ADVICE OF CASUALTIES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 150, 26 June 1915, Page 2

ADVICE OF CASUALTIES

A PANNEVIRKK CASE. (BT IELBORiPH.-— PBBSS ASSOCIATION.) DANNEVIRKE, 25th June. Intimation of the death to-day of Private A. F, Patterson, of the Canterbury Battalion, disclosed an unsatisfac* tory condition of affairs in regard to the notification of casualties. (■ ( ■ On 11th June his father, a solicitor in Dannevirke. .received a telegram from the Minister of Defence stating that Private Patterson •was wounded. Mr. Patterson then cabled for (information as to the whereabouts of hip son and the nature of lib injuries. On 20th June ho received a telegram signed by the Secretary of the G.P.0.. Wellington, that Private Patterson was progressing favourably. This morning he received another telegram advising him of the death of Private Patterson on 30Ui May of wounds received in action. Private Patterson was actually dead on 11th June, when information waa first seat through to his parents that he was wounded. [There is nothing extraordinary in the abpvo case. Men may be progressing favourably after they have been wounded and die soon afterwards, and In advising their noxt-of-kin several messages may be sent, stating, first, when they are wounded; next, how they are progressing j and, later, when they die, re cover, or are invalided. That is the usual sequence, but it ifi quite possible, owing to the difficulty of despatching messages from the front to the base in Egypt, that the later advices may be received before the earlier ones. Hence tho Apparent confusion, but thi» cannot be avoided unless lengthy delays are imposed in advising relatives, which is not desirable Under the circumstances, it is rather surprising that so few cases of the Dannevirke description have yet been reported.]