DEATH OF A SOLDIER

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 138, 7 December 1918, Page 7

DEATH OF A SOLDIER

A PARENT'S COMPLAINT

In the House of Representatives yesterday the Minister of Defence was asked if he had anything to say concerning the complaint made on behalf of the. soldier, Private Roy Clemens. Sir James Allen said that the man had been transferred from one hospital to another apparently for his own good. "Whether he was in fact fit to travel at the time," said the Minister, "is a medical question which 1 will not attempt to decide. I am getting reports on the matter. I may say that Mr. ] Clemens has been to see me, and he is ) concerned only in ensuring that there shall be no similar trouble in future in regard to any other case." We have received from Mr. C. H. Clemens an "open letter" regarding the death of his eon. Wo are unable to find space for ths whole of Mr. Clemens's letter, His main allegations are as follow ; — In 1915 Private Eoy Clemens left New Zealand as a member of, the Medical Corps. On 4th October, 1917, for gallantry on the field he was awarded the Military Medal. On 12th October he was gassed and sent toEngland. Later he came out on a hospital ship to New Zealand, reaching Auckland on 12th June of this year. "He, being a private," Mr. Clemens alleges, "was placed in an open ward in the Auckland Hospital annexe, but officers weie given private rooms. At the annexe his treatment was such that the attention of General Henderson had to be drawn to it. Before he (General Henderson) could do anything my wife, fighting for her boy's life, approached the Superiatendent of the Auckland Hospital, and the result "was the immediate removal of the boy from the annexe to a private room in the main building." Mr. Clemens epeakß in terms of high praise of the treatment given his son in the Auckland Hospital, and goes on to say that on 25th October Dr. Maguire stated that in order to complete the man's euro he was to be transferred to Hanmer. "On the same date," he says, "I received a telegram stating that the boy was to leave Auckland on Sunday, the 27th idem. I sent a special messenger to the Director-General of Medical Services, and made the request that I might be allowed to travel from Palmerston to Wellington in the same railway carriage as my son. The request was refused, and I was advised to apply to the As-sistant-Director of Medical Services at Auckland. Instead of doing this I approached Colonel Valintine, and permission was at once granted." On the Monday he met his son at Palmerston North and "was astounded to find he had been sent as an ordinary passenger, in an ordinary railway carriage, instead of in a hospital car or sleeping car, and that no provision had been made for him to sleep or tcT lie down. For (several months this boy had been in a room which had been kept heated, and his bed had never been without hot water bottles. Sunday, 27th October, was a cold, raw, rough, bleak day. At 6.15 p.m. he was in his bed, at 6.50 p.m. he was in a draughty railway carriage. So little control have parents over their invalid sons that my wife and daughter were only allowed on the Auckland platform as a result of one railway official contravening his instructions, and then they only got to the carriage after my son had been placed therein. Subsequent to 12fch October, 1917, the boy had walked, comparatively speaking, only a few feet at a time, yet he was taken from his warm bed and obliged to walk from the motor ambulance at * Auckland Railway Station along a cold, bleak, draughty platform. I find that when he had walked part of the way he was unable to proceed further, and was placed on an ordinary luggage platform truck and so wheeled to the carnage. When I saw him at Palmerston North I was surprised to find, in view of the circumstances, how well he had stood the trip; he was cheerful, determined to make the best of everything, but deadly tired although so small a part of his journey had been completed."

The final stages of the journey were given by Mr. Cle?:nen3 in the following terms: "At Christohurcli before the Culverden tain left there was a wait of about an hour, and during that time my son had to remain on the station premises. On arrival &t Culverden, after a 69-mile railway journey (and those who have travelled, this line know what that means) he was to a motor car and taken 24 miles to Hanmeiy' It was a bitterly cold day, and I am assured that on that day the drive even for a man in perfect health was a trying one. By the kindness of 'Colonel Makgill the boy , was transferred from Culverden to Hanmer in a motor car instead of the motor omnibus as intended and arranged by the authorities. On arrival at Hanmer he was in such a condition that, even before his uniform was removed, he was packed in hot water bottles, but he was so ill that Colonel Berneau formed the opinion that his life could not be saved. On Sunday, 3rd November, my boy died, having suffered excruciating agony. In the papers of 6th November the Defence authorities state my boy died from gas poisoning. At Hanmer I was informed he died from influenza and pneumonia. Why the disi crepancy?"

Regarding the reply made by the Minister yesterday, and reported above, Mr. Clemens has addressed another letter, to members of the House of Representatives. Mr. Clemens asserts that the attitude taken up by the Minister is an "attempt to shelve the real' question pending the adjournment of the House." The writer adds: "On 31st October I was informed urgent requests have been made to Auckland for full information, and under date 7th November the Minister repeated this assurance. The influenza epidemic "will be used as an excuse for the delay. The story is of a boy who was gassed 12th October, ■1917, was' in hospital for thirteen months, and was taken straight from his warm bed and called upon to undertake a journey which wo,nld have tried the strength of a veritable 'Sandow,' and to undertake it under circumstances as detailed in my letter. The boy died; the Minister states lie was transferred apparently for his own good." "The statement," Mr. Clemens submits, "is. cruel, and comment is needless. The request contained in my letter to you was that you would assume the responsibility for what may happen to other wounded and invalid soldiers who return to New Zealand. I implore you to refuse to allow this matter to be shelved." ;