Nauru's "Lively New

Year"

How the Hospital Patients Bolted

Here is a story of the shelling of Nauru Island on December 27, as told to Sydney “Daily Telegraph” by Dr. Kevin Earle, who was on the staff of the Nauru Hospital. It will be remembered that the raider destroyed the phosphate loading plant, but did not fire upon the settlement, and no one was injured.

“mHE raid happened very early in the A morning, about five o’clock. I was in bed when I was ’phoned that a strange Japanese ship was flashing orders to us. We were told that the phosphate plant would be shelled, and warned not to use our radio.

“When I realised it was a German raider, I got down to the hospital as quickly as I could.

“The sister, an Australian girl, imme diately set about preparing the theatre, and the medical assistant—another Aus tralian, Bill Slugg—tried out the hospi tal’s emergency lighting.

“After the second burst of shellfire from the raider, all except one of the patients—the pneumonia cases, mothers with babies, beri-beris, and the cripples —got out of their beds and left the hos pital. One old chap was over 70.

“The patient who remained was a badly burned case.

“All the native orderlies except one cleared out. The one who stayed was put to work cleaning up the instru ments.

“The chief medical officer then rushed off to hide his three children among the coral. When he came back there were just the six of us left at the hospital—

sister, two doctors, the medical assistant, the orderly, and the one patient.

“The lepers escaped, but we rounded all of them up afterwards.

“The hospital patients were brought back gradually. Several died later from shock and exposure.

“When the shelling began to grow worse —one burst came near the hospital —we decided to take shelter ourselves.

The six of us sheltered in a deep hole that had been dug at the rear of the hospital.

“There was a lull in the firing. We decided to clear out of the hole and get down on the beach. Just as we were on our way, the German decided to start aiming again. There was a burst right over my head. Bill Slugg and I did 100 yards in five seconds.

“After a while we became used to the shelling. We badly wanted a cup of tea. so we made tracks to the hospital. We’d just got the teapot ready when we heard that the German was coming round our side of the island. The Administration buildings were only 200 yards away.

“We all flew over the barbed wire fence back into the hole. But the raider passed and didn’t fire on us.

“A ship came in next day. She didn’t know the raider was about, but cleared off immediately on being told.

“We got no Christmas mails, and there were no mails out until well after Christ mas. But we had a lively New Year.”

Miss C. Wallace, staff sister at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Suva, arrived in New Zealand recently on leave.

Mr. P. Coote, general manager of Messrs. Burns Philp and Co. Ltd. in New Guinea, accompanied by Mrs. Coote and her mother. Mrs. Scott, arrived in Sydney early in March, on furlough.