ANOTHER ARMY SCANDAL

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 5008, 4 July 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

ANOTHER ARMY SCANDAL

DISEASE-LADEN BLANKETS STOLEN (From. Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON May 23. A serious outbreak of typhoid on the training ship Conway last week has been traced to a number of blankets bo nr hi ' for the ship from a dealer in discarded | army anti it appears to be a fact I that these infected blankets form only ; a very 'small part of a huge quantity which have been surreptitiously shipped from South Africa after having been condemned for destruction on account of their having been used in hospitals where enteric patients were cared for. Tons of these blankets must have been sent Homo, for it is said bales of them have boon found in uearlv 200 towns in the provinces, and since Use Conway outbreak no loss than 30,030 of them have been seized at a warehouse in Whitechapel. In many cases the blankets had already passed into use in public institutions, and thousands have got. into private hands. This may account for the numerous cases of typhoid which have occurred all over the country of late, the origin of -which has puzzled medical officers of health. How stores condemned to destruction in South Africa came to. be working mischief in the Old Country is a matter - which the War OffiiSc will be required to investigate most carefully, but it is patent that a very grave scandal must be disclosed, and one that will involve responsible officials, i It can bo no mere accident that tons of | disease-laden blankets ordered to be destroyed came to bo shipped to England and probably to the colonies also. Some service officials must be guilty -of nefarious practises, and the public demands then; discovery and punishment. According to the army regulations, every discarded blanket (even if not suspect). I must be torn m quarters, and they are

then sold as rags. Apparently, however [having taken this precaution, the War ; Office authorities do not consider that (it is even necessary to even rine© the i blankets. On the other hand, the Ad|miralty go so far as to wash the army 'transport blankets prior 'to their being | put up for auction. The regulations of the War Office, however, are rendered futile by the ingenuity of the enterprising alien. There are in the Bast F>nd numerous warehouses kept by foreign iera, where may be seen thousands of army blankets sold as "rags," which have been joined together again, and so made complete blankets by the deft fingers of alien women for a few pence a» score. But the dealer merely purchases these blankets from the authorities in order to cover far larger purchases of army blankets which be has been able to procure in some mysterious way from South Africa. These blankets have not even been subject to the tearing process a fact which makes it quite clear that there are rogues in office who want charing out badly. A little judicious tanging would seem to be necessary if rhe offenders cam be traced. But if we can rely on War Office precedent, the guilty parties are in small danger of meeting with their just dues.