OUR WOUNDED IN EGYPT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2549, 25 August 1915, Page 3

OUR WOUNDED IN EGYPT

WRONG INFORMATION " SOME OF THE CAUSES AN INTERESTING STATEMENT . various matters connected with the administration of the . British Records Office in Egypt, especially in regard to . th£ forwarding of information in respect to sick, wounded, and deceased soldiers, have been engaging the attention of Mr. C. J. Parr, M.P. He has perused the official file, which has ..been placed at his disposal by the Minister of Defence, and in an interview yesterday he summarised the results of ; his investigations. "I have been endeavouring during the last day or two," said Mr. Parr, "to makeput-liow ,they are ; doing things in Egypt.,- - The; Minister lias'; courteously givcavme access to the Departmental file containing the cablegrams • that- have ; passed on the subject. Most inaccurate information frithout.' doubt;! has ' been -given .to the relatives of soldiers who liaTe.-bsen.'killed!' or wounded. There haVe been several instances of men who ' hape been killed and buried being afterwards: reported as "wounded," and "progressing favourably," and so forth. I have been trying to discover where the blame, for this .'lack. of system lies, and I have 'arrived at-one or two conclusions. .' . Government Not to Blame. "In the first place .tie'. Government! and'the postal officials in New Zealand are not at.fault. They merely send on the information as it reaches them from Egypt. - I find that there are no fewer than nineteen-hospitals for- wounded British soldiers in Egypt,', some of them being considerable-: distances apart. Naturally, it is an enormous task to keep track, of everything in all these hospitals. I find, moreover, that, at the pre■sint day_there are about 39,000 wounded Vsoldiers in these hospitals. Of this number New-Zealanders probably -total at least 5000. 'They ar6 all mixed up,-the classification being ■ acording, no do-übt, to tho nature' and : severity- - of the' wounds. ,x■;v\• : "The system .seems :to- be.'something;, like this: When an action -takes vplace, at'i Gallipoli, the.lists of casualties'are inade •up on_ the beach.', !Tl)ese .'lists .must', of; necessity be; very incomplete,;,' and ; in some cases quite inaccurate. For ••instance, a wounded man may b'e brought • in quite imconscious/and badly knocked about. It is difficult to identify him, as ho is away from his friends. ' Some ; soldier who fancies that he recognises . him identifies him by name, and the ■man is. accordingly listed under that name, .whereas., his . real name .may- be' quite different. Of course the man will have his identification- disc, but that does not bear his name,, which cannot i be ascertainable for some days.; In the meantime the list of casualties is sent by wireless' to Alexandria, and ' hero there is. naturally one source of. discrepancies. "When the men. get to Alexandria' they are drafted into the various hospitals, and then the work of keeping in. touch with our .wounded in the nineteen ■hospitals begins. ■ At present they are visited once a week by Colonel-Chaplain Greene. Tho task, of ascertaining the progress of 5000 men' mixed up in ' a crowd of about 40,000 in the scattered hospitals, is a gigantic one. "At the beginning serious mistakes -arose-'from the' various hospitals being telegraphed to nnd sending inaccurate replies ;ta New Zealand . relatives. . A . better ' system, h'owever,_; now; obtains, as the . result of the Minister'srepresentations. Defence Minister's Action: " " On July 23 Mr. Allen sent tho lowing cablegram to the British Records Office at Alexandria:—"Firstly there are continual complaints.regarding the non-delivery'of letters and parcels. Is your organisation weak ? If /so, _ can we strengthen it? Secondly, will it be of any service if wo send trained postal officials to help you? Thirdly, there are also numerous complaints and considerable feeling here with regard to errors and omissions in casualties and lios-' pital lists.. Please explain." Three Says later Mr. Allen received the following reply from the British AdjutantGeneral in charge of the records at 'Alexandria. ■ ' 'When discrepancies appear between the cabled reports of casualties sent by-us and private' reports/ yoti apparently-assume that the official re--incorrect. I most emphatically protest against this attitude on your part. Up'to this date over 3000 New. Zealand casualties have been cabled, and hitherto no inaccuracies have been disclosed! Information outside this office is in almost every case inaccurate. The utmost care and attention is paid,by the whole staff in. seeing that their'work is correct. - New ' -*s • ■

Zealand lias cause to be more than satisfied with what we are doing. Please cable at ouce instances of errors and omissions. ' Wo have nothing to do ivith the reports from hospitals, and wo take no responsibility • for tlie same. Please always 'address the British Records '.Office in regard to casualties." A Big Improvement. "Since the date of this reply," said Mr. Parr, "all inquiries have been-'made through the Records Office at Alexandria,; which gathers all the information, possible, oil the spot. l"io extent of the task in Egypt is difficult to realise.. At the time of the initial attack 011 Gallipoli .there was no adequate provision for the wounded. The London "Times," in a leading- article last May, 'commented-most strongly on tho negligence of the British authorities in regard' to the care of the wounded, but it is how. admitted that they have more than made up for past neglect, and that everything possible is being done in Egypt and on the transports for tho wounded soldiers. "Although there has been a vast improvement," "said Mr. Parr-in conclusion, "I think that things 'could be managed, a,, great deal, bettor than at present. Tho task is a great one, but still it can .ho-tackled bv a strong man, armed with plenary : powers. 'If we could get all- tho wounded New Zealanders into one or two' large hospitals the problem would be largely . solved. Mr. Allen, I bdlieve, is moving in this direction. . A'. nun '.with - business and organising and military experience is required in Egypt to-d-iy to take hold of-the situation there."