ATTHEN.Z.BASE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2561, 8 September 1915, Page 6

ATTHEN.Z.BASE

THE ADMINISTRATION CARE OP THE WOUNDED DELAYS IN MAILS NEWS OF CASUALTIES . SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES ■ A i very -full account of the adniinistraOicra. of tlio New Zealand base at Alexandria has been received by, tho Hon. J. . Allen (Minister for Defence) ■ from Coliniol Charters, officer. " commanding the New > Zealand . base. . Colonel,' Charters deals with many matters which have been tlio subject of .recent complaint and inquiry hero recently. Following is the text »f the letter slightly abridged— "In view of the fact that'most : people in New Zealand can have ;only a rudi- ' utaitary: idea of the organisation here, mid of what is being done, I'am taking tlio opportunity of endeavouring to make things plainer than can done by cablegram. • • ' "This base is an infantry and general base depot, dealing with New' Zealand troops only, the Australian" units of the .'New Zealand and Australian Division being dealt, with by an Australian base. Bach division of the' Mediterranean Expeilitionary Force (or M.E.F.), has a base ■here similar to ours.. The base at Zeitouii, (Cairo) is purely a tiaining camp, : and' as ..such, does not form part of the M.8.1''., but comes , under the . G.Q.C.' ' Egypt-' -, ■ ■ ■ ■' ■ . The Casualty' Lists. 1 • "The N.Z. Army Post Office, although ; accommodated at present in our ordnance -shed on the quays, does not directly come under our control, but under the Director of Postal Services (Major M'Clintock). ,Tho N.Z: Records Office forms part of what ' is.called tho 3rd' Echelon, and comes diTectly under Colonel O'Leary,' A.A.G., 3rd > Echelon, and is inVno sense under the . 'control of this base. All casualties are : 'forwarded by, units direct to tho A.A.G., 3rd Echelon, and are then cabled, in our case, 1 to New. Zealand. These cabled lists are , the only ones that are official; and iiuy other information sent to New Zea- , land is unofficial. Information which I ■ cables to you in reply' to your telegrams - must of necessity bo ob'taindd from the '3rd Echelon, or from, the hospitals' them- . Helves, uiiless in the case of :men who happen: to be at tho base. ' Private in r formation sent to New Zealand, if in conflict with cables from the 3rd Echelon,. . is nearly always,incorrect. ','lt necessarily must be so, , seeing that the information sent by the 3rd Echelon is obtained fromthe units themselves/, The units might make a mistake, but this is no fault of tlio 3rd Echelon. With . -regard / to • '.Major Stnckey and Lieutenant Baddeley, we can obtain.-i no further • ThTormation than that."already supplied. I believe, but I am not sura, ;.- that a Court of Inquiiy will be heid : to determine tlieir cases. Both lyere wounded- on the first' day, and no one appears to have Been, either since. ! Certainly ; neither was admitted to any;bospital, in Egypt, Malta,' or--Erigland, ana'tVre'seems to be little doubt; unfortunately; that-they, are hotli dead. (This, of course,- is only my. : -<personal ; opinion.) They wounded were not able to be recovered, nor the dead to lie buried, and from April 25 until the armistice bodies of New Zealanders were lying 20 yards in front of tho New Zealand trenches, but could not be got away even at nigh-t owing ,to the closeness of tlio enemy's trenches, and to the fact that the intervening ground .was swept by ma-chine-gun fire all niglit; The' two officers above mentioned were reported wounded, and'then Major Stuckey missing, but the ..Third; Echelon can cable no further information until such, is forwarded by-the unil> The Stupendous Difficulties. "The friends -in -New Zealand are natur."■'SSf worrying over the delay in definite information in certain case 3, "but they can have no idea of the class of country at! the' front nor of the closeness .of the fighting. . In ; many cases the trenches ' are so close that hand grenades are easily thrown from 'our: trenches into those of tho Turks and -vico versa. Communication between here' : nnd ...Gaha' Tepe is dif-' ■ ficult, too. Owing to the • presence of ; enemy submarines, troops,' mails, .etc., ■, go; first' by transport from here to Mudfos ■ (on Lomuos Island); there' everything - is transferred to. mine sweepers, whicli then go on to .Anzac Cove. The beach there is always heavily shelled, and transhipment '.takes some time. " ' .. - . Shortage of Mail Sorters. "With regard to our post office it was first at Zeitoun, but as .soon as accom,'inodation could bo.obtained I had' it shiift--1 ed to Alexandria, leaving only a Field P.O. at Zeitoun. . I then asked that all mails from New Zealand, etc., should come direct here instead of to Zeitoun as formerly, and this has been done since, early in May. At first the accommodation .