I. A X n A X D W A I 
March 13, 1515 
MOTOR AMBULANCES 
NEEDED 
By AT.lERrON FLEMING 
Dl'RIXG my wanderings in France and Rclgiuin, 
searcliing for that wiiich, under the present 
strict ccnsorsliip. is ahiiost as elusive as the 
famous jihilosopher's stone — " real " war news, 
to wit — I have had many op])ortunities of 
studying the question of motor ambulances and of actually 
seeing them doing the work for which they were destined. 
More than once have they stood me in good stead and spirited 
me away from awkward corners. Still it is not of the assist- 
ance which they have rendered to me personally that I wish 
to write, but of the very real work that they have done in 
connection with the removal of wounded men, and the 
thousands of valuable lives they have saved, not only those 
of our own countrymen, but of the men of France and Belgium. 
Modern warfare, from the very nature of it — and from 
the vast number of combatants engaged — means huge 
casualty lists, and from the extent of it — the length of the 
fighting front — the great difficulties in the way of the quick 
removal of the wounded, heavy wastage of life owing to the 
absence of that immediate attention which so often saves the 
lives of badly wounded men, when neglect, even of a temporary 
nature, would inevitably mean death. To obviate this 
neglect as much as it is humanely possible is the mission of 
the Red Cross, and to those who realise what modern warfare 
really means it will at once be obvious that to tackle the 
matter successfully not hundreds but thousands of ambu- 
lances are required ; also, that these thousands must be 
constantly at work, which also means efficiency, and a very 
high standard of efficiency at that — a standard which it is 
impossible to maintain unless there is at every hospital base 
a sufficiently large number of reserves and a properly equipped 
repair depot and staff of mechanics. 
Since my return I have been tackled by several people 
in connection with the subject of Red Cross work. Some of 
them have been possessed of enough common sense to enable 
them to realise the actual condition of things with regard to 
the necessity for a very large number of suitable ambulances ; 
others, I am sorry to say, have been frankly sceptical and 
have openly sneered at the efforts of many really good schemes 
to raise money to buy more ambulances. To these latter 
I have but one thing to say : it is impossible to have too 
many ! It is bad enough for a soldier to be wounded in the 
service of his country, bad enough for him to suffer the pain 
which his wounds bring him, but it is infinitely worse should 
he have to lie where he drops for hours — sometimes for days — 
until he dies from exhaustion or loss of blood. It is to put a 
stop to this kind of thing to always have at hand plenty of 
assistance and a sufficient number of vehicles to enabh 
these badly wounded men to be conveyed rapidly and comfort- 
ably to the nearest place where skilled medical aid may be 
obtained. It is for this reason that I repeat my assertion 
that there cannot be too many of these ambulances in the 
field at any part of the extensive front. 
During the early stages of the war there was an appalling 
scarcity of Red Cross cars. Both the enemy and the Allies 
do not appear to have thoroughly realised the huge number of 
casualties which modern conditions render inevitable, for it is 
a well-known fact that the German Red Cross in the first two 
months of the war were very badly provided with vehicles 
and medical supplies. On our own side matters were rapidly 
remedied, and our own War Office also made prompt arrange- 
.ments to cope with the situation by placing large orders with 
practically all makers of repute for a steady supply of 
suitable vehicles with bodies built to their own d2signs. 
In the early days it was surprising to see what a number 
of old crocks of cars were sent out to act as ambulances. 
People at home seemed to think that any old scrap-heap of a 
car, with as cheap a body as possible, was good enough for 
the work. I used to see cars pulled up by the roadside, miles 
away from anywhere, with the gear-box droi)ping out, or the 
back axle gone, or some other complaint usually the outcome 
of senile decay. One car simply shed its body en route. 
Fortunately, it was empty at the time ; had it had its load 
of wounded on board I shudder to think of what would have 
happened to them. Possibly it may interest my readers to 
know that many of these ambulances are expected to — and 
in many cases do — run anything from one hundred to one 
hundred and fifty miles per day every day of the week. A 
])ractical motorist will at once see just what this means and 
liow reallv good a car must be to stand up to the work. 
Only a sound chassis can do it, so that it can easily be seen 
(i^untinued on hu-v 358) 
" "Che road has an incurable hahil of 
disproving what lool^s conoincing enough 
on paper." 
CLAIMS for tyres may be divided into two 
classes — paper claims and road claims. 1 he 
paper claim is to compare your tyre with a 
rival's, show a cash saving of 10, 20 or 30 per cent., 
and declare that your tyre is the superior in that 
proportion. That is not the 
DUNLOP 
w^y. All Duniop claims are essentially road claims. 
1 he ROAD is the only true arbiter between lyres 
and tyres, and the verdict of the road last year was 
overwhelmingly in favour of Dunlops. To take one 
instance out of many — the Tourist Trophy Race. 
Every manufacturer used Duniop tyres 
(with one exception). 
All the prizes were won on Duniop tyres. 
We believe that the motorist prefers the road claim to 
the paper claim. The enormous demand for Duniop 
tyres confirms us in this. 
The Duniop Rubber Co.. Ltd., 
Founders ihroughout the World of the 
Pncjmatic Tyre Industry, 
Aston Cross, Birminsham : 14 Reamt 
Street, London. S.W. PARIS : 4 Rue 
du Colonel Moll. 
■xkFi 
