Arrested as Insane.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 August 1922, Page 1

Arrested as Insane.

NEW ZEALANDER’S EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA.

WELLINGTON, Aug. 4

All extraordinary s torv of a New Zealand soldiers’ adventures in America is contained in a petition presented to the House by Mr M’Combs, on behalf of Robert Melgund Thomson, of Cashmere Road, Ohilistchurch. Mr Thomson was a Main Body man, served on Gallipoli and in France, and was wounded in the Somme battle in September, 1916. Ho was invalided to New Zealand in 1917 suffering from broken health following rheumatic fever. He derived such benefit from chiropractic treatment that he determined to study this system at the National Chiropractic School, Chicago. He left New Zealand for America, and commenced his studies in Chicago in August 1921. It had been understood that he would continue to draw his New Zealand temporary war pension through the Canadian authorities, and was requested to attend at the office of the United States Veterans’ Bureau at Chicago, in October, 1921, for medical examination.

“On arrival at the Veterans’ Bureau,” continues Mr Thomson, “I was subjected to prolonged, exhaustive, elaborate cross-examination by a female officer of the bureau. Being then in a delicate state of health and suffering frill an affection of the vocal cords, I found the strain of cross-ex-amination too much, and I became confused. My voice gnve way, but I was in full possession of my memory, and my mental faculties were unimpaired. My case was reported to the medical officer of the bureau, and before I could realise what was taking place, two Chicago policemen stepped into the room and took me in a patrol wagon to an institution called the Psychopathic! Hospital. A fortnight later I was committed by a magistrate to tbe Elgin State Hospital for the insane.”

Petitioner adds that no appeal was possible, and be was securely confined in the asylum for five months with ordinary imbeciles. He managed to smuggle a letter to bis brother in Christchurch, and owing to his efforts and with the help of the money he cabled, petitioner finally secured his release, but remained under escort until being placed on tb© train for Vancouver, where he sailed by the Niagara for New Zealand. Mr Thompson maintains that the callous and inhuman treatment he received at the hands of the American authorities was a gross violation of their duties and a usurpation of the authority of the Soldiers’ Civil Reestablishment Bureau of Ottawa, to whose care he had been committed by the New Zealand Pensions Department. He prays that inquiries should he made of the War Risk Insurance Bureau, Washington, as to the amount of compensation awarded to him, as ho understands a grant was made, although he received no notification of the amount. He also wishes the New Zealand Oovernmjnt to make a further claim on his ln-huTf. and that an explanation be demanded from the United States Government concerning the infringements of his rights, not only as a returned s,.idler of New Zealand, but as a British subject.