GIFTS FOR THE TROOPS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2726, 22 March 1916, Page 6

GIFTS FOR THE TROOPS

DELAYED DELIVERIES

MISTAKES TO BE AVOIDED

HINTS TO SENDERS

(From Malcolm Ross, Officio! War Cor-

™ , Ca ho, Januarv 23. I no warm-hearted generosity ' of the People ot New Zealand is proverbial t ha«reached high-water mark during tie present war. In respect: to .rift, to tie Jjck and wounded and to the men in the trendies, it cauld not Well have oung to the exigencies of war, to the r" d of l<mg and laned luics of communications! and to some lack of knowledge 0 f the "stances and. want ,of organisation c ?w°T , ? n ' self ' tho full bc, «flt ol these gifts has not yet been secured made during the past few days in »n really i f . The fctlifficut tiio. authorities here are met with is tnat, in most cases, no inventory is «nt with the gifts. "The result isVt eact, case ha g to bt and , \A S T tt ? U f h m ordel ' 'that a This t n,,H ?nte ' ltS ma y bo obtaiiKxl. ni«i i P " g I '" ore Iv * k U P°» our "heady hard-worked soldiers, and it seems «,at such work might be more easily done while the cases are boi™ racked ui New Zealand. Tho % ocS? tor an inventory becomes quickly apparent here, hewuse without it tho git s cannot be distributed to the best advantage-one lot of men will be getuhS "i'f th f--; hnv ? a,renfl <- Applied with, while others will go wantSink Parochialism. The necessity for sinking parocMal. "tl'wf.r eVen lwovmcialism, and of oiFth« t g v in ono of tho New Zealand cities to deal with o whole question of gifts on broader "lies is urgent, ,f both nionev and goods are not to b? wasted. Under the present system, one man has been in receipt of ten 'pairs of-socks, while another has been left sockless, except usml \Z f C has J°™ applied in the' usual way from Ordnance. Tho samo «pph« to other articles sent for™™ by generous donors. There should bo no discnminataon. All are New ZoaUnders; each one has volunteered, and each is risking his life and his health for the All should share alike mJu i i C( ™ m, « e e'in New Zealand ™& al I lth t,w £i' fts «« a whole, numbering the oibcs, sending an in ,«ntory of.each case and pfaoh % a duplicate,-uiv«,W T inside each ease 1 he mat er of distribution co, d sa ely be left to the O.C. «t the base A IIT 1 ° m % a s,nil " staff could ? 9 " sc f. «>itt there was an equitabU distribution-a system that would give great satisfaction to tho men tlilm! the gifts arriving more quioldv at their ultimnte destmation. In some"instance ft hero invoices have been supplied, they *L tllo , ste « m er by which' the gifts U, a l ,cse im " <)ices were tlfe e fore useless, hecause in the meantime he eases had/^en 1 unpacked new rejoice* made out. In such a desperate spared for sucli work. „™„ / g0 Ship ? ,enfc of Cliristmas gifts Xr!r m nT IOUS c ? mmit te« in New /icaland. Ihese arrived at Suez dur, rog November in five transports matter of their distribution was left to a Salvation Army Chaplain who has -been doing splendid work in Egvpt in -Sf'Vf 1 «>o New Zealand troops. The transports arrived on difhords and sent by rail from Suez to the base at Alexandria, In the groat majority of instances the goods were not listed/and tho cases bad to be opened to. ascertain their contents. H was then found that tho oases contained many parcels for men who were at paces as f M apart as E t M , Walhpoh, and England. I'hev a] 0 ' contained parcels for groups of men at Anzac from various, districts in Now s^| an ifffi *&*> tlJwo'was tho same difficulty ,n regard to distribution tor these men wore widely -separated on the Peninsula-some in the Mounted brigade, some m the infantry and some in tho artillery. Every ease h"d to tie opened, resorted, and repacked as in a tog post office. Some of the rases were so big and so heavy that they had to be made up into smaller eases m order to make final transport possible. No case of more than 801b weight should be sont from New Zeaand, so that two such cases could be packed on a mule and finally, where no cessary man-handled into the more inaccessible trenchos. Persona] presents to individuals-should, of course, be sent through the Post Office in tho ordinary y ' 1J r \ s adTisa Wo that the cases should he hooped and fastened with screw nails so as to minimise tho danger ot looting. The Christmas Gifts. It will be interesting to follow the course of these Cliristmas gifts, which I may say are only now reaching the men. When they got to Alexandria, it took a big staff ten days and nights to unpack and repack them, so that they could be sent forward to those still on the Aimc roll, to those in the many hospitals here, at Malta, and in England The sorted goods for tho J emnsula were got on to a transport that was to leave- for Mudros in a row days. In the meantime 'the destine alwl ?" s^ tra mei' '""I to be suddenly altered to -Marseilles, whither she had to proceed to taffe awav a- regiment. The cases-there'were 4000 tor Australia and ,800 for New Zealand- ™ A°-W be u i oh to lighters, on which they floated In. the harbotu' loaded from the ligltters and put aboard St Ms chaplain™ ~ tam ii-ent in this ship in charge of il e gifts as far as Mudros, where, in the wT^'w 1 ' 50 f ov r ts ' *ey would ha ? o to be transfelTed to other vessels going to Aiuac But, in tho niean. time, evacuation had been decided upon and white it ma fairly easy to getoi the Peninsula, it was a m i tter \f Z possibility for any ordinary mortal to get on to it or for anything in bulk to bo landed there. Eve* mails were interdicted. fftoamer space was at v prenHnm; lives wore more valuable an letters and gifts. , At Jhidros, lißhters-yery scarce and valuable vessels at this time-were supplied, and' II e gifts were unloaded oil to Ihchi Jhoß6 ightors wore conveyed to the beach of the lßlnnd, where the great nia. Jorily of the New Zrahuulers were tben going into camp. It was hoped to get the gifts to the troops there. Oil llm following morning, however, by the nine half of the eases had been unloaded on to the beach, it Wlls foull( , liat our hoops had to leave for another destination. With imieh labour the cases were then (dimpcd on to a second transport bound for ,\!ex aiulria, at, which port they hud 'been shipped three weeks previously! Then there was a further unavoidable delav owing to causes thai it would be inadvisable In mention, because to do so would be nlaeing information in tiio hands of the enemy. To crown all I bo difficulties, the New Zealand linso is now ordered to give up the s |,ed in which the i gifts are stored. Tbis «he<l nas been in nur possession for the Inst nino months, but is now urgently required for other and morn Important I military purposoa. It is, howavor,

