ORGANISE AND WIN

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2511, 12 July 1915, Page 3

ORGANISE AND WIN

WAR LESSONS FOR NEW ZEALAND (To tho Editor.) Sir,—New Zealand is arriving at conclusions. Slowly, by the evidence of her own orrors, facts and commonplaces are now seen. Quietly carrying on tho business of -a meat and butter factory as a . dot in the Pacific Ocean satisfied, Isecure, contented, wo hivvo gono along our way. . Horrified, by unjustifiable attack upon a small heroic nation, we woke up, and, with a : lavish, hand out of our plenty, poured forth men and money. Those, in whom courage leaped and burned, sprang to tho call of duty. Patiently'trained themselves in arms, tho, nation, pleased and satisfied at this virile turn of things, sang- "All is Well."

Later began to sense the importance at competing with tho world in arms; but even yet she only glimpses it. Because affairs', ha-ve ' gone a little wrong wo hasten to lis tho: blame on somebody. Must' do, for it is usual, right and: propei\ What has gone wrong? Everyone will -howl it out: "The camp's gono wrong, disgraceful!" We. will say this, from our own experience, "It is a. surpassing miracle that any of tho men we sent are now alive." Tliey have not only fought like demons against Turks. The camp was here in Palmerston. _ The local doctors promised the authorities' that they would help in ; tho -■ military work without pay, examining tho men. and' doing duty at tha camp. Splendidly they did the work without a ivord of praise under tho most :horrible conditions. They found: their services exploited. Men, instead of: being' examined in other ' centres, where.it'cost money,' were sent up hero in forty. and' fifty batches. : . Examined at the show ground, where the very elements for examining were lacking. Pens and paper; test ; tj'pes, „ colour Vision, tapes aind measures, .height rods. Just we: heavy . iron ~ weighing-thing for sacks, a cold and dirty floor, hundreds of, men, a sergeant and. some, tipsy ad-, vocates for service. Mixed, among tho finest lot of splendid men -all of us eyer saw.

Some of us gavo all our private ivorlc and had our waiting .rooms crammed for weeks, with mud and cigarette ends. ' ,

Then, the camp work. No one to help, although we ' asked for; orderlies, time - and, again. Bandages, ' wound dressings, lying in the surgical'tent, for days and' days. No medical inspection of latrines or food or oamp. Sometimes a field ambulance would come ■in and the work-be properly done a day or two. Then off again. , ,' . Finally we' drew up a paper stating' things, and kept it in case something should happen. There was no finer site .on earth for. men' than Awapunij mind ,you. 'Protests to the . CommandSilt' were useless. . They . were made vigorously enough. He could not, wire as he would, 'get hold of. any man to do the work. with ■ knowledge. Wo' heard him try the Wellington end. Wo refused to do the work under conditions such as these.' To anyone who had previous war experience and' the laying out of camps the conditions were jppalling,- past, belief.; ■ , , , Now. things have .happened, .and the public blame ) the camp . and those responsible., ;, The,-public is both right and v/'roug. i; The camp is really but a symptom of the national disease. .What is.wronn is this: public iapathy., ; The nation has,.,fifty . positive .qualities—in courage, ..splendid physique, 'virility. Those i things which make men, men.; But she has fifty negative qualities/ It is'a law ,of Nature that what, you 'accomplish* you must - first- conceive, imagine..; Imagination is ■ the .to-morrow which, the next day. makes success. ..It is a matter of. concentratcd thought. . Wo iiever imagined wo were going to send 20,000 men! . We never -thought we' should' need. a, standing camp for years. > We'had| iiever .carried-, our minds beyond,: the fact that our short training'camps hhd been successful, therefore longer ones would, be., The hition.'. fretted at' Imperial officers,: They wero not' necessary to ■ teach ■ the' things experience gives. • -When the occasion came the nation,. rushed to, find itself, and she succeeded in a rush. Tliero "is nothing ..very, odd about .it, really. : •

.-What is the good of .'making 'scapegoats? :' The fifty'negative qualities show unlooked-for weeds in the garden of our,;inarihood. ; They constitute tho apathy, from which we suffer. To weed these out 'Costs;nothing;-it" will. make, •pounds. ■ "i ~ ■ ■

- Organise. -That's 1 , what's the matter, lack'of It..''We have,got tho'men to do this work if - the nation will but face tlie .ueed/'-'^These,-men; will only .come out from'their, present satisfjong-niches when■ thes pulled out,' by' a "general uational consent-. .

> The , nation i cahnot see, at prpsent, the longer this-'goes on, this , fighting and the camps and clothes and arms,' the worse becomes 'our state.' We rushed- tho' : 'wasted' our v splendid efforts at tho first. Then stimulated artificially the public spirit, by : , those idiotic splendid-resulting , sales. The drum is nearly, burst. .' ■ ~ , We never could- do • more than send 20,000 men. .. Wo never could supply and clothe and ,arm .the necessary drafts to make up losses, allow, for illness and tho hundred -unexpected happenings of a great campaigu. For. that is what this country is engaged in. Fitting is much more-expensive than it was, more wasteful. This" is not 'merely an affair of .nations fighting for a settlement. It is destiny oreeping along, to find.the soft spqts in the' world. It is the hard offering hard work, horrible, .useless 1 as that work _ may.be, to virile nations that are nations, in a great crisis.-. Those nations who ,do not. take, that workmust' die, go - under. That is the. lesson we" are, learning. _ : * . After all, most of our sins, are sins of omission. We have not done much wrong, tat ,we Jiave omitted to do a lot of: things ■ -right. Chief of ' which, though, we be' burned: at the state for saying it, has. hden the fault of the higher medioal authorities, aye, and of the lesser ones. Those • men who. fcik'e the kudos of » uniform in peace time, and, when the oall ; comes, find they cannot give their time to duty. These men cannot be blamed; tliey have to live when they come home again. Nevertheless, that is what knocked the bottom out of the medical service bar- • t'ol.. ' ' ' Meanwhile the lists of dead and wounded grow, are growing. Men and /more men, guns and shells, and clothes' and boots are wanted, what is to be done? This: To set fan example to 'fflio Empire. Organise New Zealand as a. fighting, working nation, for the purposes of war. Take what the nation wants in fighting men and worker,s. Turn, the attention of the people to the things there are to do, not what wo've done. History will see to that.: Stop this harmful waste of energy, sappingout and helpless people; the patriotic humbug, sales and auctions. Many of us are worth most , who are worth least, in money. Organise the clothes factories and the boots. _ Train what you want before you want it. Get prepared, get ready, this tiling is -going to last. •

New Zealand has to find herself, in preparation for tho worst, to-get and give the best. Find herself' or drop out, depending on the Homeland buying things, just as wo did before tho war, from nations who have purchased our reliance oh ourselves.

It is not }>ood enough'. There are those of us who . say this waste must' stop. 'We will have the very best end with the means at hand. 'Hie means aro here, alivo and waiting for a mail. Organise thorn, Wini—l am, «tc,, :