THE TERRITORIALS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 95, 29 April 1913, Page 3

THE TERRITORIALS.

YOUNG MAN ILL IN CAMP. CHARGE OF NEGLECT. Whahgarei, April 27. Yesterday morning a young man named Stanley Pearson was brought into town from Hikurangi and admitted to a private hospital suffering from a very serious attack of pneumonia, contracted while attending the recent camp of Territorials at' Cambridge. It is /seated that he was ill in camp for two days before tho camp broke, but was not medically treatedbeing left in his tent during tho period. His comrades state that they asked Dr. Good to attend to Pearson, but was refer; ed by him to the srlrgeon then in charge of the 15th Regiment. , Dr. Good having been detailed for duty with the'3rd Regiment. For some reason Pearson was not, it is alleged, brought before the medical officer in charge of his Regiment, and was left with speh attention as could be given by his comrades. For confirmation of these statements', and Advocate reporter waited on Dr. Good, who stated that lie' could not say definitely whether he;j was spoken to regarding Pearson, but thought i it very likely that if such was the case he referred the man’s comrades to the doctor in charge of the regiment. He was certain, though, that he was not told that Pearson was seriously ill, or he would have seen him and ordered his immediate removal to the Cambridge Hospital.

An amazing feature of all this is the statement that young Pearson remained in his tent two days without attention. Such a thing seems almost incredible, and is scouted hy Colonel Steadman, officer in charge of the regiment to which Pearson belonged, as beyond the region of possibility. Colonel Steadman says that he had iwr personal knowledge of the case in camp, and only heard of Pearson being ill when the matter was mentioned to him by Captain Wood on the way

from Auckland, the latter stating that he had arranged for Pearson to be given a saloon berth on the steamer instead of remaining with the other men on deck. Colonel Steadman further says that the medical officer attached to the regiment was continually in the lines and ivas very attentive to his duty, and it is unreasonable to suppose that if Pearson’s sickness had been reported to him it would have received immediate attention. The facts aie , apparently, that Pearson was entrained at Cambridge ill with pneumonia and bleeding at the nose. He travelled to Auckland in an open truck, hut was provided with the comfort of a berth on the way from Aucklan dto Whangarei, and reached Hikurangi in a very had state, and is now desperately ill.' j The Advocate says that it is not 'without authority for stating that 1 some of the arrangements at Cambridge were, in some respects, the worst conceivable. For two days after the men from the North arrived there was not a medicine chest in the camp, and right through there was not even a basin for holding hot water, or any proper facilities for heating water if such were required for medical purposes.