OUR WOUNDED.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1916, Page 2

OUR WOUNDED.

.S'EW ZEALANDERS IN ENGLAND.; (From Our Own Correspondent.) ' London, October 10. ; There are never any New Zealanders?! in the United Kingdom who are quite [ without friends for long, for the hospitality of the British people has never allowed our men to feel like strangers for long. Most of them are "adopted" in a more or less casual manner by visiting ladies who happen to meet them in the wards, and they rarely want seriously for any comforts. It is the business of the New Zealand War Contingent Association to see that they don't, and that this chance of hospitality is made a ccHainty. The Association has more than 1(10 visitors, who are mostly New Zealand ladies, and they call regularly at military hospitals throughout the British Isles wherever there are any New Zealand patients in the wards. Where there are, they are visited regularly, supplied with news-papers and smokes, writing material and any small comforts which they require, such as shaving kit, tooth brushes, soap, stationery, etc. In the case of patients who are confined to bed they also get a regular supply of fruit, cream, etc. This attention continues until the men are discharged well and fit. Any single month's report of the Visiting Committee of the War Contingent Association will show how widespread the work is and what the organisation means. In August—before the capture of Flers—there were 1938 New Zealand wounded in, the United Kingdom. Most of them were concentrated in the New Zealand hospitals at Brockenhurst, Walton, Codford and Hornchurch, but the problem was the remaining 582, who were scattered over 110 British hospitals as far apart as Dundee in the north and Netlcy in the south. Yet every one of these, thanks to {he organisation of the War Contingent Association, was regularly visited, I supplied with necessary comforts and reported to the head office. There, each case is recorded by card index, with every visit and requisition and the progress of the cure. .. .... ... u . ABOUT CIGARETTES. The soldier's "fag" has become so well recognised a weakness that it takes a bold man to attack it on the ground that smoking is injurious to the health. Yet such a man has now arisen. Most people will Ve quite ready to believe that unlimited cigarette smoking is detrimental to the health of men in the trenches—where life is semi-sedentary—but particv.larly of hospital patients. One of the regular activities of the War Contingent Asociation is the distribution of smokes through its visitors to New Zealanders m British hospitals. The allowance is ■limited to 40 cigarettes per week. Medical opinion here and there says that this v, too much, but the hospital regulations often do not restrict smoking at all. Everybody knows the soldier is attached to his fag and that no amount of regulation can keep him from it. I have known a hospital, patient spend as much as 10s a week on additional smokes. If there was an average of 5:000 New Zealand soldiers in hospital and convalescent camp, the bill of the Association for the modicum of 40 fags per week would run to more than 5000 per year. As a matter of fact it is possible by getting them in bond f t,..ve a gcod deal of this sum. , TIRED NURSES. With two or three hundred nurses on service—most of them now in Englandthere was an obvious need of some provision for occasional lest and convalcs. j cence for them if they were to keep fit and strong. This has been met by a very generous offer from Mr. Astor to place at the disposal of the War Con. tiugent Association his fine home at Rest Harrow, near Sandwich. Miss Tombe (Duiedin), who was the first matron of the New Zealand Hospital at Walton-on-Thames, has been appointed to havo j charge of the new home and already several of our nurses requiring rest havo sprit a few weeks there with much benefit. Though nurses of the N.Z.E.}<, will get preference in case of accommodation is overtaxed, the home will be open to any New Zealand nurse on duty in \England; . „i

THE SOLDIER'S HOSTEL. "1 always slay at the New Zealand hostel in Russell Square," wrote ft troop or to me the other day, quite unsolicited. "I think it is an ideal place for our soldiers to stay at." This refers to the residential club which has just been opened in Bloomsbury. Anyone who knows anything of his "London—or any great city for that matter—will appreciate whist this sort of place means to a young man in a strange land. The path of the soldier on leave is beset with dangers, and he would be a very smart sort of man who did not fall into any of the traps set with diligent care to entrap our soldiers and their money. War conditions favor the harpy and the sponger, and consequently, ever since our men went to France, members of the War Contingent Association have regularly met the leave trains arriving in London and taken in hand those of our boys who were new to London and could do'with advice. If they want a bed they are taken to the Hostel in Russell Square At any rate they can always go there for cheap, good food cooked by New Zealand ladies, lor billiards and all the conveniences of a rendezvous. At any time of the flight they can get warm meals cooked and served by New Zealanders. Mr. Arthur Russell, who is about to pay a visit' to New Zealand, is chairman of the Hostel Committee, and Mr. R. H. Nolan (Hawera) has been throughout a meet capable nnd thorough organiser. Sir James Mild*, chairman of the Finance Committee of the War Contingent watchdog for the subscriber;—left London this week on a visit to New Zealand, where he will be able to give first hand information as to what Iho Association has been doing. The Ilif-.h Commissioner (who is chairman of the Association) gave a farewell luncheon to Sir James and to Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Russell, who are leaving in November to spend the winter in Now Zealand. Mrs. Russell as honorary treasurer oi the visiting committee, was one of the most capable organisers in the early days and oUo did excellent service as bu'vci at a time when buying was most ■difficult and important work. Mr. J. H. B. Coates, the vice-chairman, will preside ever the finance committee during Sir James Mills' absence. Miss Ida Russell lias joined the visiting committee and Mr. Cancia Birch (Rangitikei) has sented to become honorary organiser t:> !|i'c Association, a very necessary post « here the work of so many committees pus to be co-ordinated. !"? ENTERTAINMENTS.' In August the War Contingent Association arranged theatres for 779 soldiers and drives for 229—the theatre tickets Leina nearly all siven free bv the mana-

govs. It is hardly necessary to say that considering how many men were then in and about London this did not entail excessive expenditure. "Over indulgence in pleasure-giving" is a bogey frequently held up as a warning' to welfare association?. Subject to the approval of the Patriotic Leagues in New Zealand a Cliiistmaa gift will be given this year to all members of the N.Z.E.P, at a cost not exceeding one shilling per head. It will probably be a small pocket book as last year, containing special information of service to the men. • : ' w —