A TRANSPORT SCANDAL.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11340, 1 August 1902, Page 4

A TRANSPORT SCANDAL.

The scop© of the Royal Commission which is to enquire into the conduct of the war is limited to matters occurring up to the occupation of Pretoria. This will, unfortunately, prevent it taking cognisance of the scandalous condition of the transport steamer Drayton Grange, whioh has just arrived at Albany with returned troops. The vessel, which is of some 6500 tons burthen, is tihe one in which the Premier and the North Island battalion of the Tenth Contingent travelled to South Africa. She carried then between 500 and 600 mien, and an equal number of horses, and the occupants were thought to be quite as closely packed aa desirable. But she has now brought back no 2'ewer than two thousand officers and men of the Oommionwealth Horse, together with a few detaiCs froon irregular corps ajid others. This is claimed to be a record in transport worklb is quite possible —it is certainly to be hoped—that it ia; record or no record 1 , it is a shameful scandal. .Since leaving Durban the troops have been ravaged by measles, followed by pneumonia and pleurav, and though we are not told of any deaths having occurred, a hundred men, half of whom are in a serious condition, are reported to be in hospital. "The ship," says the cable message, "was re.ckles._y " overcrowded, and the men were berthed " under most insanitary conditions," the outbreak of disease being the direct result. Soldiers have often {o "rough it when on active service, but it is disgraceful that when they are no longer needed they should be compelled to endure such discomforts and hardships as have fallen to the lot' of the homeward-bound Australians on the Drayton Grange. They deserved better treatment than to be shipped back as if they were so many "returned empties." Tlie matter will not, of course, rest as it is. Sir John Forrest will, no doubt, have something to say about it. One could some times wish, fort'hesake of Australia, whose. Defence Minister he is, that the redoubtaiSle West Australian was a trifle more suave and diplomatic in his manner, but no one will blame bim if on the present occa_'icn he speaks his mind, with all his native vigour and emphasis, as to the unpardonable indifference to the. comfort, aad even the lives, of Australian soldiers.