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216
Which War?
renal reg10n there was a large cantusian, a linear abrasian and a small
lacerated waund. Patient was unable ta pass urine. A catheter was
passed withaut difficulty and abaut twa .ounces of bload-stained urine were
drawn off. Examinatian an admissian ta haspital shawed patient ta be
suffering fram a large cantusian, a linear abrasian, and a small lacerated
wound aver the right renal regian. Examinatian .of urine revealed the
presence .of blaad and casts. X-ray examinatian revealed a fracture .of
the transverse pracess .of the faurth lumbar vertebra. There were na signs
.of cord injury. Hrematuria rapidly cleared up uuder treatment, and pain
in lain soan disappeared. X-rayed at intervals, but the fracture did not
appear ta be uniting. Tbe fracture was nat cansidered .of any serIaus
irupart, and the patient was discharged ta duty an August 29, 1927 .
•
16cboes of tbe lPast.
WHICH WAR?
By MAJOR OSKAR TEICHMAN, D.S.O., l\I.C., T.D.
Royal Army Medical Corps. (T.A.).
IT is it far cry from the Charing Crass Roa(l ta St. Gaar an the Rhine,
but it was a sixpenny bax in that bibliapalical tharaughfare which taak us
to this delectable spot, where the saint of that name first preached the
gospel in the middle of the sixth century. Our purchase was an illustrated
guide-book to the Rhine; the engravings were somewhat foxed, the joints
were distinctly weak, and Mr. Baedeker might have .scoffed at the date
.of publication, 1792. And yet as a guide-baak it cauld give paints ta its
descendant .of 1927. The authar's remark: " . . . St. Goar dant la situation
merveilleuse surpasse tout 'ce que j'ai jamais vu, . . . " finally settled the
question of a short summer holiday; besides, the journey could be made
the whole way from London by boat, a great advantage in these days of
crowded summer railway trains.
On. a certain Sunday in August of last year, when the sun smiled on the
vine-clad couQtryside, we erossed the Rhine from St. <3:9ar with Hector,
an ancient pointer belonging to our hotel, and walked a few miles down
the right bank. The river was gay with the merchant flags of at least five
nations, as if flaunting the medireval castles which in olden times extarted
tribute fram many a passing ship. Now and then some fussy little motor
boat, arragantly flying the monarchist flag, would push its way through -the
heavily-laden barges and excursian steamers. On leaving this busy waterway, internationalized since 1918, we ascended some 800 feet and plodded
for miles through orchards and carnfields, a country apparently destitute of
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Oskar Teichman
217
man or his habitation. Overhead the larks soared in a cloudless sky, and
below Hector amused his companions by pointing at anything from a
partridge to a frog or a grasshopper. Our goal was the tiny village of
Prath, where we hoped to eat the sandwiches and peaches which we
carried, washed down with good Rhenish. But Prath, like the desert hod,
proved most elusive. Our track across the stubble dwindled to nothing;
however, Hector came to the rescue and led the way. At length the village,
nestling in a sleepy hollow and apparently wrapt in its Sunday siesta, came
in view. Hector, having performed his duty, now disappeared; he had no
use for Prath, possibly an enemy who had worst.ed him on a previous
occasion d welt there; at any rate we did not see him again until he met
us on the outskirts of the village later in the day.
At the hostelry of the" Green Man" we deposited the rucksack containing our lunch, and caIJed for wine, much wine. :Mine host, awal{ened
from his Sunday afternoon sleep, eyed us curiously as he drew the wine
from a large cask.
" You are not foreigners, whence come you? "
Fortunately one of us had enough German to converse fluently. "Tell
him that we come from Iceland," whispered one of oUl" party. We did not
pose as Icelanders. but told him that we had come all the way from London
by boat. He took this as a good joke, but obviously did not believe it. In
the little room in which we were lunching hung the usual framed and
crudely-coloured picture denoting the "happy tIme" our host had spent
during his army service in the 90's; and we realized that here we must be
in a hot-bed of Pl"llssian militarism.
