VOLUNTEERS AND TYPHOID.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 837, 8 June 1910, Page 6

VOLUNTEERS AND TYPHOID.

THE CLAIMS FOR COMPENSATION. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) New Plymouth, June 7. The "Daily News," on Friday, pub« lished ail article dealing with the refusal of the Defence Department to recognise any liability in regard to claims made by local volunteers for compensation for loss of wages and expense of medical treatment incurred owing to their having contracted typhoid fever during the manoeuvres' at Johnsonviile, near Wellington, on the occasion of I/jrd Kitchener's visit. It was very, clearly shown, as a result of inquiries amongst medical men and those present at tlie. manoeuvres that typhoid must have been contracted there, and it was alleged that the Defence Department was. culpable. The matter was brought binder the notice of Liciitrnant-Colonel Bauchop, officer commanding the. district, .and he 'informed a Dominion- reporter that "the men in question had drunk from a fetid stream in the vicinity of the encampment, in defiance of explicit orders that the only' water ..to.,be. ~drunk- -by. the men "while on manoeuvres "was that obtained from the camp water supply and carried in water bottles." Under the circumstances the men had no claim against the | Department. The rule with .regard to water was published in the brigade orders, and duly circulated in camp. Diligent inquiry by a "News" reporter to-day failed to. discover a single officer in. New i Plymouth who was. cognisant of this brigade order. Certainly no copy of it was given to the officer -commanding, the .Taranaki' Battalion. Volunteers indignantly deny that the stream was fetid. ' It -was a clear running creek, with no'suggestion of the microbes which the waters were proved to contain."