If you could see the
view from here, the barren expanse of veldt stretching miles away, the
cluster of tin roofs and the few leafless thorn-trees beyond, I have no
doubt you would laugh at this fancy of a spring day. And yet I am sure I
can feel it; there is a change in the air. It has grown elastic and
feels alive, and there is a smell in it to my mind of earth and
vegetables. Yesterday, when I toddled in as far as the village, I saw a
little fruit tree in a garden that carried white starry blossoms at the
ends of its black twigs. It gave me quite a thrill. Oh, to be in England
now that April--Dear me! I was forgetting 'tis autumn, and partridges
and stubble fields with you.
The Hospital Commission of Inquiry has just turned up here, very
dignified and grand in a train of half-a-dozen saloon carriages, which
must be a great nuisance on the overworked lines. I have had several
talks with the R.A.M.C. officers and men here about the alleged neglect
and deficiencies, especially with the second in command, a very candid,
liberal-minded man. He quite admits the shortcomings. The service is
under-manned. There are not enough medical officers and not enough
orderlies. This hospital, for instance, is entitled to a full colonel
and two lieutenant-colonels, instead of which it has only one
lieutenant-colonel, and the same proportion is preserved in the lower
grades.
Pages:
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208