•was limited, and'the staff small, but the former 'has now been increased, and- imrproved, and- the latter lias gradually been strengthened as quickly as I could find .suitable men for Lieut. M'Curdy. I was able to obtain several men accustomed: to mail-room y;ork from among wounded -Mien who .had recovered, and tliese I detailed for post office work' instead- of ; sending them back to the front. I believe there are plenty of men at Gallipoli used to sorting, but they are in the. ranks instead of in the Post Office. -As stated in cable dispatches to-ilay, : Lieut. M'Curdy : . cjtild do -with 'five men accustomed to sorting, plus two similar men with each reinforcement. The Post Office .has since' May been using the 'Card' system: Lists 'have been obtained from the hospital, and • the names entered on cards; every mau in-hospital has been supplied with two or three of these cards, and told to seiid one in whenever ho is transferred to another hospital; further, eveTj- hospital ship arriving here is. met ojid similar cards handed to each man, with instructions to send in the card as soon as he arrives in hospital. When a shin with . wounded arrives, no one can j;et informa- : tixra as to which hospital a man is being ; sent to, but every week each hospital , here is visited by a motor • orderly, and I, lists revised. All letters for wounded and ! for men at Zeitoun aro picked out immediately <i mail arrives, tlie remainder ; forward by first available transi|rport (there aro only two per -iveelt). Men fand officers from Gallipoli have stated that : the mails -there'- have been 'arriving as • legiilnrly as could be expected. Delivery of Mails. ' -Tliver since April 17 at least two mails per, week have gone forward with unfailing regularity. Certainly during tlio month beginning April 10 (when the force left here), I understand that there ,>as practically no distribution of mails at Anzac, wtlich is easily understood when it is considered that although mails went from here regular*)-, they could not bo •distributed in the first place owing to tho fact that all the troops were on shipboard from April 10 to 25, part of one ■;unit on cuo transport, part on another; secondly, becauso for some time after tho landing at Anzac it was too dangerous to endeavour to transport anything to the trenches; except absolute necessaries (food, drink, tools). Sinco then, however, /mails have been regularly distributed. It is not. quite tho samo over there ns in New Zealand:',every part of the position at Anzac can be shelled by the enemy, and-the safest places seem to be tlio trenches. - • Mails for wounded 1 are distributed to,the hospitals by motor cyclist orderlies regularly, and I may incidentally ' remark here that ours is the only post office which -attempts: to do this, and,-, further, is tlio only one wliioli extracts tho wounded men's letters before 'sending on tlie mail to tlie front. If a New Zealand mail' arriyes just previous to;, the sailing of a transport tho men work all Alight for the sa-ko of the wounded; _It jfl very hard on the post offico boys, 'Wiio arc doing their best, and doing it to be subjected to nothing but ; criticism. There are no men who recoivo, suoh oon-. sideration as is extended'to our -wounded. not only as regards their mail," but in other ways. With regard to parcels, these teko from, three to, fojtr tuonjißajeJl

arrive from New Zealand, and of course, 4 although dealt with as quickly as possible, they have to lake second place to letters. Incidentally, many have been insecurely packed by the senders, and arrive here with the outside coverings iu any cases almost completely torn oil', and the address • gone. This- is probably helped by .the fact that many arrive here from England not in crates, but in ordiu- ' pry parcel bags. It is quite possible, too, I that parcels are held up at Mudros in favour of letters. This l.kiiow, that they . aro dispatohed from here regularly. Unreasonable Complaints. "As I kave previously stated, I am not in charge of the New Zeahind Army Post Office, but as it is located in our shed I have always kept, a friendly eye on it, aiot only for the sake of the men, but in order to render any assistance necessary. I can only say that the staff are doing everything, possible for tho sake of-their mates. It is unavoidable, of course, that a fow letters are mis-sorted when wounded men's letters are .being extracted; further, some of the men to whom cards havo been issued