January 31, i9i<S 
LAND & WATER 
II 
air makes anything like an epidemic of influenza almost out 
of the question in the Grand Fleet. German measles has been 
rather a nuisance once or twice ; in fact, we have seen rather 
more of it than we have of the German fleet. If the latter is 
as easily disposed of as the former, however, we shall have 
little to complain of." 
Of the progressiveness and general up-to-dateness of the 
Royal Na\'y Medical Service, I had already heard from a 
number of sources (I remember in particular how Madame 
Carrel had told me that the British .Admiralty had adopted the 
remarkable " irrigation " treatment, discovered and per- 
fected by her distinguished husband, long before any French 
militarj^ hospital would even consider it), so I was quite pre- 
pared to find every ship in the Grand Fleet amply provided 
to handle " action eventualities." 
Tlic problems of a hospital on a warship aie quite different 
from those of even an advanced hospital at the Front. The 
latter has a fluctuating bnt more or less unbroken stream of 
casualties to handle, with sometimes weeks of warning when 
defensive or offensive action will make unusual demands. A 
battlesTiip may easily be lying quietly at anchor in the morning 
and be joined in a death-grapple in the evening. Her surgeons 
may have spent a year with nothing more to keep their hands 
in than reducing sprains and stitching up cuts, and then a 
hundred casualties may drop out of the sky in the wake of a 
single enemy salvo. I-'or them, it rarely rains but it pours, 
though it may be a long time between the storms. 
The tisnal practice is for a warship to have a small perma- 
nent sick bay and hospital capable of coping with routine 
exigencies, and to supplement these during and after action 
by converting certain favourably located parts of the ship 
^always below the water-line if possible — into action dressing 
stations. The equipment of these latter — operating tables, 
beds, hghts, etc. — is all made on collapsible lines and kept 
stored close at hand. The battleship whose remarkable 
health record I am writing about, takes especial pride in 
the fact that it has two action dressing-stations, permanently 
equipped and ready for use at a moment's notice. 
The men in the various turrets and casemates, as well as in 
all other parts of the ship where casualties are hkely to occur 
in action, are trained to give first aid and carry their wounded 
to the nearest dressing-station. For the latter purpose a 
specially designed stretcher is used, so constructed that the 
wounded men, strapped in securely, can be carried at any 
angle with a minimum of discomfort. The- stretcher at 
present in use in the British Navy is of Japanese manufacture. 
It is made almost entirely of canvas and strips of bamboo, 
the two materials which experience has shown are the best 
combination on the score of lightness ai)d strength. 
As soon as possible after an action the badly wounded are 
transferred to a base hospital ship, whence as soon as 
they are able to stand the voyage, the}- are sent in a carrier 
ship to one of the big R.N. M.S. hospitals. 
The superlative aire which has been taken of the bodily 
health of the men of the Grand Fleet has been one of the main, 
if not the main factor in contributing to the healthiness of 
mind and the keenness of spirit which have made it possible 
for them to " stick out " their long vigil in the northern seas. 
Bolsheviks at Work 
The vague and contradictory accounts which have appeared 
in the English press relating to the ei'oits in Moscow during 
tite Bolsftevik rising Uist November have caused disquietude 
to many people in this country. In the earlier stages of the 
Revolution it had been thought that " Holy Moscow " would 
be immune from bloodshed, but the downfall of Kerensky 
nuUerially altered the situation. The Bolsheviks, having made 
tliemselves masters of the capital, atid being in control of all 
means of communication, determined to assert their authority 
in Moscow, and fighting of a violent nature ensued. The 
reports that reached this country gave a lurid picture of the 
destruction and havoc wrought by the combatants, and slated 
that the collision between the two parties had resulted in a ' heavy 
death-roll, but many of the details given were untrustworthy. 
There was also considerable doubt as to the actual amount of 
damage done. 
Much interesting information is conveyed in the following 
letter written by an Englishman residing t« Moscow, whose 
description of these days of revolt bears the character of a frank 
statement by an unprejudiced eye-witness. 
The impotence of the Russian Church in this crisis and the 
, revolt of the peasant cl-a.ss from her authority are among the great 
surprises of the Revolutioti, aiut we are confronted with the 
astonishing fact iluit the armed forces in Moscow have even 
violated the satu-tity of the icofts which they have hitherto held 
in deepest reverence. 
C. H.\r,BF.Rr, Wright. 
London, January 26thj IQ18. 
