NEW ZEALAND FORCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15900, 24 April 1915, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND FORCES.

GENERAL GODLEY'S REPORT. DISPOSAL OF THE GIFTS. fllT TELEGRAPH.— PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Wellington, Friday. The Minister for Defence has received lengthy communications from Major-Gen-eral Godley, commanding the New Zealand expeditionary force in Egypt. Letters written in the iftrly part of March cover a great deal of ground. " We have," says General Godley, " put in a very great deal of strenuous training lately, and I think the division has now reached a stage when only bullets can make it much better. The men are very hard and fit and well. The officers have undoubtedly taken to their job, and they realise their responsibility. I shall be happy to take the field "with the force as it stands."

General Godley recommends the establishment of a small convalescent hospital at Alexandria for the men who are turned out of the hospital and are not quite ready to return to camp. The Minister said that he had authorised the establishment of such an institution.

" I am very glad to hear that no sympathy has been given in New Zealand to men who refused to be inoculated hero," says General Godley; "they deserve none. If the people of New Zealand want to u'ive us anything more, let them give us field filter water-carts. We can do with another 25; we do not want any more motor-ambulances. " The dentists continue to do good work, and the details that the general gives show that tney have been exceptionally busy. The question of clothing is described" by the general as a most difficult one. The uniforms that the men took with them are wearing rapidly, and the High Commissioner has advised him that the Army Council has undertaken to see that the men will be re-clothed before very long.

Disposal of Gift Articles. Many useful gifts, consisting principally of tobacco, reading matter, and small parcels of woollen underwear are coming to hand. These gifts, the general reports, are carefully distributed to the troops, by whom they are much appreciated. " I have," he adds, " instituted a complete system of recording the receipt and issue of all sifts, and the receipts of the representatives of the various units are invariably obtained for gifts issued for distribution. We are, however, faced with one difficulty in that Hie men frequently barter gift tobacco, etc., for other articles with camp traders, by whom they are retailed, thus giving rise to the suspicion that gifts are being sold instead of being distributed. I am considering the possibility of stopping this traffic altogether, but you will realise how difficult it is to prevent it." The general gives a brief, though interesting, account of some of the training through which the division has been put. The divisional brigade staff carried out three days' exercise, under army staff corps. "Valuable work, was done, which cannot fail to be of great service to us," he says. 1 "The week before last we held what may be considered to be our first divisional manoeuvres against a skeleton and flagged enemy. Although many mistakes were made, it wa.<. felt that a good day's work J was accomplished."

Inquiry Regarding the Tobacco. A considerable portion of General Godley's letter deals with the allegation regarding the sale at the canteen of tobacco which had been sent to the troops for free distribution. A Court of Inquiry was held, and the Court reported, after taking evidence, that it was of opinion that all gift tobacco, except 33 tins, was issued to the units. Those 33 tins were returned from Kubri, subsequently, and sent back into store. A total of 1940 tins was received for free issue, reports Lieutenant Acland, of the Army Service Corps, and 1907 were disposed of to the Wellington Infantry Regiment, 858 to the Utago Infantry Regiment, 852 to the Mounted Field Ambulance, 166 to the Army Service Corps, 11 to the New Zealand Engineers, 7 to headquarters, 6 to the Kubri detachment, and 7 to the railway transport. The remaining 33 are in store. As to the gift tobacco, Lieutenant Higginson, of the Army Service corps certified and it was distributed as follows and that lie holds receipts from the various units for the number of tins standing against their names:—Bripade headquarters, 26 tine; Auckland Battalion 796; Canterbury Battalion, 769; Field Ambulance, 73; Signal Section, 17; Army Service Corps, 9; total, 1690. In his evidence Mapr Hall said that men brought gift tobacco to the canteen to bo exchanged for different brands, but ho gave orders that it was not to re changed. Lieut.-Col. Hamilton said that lie received 8120 tins of gift tobacco; 4815 tins were distributed in camp and 3275 to the troops at Ismailia. The receipts showed an excess of 322 tins, which was accounted for by the fact that some of the cases contained more than 700 tins, which was what they were estimated to contain by counting the tins in one case. Other evidence went to show that a soldier exchanged a tin of gift tobacco for another tin and that the original tin was subsequently sold. Two camp traders gave evidence that thev purchased such tobacco from soldiers and in one case it was resold. Major Hall said that he instructed the storeman at the canteen not to purchase tobacco from soldiers.