SOLDIERS’ WASHING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 25 October 1941, Page 3

SOLDIERS’ WASHING

LARGE-SCALE LAUNDRY IN EGYPT | “SOAP-SI D ANNIE” AT WORK i (N.Z.E.F. Oflicinl News Service) Cairo, Oct. 2. j clays at New Zealand overseas camps, where to cope with the large require meats of thousands of troops extensive laundries work ten hours a day, handling articles ranging from handkerchiefs to Army blankets. Twice a week in the summer months and at least once a week during winter, the soldier j bc-nds in his compact bag of soiled clothing at his unit quartermaster store, and can rely on its being returned within about three days reasonably well washed and neatly ironed. The camp laundry, or "dobi" as it is more affectionately named, has become an institution with New Zealanders overseas. With Imperial forces in the Middle East it always has been. No camp could in the eyes of the British soldier be complete without its “dobi”; barracks square. For the “dobi” is a very necessary and much discussed part of the Army system. Rugged Scots from north of the Tweed will go to great lengths to compare in utmost detail, the results obtained by "dobis” in India, Palestine and Egypt. Soldiers’ comparisons are perhaps more odious than most, and are, certainly on the subject of laundry, coloured by rich and descriptive invective. British soldiers, especially “regulars,” are very careful of their appearance on leaves. A guardsman would just as soon face the world without his boots as he would in a rumpled tunic, so he looks to the camp laundry to treat his clothing with even more care than he would expect were he in civilian life. SPACE OF SEVERAL ACRES At the main New Zealand camp, the launday takes up a space of several acres. Nestling beneath a long escarpment, it is sheltered from dust-storms while obtaining full benefit of the sun from morning till evening. Here, a staff of natives of both sexes, numbering from 90 to 150 according to the number of troops in camp, are kept continuously occupied washing, drying and ironing heap after heap of soldiers’ clothing and hospital and messing equipment. The work is done under I contract, but the Army maintains a i , supervision, one sergeant being per- j , manently detailed at the laundry for j duty. In the course of one month’s normal j operations at least a quarter of a mil- j . lion articles pass through the laundry , • at this New Zealand camp, afnd a re- j • cord amount of 500,000 was one reach- | ; ed. A normal month’s requirements of ! water aggregate 400,000 gallons, while j ■ to feed the boilers takes six tons of j wood a week. Soap is swallowed up at • the rate of 200 bars a day, that is, 6000 \ bars a month, and in a four-weekly I . period no less than 120 packets of i : starch are used. Twenty boilers are ; operated in normal periods, but up to I 40 have been utilised at once, heating ; the water for the actual washing. The laundry is divided into sections, i with five native women to each, wash- , ing the clothes in large hand basins. ; After every second bag, in which there ; are approximately ten garments, the water in "the basins is changed. Each -section has its own boilerman, two men ’ scrubbing on the benches, one man j rinsing, and one overseer.

GOOD DRYING AIR One unit's washing is treated at a time. It arrives at the laundry by truck, every bag marked with the name and number of its owner, and every garment similarly marked. Accompanying his unit's washing is a clerk, whose job it is to check off with the contractor’s clerk the articles as the bags are unloaded. From then on the native women take over, while any rough garments, such as uniforms and socks or anything that 's particularly dirty are handled by the men at the benches. After rinsing the bags of washed clothes are passed on to the j linesmen of whom there are normally 12. In the clear Egyptian air it does not take long for them to dry and they are soon bundled into the ironing ' sheds, where skilled natives handle them with a dexterity that many a housewife might envy. Approximately 50 bags, representing about 500 gar- | ments, pass through the hands of each i man every day. Irons are heated on 1 ’ coke tires, a newly-heated one being at* once available when the iron in use ! has cooled off. Here again there is a j foreman in charge of every shed. j At regular intervals throughout the | year blankets are collected from every unit in the camp. Although adding j greatly to the work of the camp laundry this in no way throws it out of gear, a problem which is easily over- ' ccme in a country such as Egypt. Blanare simultaneously disinfected j with creosote, this also being a normal procedure for all hospital and messing •< equipment. Planning and constructional work at j the camp laundry was done by New i i Zealand engineers. A simple system •of culverts and soap traps allows the soiled water to flow off very quickly to an area some distance away where it soon evaporates under the hot Egyp- 1 tian sun. Man, other hygienic pre- I cautions are taken, including regular ] medical inspections of the staff, the * equipment and the surroundings. • 1 EGYPTIAN WORKERS As with most Egyptians of the poorer ] class, the laundry staff are a happy, carefree lot Earning fom almost 10s f to just over ill a week they consider , themselves quite well recompensed for ; the long hours they spend over the ; wash tubs or in the ironing sheds. j | None of them is under 16 years of ago. < Some of the women workers bring infants along and keep maternal watch over them from above the piles of soap-suds. One of the younger ; women, a piquant, bird-like maid of about 18 Egyptian summers, is known i throughout the camp as “Soap-sud 1 : Annie.” The reason for this soubri- ! quet is that every time an officer i makes an inspection she becomes so eagerly immersed in her toil in an effort to create an impression of industry that she becomes almost completely concealed by the huge pile of soapsuds which rises from her basin. Another | well known character is the manager, . Abdou Mahommed, who has been working in British camp laundries ! since he was nine years of age. Both 1 he and the clerk, Adieb Samaan, have , been with the New Zealand laundry since its inception. Both speak good English. The former picked his up as ; he went along; the latter learnt his at i a commercial college. All the workers, men and women alike, protect their skin by the liberal j use of henna, the result being that their feet and hands bear a distinctly j yellow appearance. J the main they are very honest. It i quite common j for one or them to come forward with [ a pound note or signet ring found in j the pocket of a garment being washed, while there have been many cases of complete sets of false teeth being dis- j covered and reported.