THE TRENTHAM REPORT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2552, 28 August 1915, Page 4

THE TRENTHAM REPORT

The report of tho Royal Commission on the sickness at Trcntham Camp, a summary of which wo pub : Hell thin bwViilftjjff is u n'afcslU'lag' .documcak inasmuch as it showfi fcM

Trentham is a suitable site for a cjvmp; that there is no reason to believe the site to be infected 'with the organism of cercbro-spinal meningitis; ancl that, with certain improvements,- the camp will be suitable for the accommodation of from 4000 to 4500 men. Tho report also finds that, having regard to all the circumstances, the officers entrusted with the military side of the camp administration worked unsparingly and 'with devotion' to their tasks. Certain of the improvements recommended the Government have already put in hand; others have, we understand, been considered and put on one side on the score of the expense—notably tho lining of the huts. The Government will bo well advised to carry out the : recommendations of tho Commission in their entirety, as we are told the Commonwealth Government is ~doing after its camp inquiry. If this is done, all anxiety as to the Healthiness of Trentham should be removed from the breasts of. oven the most nervous of parents,' and the Dominion put in possession of a really model camp. The Trentham epidemic did notarise from any inherent defects in the camp site. The report of the Commission shows quite clearly where the bkme lies. Tho Medical'Ser vice has been inefficient, and insufficient attention has been paid to many of the rules of camp sanitation. On -July Bwe were constrained to point out plainly in these columns that Trentham was overcrowded, and among other things that the huts were defective in construction, and gave far too little air and floor ; space for 'the men they were .to accommodate. With what reception did our criticism meet? The Minister from his place in Parliament described our article as "very disturbing to the public mind," and said he wished the writer had asked him for some information before writing. Now, after tho most exhaustive investigation, the Royal Commission, ■ with one exception, confirms everything we then said. The one exception is that wc recommended the shifting of the camp to new ground. The Commission says it is quite safe to allow tho camp to remain continuously on the-ono site,; provided permanent roads aro formed, complete surface drainage arid a sewage sys-. tem installed, ' and the number of men introduced limited. With these findings wo fully agree. Under them Trentham becomes not a camp but a permanent military cantonment. The upshot of this expensive, but necessary, inquiry is the discovery that the trouble at Trentham has arisen mainly from the non-observance'of ■ the simple rules laid down in the War Office Manual of. Military Hygiene. This little volume is issued "by command of the Army Council for the guidance of all concerned." It is not rare or difficult to _procuref but' has been freely sold in the shops at Trentham Camp itself. In its pages is contained the accumulated experience in camp sanitation of generations of campaigning. Every rule set down is the result of. suffering and privation in tho .past. Par too little attention was paid these 'sanitary precepts. The Commission in its report affixes no blame to individuals for what has occurred. It would not, it is stated, be fair to do so without first formulating charges and thori calling upon the persons charged to answer them. The Minister ...of, Defence,, however,- . camiot pass the matter' over in this way. It is his business to place the responsibility for the original shortcomings on tho proper shoulders, even though as the result of the complaints made these shortcomings have now been_ remedied. As Mr., Massey stated in Parliament at the beginning of July, the matter must bo probed to, the very bottom.