COMFORT FOR THE SOLDIER

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 105, 5 May 1937, Page 13

COMFORT FOR THE SOLDIER

Hot Water And Wireless

“ ae a word signifying exterior ugliness and interior lack of comfort has for long been cur rent in the language. At last the Army Council has made up its mind to remove tlie reproach that the sol dier is accommodated in unattractive conditions, says the London Observer. The best feature of the new type of barracks, some of which are to be built nlmoot at once, is the provision of s club or sitting-room connected to each pair of dormitories for about twentyfour men. For the first time in tin history of the Army the soldier is to be provided with a real living room adjacent to but apart from his sleeping quarters and dining room. Steel wardrobes for each man, central heating, constant hot wnter,, a plug for a wireless receiver in each living room, together with n. really good arrangement of kitchens and dining rooms will provide a degree of comfort not yet experienced in any barracks. The soldier of fifty years ago would be astonished at the degree of comfort to be obtained even in the presentday barracks, which in their turn arc now' regarded as out-of-date and a de terrent to recruiting. Barrack life has always lagged some what behind home life, but at la*jt nn attempt is to be made to give the soldier something rather better than he can get in his own home. We are still, however, far from the ideal set forth in Kipling’s “Army of a Dream/* dn which he visualised a separate room for each man. i Until towards the end of the eighteenth century soldiers in England were usually quartered on the populations of the towns they had to garrison. Bar-

racks for the Foot Guards had been built m IG6O, and the Royal Barracks in Dublin were built in 1700. The early regulations concerning barrack construction and maintenance show that conditions were unbelievably bad, according to modern ideas. Overcrowding was general and married quarters were usually provided by the simple expedient of putting a blanket screen round one quarter of the barrack room. Wellington was the first reformer, and ho insisted on single iron bedsteads for every man instead of wooden berths, and a definite number of cubic feet of space per man. In the old days the men had to cook their own food, and when kitchens were introduced—a much-derided novel tv—strict rules were made that the soldier was to use the kitchen, and not do hi* cooking anywhere else. The Crimean War, which drew attention to bo many abuses in the Army, was followed by a Commission to inauire into barracks. This Commission found that tlie annual peace-time mortality in the army was nearly double that of the civilian male of the corresponding age. The recommendations of this Commission were drastic, and were followed, with the result that the peace-time death rate in the Army dropped to something like half that of the civilian male. The barracks at present iu use, though some of them of considerable age, give little cause for complaint as to healthiness. It is the appreciation of the fact that healthines of body can be increased by happiness of mind which underlies the the design of the new “ Standhurst” type of barrocks*