STRAIGHT TALK.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1687, 17 March 1917, Page 3

STRAIGHT TALK.

DR. THACKER ON WARPATH. MEDICAL EXAM. A FARCE. MILITARY METHODS CONDEMNED. “I am tired, absolutely tired, ’ said Dr. Tliaeker, M.P., to a Lyttelton Times reporter on Wednesday, “at the Jibes that I have been receiving from the public on the impotence that is compelled and enforced on the members of Parliament by the existence of the present National Government. The Government are working now at their hardest job, when stress of all kinds is on the country, and the two leaders ai’e away. I consider they should come home at once or as soon as possible.” Referring to the subject of medical examinations, Dr. Thacker said: “I have got the men’s communications, and they are'ready to stand up to them. I have been for the last six weeks in communication with Surgeon-General Henderson and (lie Defence Department, and I have told General Henderson that I consider the method and manner of taking conscripts was not only a disgrace but was descending to a farce. For instance, a man with a large left hernia was practically rejected by the Medical Board, and the military attendant, a lieutenant, was asked what he thought of the man. He told him to walk, and the man walked, so much to the lieutenant’s satisfaction that he said, ‘We will put him into camp, and let him be operated on there if necessary.’ “Another man was willing to pay to be put right, but he was ordered into camp, to be operated on there. That was cramping the medical men in the camp; it was forcing them to do work that could lie done outside. “Another man who has been in camp for siime weeks came to mo to be examined, and 1 found that the whole of his left chest had in the past suffered from pleurisy, and that he was threatened by phthisis. After at least about ten communications with General Henderson and myself, General Henderson himself agreed that the man was unlit for any branch of the service. The man was sent to Wellington to be treated, and when be got to Wei-' lington the doctor who was to treat him was absent from town. The man is now in Christchurch, and he wants to know why he cannot be treated here or discharged. Every one of these men, when he has been in Trent ham a week, will cost the country at least £3OO. “Now, 1 have cases of men with asthma, with bronchitis, with suspected phthisis, with full doctor’s certificates of health, which would deter them from becoming military in any respect, who have been sent into camp. The wholesale commandeering’ of human units up till within a week ago has been absolutely painful, and i am speaking now not as a member of Parliament, lint as a surgeon. PENSIONS ITT GOWN. “Now another case. A returned soldier with consumption, who is in the Sanatorium, bad bis pay cut down from 20s a week to 10s, but through our endeavours it has been restored to 30s. Still another man. who developed leprosy in Samoa, and who was getting a pension of 30s a week, on which his mother was depending, and who is now on. Quail [stand, lias had liis pension cut.down to 10s a week, and yet the Minister of Public Ileal) ii says, in Ibe face of these case*, that these men are to receive full medical at(eniioti from (he Government at no cost to themselves.

“A non-commissioned oflicer who went with Iho Main Body, and was one ol‘ the first men wounded, was sent (o England to recover, am! there married an fmglishwoman. When that: occurred the pension law had not been framed, and when it was being framed this case was brought before the 'Minister, but, lie took no notice of it. That man has an equal rigid to a pension for his wife Just as much as a man who was married or engaged before he left New Zealand. But he is denied the pension. lie was a farmer, and when he was taken away, his father being old was unable to keep the farm and had to sell it. That man now, instead of being given charge of om of the farms that are so in need of men, is doing some petty little civil job in the city. There are dozens of practical farmers in the same position. He could oversee or attend to farm work. The Government ought to have bought the farms of all men going away, or ought to manage them while they

are away. FROM CAMP TO HOSPITAL.. '‘Another case: Sergeant was sent down from camp, said to

ho suffering; from sunstroke. His ease was really one of suspected oerebro-spinal meningitis, or ptomaine poisoning'. He was allowed to wander aimlessly about the si reels Jiere for three weeks, and he oil me to me. I put him under treatment and eleetricity, and in seven days he was showing marked improvement. The authorities were then asked to pay for his subsequent attention, and said he would have* him thoroughly examined. He was put in the Christchurch Hospital, and not one word was said to me about what they had dune with him. He was in the hospital one month doing nothing', except sitting and worrying, and 1 wrote to General Henderson about him. Then lie was discharged from the hospital practically no better than he was when he came from Wellington, if that man ought to have been in the hospital when he was put in there surely he should have been in the hospital three weeks before. tiIAIAVAV MEN'S POSITIONS. “Then there are two eases of returned railway servants. When (hey asked to get their positions back again they were refused, but by communicating with t lk* Department in Wellington and finally with the Minister, their positions were restored to (hem. EXEJT MAX GAZETTED DESERTED. "1 have .just got a Christchurch ease. This case was sent into camp on March 7th. He had a full doctor's certificate from an eminent military doctor in Christchurch, who had given him a certificate of complete unlilness for service. He had complied with all military regulations, and lias been gazetted as a deserter, and no word of apology Inis been received from the Department about it.”