A boat's crew landed and the awnings were stripped from the wounded, Hand himself standing on the colonel's verandah to direct operations.

It were fruitless to discuss this passage from the humanitarian point of view, or from that of formal courtesy.

The mind of the new captain was plainly not directed to these objects.

But it is understood that he considered the existence of a hospital a source of irritation to Germans and a fault in policy.

His own rude act proved in the result far more impolitic.