N.Z. SOLDIERS IN ENGLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 21 May 1917, Page 3

N.Z. SOLDIERS IN ENGLAND

Hospitals and Other Institutions. A Big Undertaking. (From Capt, Malcolm Rose, War Correspondent with the N.Z- Forces.) r Northern France, Feb 28 The problem of getting the Reinforcements sufficiently well trained to take the field, and tbe wounded-and siok fit for battle again, is one upon which much anxious thought,, a great deal of labour, and even scientific research, is bestowed. Even for so email a force as that from New Zealand, a large staff bad to be created, and many officers and men are employed in England in connection with the administration and the work of camps and hospitals situated there, The tendency in such institutions away from the front and so near to the atjyaotions and allurements of a big oity is in the direction of the over-' employment cf fit men, and perhaps an over-kiodly benevolence in allowing theoarod to remain linger than necessary. Administrative officers also may in some instances endeavor to bnild up a big department where a smaller one would do, and indeed would be more effective. This is a matter that has been a good deal under discui3iou lately, Lie it becomes more and more evident that if we are to win ths war in reasonable time we must have every fit man at tbe front, and have him there as soon as possible. The question has, 1 know, been receiving the attention of the CO, in England, and it may be taken for granted that he will do his best in the interests of the Empire and of the Allies. On going the round of the New Zealand hospitals and institutions in England connected with the war, the first thing that strikes one is that neither trouble nor expense has been spared to care for the sick and tbe wounded. This is as it should be, and the men themselves and their relatives in the Dominion will be grateful to tbe Government for all it has done in this respect. Of our three hospitals, the No I General at Brockenburst is the biggest, employing 20 officers, 208 other rank?, and 76 nurses. At the time of my visit it contained 1136 patients—--52 officers and 780 other ranks. Next came the No i General at Walton-on-Thames, with a staff 0f..16 officers, 32 other ranks, and 66 nurses. It hell 1123 patients. The No 3 Hospital at Codford ii«d 412 patients, and there were 49 officers end 141 other ranks in British hospitals. Qaite recently there has been opened the No 2 New Zealand General Hospital, Auxiliary A, at Weybridge. Oar aod camps are distributed over a wide area, and this must lead to increased werk in administration and iocreased cost, but apparently closer concentration was impossible, snd we had to take what we could get in the way of sites and buildings. The boil lings available have had to be adapted, while huts of large s : ze have been boil . and tents erected. The war has taught us one thing, namely, that it is no longer necessary to go to extremes in the cost of hospital-building. In a country like Nsw Zealand the hut system might be largely adopted for ordinary hospital work, and tbe cost per bed to the taxpayer be tremendously reduced.

CONVALESCENTS. . Every hospital bed in England will be required daring the strenuous fighting that everyone expects on the Western front during the comiDg spring and summer, and all the means at the command of the medical and military authorities will b 9 requisitioned in getting the fit and wonnded fit again. New-'Zealand has not been backward in these preparation?. At Hornchurch there is quite a New Zealand colony, where our convalescents are being treated in the most sciettific and up-to-date manner. There, any day, you can see practised therapeutic treatment by mechanical exercises of a most interesting kind. In a well fitted gymnasium squads come in in military formation, dissolve promptly into individual units, and are immediately at work with many different exercises 1 1

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ingenious apnliancm and machines to suit the different cases. One man will fix himself fn a machine that has a sliding-seat and enables bis muscles to Ret aJI the exercis* that they would pet in a racing boat. Another mounts what to nil intent? and purposes is a bicycle, and finds bis speed registered on a dial. An expeit is pattering away at a punching bal> with the dexterity of a Jack Johnson# Others are skipping, or working wi h dumbbells." A sold : er with-flat foot will b 8 d. ing one series of exercise?, a men with a stiff ankle will fix his foot in a sra&ll machine by means of which he can accomplish a rotary movement that will bring cpit in muscles and ligaments into auction with a view to a oure in the quickest possible time. Day by day, hoar by hour, this exercising goes or, and the resulti are truly wonderful.

The men are housed largely in comfortable huts aud a few double tents comfortably warmed by stoves. Additional huts are being erectad to brume five hundred convalescent*. This wM enable the authorities to be ready for any emergency in the near future.

