MAY MORN CAMP

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2626, 23 November 1915, Page 6

MAY MORN CAMP

OFFICIAL VIEW

CENERAL HENDERSON'S bPINION

Surgeon General Henderson visited May Horn Camp on Sunday. Ho was.accompanied by the Chief of tlio General Staff (Colonel Gibbon) ■ aiul-the-Director of Military Hospitals (Colonel Valintine). '

lii a statement to tlie Press yesterday, General Henderson said lie made a detailed inspection lasting over two lionrs of everything in the camp, including the hospital .As a result of. the recent heavy and continuous rains,, the camp ccrtainly is muddy, but this is only .natural, and would be expected in any temporary camp under existing weather conditions, in fact, it was not so muddy as might have been expected. Some of tho tents, whilst being capable of keepjug out ordinary showers of rain, havo proved to bo not waterproof during .the heavy storms of rain when driven with the rccent high w'inds. This is an unavoidable hardship which the men liavo

frequently to put up with in camps of this.nature; moreover, there aro not sufficient tents available ir. the Dominion to enable only perfect ones. to. be issued for use of tho troops, but this disability is only a temporary .one, pending the m-'ection of ' the permanent camp at Fcatherston and the arrival of a large consignment of tents, which have been on order for some time from India. Men who:desired it were given shelter

in the mill building. .-Many, however, preferred to remain in the . tents, remarking that they were back-blocksmen and were used to such conditions. Drying tents have been erected in which the men can dry their, clothes, and, by the courtesy of Mr. Seed, the manager, additional'lines have been put up in the May Morn mill on which clothes can .also be .dried. . v . Surgeon-General Henderson added that he could find nothing insanitary in ■the camp or of v/nature predisposing to disease. The camp is only in the nature of a temporary one, and the incinerators were working well, the soakage pits were, answering their purpose, and surfaco drains were being cut. As originally intended, the camp will bo evacuated by .the two battalions of the New Zealand Rifle"Brigade early r.ext week, as soon aS'thev have completed their musketry,

which they are firing oil tho ranges at Trentham during the present week. Tho camp ivill then. be'.left:vacant for a. period of two weeks,-'. when it; will.bereoccupied by other 'troops fora period of three or four weeks, when its continuance will 116 longer be necessary. 'On November 20 there wero • only twenty-six oases in. hospital out of 2500 men in camp. This, worked out at about 1 per cent. / Yet even tliis 'small percen•tage'comprised only-minor cases.