THE CLEMENS CASE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 116, 10 February 1919, Page 6

THE CLEMENS CASE

THE DEMAND FOR AN INQUIRY. (To the Editor.) The following further, letter from Mr. Clemens to the Minister of Defence has been handed to us for publication:— "Sir,—l reminded you that on January 3 n commuiyication was forwarded by me, addressed to you, in reference to the death of my sou, No, 3/1385 Private Roy Clemens, M.M., and that after waiting until the 29th idem for the courtesy of a reply, I had to draw your attention to your omission. ,It is now February 3 and 1 my letter has not yet Iwen acknowledged. "Slightly over a week after the letter in question had been in your possession certain portions of it were published, and, as a result of such publication, you ale reported as having stated that the case was closed so far as you -were concerned. Grave and serious charges have been made against tho Department, under your administration. Grave and serious charges have been made against you, and it is incredible that you can imagine the rase can be closed simply and solely at your dictum. When you stated that the wise was closed so. far as you were concerned you evidently forgot that I, and mine, had a deep and personal interest in all matters relating to the decease of my son You are repeated as having stated that you did not see that you were called upon to make any further remarks as you had already given a- full statement. You are perfectly aware that although 1 am the deceased soldier's father I have not received the courtesy of having natt liny statement whatsoever »ivem to w>., Apparently a soldier may die, even from nwfleet, and in your opinion his father has? no right to "exhibit any. concern, regarding the manner of his.son's death. It looks as if you consider that the picente should leave with you the question of what is to be said, when it is to be said, mid when nothing at all is to be said. The report states that the case is closed so far as you are concerned. I say that statement was curt, ■uncouth, and unfeeling, and I would need be as unemotional as a frozen sheep were I unaffected by it. Humanity demanded trom you a determination and frank declaration that for the future every invalid soldier (ue he officer or man) should be treated exactly according to tho necessities of his case". You, apparently, felt that zeal frr your Department and loyalty to your officers was inconsistent with the claims of humanity, and that the easiest way to end the matter was to consider the .case closed. You forgot that zeal without humanity is like a ship without a rudder, liable to be stranded at any moment. . On January 30 a deputation from the Labour Conference petitioned you to release: certain prisoners. You did not hesitate to tell the members of that deputation there were some sores that could not be healed, and you reminded them that your own son lay buried at Gallipoli. I regret having to remind you that, my own-and only-son lies buried in New Zealand, tto died under more distressing circumstances than did those heroes who fell at v.a.lipoli, for it was here in New Zealand, the land of his birth, that he suffered and died as the result of official callousness. The death of your son may make you feel that those who shirked then duty must remain in prison, but cue death of my son made mo detenmnsd. that those who fought and bled frv ro°. should not suffer as ho suffered. I would not have mentioned your personal loss in this correspondence but for tho fact that you yourself brought it under the notice of the deputation, but I have, and do wonder that.you do not take other cases to your own fireside even as you did the one about which the deputation petitioned. ; "On November 7 I urged you.to take steps whereby .equal care and attention would be given to wounded soldiers, but j-ou failed, and refused.to do so. Xou have stated my case is closed ns far as you are concerned. It is .possible that a Minister of Defence may feel that he is as immovable as a painted ship upon a painted ocean, but the Tsar of Russia and the Kaiser of Germany had exactly tho same idea, and yet-found others who were stronger than they. You say the case is closed; I emphatically state the case is not closed—even so far as you are concerned-unless the 'members of Parliament, the ministers of the dospel, tho Press, the Labour organisations, the Returned Soldiers' Association, and the mothers and fathers of this Dominion are •more badly afflicted with apathetic, rvbber spi'nelessness than I deem to be the case. Do you forget, tile circumstances? The story is of a; boy w.ho. while succouring tho wounded, was gassed in October, 1917. and who, after beins a cot case in hospital for thirteen months, was taken straight from his warm hospital bed on a cold, bleak day, and called upon to undertake a journey which would" have tried the strength of n. veritable 'Sandow,' and io undertake that journey under conditions and under circumstances which disgraced , the Department under your administration. There, was nothing sudden about the boy's illness, there was ample time for every care and precaution to bs, taken. Being' unable to walk to the train, he was placed—just as if he were one of your own baggago trunks—on a goods truok, and wheeled to the carriage. You, a physically well Cabinet Minister, would have been provided with' special travelling and sleeping accommodation. F.qr certain well-paid, healthy staff officers sleeping berths would have been available, but not so for i this .terribly ill private soldier. He was compelled to travel as an ordinary pas?en;er at express- speed from; Auckland to '\Yelliilgton, thenco to Lyttelton, then' Christchurch, thence Culverdon, thence Haniner. A motor-car lent to your Department on tho distinct understanding that it was to be used solely for the purpose of conveying wounded soldiers, was sent to Hanmer to pick up a physically well staff officer, while invalided returned soldiers had to endure a 24-mile journey in a, rough motor omnibus. T have previously stated that lnylson.being so near tho point of collapse, was, as a matter ■of necessity, taken by the staff officer into the motor-car. You. will remember you told' me that discipline demanded that officers should not travel in the same conveyance as private soldiers.. You will also remember I claimed that if this be the caso then the wounded soldier should be carried in the most comfortable conveyance. Do you; wonder I persist in seeking for a magisterial inquiry? Do you wonder I urgo that every soldier should he given of the best? 'Do you wonder that I, the boy's father, claim tliat I am entitled to receive the fullest information regarding' the decease of my eon? I doubt that you do wonder, and yot you say 'the case is closed.' "Eor you to declare the case closed would be incredibly wrong, and in support of this contention I state the following:—

I [Here-Mr. Clemens α-eviows again the whole facts of the case.] "Each letter that I have written to you has .been written bnder strong restraint and with a heavy curb placed on my feelings, but I warn you that tho day is fast passing away when you can use' men like old shoes, or broken glasses which may' be. sent to the destructor. In my letters I have made clean-cut and definite charges, I , have asked clean-cut and definite questions. My charges and questions are unanswered, nnd yet you eny 'the case is closed.' You placed on record a statement that wounded officers and privates were treated exactly alike. If this is your .real opinion theii newspapers are published, but you read them not; men who know talk, but you heed fhem not; evidence is brought prominently forward in the camps, on hospital ships, and on our transports, but you pass it by unheeded. If the statement made by you is really and truly your opinion, then verily you must have slent as does a caterpillar, sheathed in ice. Those.jvho know, know that there is as much■differ.ence between the way an invalid officer and an invalid private is treated as there is botween a bent halfpenny and a nugget of gold. Seven or tight soldiers Hannier. Have not tho parents of those boys a riorht to know if blame attaches to your Department for the decease of their soldier sons? My own eon died, and, by you I may be uupitied as are the fossils in roekj but, plain citizen as 1

\ am, I do not hesitate to tell you, tM Minister of Defence, tl at the case will .not be closed till, every wounded soldiei is treated according to the necessities o£ his case, and not, as now, according: to his rank or position, "I ask you that your promises may be honoured, and I repeat my request for a Magisterial inquiry.—Faithfully jours, • "(Sgd.) C. 11. CLEMENS. "February 3."