Another and less obvious type of service is that which involves thorough patrolling of all those districts in which battles have taken place, with a view to ascertaining whether any wounded men are still remaining in the villages and along the country-side, where they may be given thoroughly kind, but possibly somewhat unskilled, attention by the civilian inhabitants. Another duty of the drivers of the ambulances carrying out this work is that of setting on foot minute inquiries with a view to finding out whether any men killed in battle have been buried by civilians without any record having become available which would serve as a basis for certain information which can never be so terrible as an almost hopeless state of suspense. This class of work, of course, has to be carried out over roads which have in many cases been badly broken up by heavy military traffic, and possibly even intentionally destroyed by a retreating enemy. Consequently, it puts a very severe strain on every portion of the chassis and body of the ambulance, and makes the fact that the whole of the motor vehicles at present employed by the Society have been freely given or lent by their owners without reservation and without charge all the more noteworthy.
For some time past, the Society has been shipping ambulance cars, and also touring cars, to the Continent as rapidly as means of transit have permitted. The requirement seems to be enormous, but even so there does not appear to be any likelihood of the supply falling short of it. Many motorists have placed not only their cars, but their own services ungrudgingly at the disposal of the Society. The usual practice is for the Society, after accepting a car for service, to undertake to have a suitable ambulance body put upon it in place of its own. In some cases, however, motorists have even taken this charge upon themselves, and whatever may be the disadvantages of dependence upon volunteer service, it can at least be said that in this case such dependence has served in some measure to show how many men, unable for one reason or another to take up military duties, are only too anxious to expend their energies and their money on any object of national value in connection with which they are able to be of use.