 age. she returned to Airtab where sh' 1 continued beir~ active in the splendiC work that the = ar East Relief is doin' there, until her return to the Unitec
 States.
 Conditions are very bad in the nea east, Miss Eddy says.
 Practically all of the supplies hav been exhausted and unless food may b brought in from the outside there vii be nothing but famine and deatl throughout the entire country during tn
 cold winter months which are to come Now that there are rumors of tn
 French troops being withdrawn, thu Turks are growing more bold, and ono the protecting army Is taken away thi heroic Avon nurse looks for resump ton of the massacres which so often | former years mortified the entire civil
 ized world.
 In Aintab conditions were bad enough
 but in Marash. another city about sixt
 miles away from Aintab, she said tha
 conditions were as bad as they coul' possibly become Tn the trail of famin
 in Narash. there ha9 come pestilenc
 and throuehout all hours of the day tn black wagon of death Is upon the street
 picking up the victims of the plagu
 where they have fallen.
 To the individual in this country a orphanage, suggests rows of bright, whit beds arranged in large roony covridor:
 but Miss Eddy says that this suggestion of room and sppce cannot be secured i the near. east today All of the orphan
 ages today are crowded. In the orphan age in Aintab, there are so many or phans to be cared for that beds coul
 not be used and they have to be place side by side in close rows upon th floor. And the sad part of it all is tha there are thousands of other childrel 2 who are before the orphanage doors seek ing the food shelter and comforts nov being given to those within the home. 1t is the aim of the near east rSlie
 officials in charge of the orphanage work
 she said, to teach their young charge trades and occupations which will mak them worthwhile citizens in the hop !. that the country eventually may ris from the depths in which it now is. Sh ' had little hope, however, that this eve
 would be done until the protection c