But by this time the word had gone round Prath that foreigners were
at the" Green Man," a unique occurrence in that tillY hamlet. Within
ten minutes, of our arrival about a dozen men, chiefly the village elders,
trooped in, took their seats, and eyed us curiously. Old Anton (who looked
at least an octogenarian) appeared, from the deference 'shown to him, to
be the patriarch of the village. Would he and his friends take wine with
us? Yes, they would be hononred to drink with the foreigners. Again
the cask of Rhenish was broached, and our host appeared with a tumbler
full for each villager. not forgetting himself. At Prath you drink yoUl"
wine in a tumbler, and excellen't it is at threepence per glass! Tongues
were now loosened, and we asl,ed the notables of -Prath what their views
,
were on the War. The reply was rather perplexing.
" What war?" said old Anton; " Aye, what war '? " chimed in the rest.
For a moment the thought crossed our minds, had we stumbled on the
one spot in Central Europe which ha<l slept peacefully <luring the great
upheaval? Surely an impossibility in the late German Empire.
Weexplained'that we referred to the Great War, the war of 1914-18, a
war of France and England against Germany.
" Oh, that war," said old Anton," has never had the slightest interest for
us, we did not want it; when we speak of the war, we mean our own war."
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218
Which Wm"?
" Of course you refer to the Franco-German war of 1870," one of our
party hazarded.
. "Wrong again," crie.d the old man, " we did not care a rap about 1870,
although some of our lads were forced to take part in it, as they did in the
last war."
The situation was becoming obscure; a prolonged pause ensued.
"Have you foreigners ever heard of '66?" the old man suddenly
exclaimed in a pitying tone.
" Yes, the seven weeks' war, Austria against Prussia, over SchleswigHolstein, and the battle of Sadowa," we murmured.
Old Anton appeared relieved to hear that we knew something about the
war; but his next question mystified us again. "Do you know what
country you are in ? "
" Prussian Germany," we replied, sure of our ground this time.
" No! No!" protested the old man in his high-pitched voice, at the
same time thumping the table with his gouty fist till the glasses rattled,
"they may call our country part of Prussia, but Nassau it is, and Nassau
it will ever remain, we are not Prussians~ Until '66 we were a free
Duchy; in that unfortunate year our Duke sided with Austria against
Prussia over the affair of Schleswig-Holstein. I fought in that war-was
present at the battle of Sadowa-the accursed Prussian needle-gun defeated
us-our Duke was deposed, Nassau became incorporated with Prussia.
Have you not noticed the red and yellow flag, the colours of Nassau, at the
top' of the village ? We fly it to proclaim our independence, every Sunday,
but never the Prussian, Republican, or Monarchist flags! "
. At the conclusion of this impassioned speech, which was occasionally
interrupted by shouts of approval from the other villagers, glasses were
refilled and all drank to the prosperity of Nassau.
As we emerged into the sunlit village street and saw the red and yellow
flag floating lazily'in the breeze, we pondered on the fate of this tiny Duchy,
. which had contributed its entire army of 4,900 men with two batteries of
six pounders in the vain struggle against Prussia; and we rejoiced to think
that after sixty years of subjection to the Prussian yoke, Nassau could now
again maintain some sign of individuality by flying its national flag in the
Republic of free Germany.
.
On the outskirts of the village we found Hector waiting for us. It
never transpired why he refused to lunch with us, as had been his usual
custom on our daily walks. But perhaps he was a Prussian.
Note.-The House of Nassau dates from the tenth century, and in the
sixteenth century inherited the Principality of Orange. On the extinction
of the male line of the Orange branch of the family by the death of
William III of Holland, in 1890, the former Duke of Nassau became
Grand Duke of Luxemburg.
•
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Which War?
Oskar Teichman
J R Army Med Corps 1928 51: 216-218
doi: 10.1136/jramc-51-03-09
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