vance of the
Sabbath.

[18] "The Dobrudja Retreat," _Blackwood_, March, 1918.

[19] _Blackwood_, March, 1918.

[20] _A History of the Scottish Women's Hospitals._

CHAPTER XII

"IF YOU WANT US HOME, GET _THEM_ OUT"

Through the summer months of 1917 Dr. Inglis had been working to get the
Serbian division to which her Unit was attached out of Russia. They were
in an unenviable position. The disorganization of the Russian Army made
the authorities anxious to keep the Serbian division there "to stiffen
the Russians." The Serb Command realized, on the other hand, that no
effective stand at that time would be made by the Russians, and that to
send the Serbs into action would be to expose them to another disaster
such as had overtaken them in the Dobrudja. In the battle of the
Dobrudja the Serb division had gone into the fight 14,000 strong; they
were in the centre, with the Roumanians on the left and the Russians on
the right. The Roumanians and Russians broke, and the Serbs, who had
fought for twenty-four hours on two fronts, came out with only 4,000
men. Further slaughter such as this would have been the fate of the
Serbian division if left in Russia.

"The men want to fight," said General Zivkovitch to Dr. Inglis; "they
are not cowards, but it goes to my heart to send them to their death
like this."

In July there had seemed to be a hope of the division being liberated
and sent via Archangel to another front; however, later the decision of
the Russian Headquarters was definitely stated. The Serbs were to be
kept on the Roumanian front. "The Serb Staff were powerless in the
matter, and entirely dependent on the good offices of the British
Government for effecting their release."

Into this difficult situation Dr. Inglis descended, and brought to bear
on it all the force of which she was capable. The whole story of her
achievement is told in _A History of the Scottish Women's Hospitals_, in
those chapters that are written by Miss Edith Palliser. Here we can
only refer to the message Dr. Inglis sent to the Foreign Office through
Sir George Buchanan, British Ambassador at Petrograd, giving her own
clear views on the position and affirming that "In any event the
Scottish Women's Hospitals will stand by the Serbian division, and will
accompany them if they go to Roumania."

At the end of the month of August the Unit, leaving Reni, rejoined the
Serb division at Hadji-Abdul, a little village midway between Re