neglect to send them in. Unfortunately, some of the men, and one or two officers be it, said, should they not receive a letter.which may have been accidentally sent on,, run away with tho idea that they have been specially pick--1 cd out by the Post Office staff, and the letter mis-sorted specially. • "We have found ' that some wounded men develop queer ideas in hospital. !Not receiving a letter- they brood over tho fact until it becomes with them an. obsession that tthey have,.been particularly picked out for unfavourable treatment. Complaints from men wbo "have been wounded and. who have been some timo in 'hospital need careful probing, as_ I' havo several times found.out. There is seldom anything in their, complaints', but imaginary grievanceE, but the complaints are few, very few. , "It. would'be a great convenience'if parcel mails 'from New Zealand were sent by a, "New : Zealand transport. It would take only forty .days to reach here. Particularly. would I recommend this procedure in the case, of parcels likely to be sent for next Christmas. There will be plenty, I know, and if they were sent by • the transport which, leaves in October, . tney would be'here by the third weekin November, and distributed before Christmas. :■ ' ' Distribution of Comforts. "As soon as • casualties arrived I got Chaplain Greene (Adjutant of the Salva.tion Army) down from Zeitoun to take charge of liospital work here, and I cannot speak too highly of his work. Chaplain Captain Angus M'Donald does similar work in the Cairo Hospitals. The work in Alexandria is carried out as follows:—Captain Greene (wlio lias ,the use of a motorcar) meets all hospital ships, and to tlie New Zealand wounded distributes cigarettes and 're-direction cards' on board. When able, I accompany him. He visits all tho hospitals iu and about Alexandria, also those at Suez and Damanhour (40 miles); each hospital at Alexandria is visited once weekly by him and by ni e as often as I can spare the time. 1 CoTonel Esson; while here, also.-visited tho hospitals as often as he could. Captain Greene is accompanied by an orderly, who takes the names of all New • Zealanders in hospital, while tho padro gives each man (seen for the first time) a razor, stropi, shaving brush, small mirror, toothbrush and powder, wilting paper, envelopes, lead pencil, cigarettes, or pipe and tobaoco, and fruit, if suitable and. available. To the men previously seen, cigarettes, etc., are distributed. The cost of - these comforts is defrayed out of the money sent by the New Zealand Government and tho units. All tliis is deposited with the Paymaster, who alone handles the - money and pays all the accounts. The padre has a luvppy knack of cheering the. men, anil I think they are grateful for the trouble lie takes over thera. ' Men in Hospitals. "In addition to thfiso gifts, each num is allowed to oj'der goods to the value of 2s. to 3s. weekly (cost deducted -from pay), and in order to help the men I bare three motor orderlies doing nothing else but visiting tlie men with orderbooks, and taking their orders; these are then handed to a contractor, the goods are distributed to the men, and tlieir receipts obtained. The Contractor then forwards the order and tho man's receipt, to the Paymaster, who nays tho account. Our men are the only troops who receive goods as above, and they aju the envy of-the Australians and the 'Tommies.' It is very hard to have to give presents to our own men when "Australians and Regulars -in the same ward receive nothing, but that cannot be helped. Every man in every hospital is visited regularly. Of course we mot allowed to see some, and they have to wait until tlioy are 'well enough to bo visited. Men in convalescent camps and liomes aTo treated similarly . to men in hospital. A similar course of proceduro is adopted by Captain M'Donald in Cairo. "From cablegrams whioh have arrived it appears that some New Zealand people have an idea that there is a New Zealand base hospital, here; that, of course, is wrong. Thore are in Alexandria the following hospitals, convalescent camps, and 'home;:—No. 15 General (Abassia School) and No. 17 General (Victoria College), both- up to\ MM beds; Eas-el-Tiu Military Hospital,; No. 21 Bas-el-Tiu, Eas-el-Tiu Convalescent Home, the Deaconesses' or German Hospital (No. 19), Boml>ay Presidency, Indian General, .Government- Hospital, Greek Hospital, Glymenopoulo No. 1, Glymenopoulo No. 2, Convalescent Camp, Convalescent Depot, and Lady Godley's Convalescent Home, which Tils! albno contains New Zealanders only. In 'these the New Zealanders are not nlaced in separate, wards, but are distributed'.