Defence Matters

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 18 June 1915, Page 3

Defence Matters

The reports contained in the daily Press of the last day or two about the lack of hospital accommodation in Egypt and the want of proper sanitary precautions at Trentham are very disquietening indeed. If the reports from Egypt are true, and our wounded men have to be provided for by the Australian and Egyptian authorities, there must surely have been bungling somewhere, and no time should be lost in putting matters right. Then it appears that there is no provision for the provision of the little comforts and luxuries which are so necessary to sick men during the period of convalescence, and this is a matter which should be seen to without delay. There is one thing, however, which should be strictly observed by all in a case of this sort, and that is, that no side issues should be allowed to obscure the point under consideration. Often when things have gone wrong, as they apparently have done in this instance, the people who should be putting them right, spend their lime in idle recriminations, leaving sufferers to continue in their distress. We trust that the powers that be, in putting things straight, will consider the wounded first, last, and all the time. The cases of measles, forty four in number, are most serious, and the fact that three deaths have occurred from a disease which is not often fatal, gives much food for anxious thought. It will be remembered that measles broke out soon after the first camp at Trentham was formed, and as there have been outbreaks since it would seem that the very place had become inoculated with the disease, and that it is not now a safe place to encamp men in large numbers. Trentham is notoriously a cold, bleak windy place, quite unsuitable for a camping ground, and it is a great pity the Defence Department cannot see Its way to establish camps elsewhere. The wisdom of concentrating so many men in one camp has before been questioned by men qualified to know what is best, and the present outbreak with its fatal effects goes far to prove that more and smaller camps would be an advantage. We trust that the Defence and Health Department will join hands in the present crisis, and vigorously combat the epidemic which has appeared in Ahe camp.