"COLD FEET."

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1915, Page 8

"COLD FEET."

AMONG OUR RETURNED SOLDIERS. VIEWS OF SOME OF THE MEN. Auckland, Sept. 17. Some opinions were obtained by a Star reporter from soldiers who have returned from the front in regard to th» question raised in (Parliament by Mr. Hornsby, M.P., as to the rumours in circulation regarding "military rheumatism" on the part of some of the men who returned by the Tahiti. Pte. M. O'Connell, of the 16th Waikatos said:—"Mr. Hornsby is all wrong. There were no malingerers on the Tahiti. Every man was a good man. If a man didn't come home wounded foe came home to recuperate from pneumonia or some other trouble. We 4.11 had to parade before we embarked, and again before we left the ship, and there was not one came that could come under the heading of 'questionable.' If Mr. Hornsby wants something real to fuss about, let him talk about the need for doctors and better hospital accommodation. I returned to Egypt on a hospital ship, on which there were 500 patients and one doctor, and my hand would not be maimed as it is if I could have found a doctor to operate before blood poisoning set in; nor would mj mate, Pte. , of Devonport, have been left with a Shattered leg until his wounds smelt offensively, and an operation failed to save his life. No, there are no malingerers." !Pte. H. E. Cartwriglit, of the 3rd lAucklands, stated: —"Why doesn't Mr. Hornsby have a look at the hospitals' lists; he would soon see what is the matter. I've come back with a bullet through my ankle, but I'm not nearly so badly off as some of the unfortunate fellows who never got to the Dardanelles at all. The man who got a had attack of pneumonia in Egypt comes back worse off than a good many of ns I who 'have Wounds to show, and is n#ii» i the less a hero, if the word hero has any right to be used at all. No, there I were no malingerers on the Tahiti." "Call it military rheumatism, cold feet, or what you like, it exists and there's no use doubting its existence. It's aj unavoidable in human beings as a weak stomach or a cross eye." Thus spoke Trooper R. S. Stevens, of the 3rd Auckland Mounteds. "I believe every man who gets into action goes with the same thought uppermost in his mind: Will he funk it or won't he? I know I did. I know my mates did, and I'm glad to say that when the moment for the test came we got so excited that we clean forgot everything but the need for making good. All the same, there are cold-footed men in every army. There /must be and you can't always blame the coward. There is one case I know of worth telling you about. There were two boys who went under fire for the first time together. They were awfully young. No sooner had they got in the trenches than one had his head practically blown off. The other boy never got over it and collapsed, and he was such a nervous wreck afterwards that he had to come homo. That happens only rarely, of course, but it does happen sometimes. Mostly when a fellow's mate goes down the other fellow goes mad for fight, and isn't satisfied until he has got a Turk in return. Then again, there is the malingerer. I don't care what anyone says to the contrary, I've seen fellows in hospital in Egypt playing up to the doctors in the hope of a trip to England amongst the convalescents. They pretend to be paralysed, and if the doctor prods they know when to wince and when not to. One fellow was carried on the Tahiti and used to make a caricature of himself every time he tried to lift a cigarette to his lips. Three days out, New Zealand-hound, I saw the same chap racing upstairs with another fellow. All the same, I'll admit the cases that were not genuine amongst the 500 men on the Tahiti could almost be counted on the fingers of one hand." Private Collier, of the 3rd Aucklands, was one who supported Trooper Stevens' point of view. "I can't speak for the Tahiti," he said, "for I came back on an earlier boat, but there is no doubt that some of the fellows are the most awful liars I've heard. A fellow who was absolutely lionised here in Auckland tells the most impossible jams, and he jtlways finishes up with details of his own various wounds. That iellow had never even been scratched. ' More than one man, in fact, has, to my knowledge, come back posing as wounded, and he has never been hurt at all."

Private "Scotty" Martindale, of the 10th Waikatos, said: "I personally do not believe that there were any on board who had not represented their country honorably and well. Perhaps in the New Zealand armv ) as in every other army, there are men who have found that they've mistaken their vocation, but amongst our forces I think they number mighty few. Certainly Mr. Ilornsby i 3 on the wrong tack this time. I personally never want to know a cleaner, better lot than those who had to come home on the Tahiti."