hoped tim by the end of January tho men will have received all tho 'gifts which, under ordinary circumstances hey would have received at Christinas' In the meantime such articles as plum puddings will have deteriorated but there is now not so much demand for them, owing to altered circumstances and many have already been supplied. ' Colonel Rhodes's Help. On his_ arrival in Kgypt as tho representative of the New Zealand Government, Colonel Rhodes helped nlon> the generil improvement that had nf ready been initiated by the staff. H e was also able .to arrange that eatables sent to men since reported dead or missing should l)o distributed to men in the units of the addressees. Thirty-five cases of such goods had alreadv Von repacked according to Army Hec„la"ons, to be sent back to New Zealand In connection with this matter of gills there are one or two other points •north mentioning. There is. for instance, the matter of cigarettes. It, is not wortli while sending cigarettes' from i\ew Zealand. It. simply means that considerable sums of money arn being wasted, _ because there is an arrangement with the British and American iohacco Company here, bv which we ean get quite good cigarettes out of hnnd at ono penny per nacket. For some months past there has been no dearth either of tobacco or cigarettes on tho lenmsula Cigarettes are made h«r« nv the million, and are much cheaper than in New Zealand. Another point is that there is probably some overlapping of funds—i.e of moneys sent for the purchase of 'such luxuries are chocolate,' and of moneys sent through the staff 'paymaster of the New Zealand Forces, who act* as treasurer of the Sick and Wounded Fund aecount, established bv the Covenimeiit in fcgypt, which fund is administered by committees in Cairo and Alexandria composed i (.f the senior resident military and medical officers, ohsnlains and simerintendents of hospitals and convalescent homes. Tim result is that some men rrnvo a plethora of ehocnlat« etc., and others will not none at all' It would perhans be better if all sucli moneys were paid into a ■ central fund in Wellington, which could be operated unon there through the paymaster of the New Zealand Forces to the best, advantage. At present money is iiein« ?r>* hwrn,'.sent to he.' spent- on' individual battalions. One week this battalion might be 1000 strong. \ -week or two later it might he reduced to half that numher. Surely in such a ease it, would he better to sink naroehialism, and let other and eoiiallv deserving troops share- m the good things that are gotng.

_ The foregoing remarks are not meant, m_ tho slightest degree as carping criticism, hut are simply given for what they are worth, with the idea of mittyng the whole matter of gift distribution upon a sounder and more cquitablo basis One and all, while recognising the splendid generosity of the peovle of New Zealand, would. I feel certain be Clad if some improvement could be mnd« in this matter of gift distribution that nil have so much at heart.