SOLDIERS IN PALESTINE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 109, 25 January 1918, Page 3

SOLDIERS IN PALESTINE

Reference to the campaigning conditions in Palestine was made at Auckland last week by Captain A. Kinder, N.Z.M.C., who returned to the Dominion recently after two years' service with the New. Zealand troops. He said typhoid had been very rare, hut malaria, and diphtheria had given a little trouble. He expressed the opinion .that as the British forces have reached tho Jordan Valley tho mosquito pest will be greater, and there will he more malaria. Captain Kinder explained that the men of the Imperial forces are supplied with mosquito tents, which completely protect them, an office which tho mosquito-net-ting supplied to the New Zealand soldiers cannot be said to perform. ' He suggests that it is essential that the New Zealanders should be supplied with these tents, and urges that the work of making them should bo com--monced at once, so that the troops will receive them before the really severe months of June, July, and August are. reached. The tent used by the British soldiers has n calico top measuring fift. by 2ft. 6in., with a curtain of '-mosquito-netting hanging down all round to a depth of 2ft., arid beneath this a strip of calico about a foot wide. When in use tho tent is hung on four supports, and the calico strip.at tho foot is tucked under tho sleepor, thus giving him immunity from mosquito bites. The New Zealander, on the other hand, merely wraps himself in his netting, or spreads it over his head, and gains very little protection. It is suggested to those who follow Captain Kinder's advico that the tents should be folded and packed in stout calico or cloth hags suitable for carrying on the saddle.