Evening star., 1948-03-18
Thousands in Arabia
Treated by Lone U. 5.
Woman Doctor inArea
By Leigh White
Foreign Correspondent Of The stor ond
the Chicago Dolly News

By Leigh White
Foreign Correspondent Of The ster ond
the ehieaso Dolly News
KUWAIT. Persian Gulf, Mar. 10.
A lone American woman doctor
performed 181 operations, admin
istered 1851 injections and treated
26,825 female out-patients at the
American Mission hospital here last
year, but failed to make q single con-
vert to Christianity.
In fact, DR.. Mary B. Allison of
tells me, fewer than half
. dozen persons have been con-
verted since the mission was founded
in 1890 by the Reformed Dutch
Church of America.
ut makes me wonder If our meth
DDS are right and, If not, what to
do about 1t, the doctor wrote in her
annual report to the missions di-
rectors in New York.
Converts Called Traitors.
Most Kuwaitis belong to the Sunni
sect Of Islam. Although more toll
Grant than the puritanical Wahabis
of Saudi Arabia. they make life
impossible. nevertheless, for any of
their number who renounces his or
her faith to become Christian.
All but one of the MISSIONS con-
verts have been forced to emigrate
to Basra, Iraq, where Christians are
no longer considered traitors. The
single Arab Christian remaining In
Kuwait Is an old man who oper-
ates the missions Bible shop in the
center of the bazaar.
Kuwaitis continue to buy Bibles,
tracts and religious magazines. says
DR.. Allison, but for years no one
has dared to become a Christian for
fear of being ostracized.
At the same time, no one objects
to being treated at the mission
hospital. even If he or she has to
pay for it by listening to a brief
sermon, In addition to paying q
nominal sum in cash.
Operates Two Hospitals.
The mission operates two self
hospitals, one for women
and one for men. The female hos
pital is the more important, how
ever, for the Kuwait Oil Co. oper-
ates two male hospitals and the
government has established several
male clinics.
A new s300-bed male hospital is
being built by Shaikh Ahmed el
Jabir es Sabah out Of his oil royal
ties, but the mission hospital will
remain for some time the only hos
pital for women.
There are no female Arab doctors
as yet, and indeed the only male
doctors-ni Kuwait or anywhere
else in Arabia-are Egyptians. The
Shaikh intends to employ an Ameri-
can surgeon to head his Egyptian
staff when the hospital is completed
in the fall.
Kuwaiti women prefer to be
treated by DR.. Allison, or even her
male American colleague, DR.. Mau-
rice Observation-Disclosures though
they are-rather than violate purdah
completely by exposing their bodies
to male members of the Moham-
medan faith.
Inspects Hospital.
Since I was an infidel, too, was
able to inspect the female hospital
with propriety, even talking to some
of DR.. Allison's unveiled women
patients. (She gives way on most
matters Of religious etiquette, but
she refuses to allow them to wear
their unsanitary wells in bed.)
The hospital stank of the shark
liver oil which had been rubbed into
the furniture and woodwork to pro-
tect it from the fierce dry heat of
the desert. Kuwaitis, who have
grown used to It's smell over the
centuries, use shark liver oil for al
most everything except heating and
cooking.
There were no wards-only pri-
vate rooms, which were occupied not
only by the women patients but
also by their servants, husbands
and children, If any.
Its all very irregular" DR.. Alli-
son, laughingly admits. They simp-
ly refuse to be treated unless their
families are taken in, too, and they
won't hear of going to bed in the
same room with any one who's not
an immediate relative"
Patients Supply Own Food.
The in-patients, of which there
were 465 last year, supply their own
food, which is prepared for them by
relatives, or servants, over make
shift charcoal stoves in the patio.
1--WE long since given up trying
to prescribe their diets" DR.. Allison
says with q shrug. They either
die or recover on the food they're
used to, which they insist on eating
regardless of their condition. And
they're always brewing coffee in
their rooms!'
DR.. Allison still trys to get the
mothers of sickly babies to give
their children at least one egg a
day. But most Of them refuse to
do so, on the ground that chill
dren should drink only mothers
milk-even when it isn't adequate
and that eggs are only for adults.
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