SOLDIERS IN EGYPT

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 134, 3 December 1915, Page 8

SOLDIERS IN EGYPT

DELAYS WITH THE MAILS.

DIFFICULTIES IN LOCATING THE MEN.

Captain D. Munro, who went away with the 3rd Reinforcements and was appointed adjutant \z Egypt, was entertained by the New Zealand Club at luncheon this afternoon. There was a, very large gathering of business men. Among those present was the Bon.. James Allen, Minister oi Defence. Mr. R. H. Webb, who presided, explained that Captain Munxo was at present on furlough in New Zealand on account of ill-health. Captain Munro was accorded a warm reception when he arose to speak. He drew a very graphic word picture of the temptations of Cairo in order to show that the New Zealanders who had come back disgraced were no* wholly to blame. There was practically no morality as New Zealanders understood the word. The V.M.C.A. and the army chaplains were doing magnificent work in providing counter attractions to keep the men away from these evils. The Y.M.O.A. had provided a very fine club in the centre of Cairo, where the men could get a good cheap meal. The men very much appreciated the efforts of the organisation and the chaplains on their behalf. _ The speaker then reviewed the postal difficulties that had been experienced when the New Zealanders first went to Gallipoli. Shortly after the first landing many thousands of soldiers were sent back to Egypt, and distributed over the twenty-two or twenty-three hospitals in Alexandria or Cairo. On the hospital ships they were mixed up higgledy-piggledy with Imperial men, and when they were sent to the different hospitals the trouble with the mails began. The units were all broken up, and the difficulty in finding the names on the roll would be readily recognised. It was most difficult to keep the mails up to the men. Up to the time the men went to the front they absolutely wanted for nothing. The money from the canteen was used to supplement their rations in Egypt. When they went to the front, however, it was different, and there was only bully beef and biscuits. When a man was wounded or fell sick he was carried to a hospital, and 90 per cent, of the men reached the hospital absolutely destitute, because there was no time to collect their kits. The money now being sent forward was used to find the necessaries for the men. It was impossible for any money sent from a particular district to be distributed among the men who came from that district, because they were so scattered. "We can make no distinctions in the hospitals," said Capt. Munro. "They are all New Zealanders. (Hear, hear.) They are all doing the same job, and are all deserving of the same treatment." (Loud applause.) The gathering dispersed after the singing of the National Anthem.