HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 48, 29 November 1900, Page 5

HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT.

The ranks of the Royal Army Medical Service have a very large percentage of Catholics, it being numerously officered from Ireland. In illustration of the prominence of Catholics in this department (says the London Tablet) may be cited the name of Colonel Stevenson, the Principal Medical Officer at Bloemfontein that head-centre of the current hospital agitation ; while two other rXL" I^??? 1 T™ & &ream Prominencet m Prominence are those of Colonel Gallwey and Colonel Clery. They appear in a brief addresaed to

the Times by General Sir Redvers Buller from Paardekop. It happens that Mr. Lees Knowles, in a letter written some time ago to show that complaints against the Army Medical Service were of old standing, quoted the following ' utterance of a person in high position ' : ' 1 am given to understand that the senior officers Royal Army Medical Corps, with few exceptions, are so taken up with their own importance as combatant officers, and their rank as colonels and majors, that they leave much to be desired.' This quotation gave Sir Redvers Buller his opportunity, and ha took it. ' Was ever a more shameful accusation more shamelessly published ?' he asks, and he goes on to say : ' There were then but three Colonels Royal Army Medial Corps in Natal, outside LadyBmith. Colonel Gallwey, Principal Medical Officer, has procured for the Natal Field Force the most complete hospital system ever provided for an army in the field. He is, I believe, the first P.M.O. who has ever provided nurses in the hospitals receiving wounded on the battlefield. His organising power and untiring energy, with assistance from home, added 4700 improvised beds to our hospital accommodation, and provided nurses, doctora, and attendants, some of them (let Mr. Knowles note) from Johannesburg. Colonel Clery was in charge of No. 4 General Hospital of .V2O beds, which was expanded into Mooi River Hospital of 920 beds ; it was justly referred to by the writer of the articles in the Times of Natal as a model of what a hospital should be.' Whatever may be the defects of the Army medical system, and whatever may have been its shortcomings during this campaign, these words of General Buller's will suffice to clear the air of any unworthy imputations cast by loose and vague gossip on two honorable Catholic names. And not on theirs only. ' I could say as much,' adds Sir RedverP, ' for the next senior officers R.A.M.C., but Colonels are mentioned, and I challenge Mr. Lees Knowles and his correspondent of high position to say which Colonels they refer to, and either prove their accusations or withdraw their slander.' Mr. Lees Knowles, it is agreeable to add, thoroughly accepted the alternative put to him. He has withdrawn utterly the foolish sentence which seemed to impute to Colonels Gallwey and Clery a levity of motive unworthy of their high profession.