***** 
h/rom a House opposite the Kremlin, Moscow. 
r^ ATURDAY, November lyth, 1917; I think I said in 
\ my last that I expected the Bolsheviks would be mak- 
^^ ing a move ; thej' have done so. Yesterday e\'ening 
they came out and rushed the Governor-General's 
Palace (the seat of the provisional Government's military 
organisation here), the Post Office and a number of other 
strategical points, and occupied a number of private houses in 
dominating positions. The whole of the Moscow garrison, 
said to number it)0,ooo, with few exceptions, seemed to have 
declared themselves on the side of the Bolsheviks, while the 
Government could only rely upon the Junkers— that is, thi- 
O.T.C, about 6,000, and about 5,000 to (i.ooo Oissacks, which 
is all there are in the town. However, the soldiers of the 
garrison adopted the Bolshevik methods and do everything 
by committee and plebiscite, and liave no discipline, whereas 
the Junkers and Cossacks are disciplined and obey a single 
head, and, consequently, up to the moment of writing, have 
been able to hold their own, and more so, for they have 
captured the Kremlin, the Post Office, and many other 
jX)ints from the Bolsheviks. 
All Friday night the firing was continuous. Under our 
bedroom windows theie was a fierce fight, and, when I 
looked out in the morning there were heaps of dead and 
wounded on both sides of the pavement, who laid there until 
the Red Cross ambulances removed them about 9 o'clock. 
.\I1 Saturday the fire of machine guns and rifles \vas in- 
cessant, but the streets were fairly full of people, taking no 
part but intensely interested. It did not seem to strike them 
that *there was any danger in watching the combat. 
I went out myself on Saturday afternoon for a bit, but 
came back when I found bullets whizzing uncom- 
fortably all round. By this time people have learnt dis- 
cretion, and the streets are practically deserted. Heaps of 
curious onlookers have been killed. I have seen four killed 
to-day, and one Red Cross nurse shot in the neck. This last 
case is particularly disgusting. A squad of Bolsheviks took 
up a position in the Malaia Loubianka, a few yards down 
the street, and began firing volleys across the Square at 
nothing in particular. Two Red Cross nurses and three 
stretcher-bearers came along the pavement from the 
Niasnitskaya in their Red Cross uniform and waving a large 
Red Cross flag and. as they were crossing the Malaia J.ou- 
bianka the Bolsheviks fired a volley, and I saw one of the 
girls sink down. The men picked her up and carried her to 
r)ur front doorstep, and I saw that her ankle had been broken 
by a shot. The volley was fired deliberately. Annushka 
tells me that she has heard that hundreds of children have 
been killed and wounded, their parents (mostly their mothers) 
having taken them out to see the fun ! 
On Sunday we first Ix^gan to hear big g^ms, 4 in. and 6 in., 
and since then the roar and boom of artillery has been con- 
tinuous. The Kremlin was first occupied by the Cossacks 
and the 36th Infantry Regiment, which had declared itself 
loyal to the Government, but later it nmtinied and went 
over to the Bolsheviks. However, the Cossacks, though 
absolutely outnumbered, held the gates, and there was a 
stiff fight. Ultimately, the Junkers brought up a gun, ran 
it into the Ki-emlin with the aid of the Cossacks, and, after 
two or three rounds, the 56th surrendered. Now the Bol- 
sheviks have got a gun on to the Sparrow Hills and are firing 
from there into the Kremlin. A very fierce engagement has 
been going on all day on the Nikitski Boulevard, both sides 
employing guns, machine guns and rifles, but I don't think 
tliere has been any bayonet work. 
10.30 p.m. — For the last two hours, since writing the above, 
there has been a most uncanny silence. Not a shot ; not a 
gun. 1 wonder what it means ? It is pitch dark outside, not 
a lamp lit, not a l;ous«^ that shows a light, and it is raining 
heavily. But last night it was the same, yet firing went on all 
the time. There is apparently not a soul in the streets. All 
(lay long pickets of five or six Bf)lsheviks have been strolling 
about and loosing off their rifles at the comers of the streets 
at nothing in general. 
Sarnia came here yesterday in great glee and {e.-lrfully 
excited. She is an out and out Bolshevistke, and told 
Annushka that their day was come at last, and that they 
were going to alter and improw the whole order of the 
universe. She said with great pride that, though the men 
seemed to be afraid of going about, she and her friend (another 
