HOSPITAL REPORTS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3171, 23 August 1917, Page 4

HOSPITAL REPORTS

' NEWS-OF WOUNDED MEN. According 'to a statement made Jlaior-General Sir Alfred Eobin, read to the House of Kepresentatives by Sir James Allen yesterday afternoon, overseas hospital reports are now coming forward m a very Satisfactory manner. Advices of casualties, he says, are received, as a rule, within ten days, and are. usually followed closelv by hospital report, and the soldier's 'progress up to complex recovery is fully advised. It is not uncommon for sis cablegrams referring J° a- casualty to be received withm a fortnight. These cablegrams are forwarded on tho dav of receipt to the next-of-kin, and very 'few complaints are now received 1 from them. At the time ot the Somme offensive. boff' tal . T W rta confined to "serious" and a an E«™\ cases, and largo numbers were reported "wounded" without further details. Many cable messages were necessary io ascertain soldiers' whereabouts **d progress, •which particulars were only made known to tho relatives after considerable -delay. Tn tne Messines battle, full hospital reports were received at once: in nearly every instance, and all cases provisionally reported wounded have now been cleared up. , With respect to soldiers who are reported missing, GeneraFKobin states tl at it is often impossible to obtain tl e information so much desired by their itlatives. After a reasonable lapse ot imla Court of Inquiry is held to consider tho soldiers' fate, and its findings are promptly cabled to New Zealand.