THE TROOPSHIP SCANDALS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12266, 13 October 1902, Page 2

THE TROOPSHIP SCANDALS.

Tbe report of the Drayton Grange Commission, whioh we printed in onr Saturday's iißue, was a very sweeping finding. Blame wan distributed with a very heavy hand, and no doubt there was room (or blame. Much the same condition of things existed on the Drayton Grange as on the Orient. Men were hurried aboard oarrying with them the seeds of disease. The accommodation and medical servioe, whioh was sufficient for ordinary oco'aiions and whioh might reasonably have been expected to be suffioient for a body of men hardened by the toil of the campaign, proved totally inadequate foi the strain of anepidemio of sickness. Discipline broke down, the omoers did not work in harmony, and the men did what they could to aggravate rather than to mitigate the hardships of life on board a troopship. It is a sorry story, and one whioh forms a very ill-fitting epilogue to the tale of strenuous service whioh the oolonial troops rendered to the Imperial oause. The Australian report speaks in no measured terms of the officer who oommasded the troops on the Drayton Orange. " The officer commanding the troops, while possessed of a desire to do his best in the trying position, seems to have decided that the best was to accept things as they were rather than make strenuous efforts to improve them—t > endure rather than overoome. As an officer of long standing in. the Imperii

and colonial forces he cannot baesouiod on the gtoundii o! inexperienoe." This seems to us to be unfair to the officer is question. If he wai« man of I long experience in the Imperial asd colo - [ nial forces he wag probably better able to gangs the situation than hit critics. He probably recognised quite as dearly as the; do that his men had got out of hand and that his ofSoers were not doing what they should have done to assist him. Bnt we venture to think that he probably was folly justified in his deoisioh to aocapt things as they were. He no doubt felt that to make strenuous efforts to improve them would probably be the very best way to make confusion worse ooafounded, There can be little doubt that most of I the returning troopers were oompletely I demoralised. The colonials had not

acquired the habit of discipline whioh has become neoond nature with the regulat foroei. On the voyage out the excitement and novelty of the whole business would help thorn to bear with equanimity any hardthip that they may have encountered. Nor were they troubled with sioknesa or defeotive pro- | visioning. In the field the preienoe of

the Imperial troops would encourage tham to bearlthe trials of the campaign with fortitude and even with good humor. There is not wanting evidenoe, however, that even in the field the colonials had something of the oharaoter of the boomerang and unless very oarefully treated would recoil on the person who handled them. But when once the war was ofer we regret to think that there can be little doubt that in too many caiea all restraint was thrown to the winds. We imagine that a body of men such as those who created the disgraceful disturbances at Cape Town and Durban would be not too easy to manage. To attempt to hector them would have led to something like a

mutiny. Instead of blame it is just possible that tlie officers in charge ate deserving of sympathy. It was necessary, however, to find a scapegoat, and the commissioners found one ready to their hand.