N.Z SOLDIERS IN ENGLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 120, 21 May 1917, Page 9

N.Z SOLDIERS IN ENGLAND.

HOSPITALS AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS. A BIG UNDERTAKING. (From Capt. Maicoim. Ross. War Correspondent trith the N.Z. Forces.) SQBTHERN FRANCE, February 28. On going tDe round of the New Zealand hospitals and institutions in England connected with the war. the first thin" that strikes one is that neither trouble nor expense lias been spared to care for the sick and wounded. This j; as it should be. and the men themselves and their relatives in the Dominion will be grateful to the Government for all it has done in this respect.

Of our three hospitals, the No. 1 General at Brockenburst is the biggest, employing 20 officers. 20S other ranks, and 76 nurses. At the time of my visit it contained 1,136 patients—s2 officers and 780 other ranks. Next came the No. 2 General at Walton-on-Thames, with a staff of 16 officers, 35 other ranks, and 66 nurses. It held 1.123 patients. The No. 3 Hospital at Codford had 410 patients, and there were 49 officers and 141 other ranks in British hospitals. Quit* recently there 'has been opened the No. 2 New Zealand General Hospital, Auxiliary A., at Wevbridge.

CONVALESCENTS, j Every hospital bed in England will be required during' the strenuous fighting that everyone expects on the 'Western front during the coming spring and summer, and all the means at the command of the medical and military authorities will 'be requisitioned in getting the sick and wounded fit again. NewZealand has not been backward in these preparations. At Hornchureh there is quite a New Zealand colony, where our convalescents are being treated in the most scientific and up-to-date manner. There, any day. ycru can see practised therapeutic treatment by mechanical exercises of a most interesting kind. In a well-fitted gymnasium squads come in in military formation, dissolve promptly into individual units, and are immediately at work with many different exercises at ingenious appliances and machines to suit the different cases. One man will fix himself in a machine that has a sliding seat, and enables his muscles to get all the exercise that they would get in a racing boat. Another mounts what to all intents and purposes is a bicycle, and finds his speed registered on a dial. An expert is pattering away at a punchin" hail with the dexterity 'of a Jack Johnson. Others are skipping, or working with dumbbells. A soldier with flat foo. ■will be doing one series of exercises, a man with a stiff ankle will fix his foot in a small machine by means of which he can accomplish a 'rotary movement tnat will bring certain muscles and ligaments into action with a view to a cure in the quickest posible time. Day Inday, hour by hour, this exercising" goes on. and the results are truly wonderful. The men are housed largely in comfortable huts and a few 'double tents comfortably warmed by stoves. Additional huts arc Being erected to bouse " ? hundred convalescent's. Thi- will enable The authorities to be ready for any emergency in the near Japan.

EXT__T_rN'M_NT A_TD THE AMENITIES.

Here. 3F i n the camps and hospitals,' the entertainment and comfort of the men are one of the first .noughts of the comman !. V.M.C.A. and the War Contingent Association have done most excellent work. Concert halls, canteen, kitchens, reading-rooms, writing-room?. billiard tables are provided. 1 saw one hall in course of erection that would seat eight hundred men. There is even a bobbyroom provided "or the V.M.C-A where the mm can indulge their bent m wood-carving, basket-making, carpentering, etc. A pantomime was performed m a village hall by a Xew Zealand company. It attracted a large audience of the local residente and brought, in £00. The amenities have not been forgotten at the,e little New Zealand colonies in the Motherland. At one. plot* have *een neatly made and six thousand bulbs and a nunilier of rose, planted. The hospital and even the camp grounds will be beautiful in the coming sprin . The Homcburch Convalescent Camp a .id one oi the hospitals will be the I_st of the * V "' V Zealand institutions in England after the war i< finished. They will probably be stiil in working order a year or eighteen months after the fighting is ended. Demobilisation is not going lo be •ai easy matter. It j_ realised by those who nave given j t thought that it will take a long time.

OTHER ACTIVITIES?. London correspondents of the New Zealand have, from time to time, *nrten o; the activities of the War contingent Association, which, under »c Phairmaiu-rp of our former Governor. Lord Plunket. has done so much for Officers and men in London. To their wminenw nothing need be added. The good work goes steadily on. The nriJte hospitai.ty of the Englkh people, aiso, earns the admiration of aljf The Zealander e-necinlK- ;- i e.-pe<iail_. is alwars whored of a cordul welcome good' h T a h' h ° f the men in Ea^laDd «« _St- eno - v ' and was ivin ? ine 60rae w_, that of venerea] disease. The problem is a difficult one at any time. It becomes accentuated m var.,i mp , especially in English cues, where the methods of control" are rVanc! C \7 any with wt >at prevails in _____ . reF ' ent I^ndon ,rp °™ mJ™, ._ WJfch und «*'rabie.s who prey "Pon the unsuspecting soldier. lj t e,\ »____?■ D U pUfallC OUtcr - v fOT done7c? ' ,at M T C ' thin " W,U be «>°" u one to minimise the evil.