CANADIAN SOLDIER’S TREATMENT

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21802, 6 June 1936, Page 24

CANADIAN SOLDIER’S TREATMENT

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —I was horrified to read about the treatment meted out to a Canadian returned soldier who is totally disabled, -though his illness cannot be proved to be all caused through war service. I am in business in a small way, and everyone I have spoken to about it says it is very wrong for the Hospital Board to treat this man the way it has and is doing. I also protest against sending him to Tuaranga Home. He should be where he can get special treatment, such as the Chalmers Ward or any of the other wards. If the Hospital Board or the Returned Soldiers’ Association cannot do anything, well I think the public should take a hand. If some sympathetic people could get a home for the lonely man, why cannot something be dong for a digger in a strange land, especially as he is unable to work. I was very surprised at the attitude of our late president of the Returned Soldiers’ Association at the meeting of the Hospital Board, but I was not surprised at the attitude of one of our late Mayors. Well if something cannot be done for this man I will have something to say in another quarter.— Yours, etc., GUNNER 1914. June 3, 1936. [“A hospital is essentially a place for the caring and curing of people and is not a convalescent home,” said Mr H. J. Otley, chairman of the North Canterbury Hospital Board, when asked to comment on this letter. “This man makes a statement that he wants skilled medical attention; but the medical people would not send him out while they could do something for him. Although I have every sympathy with this man, I must state that he was first asked to move in December, and since then has advanced many reasons for delaying his departure. Apparently he considered himself extremely comfortable in the hospital and was loath to depart, although the small amount of medical attention which he now needs could be obtained outside. Practically all he now requires is rest and cleanliness, and although the board recently offered to look after him in an infirmary, its offer was declined.”]