■ ENTERTAINMENT AND THE AMENITIES, Hern, as jn the camps and hospitilsi the entertainment /md comfort of the men are one of the firat thougbtj of the command. 7.M.0.A. and the War Contingent Association have done most excellent work. Concert halla» cantcecs, kitchens, reading rooms, writing rooms, billiard tables are provided. I saw one hall in course of erection that would seat eight hundred men. There is even a hobby-room provided by the Y M.C.A., where the can idnlge their bent in woodcarving, basket-making, carpentering, etc. A pantomime was peformed in a village ball by a New Zealand company. It attracted a large audience of the local residents aod brought

in £60.. The amenities have not bean forgotten these little New Zealand colonies in the Motherland. At one, plots have been neatly made and six thousand bulbs and a rfUmber of roses planted, The hospital and even the camp grounds will be beautiful iu the

coming spring. The Hornchurch Convalescent Camp and one of the hospitals will be the last of the New' Zealand institutions in England after the war is finished. They will probbbly be still in working order a year or eighteen months after the fighting is ended. Demobilisation is not going to be an easy matter. It is realised by those who have given it thought that it will taxe a long time. HISTORIC SITES Some of the hospitals are picturesquely situated on historic ground. One has gathered itself about an old mansion house in delightful grounds that belonged to a retired array officer whose sens were in the Indian Army, Tbo father died and the place was taken over by the Government, There is room for a tootbali ground, and

even a small golf course. The new Auxiliary Hospital at Weybridge was before the war the well known Oatlands Park Hotel, situate on a rising terrace in the midst of the delightful Surrey 3osnery. Id the time, of Henry VII, ovsr four hundred years ago, the Marior of “Oatlands ’’ was wanted for a Royal Domain, and when Henry obtained possession of the famous Hampton Court, near by, a palace was built in the meadow below the grotto. Motoring to it now from London, and finding modern houses clustering about the domain, it seems strange to remember that Qaeen Bess spent much of her time here hunting and shooting with the cross-bow One recalls the story of her visit in 1590, when, at a stag hunL the under-keeper of the Park, John Sslwyn, leapt from his horse on tithe back of the stag, and, “guiding it towards the Queen, pluoged his swotd into its neck, the animal falling dead at Her Majesty’s feet.” It was this stag-bunt that gave Queen Victoria, 257 years later, ths idea for the group in the design of the Ascot Vaee. Queen Elizabeth last visi’ed the place in 1602, a year before her death. Later, Anne of Denmark, Qaten of James 1., sumptuously er..tn t lined the Venentian ambassador in the Palace. Charles 1., in the second year of his reign, granted the estate tc his Queen. Their youngest son, Henry was born there, in 1640, and was called Henry of Oatlands. From those days onwards, till a hotel company acquired a portion of the estate with the York and Oatlands Houses, at a cost of nearly £IOO,OOO, the history of the Domain is interesting. The grounds are over 40 acres in extent, and oootain fine coder.*, yews, oaks, beeches and pines. Not far away, near Walton Bridge, the Romans under Julius Caesar crossed the Tbamos to attack Oassivelanus, in 54 8.8. The re-

mains of the Roman Encampment era at St George’s Hill. It is indeed strange that in this year of grace the wounded soldiers from the farthest part of an Empire that has long rivalled Caesar’s should be finding comfortable sanctuary here, and, in rtucb pleasant and historic surroundingf, be getting ready to strike one more blow at the Huns of modern civilisation on the deep-scarred fields of Northern France and Flanders, where so much blood has already bren spilt.

OTHER ACTIVITIES. London correspondents of the New Zealand Press have, from time to time written of the activities of the War ConUDgenPAisooiatior, which, under the chairmanship of our fermer. Governor, Lord Pinnket, has done so much foo officers and men iu London. To their cjmments nolhiDg need be added. Tte good work goes steadily od. The private hospitality .of the Eogl sh people, also earns the admiration of all. The New Zealander, especially, is always assured of a cordial welcome. The health of the men in England •was good. The one question that was impeiting efficiency, and was giving the authorities some concern, was that of venereal disease, Tae problem is a difficult one at any time. It becomes accentuated in war-time, especially in English oities, where the methods of control are lax as compared with what prevails in France. At present London streets are infesjed wi h undesirables who prey upon the unsnspeoting soldier. Lately there has been a public outcry for remedial measures, and it is sincerely to be hoped that something will be soon done to minimise the evil.