Evening star., 1941-07-20
Wife of British Leader, Here,
Tells of Bombing Experiences
Mrs. Edward Bulls
Praises Work of
Nursing Corps
By JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

| by JESSlE FAN Lt thNS.
Mrs. Edward Kent Balls, who came
here to join her husband. with the
British Purchasing Commission, has
high praise for work OF the Wom-
ems Nursing Reserve Corps in Great
Britain. Before leaving England,
she was member of the corps in an
emergency hospital near London.
To be eligible for this service,
women must be either British born,
British by marriage or naturalized
citizens of Great Britain for 20 years,
in addition to having passed various
tests and been certified for at least
so hours of actual nursing expert
ence.
These volunteer nurses pledge
themselves to give from four to eight
hours day or night duty after
bombing. The shifts often necessi-
tate 10 or IL hours without relief,
she said.
Supplies Needed.
practically all of the patients are
bomb victims" Mrs. Balls said.
They take weeks and weeks to mend,
often months among the elderly.
Then, there is often the problem of
finding homes for patients, made
homeless by an air raid. In no in
stance is a patient turned into the
street when there is no longer need
for disqualification.
Nearly all the emergency hos
pitals," Mrs. Balls added, "are carry
ing on with a scarcity of everything,
eggs, sugar, linen, bedding, crockery,
even spoons, knives and forks. Often
we would jest with the patients by
saying, "A show of hands for those
who had spoons and forks yesterday:
it's your turn to lack manners with
knives today
I'VE always felt that we could use
more soap, too, and when there were
especially heavy scrubbing days
ahead. we would forage among our
friends to supplement the hospitals
lack. Of course we English have
very little fruit just now and orange
Juice is great treat"
To my query as to what they sub
stituted for fruit in the diets of hos
pital patients and the public gen.
orally, her reply was, Carrots and
the hope that we are going to have
more fruit in not too distant to-
morrow. Tomatoes were $3.50 a
pound when left England"
Epidemics Decrease.
In her opinion, one of the most
extraordinary and marvellous things
the English have done is to bring
about better food habits among the
rank and file of her people. This,
and increased knowledge of SANTA
tion. plus the teaching that has re-
suited in using what they have wisely,
is not only keeping the people of
England fit, but has actually pre-
vented the epidemics which at one
time were thought almost inevitable
1T is, she said, almost impossible
to realize the new chapter that is
being written in the psychology of
English thinking and the sense of
sharing and understanding that is
being brought about between Lon
dons ladies and the women of her
slums. Those who have never
known what it is to do their own
house work are tackling the job
industriously and helping with spe-
cial emergency war projects besides,
for with the conscription of women
to fill the shortage of labor in in
dustrial projects, most British
housewives of moderate means and
better are on their own as far as
the cooking and even the laundry
are concerned"
Another superb job" on which
she commented. was the great i'm
provement made in many air-raid
shelters. Some now have hunks,
one upon another for the children,
and even games for them, so that
their attention may be distracted.
Survived Heavy Bombing.
Before taking up her emergency
nursing work in London, Mrs. Balls
was for three months in one of the
most heavily bombed of England's
industrial centers, where she was
only able to sleep in her own bed
six or seven times, and was often
five continuous hours under direct
bombing with as many as so in
cendiary bombs being dropped
nearby.
Not once, no matter what the
she said, did
ever hear anything but determina-
ton to go on to victory. The atti-
tude was always we are no better
than the others. If it comes, it
comes
Then after an all clear siren, the
most comforting sound in the
world" she admitted, wed hear,
well, my luck held that time
LAS for the children" Mrs. Balls
declared, they are nothing short of
wonderful. In one of the very poor
est neighborhoods in which l have
ever been, anywhere, the little boys
in an air raid shelter would say, as
they would hear the big bombs