THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1900.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 50, 25 September 1900, Page 2

THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1900.

F tho war in South Africa has "one nothing el?c it has provider! tewßpapers and jmg&zincs with •bundanee of matt-rial, more or ess interring and truthful, reading the conduct of the campaign and the treat merit of those /ho Buffered in it. M.uty of the ties of -neglect are uo donbt true, .at against this must bo sot the astness of the tvaitspovt required o bring up comforts, on a railway aready congested, and the great variety of conditions under wMcli

'n* work was carried out. The vv ' j >yal Army Medical Corps is a i iiiu'iy li ainej body of men, but fiipy are only Iminan after all, and i tie strain of night and day nursing won Id, in many instances, prove too much for them. To snpply deficiencies, patients who were thoroughly convalescent wore employed aa assuUuts. Aiany of them did very well, but it id conceivable thai some wore not as attentive to patients as they might ha\© been, and complaints of one part of the organisation reflect on the whole. When an army is on the march necessities are iirat thought of, comforts are procurable onlj-in small quantities as the transport is available. Tho vadt army of officials baa to bo alort at every point, for a mistake J or two will cause a ehriok uf indignation throughout the whole country. To many of th° writers this wiiol« r ale condemnation of the War Office <,?v a a little notoriety, and to achieve thio end they will hrtiitats at niching. { A'j, tin, they might not bo at aii compete.it to jud^o what aie io'A hardships, and their v<>ieo rrn^iifc be raised in indignation whoie the supposed sufferer might not !)g making a complaint. Borne hHle time age Vr Burdett-CouUs created a grorfc Ron^ition by his "' disclosures " ot abase exi-ting \t lrioomfontein. Wo li.ue met ~>i<>n from th« h>>pita!d uiuiitionod by ilii^ witer, 'uij none of thorn have had any serious complaints to make. We also met, in Melbourne, a veteran war correspondent, Major Reay, of the Herald, and he was in tho companj of Mr Burdett-Contts when both made ang! inspection of the hospitals. Major Eeay saw nothing to complain of. Another authority, Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, the eminent Melbourne surgeon, told us that he considered tho hospital arrangements were wonderfully well carried out. In the face of all this conflicting evidonce, one is at a loss to know which side to believe. Tho best testimony %is that of patients who hav&| recovered and have been invalided home. Every war is accompanied , 'by those frightful scourges of fever and dysentery, and the fact that both from these diseases and from wounds the mortality has been comparatively ' light, is tho best testimony with which the War Office can confront its calumniators.