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impossible conditions,
that sustained us through the bitter and harassing month that was to come.
RARELY in the history of the Red Cross has it been necessary for any
working members to arm themselves against attack. That, however, is what
the members of the American Red Cross Commission to Rumania were compelled
to do when they left Rumania for America early in March, 1918, and
traveled northward through Russia. All members of the Red Cross Unit
carried some form of firearm, ready for any emergency; and the train which
carried also members of the French Military Mission, was armed heavily
with machine guns, rifles and hand grenades.
This vigilance had a twofold purpose. Certain elements
of the Bolsheviki were said to be unfriendly to the members of the Allied
Commissions and the Germans were reported as concentrating along the
railroad from Rumania into Russia. I n consequence every precaution was
taken to guard the lives of the twenty-five members of the American Red
Cross (which included eleven nurses) and the large number of French,
British and other Allied members.
All the foreign commissions in Rumania had been offered
safe passage through Austria by the Central Powers, but General Berthelot,
in command of the Allied Missions by seniority of rank, had no faith in a
German promise and warily declined the proffer, saying that if he went
through Austria he would go only as the commander of his army. This left
only two possible routes-by way of Siberia to Vladivostock, or by way of
Lapland into the Arctic Ocean and thence into the North Sea, both
entailing a journey through disturbed and disorganized Russia. It was
resolved to go as far as Moscow and decide there.
The members of the American Commission left Jassy on
March 9, on one of six trains which carried the British, French, Serbian,
and Italian Missions. Reports in the Rumanian capital as to the
whereabouts of the Germans had varied greatly, but it was fairly clear
that they were within fifty or sixty miles of Odessa, and that advance
parties might be encountered at several points along the line. Most of the
passengers aboard the train were officers and privates of the French
Military Mission, and it was hardly to be expected that German guerilla
bands would make any careful distinctions in favor of a few American Red
Cross uniforms. Many rifles and machine guns were carried in a baggage
car. These were the property of the French Military Mission; but every
man, and indeed every woman, in the American party was ready to take a
hand in repelling attack. The train was piloted out of Jassy and into the
danger zone by an airplane to make the party reasonably safe against the
Germans. The first of the six trains left Jassy at noon on March 9, and
the others followed at intervals of two and three hours. Each was provided
with food for a month. There was no dining-car, and food was cooked in two
military field kitchens abandoned by Russian troops on the Rumanian front
and carried on a freight car at the end of the train. There were three
freight trains with railway material so that the road could be repaired
quickly in case of accident or if the Germans had succeeded in tearing up
the line.
The train which carried the Americans was a most
extraordinary combination of railway rolling stock. The American doctors
and officers had a third-class sleeping-car, while the nurses had a
second-class sleeper. Both were of ancient Russian design, without water
supply or heating facilities. Candles furnished the only illumination.
The engine was nothing to brag about, dating back to
1876, and burning wood which was picked up along the line. The engineer
matched the engine. He was of Bolshevik appearance and opinion, |
