CONSUMPTIVE SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 33, 2 November 1918, Page 10

CONSUMPTIVE SOLDIERS

PROVISION FOR THE TREATMENT. Referring on Thursday to the statements that have been published regarding the provision for consumptive soldiers at Rotorim and elsewhere, the Minister of Defence (Sir James Allen) said that ho had already asked for a full report on the subject. It appeared that sorao misunderstandings existed. The statement, for example, that 700 or 500 men had returned to New Zealand suffering from tuberculosis was likely to create a false impression, since the fact was that most of the men sent back owing to tubercular trouble improved so much on the voyage that ihey could be discharged when they arrived here.

It was not fair to say that the Defence Department had delayed mating provision for the consumptive soldiers. In addition to ihe Waikato snnitoriuni thero were the Cashmere Hills «initoriuin, in Canterbury, and the Pleasant Valley sauitorium, in Otago. The Cash: mero Hills sanitorium was an excellent place. A contract had been let for fhe proposed sanitorium near Waipukunui, Hawko's Bay, and the building was to befinished in six months.

The Minister added that he was considering the provision of an institution where tubercular returned soldiers could be held for observation before being passed into the sanitaria. His own opinion was that the men whose _ eases were severe ought to be placed in annexes, to the general hospitals in their own districts, in order that they might be near their relatives.