Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/337

Nursing in the World War 321 English Sisters a dignified status. They functioned as officers, were accorded the same deference, and occupied quarters of the same grade. When, with the flood of war, vast civilian armies were hastily trained, the British regulations applied to the overseas Dominions, in the absence of regu- lations of their own. It was soon found, however, that army nurses were in an ineffective position without having the insignia of rank. The soldiers were not imbued with the English traditions, and orderlies and wardmasters did not acknowledge the authority of any one except army officers. Canada gave army nurses the relative rank of lieutenant in 1904, and this was done, not at the request of nurses, but by the decision of the Director General of the Medical Service, who be- lieved it to be essential to the greatest efficiency. The nurses continued to be called "Sisters" as before. Australian nurses worked for a year under the British regulations with increasing difficulty and hindrances. Then Surgeon-General Australian Fetherston, visiting the front, realized regulation that their actual efficiency was impaired because the volunteer soldier orderlies questioned the au- thority of nurses who wore no symbol that soldiers had been taught to obey. General Fetherston at 21