Plague of Flies

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 November 1915, Page 3

Plague of Flies

♦ I'KACiiLAL STEPS TAKEN AT THE ER-QXT. BRITISH HEADQU ARTEUS, i" il-AjSCE. (The Times correspondent writes.) August 18. Among th,e many which have contributed to the remarkably good health oi the Jiritish lorces the arrangements taken to combat the hy probii'm should receive their due meed oi praise. Letters have appeared in The Times and other newspapers suggesting that the authorities have ueeii grossly "supine" and "slack" in thk> respect. These loose statements 1 can emphatically deny. Of course, there are flies in the trenches and, in bill its —m some places many ilie.s. ar is etilt marked, in Tennyson s words, by Stench ol oldi ofi'ai decaying, and 'nfinite torment of flies; hut to suggest that our troops ar» plagued by flies because 110 steps .0 destroy them have been taken is utterly fake. The fly question is an old concomitant of all wars, and long before the present season began the necessity 0' dealing with it was eifectively recognized and an entomological commission of three exports was appointed by the War Office to devise measures for the suppression of flies and advise the authorities as to the most suitable methods. Their suggestions and recommendations have already taken concrete shape in a report supplementing the original memorandum issued by the DirectorGeneral of the Medical Service, and their opinions have been welcomed and turned to practical account by medical officers. But to expect, as some writers ot lettens appear to do, that flies can be exterminated here is to expect the impossible. "When one realizes how difficult the fly problem has proved at home in peace time in large communities, the wonder is that out here, where life is lived under the conditions ot war. the numbers of and the mischief don© by flies are not greater than they are. « 11 1? ' I,llllll H'--"" 11 ""-?