A REGRETTABLE EPISODE.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 January 1918, Page 6

A REGRETTABLE EPISODE.

The Taranaki Herald makes a very strong protest against, medico the military authorities for the) casual and cruel bungling displayed in sending a cot case all the way from the port of landing to New Plymouth. Says the local paper: "Bungling on the part of some one in regard to the ambulance car was only too apparent. In the first place the carriage was in total darkness and it would have been ludicrous had it not been so serious a matter to see the efforts to lift the patient from his bunk by the light of a porter's lantern. Those who were attending to him at this end were not to blame —they did everything they could." According to the sergeant-major in charge, he drew pointed attention prior to the departure of the train from Wellington, to the fact that there was no gas in the carriage. The officials promised that it would be attended to along the line. This was not done and a request for water was similarly ignored. It is added: "The result was whenever the patient required a drink of water during the long and tedious journey it had to be obtained from one of the other carriages and the condition of the car itself, we understand, is reported to have been anything but satisfactory.' It is to be regretted that, with all its war experience, our Defence Department lives and does not learn —that it is still a case of man's inhumanity to man.

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