TROOP TRAIN TRAGEDY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 215, 6 October 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

TROOP TRAIN TRAGEDY.

BRITISH TERRITORIALS 33115 FROM HEAT.

THROUGH INDIAN DESERT IN TRUCKS.

An "inexcusable and shocking blunder," is London "Truth's" description o f the tragic journey of a troop train from Karachi to Peshawar, during which 136 men were taken ill and many tidied.

"The numerous letters that I havs received, many of them from Army officers, testify to the horror the atfnit has excited among all acquainted wit : i .the details," says the wiftoir. "' In the month of June the railwa '■ journey from Karachi to Peshawar, a ■distant- of over a thousand nrles, ; s -one of the hottest in the world. For som hundreds of miles the line goes 'through the baking Sind desert, where the shade temperature is anything up to 126. Mail trains perform the journey in twenty-four hours. Troop trains "take from two and a half to five days for the sam> journey, because —the health and comfort of soldiers being of the least 'importance—they are drawn try the slowest engines, and have to give place to all other passenger traffic. "On this journey, a severe ordeal -even for acclimatised white men, jthe military jackasses in authority at Karacini despatched alwut a thousand British solders just disembarked from the transport which had conveyed them from England. The men were sent out as drafts for various different units in India, Territorial and Regular,

LIKE SARDINES. " As usual, the troop train was made •up of old third-class carriages, which, with the exception of the wooden seats, are little better than goods trucks. Into these vehicles the soldiers were packed like sardines. One correspondent says they w.ere st'.ll wearing English clothing. There were no punkahs or fans. Ice was supplied at Karachi —nominally lib. per man, but half of it melted before they received it. "I am assured that the only water for drinking was what was carried in the mens' water-bottles, and that ther? Iras neither water nor any accommodation for washing. Three doctors travelled 1 with the train, but, like the men, they* were new to India, and so, devotedly though, they worked, were hopelessly handicapped by ther lack -of experience as well as by their own sufferings ft-om the intense heat. Two second-class carriages, each with lyingdown accomnuraat'.on for two patients, "had been set apart for use as a hospital. "The train pulled up at Roliri, 290 miles from Karachi, twenty-threa hours after it started. By that time a number of men were sick, dying, or already dead from heat strokes. Seven corpses were removed from the train at Rohri, and thirty-two parents in a critical condition were taken across the river Indus to the Civil Hospital at Sukkur, where in spite of everything that could be done for them five more died. . . j "When the journey was resumed onore heat strokes occurred, and ;> ■carriage had to be turned into a mortuary. As the result of urgent telegraphic messages a further but inadequate supply of ioe was obtained oa -route, and at Lahore the train was mes by a staff of medical officers; nurses, ■and orderlies Sixty-seven patients' •were transferred to the cantonment hospital at Lahore.

TWENTY-FIVE DEATHS.

u For the rest of the journey a medi-

cal man with Indian experience accom-

panied the train, and an extra engine was provided to expediate it. At _Ralwalpindi thirty-seven more patients were taken from the train to the hospital. This made the total number of hospital cases 136. A semi-official statement issued from Simla gave fit

teen as the total number of deaths, including those at Rohrc, but my correspondents assert that there were at least twenty-five. "The way in which troops travel bv railway in India is always scandalous, but ordinarily moves are made ;n tb,c cold weather, and no great harm is done. The exigencies of the war have ; nevitably upset the usual seasonal plans both for sending men to Ind'»i and distributing them about the country. This fact does not, however, fr the least degree mitigate the responsibility of the staff who despatched thm troop train from Karachi. "A iflmiiber of junior officers from regiments in the Punjab went down to Karachi to moot the drafts for their units and returned with the tra, - n. 1 _ am told that they unavailingly pointed out the danger that would arise from the overcrowding, the heat, and the slowness of the journey, and took the precaution of obtaining an extra store oi ice, which they handed, over for the us.e of the sick. "The d'anger might have been lessened, if not removed altogether, I-.? giving the men ample, accommodation (there is no shortage of rolling stock), such means of alleviating the heat .as other travellers get. and a faster train or trains."

"BURNING" HOT. A letter from an Indian official which has been placed at the disposal of the "Daily Express" shows the indignation that has been aroused in India at tha incident. The writer says:— "The men entrained in tliirdrlass carriages (native). It is usufcl in peace time to send them second, I hear, but s.ince the war they cannot accommodate the numbers otherwise. "This particular train had no shutters to the windows of the third-class roa/ches, so you can imagine these poor fellows, lots of them mere boys, travelling through heat and glare under these conditions, w;th no fans, as third-class are not provided with them. and I travelled through the very same route last year in June through the burning Sind desert, with fans and ice, and T really felt on the. verge of collapse. It was awful. Cushions and everything you touched were positively .burning hot. "There were over 1000 men entrained. The facts about there Iwing r.ishutters were given by a 'Terrier' officer, who told he travelled with them. Ho also savs the ice supply ran short in a very little time, and to! =>- grams for more got for answer 'None to he had.' " WHO SHALL HANG?"

Several points which add to the horror of the story are mentioned by "John Bull", who n.sks the question, 'Who shall bang?" It is stated that the deadly journey occupied four day;, •ind that the number of men sent to hospital was not 136. as officially stated. but more than 200. At Rolli, where seven dead an 1 thirty-two sink, five of them dyins, were taken from the train, the men had a meal in the station shed, which has onlv an iron roof.

"For four hours, diring the hottest

part of the day," it is stated, "the 7 were kept waiting on the liorders of the desert. At saven in tlie evening they entrained, and this perambulating 'Black Hole of Calcutta' began tin second stage of its fateful journey, shedding its dead and dying at various stations en route."

At Lahore., it will be remembered some one grasped the situation, and large medical stall' met the train, whil.o an ndd't onal engine was provided to send on the train at express speed. "It is probably owing to these energetic measures," says "John Bull," "that more fatalities did not occur. The death roll was, however, shocking Twenty-five gallant British soldiers had been killed by "the neglect and incompetence of some dunder-headed official. Over 200 men were taken lo hospital, and we regret to learn that of these twelve have sinoe died, while several o£ the victims have, unfortunately gone raving mad." "HELD TO STRICT ACCOUNT." Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Secretary of State for India, replying in the House of Commons to a question about teh troop tra. : n horror in India, said that he had directed the Government of India that, having fixed responsibility for the deplorable incident, thev were to hold the person or persons esponsible to strict account.