OUR SICK & WOUNDED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1941, Page 5

OUR SICK & WOUNDED

TRANSMISSION OF REPORTS FROM OVERSEAS MINISTER ON INEVITABLE LIMITATIONS. EVERYTHING POSSIBLE BEING DONE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) "Everything possible is being done to obtain exact information about sick and wounded New Zealand soldiers on active service overseas,” said the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones, last night. "It has to be realised, however, that war conditions create abnormal difficulties, and sometimes keen efforts to secure particulars are frustrated. "Requests have been made to me by relatives, next-of-kin and various organisations interested in the welfare of our soldiers that the Government should arrange for the issue at regular short intervals of reports showing the progress toward recovery of each soldier concerned. It would be very satisfying indeed if such information could be obtained and distributed, but inquiry discloses the fact that to collect hospital particulars about every soldier patient overseas would thrdw an inordinate amount of work on the hospital staffs —who are already heavily overworked. “The position is different as regards serious cases. Information about these is cabled to New Zealand as quickly as possible by the Headquarters of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Egypt, and the advice is immediately passed on by Base Records to the soldier’s next-of-kin. Such is the practice in respect of every case in which the patient is suffering from a major disability, as well as in every case classified as seriously or dangerously ill. Further than that, immediately a patient is removed from the seriously ill or dangerously ill list, Base Records is advised by cable, and again the advice is forthwith conveyed to relatives. “In all other cases complete arrangements exist by which the men themselves may dispatch advice by airmail letter-cards to their relatives. Under prevailing conditions it would, as I have already indicated, be unreasonable to ask overworked staffs of the New Zealand military hospitals in Egypt to furnish detailed progress reports about every patient undergoing treatment for sickness or wounds. Many of the ailments give no cause for anxiety at all. and where relatives receive no official information they can rest assured that there is no cause for alarm. “It will be appreciated, no doubt, that in the recent actions in Greece and Crete circumstances existed whereby reports of casualties in the early stages could not be amplified at once. It is quite possible that a similar difficulty will arise in future, but it is expected that, as soon as practicable, the nature of the wound sustained in each case with any other information available (such as admission to hospital) will be communicated to us. "There are, however, several other factors that may intervene (such as cable and air and surface mail delays ■ —not to mention losses by enemy action) and which may prevent amplified reports reaching us and these should be given full consideration by organisations pressing for more detailed information. “The Government realises to the full and greatly sympathises with the desires of anxious relatives of sick and wounded soldiers,” conclded Mr Jones, “and, while wishing it were possible to supply the fullest details, regrets that we must accept, with such fortitude as we may possess, the limitations that active service imposes on hospital and records staffs serving in theatres of war,”