N.Z. SOLDIERS' MEDICAL CLUB

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 281, 16 August 1918, Page 6

N.Z. SOLDIERS' MEDICAL CLUB

Sir,—A cutting from your issue of April 22 lias readied mo. Tour referenco to the New Zealand Soldiers' Medical Club, Hornchurch, is couched in terms 6o offensive and inaccurate that I am forced to the conclusion that your services have been enlisted by an intolerant and ignorant section of the New Zealand population in an attempt to thrust; its self-righteousness and Stupidity into> the limelight. Permit ino to Rive a direct denial to two statements concerning the* club: viz., that "the . club was estab- ' fished by Miss Rou't and 'myself/ and that its sole purpose was to distribute venereal prophylactics among the New Zealand soldiers in Britain." Dealing with the first statement—Miss Rout established the club by her untiring personal efforts, aided in some measure by residents in New Zealand. I simply acted as honorary medical adviser. My part was to give a little personal sympathy and confidence of a kind possible only to a medical man to men ill and! broken by war, and to offer suggestionsfor treatment in trivial ailments anil personal troubles beneath the notice or outside the purview of the regular medical officers. The, issue and salo of prophvlactics was no" affair of mine. My association with what you facetiously term "a so-called club" began thus, and_ was carried on at great personal inconvenience and expense. Yonr misrepresentation of the purposes! of the club requires a more lengthy treatment than I can afford time to devbtc!,. or find inclination to deal with; but I may say briefly that the prime object was; to inculcate a, healthy moral outlook: and a decent eenso of responsibilityProphylactics were sold only as a safeguard to such as required them; in otherwords, to men who, whatever theories might lie adduccd, were determined to act upon impulses of instinct rather than hearken to the arguments; of intellect or the warnings of moralists. _ It is ti pitiful anachronism _to - find nineteenth century respectability holding up its feeble hands in the face of the; (Stem realities and fateful happenings of the hour, and one is led to won- . der how many members of the busy-body deputation of horrified - old ladies who waited on the sympathetic Minister with their terrible story of wickedness had sons who might have been injured )>y the efforts of »i brave woman who did not foflV to tell them of the pitfalls which surrounded, or to point out tha way to avoid such dangers. A later and more enlightened generation will appreciate and venerate thememory of the' one woman who by her devotion to truth and the cause of humanity will be enshrined in memory when the very names of the hypocritical and purblind moralists will be forgotten—l am, etc., , W. H. HORNIBROOK, F.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., D.P.H., Irel. Gerrards Cross, Bucks, June 21, 1918 Sir—A paragraph from The Dominion; has reached me saying that the New Zealand Soldiers' Medical Club was established for "the sole purpose" of distributing "venereal prophylactics" by myself and "one Dr.-Hornibrook." This; statement requires emphatic contradiction. Dr. AV. H. Hornibrook, F.R.C.S., L.8.C.P., L.R.C.S., L.M.,- D.P.H. (Ireland), a member jf the N.Z.M.C., at my request, and with the consent of N.Z.H.Q., acted as honorary medical adviser to the club, through the depth of' an English winter, at great trouble and', expense to himself, and in spite of serious personal ill-health. He has been, wai'mly thanked for his help by N.Z.H.Q., and ■ (apparently) roundly abused by certain persons in New Zealand. My own serviced were also honorary, and when financial support failed to come from New Zealand I simply mortgaged my life insurance policies aiut went on with the work of education in. sex-hygiene. Prophylactic tubes hava been on free issue in Paris since last November, and have reduced venereal infection among men on leave from twenty per cent, to less than three per • cent. The British War Office is now preparing an issue of some millions of prophylactics.—l am, etc., ETTIE A. ROUT, Hon. Sec., N.Z.V.S. Parte, June 20.