WANTED-A HUSTLER

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2602, 26 October 1915, Page 4

WANTED-A HUSTLER

The British Army Manual informs_ the- soldier that "Personal cleanliness is of the highest , importance," and tells him that if possible lie should have a daily bath of some description. Tho same authority states in regard to semi-permanent and standing camps that "unless facilities of some kind arc provided for obtaining a decent bath" the desirable standard of personal cleanliness cannot be expected of the soldier: Twelve montns after the establishment of Trentham camp, Sur-geon-General Henderson, of the R.A.M.C., who was specially imported from England to place our Army Medical Service on a better footing and to advise as to the sanitation of our training camps, found that proper facilities for baths had not been provided at Trentham. Indeed, the facilities that did exist were a shrieking farce—half a dozen shower baths for thousands of men. General Henderson on September 23 last said: "Hot and cold showers were briny provided, and would be ready at tho end of the week. This was a very urgent matter." This had been "a very urgent matter" for nearly twelve months, and yet practically nothing had been done. In April last so pressing was the need and so negligent were those in authority that the Dunedin, Patriotic Fund Committee, in the hope no doubt of expediting matters, voted the sum of £200 to provide hot water shower baths, which the Defence 1 authorities should have provided long before. But even when the money" was thus donated from an outside source the shower baths had not been erected when General Henderson arrived here nearly five months later. Now wo believe some fifty shower baths have been at last provided, but they are quite insufficient for the needs of tho <1000 odd men in camp at Trentham. Day after day the officers in the course of their duty have been lecturing the men on tho importance of personal hygiene, with particular reference to the necessity for frequent baths, and the men have marvelled at the absurdity of a situation which debars them from carrying out the excellent advice so given. What the position is at Tauherinikau and Rangiotu in respect of bathing facilities we do not know. Probably tho facilities there are just as inadequate as they are at Trentham. The Minister of Defence, when questioned in Parliament about a month ago on the subject of the baths at Trentham, rapped back an answer to Dr. Newman, who asked why the work was not done. "Why are lots of things not done 1 Apparently because there were more urgent things to do!" This after Trentham camp had been established .twelve months, and in face of the fact that a few days earlier General Henderson had said : "This was a very urgent matter." It is very plain that a live, pushfjil man is wanted in the Defence Department—someone who will hustle things along. The delay in the erection of the camp hospital is another example of the lack of driving force in tho Department. The military training at the camps leaves no room for complaint, and we do not wish to be thought to be criticising' the military side of the Defence Department; but there is something radically wrong when it takes twelve months to provide fifty shower baths—an urgent necessity according to the highest authority we have in the country. Moreover, a still greater number of shower baths is required if that standard of cleanliness which is desirable L to be secured, and if the methods of the past are to continue we may expect another twelvo months' delay in providing these additional baths.