-: indiscriminately. - .among other troops. When the casualties first arrived it took at least three days to visit No, 17 or No. 15, but it was accomplished, Nothing more can be done for our men than is being "done. Every nian is visitand the medical staff and the nurses do everything possible for our troops. ', "Ss I explained in a cablegram, the .men are not allowed to be .paid;ivhile in 'hospital, or-in convalescent "camps- or homes, which are treated as hospitals. At first we .paid the men in the convalescent eampv ljut'. the. result; was not satisfactory. . . . As they are not allowed out of the camps pay is of little use to them, particularly as we treat them in tlie same way as hospital patients. As' soon as a man is discharged from hospital or cam)) to this base, he is paid all lie is entitled to, and regularly " thereafter- until he goes forward. I do not know just,'how they are paid at Anzac— that is in the hands of the G.O.C.—but I do know that money was sent over for tue purpose of paying > men who wanted money; (hey havo little use for it over there. Everything Possible Being Done. "Cablegrams for tlio men are distribntcTt as soon :as. possible. If men aro not in. Alexandria the cablegrams are sent by special messenger to Cairo. Cablegrams for. men at. Gallipoli or Malta are posted from here. If men wish to'reply, they are allowed to do so by giving an order on the Paymaster for the cost of the wire, which, "in the case of men in hospital, is sent for them by one of the motor orderlies who visit the hospitals. I do not see how we can possibly do more for them than we are doing and tlio contrast between the treatment , received by our men and that received by troops of other divisions is very marked. One has only to talk to other..troops to ascertain that. Delay of Cablegrams. "Describing the system o£ forwarding cablegrams from men at Gallipoli to friends in New Zealand, Colonel Chaytor says that an arrangement is made by which men at tho front may send messages for cabling to the base at Alexandria. Tho'cost of the cablegram is deducted from, tho man's pay, and the mesI sago is. dispatched ivith the least possible delay. It takes [it least a fortnight for a message from a man at the front to reach Alexandria, and the authorities therefore insist that ench message shall contain tho date on which it was written'. A message written on July 13, for iii 7 •stance, would read: 'Well, thirteenth, lore.' Cable messages for men at Gallipoli or Malta aro received at Alexandria, and are sent on to their destination by post; only matters of urgency are cabled. 1 Particulars of Wounds. . ' ,- "Explaining the difficulty iu gnlting particulars of injuries to men reported wounded/ the writer says that a hospital , ship will often lie off Gallipoli for one or two , weeks gradually filling m> with wounded men, and may then "go oil , dii;ect'.to Malta or even to England. The names: of wounded men are cabled from ; Anaac to Alexandria and tlieiiw K .

Zealand, but if the hospital ship does not come to Egypt it may not he possible' to obtnin further particulars for somo weeks. One man hud arrived in Egypt tho day the letter was written who had been four weeks on a hospital ship between Gallipoli and 1-,'^ypt. The oilicers at the base are very anxious to send all possible details of casualties, says Colonel Charters, and he adds: 'It is necessary for the people in New Zealand to understand that we have not, owing to the presence of enemy submarines, any direct service from here to Gaba 't'epe. It is not: a ferry trip in any sense of the word, and one may have to isait nearly a month for a replv to, a letter sent from here.' Colonel Charters adds that many men slightly wounded or sick are sent lo Mudros or to Cyprus, and may be returned to the front before, the officers at the base have received information about their injuries or sickness. Our Men are 'Brave. "It will bo gratifying for the people of New Zealand to know that the fortitudo of our wounded is wonderful.' - continues Colonel Charters. "The nurses speak of tliem in the highest terms as patients, and from personal observation 1 cannot say more than that they bear'themselves as men and New Zealanders. In spite of the intense heat of the Egyptian summer it is very rare indeed to hear complaints. The men speak in the highest terms of their treatment not only in the British but also in the Egyptian and -Greek hospitals. "Our New Zealand Convalescent Home accommodation has been increased somewhat. The situation of the homo on a cliff overlooking the sea is almost perfect, and the men are very happy there, and everything possible is dono for their comfort." ' ■ I = .