An interesting personage is passing through Shanghai, Major Paul Martin, of the Medical Heserve Corps, U. S. Army, who has beea acting as consulting surgeon to the Siberian Commission of the Amen-can Red Cross. Major Martin has left Siberia, following the issuance of an order on January 7 as the result of which it is expected that the whole of the American forces at present in Siberia will be evacuate ed by March 1 of this year. hough his experience in Siberia was extremely snort, he only arrived in Omsk at the end of September, Major Martin was fortunate in being present at the time when there was the final crisis in the rule of Admiral Koltchak. Describing the present condition of affairs as absolutely chaotic, Major Martin remarked that ina personal interview with the Admiral at the end of September, Koltchak expressed himself in a most optimistic vein and foretold that he would be in Moscow within three or four weeks. The result of such optimism was that the American Red Cross were encouraged to renew its efforts and to extend them until, on October 29, the blow came in the shape of orders to evacuate the hospitals at Omsk. By November 7 they had succeeded in getting all their patients and equipment on the railway and were able to start eastwards with 1,200 patients, heavily wounded or seriously sick. The lighter cases had been handed over to the Russian authorities. Later Tomsk, Irkutsk and Verkae Udinsk had to be evacuated and though for a time the travelling patients were lost sight of, shortly before he left Vladivostok a report was received that all the trains bearing wounded and sick were Tribute To Britis AND CaNapians-
Speaking of the relationships which existed between the Allied Forces in Siberia, Major Martin was warm in his expressions nf satisfaction with the manner which the British and American forces cooperated one with another. "It was," he said, nothing more than what obtained in my experience in France of the British, but we received every possible help from them. At Omsk we were enlarging hospitals which we had previously established, were putting up new ones, we were erecting a quarantine station of 1,000 beds at Petropavlovsk and arranging for a mobile operation unit train to go up to the firing line and give the wounded immediate attention and expeditiously return them by means of sanitary trains to Omsk. In all of this work we obtained valuable assistance from the British. We were loaned British nurses, Canadian and British surgeons were transferred to our service and without their help we could not have attained our objects at all. The cordial relationships which existed between us were splendid.
"We attempted to reciprocate and took care of British sick and wounded, amongst whom was Col. Steele, who in October had developed pneumonia following a bad attack of influenza. We transferred him to the American Red—Cross Hospital and gave him all tha attention we possibly could, but he had been previously wounded in the chest and, this—complicating matters, he died suddenly."
The Major went on to state that not only officially did these good relationships exist, but the officers and men off duty mingled with and entertained each other in" exactly the same spirit.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.