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[Page 26]
at Colombo at 10 a.m., Sunday morning, and much delay from the shore the military took over the wounded, depositing them in the Military Hospital till that was full, & then sent the overflow to the Civil Hospital. After the wounded left, the ship was in a most insanitary & dangerous condition & it was some days before she could be cleaned, as we were coaling for 2 days.
The corticene decks of the ward room, sick bay, & starboard corridor had to be scraped, as they were thick with marine glue, which had been unavoidably fouled by dressings & discharges from wounds. All these places were then scrubbed out & next day the Colombo health authorities were brought off & they sprayed out with cyllin the whole of the living places of the ship. It was only with difficulty that I could get this done because the Captain was most anxious to put to sea as soon as we had coaled. Even then it was very hurriedly done. Some of the remaining bedding was destroyed; the rest with the blankets, were put through the steam disinfector, and numerous heavier articles, such as gymnasium mats, which had been used as beds, were sent ashore to be disinfected.
At 9 am. on Thursday we left Colombo after having gone through a very trying ten days, & the whole of the staff was worn out & could very well have done with a rest. Instead of that we had another operation the first day at sea.
It would be very difficult to imagine a more trying set of circumstances for the medical staff of a cruiser, and an action where so many wounded would be rescued. Had the Emden sunk before she reached the beach, our work would have been