'Mesopotamia Commission. Report of the Commission Appointed by Act of Parliament to Enquire into the Operations of War in Mesopotamia, together with a Special Report by Commander J Wedgwood, DSO, MP, and Appendices. London: HMSO, 1917.' [‎44r] (87/248)

PART X.—MEDICAL BREAKDOWN.
85
* See Part X., para 62 et seq.
+ See Part X., para 67.
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E. Responsibility of Secretary of State, Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief.
in convincing the military authorities that the medical arrangements up the Tigris are as
bad as can be.” This was, of course, after the calamitous events in December and January ;
and we think that it gravely reflects, not upon Lord Hardinge’s good will or good intentions,
but upon the manner in which he exercised his paramount authority.
89. The attitude of the Commander-in-Chief becomes vividly clear in connection with the
terrible sufferings of the wounded in the retreat after Ctesiphon. He was at first naturally
reassured by the very misleading telegram despatched from Mesopotamia on December
7th, on the character of which we have already commented.* But on December 14th,
Major Carter, an officer of the I.M.S., who was in medical charge of a hospital ship plying
between Bombay and Basra, sent to Surgeon-General MacNeece a Report in which,
amongst much other matter, the following sentences occur :—
“ These were all serious stretcher cases that had lain on the ‘ Medjidieh ’ for thirteen days after their first
dressing on the field of battle. Their condition was grave, and the result of an unfortunate train of circum
stances, the most serious of which w r as that there is no distinct river service oj hospital steamers used alone for
the conveyance of our sick and wounded in Mesopotamia. On the ‘ Medjidieh ’ alone 28 had died on the journey.
And :—
“ Deaths during the voyage total 14. It is now necessary to explain the markedly increased death-rate
on this the third journey. In the first place, we carried a high proportion of the most serious cases of gunshot
and shell wounds brought by the ‘ Medjidieh,’ the ‘ P. 5,’ the steel boats and smaller steel barges from the
front.
" Unless one had actually seen the condition of the wounded on arrival, one could have had no accurate
standard by which to judge the extraordinarily difficult position in which the medical personnel have been
recentlv placed in Mesopotamia. For example, on the ‘ Medjidieh,’ a small river steamer, it was necessary
to crowd over 600 sick and wounded from November 24th to the evening of December 6th, 1915. The equip
ment of the field hospitals at the front had to be abandoned to the enemy, and there was practically nothing
left with which to dress wounds or treat medical cases.
“ Everyone seems to consider that it was extremely fortunate that they got away at all. The men were
loud in their praise of the devotion to duty shown by many of the medical officers under heavy fire, both in
the field and at the point of attack on the Tigris. There is hut little chance of recovery for men with severe
gunshot fractures, who lie on the hare decks of boats and barges for 13 days, amid septic discharges, diarrhoea and
dysentery, swept at night by a wind that dropped nearly to zero, without any protection against the cold, save their
clothes and country blankets, which in the cases of total cripples were sodden with their own discharges and
dejecta.
“ I write this to protect from hostile criticism by the laity the members of the medical services, who in
these primitive boats and cattle barges have struggled for 13 days against the difficulties of a task that :s
happily exceptional in the war history'of our Imperial forces. There is no shadow of doubt that the medical
staff who accompanied these sick and wounded from Ctesiphon did all that lay in their power to help and
tend their patients, but it was attempting to make bricks without straw.”
90. This Report was despatched from Bombay on December 14th. On the next day
Surgeon-General MacNeece, who was at Bombay and who had seen and fully conferred with
Major Carter, wrote as follows to Sir Percy Lake, the Chief of the General Staff, in a letter
marked “ Private and Confidential ” :—
“ My dear Sir Percy Lake,
“ I was in time to see sick and wounded on board hospital ship ‘ Varela when she arrived on afternoon
of Monday, and their transfer to local war hospitals and up country by hospital trains.
“ There were many serious cases, and some fourteen deaths occurred on voyage. Many of the sick British
and Indian, particularly latter, were brought on board in a terrible condition. They had been 17 to 22 days
coming down the river from Ctesiphon. Between Kut and Amara the steamers and barges were stopped
by Arabs, and had to go back three times. Barges and steamers were crowded, sanitary measures were deficient
or wanting, and the men, particularly Indians, lay on the deck suffering from dysentery, passing their motions
under them, and getting large bed-sores. The whole business is bad. The medical authorities were only
given sufficient steamers and barges to turn into hospital ships for 500 casualties (so I am informed) ; then,
when the crash came, over 4,000 had to be got down any way.
“ Will you kindly show this letter to His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, and say that I have been
to the D.R.I.M. and seen the plans for river hospital steamers, and fully approve of the one which is being
forwarded to-day to Army Headquarters, Delhi, for approval, which should be given without delay.”
Sir Beauchamp Duff told us that he had never seen Major Carter’s Report; but as we have
seen he was made acquainted with the substance of Surgeon-General MacNeece s letter to
Sir Percy Lake at a Conference on December 23rd. |
91. Meantime, correspondence was still going on between the Secretary of State and
the Viceroy on the general question of the health of the troops in Mesopotamia. And at
the same time rumours were beginning ro be heard about the breakdown after Ctesiphon.
Lord Hardinge wrote in a private letter to Mr. Chamberlain on December 31st:—
“ I am very glad you wrote and told me of the rumours you have heard of unsatisfactory arrangements
in connection with the health and comfort of your troops in Mesopotamia, for I am now, w ith your letter and