WELLINGTON NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 305, 3 June 1915, Page 2

WELLINGTON NOTES.

flfrom Our Own Corespondent). £ LTKEL* LOT. Wellington, May 31. The-tnen for the special expeditionary force, the Trentham Regiment (Earl of Liverpool's Own) have been passing through Wellington during the last day or two on their way to camp. They are a fine lot of young men, with a sprinkling of wiry "old 'uns" who have managed somehow to convince the recruiting officer that their fortieth birthday is still, before them. A few of thorn 'have beon in uniform, indicating that they were members of the territorial force, but the great majority have plodded into camp in their everyday clothes, with their personal possessions in parcels under their aims or in their pockets. The officers and non-commis-sioned officers for this new force have been in camp all this month, and have received at the hands of the permanent staff the training that they are now to transmit to the rankers. A comprehensive inspection of the Trentham Regiment is not yet poasibTe, but the appearance of the men in detachments giving an impression that they will constitute eventually the best contingent that the Dominion has prepared for the front. The physical standard is high and the force contains a particularly large proportion of earliest young fellows who did not rush forward until the need for their services was demonstrated and who are prepared now to take the new work very seriously. They will have the advantage now of the experience that has been acquired by the training staff at Trentham during the last six or eight months. When the Seventh Reinforcements go into camp next week the total number of men under training will exceed 7000, comprising the "Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Reinforcements, the Trentham Regiment and the howitzer battery attached to that, regiment. The contrasts between various groups of men at work in the camp is sharp owing to the fact that some are practically finished soldiers, while others are the' rawest of recruits. But the camp staff manages to keep the great .machine running with a minimum of friction and a maximum of effective output in the form of expert fighters. It should not be forgotten by the Dominion'that some of the most important work in connection with the war is being done by men who are not likely to get to the front themselrcs at all. THE REAL ORGANISERS. The amount of organising work that lias had to be performed by the staff at Trentham is scarcely to be realised by the non-military citizen. Thousands upon thousands of men have been fed, clothed and equipped down to the last button without delay or confusion. When the ifirst bugle sounds in the morning the cooks face, the task of providing breakfast for between 5000 and 0000 men in quick time, and this number is growing. Y*et there is seldom a complaint to be heard regarding either the. quality or the quantity of the food. The commissariat department cannot make its plans very far ahead, for it must be prepared for sudden increases in its work owing to the arrival of new batches of recruits in camp. But tho big kitchens, supplied with their raw materials by a competent purchasing officer, provide abundance of good food at the right times with almost automatic regularity. Similar conditions exist in other branches of the camp serTice. Occasionally one meets an indignant recruit who lacks his uniform after several days' residence in the camp, and, consequently, is suffering a self-im-posed sentence of confinement to camp, since ho would not on any account make a publio appearance Without his khaki. •But the factories have been working at pressure in order to make the uniforms within schedule time, and the delays have never been prolonged. The ordinary uniform, which has become familiar throughout the country, is not worn while the men are working in the camp, lest it be worn out before the troops ! get to the front,, and the recruits get their dungaree suits as soon as they are enrolled at Trentham. The building of the huts at the camp has been delayed, by the way, owing to a shortage of carpenters. The Public Works Department has not succeeded in getting as many men. as it would like to employ on the job. There are plenty of carpenters in the ranks, but they cannot be taken away from their routine ingA SOCIAL DANGER. ■A brief telegram from -Dimedin mentions that a troopship is arriving there with some 135 invalided soldiers aboard and that 01 "special eases" are going to be transferred to Quarantine Island. These "special cases" present a problem of a very unpleasant kind for the Defence authorities and the Health Department. The men are suffering from contagious disease contracted in Egypt in consequence of their own folly, and it has to be said that they constitute a danger to the Dominion in their present state. Nobody wants to use hard words in connection with soldiers who went away to help fight the Empire's battles and unhappily fell by the way. But contagion of the kind that some men have brought back with them from the low quarters of Cairo is an evil that cannot lie trifled with. The Australian military authorities had to deal with some similar cases, and they have determined that none of the men shall be allowed to return to civilian life until they have censed to be a peril to all with whom they come in contact. In other words, the sufferers arc going to be quarantined for treatment by the military doctors. The New Zealand Defence Department has liot yet announced what it. intends to do, but the report that the "special cases" from'the transport are going to be transferred to Quaratine Island at Dunedin may be regard--cd as an indication that proper precautions will bo taken. "There should be no sentiment about this matter," said a doctor in speaking to your correspondent upon the subject, "We may all be very sorry fur those men. but we cannot allow !:.ci:i to take risks involving other people. The disease from which some oi' them, or all of them, are suffering is one <,f flu- most terrible with which the medical profession is called upon to deal and nobody who understands its efforts, extending sometimes over more than one generation, would venture to say that this group of invalided soldiers should be allowed to mix at >!><".■ with the civilian population."