MEDICAL CARE OF SOLDIERS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25243, 23 July 1947, Page 8

MEDICAL CARE OF SOLDIERS

TRIBUTE TO WORK IN NEW ZEALAND .

A glowing tribute to New Zealand’s organisation of the care of sick and disabled service personnel was paid by Field-Marshal Viscount Montgomery, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, in a speech at Burwood Hospital yesterday afternoon. Lord Montgomery had just completed a tour of soldiers’ wards m the plastic unit, and was being entertained at afternoon tea.

“You are doing very, very good work at this hospital,” said Lord Montgomery. “To see men of the Bth Army being looked after here is very good. I think you look after your damaged fighting men in New Zealand very well —better, I think, than is the case in England. I have been learning a lot on my tour, and I am taking many suggestions back with me to England. In New Zealand I have seen your disabled soldiers’ hospitals and the places where you teach them to earn a living. All of it is very good. I doubt if it could be bettered.”

The presentation of a pair of blankets was made to Lord. Montgomery by the medical officer in charge of the plastic unit (Dr. W. M. Manchester), and the matron (Mrs K. Compigne), on behalf of the hospital staff. Dr. Manchester said the presentation was made as a gesture of appreciation of Lord Montgomery’s services to the Allied cause. However, the staff’s spirits had been dashed somewhat yesterday morning, when they had read a newspaper report of the presentation elsewhere to Lord Montgomery of a pair of pink blankets, and also “a set of pink underwear.” Dr. Manchester added (after calling attention to the colour of the blankets which Mrs Compigne was holding) that Lord Montgomery would' have to excuse them for not includin’ in the gift a set of matched underwear. “Green for Ireland,” commented Lord Montgomery. Expressing thanks for the gift, which he was assured had been woven in Canterbury, he recalled that he had lost all his household goods through bombing during the war. and added that the blankets would be very acceptable in the cold English winter. He had received great kindness in New Zealand, and had been forced to buy several additional cases to carry all his gifts. Indicating the blankets with a characteristic gesture to his aide-de-camp (Major A. G. Burnaby-Atkins), Lord Montgomery said: “Andrew, put them in the car.