CONSUMPTIVE SOLDIERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 November 1918, Page 6

CONSUMPTIVE SOLDIERS.

STATEMENT BY SJ3 JAMES ALLEN. (from our own Correspondent ), Wellington, Uct. 31. Referring to-day to me statement that. Juul ueen |)ublislied regarding tlie provision for consumptive soldiers at lloturua and elsewhere, ihe Minister for JJefenco iSir James Alien) said that lie had already asked r'or a itill reeport an tlie subject. It appeared that some misunderstanding existed. Tlie statement, for example, that TOO or SOO men had returned to New Zealand suffering from tuberculosis was likely to create a false impression, sinco the fact was that most of tlie men sent back owing to tubercular trouble improved so much on the voyage that, they could lie discharged when they arrived iiere. It was not fair to sav that the Defence Department had delayed making provision for tiio consumptive soldiers. In addition to the Te Waikato sanitorium there were the Cashmere Hills sanitorium, in Canterbury, and the Pleasant Valley sanitorium ; n Otago. The Cashmere Hills sanitorium was an excellent place. A contract had been let for the proposed sanitorium near Waipukurau, in Hawke's Bay, and the building was to be finished in six months. The Minister adde'd that lie was considering the provision of an institution where tubercular returned soldiers could be held for observation before being passed into sanitoria. His own opinion was that the men whose cases were severe ouffht to lie placed in annexes to the general hospitals in their own districts, in order that they might be near their relatives.