MILITARY CAMPS

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9076, 22 June 1915, Page 3

MILITARY CAMPS

To the Editor “N.Z. Times.” Sir,—Continuing my letter which appeared in your issue of Tuesday:— Now, let us sc© what authorities of the present day have to say—Lieut.Colonel 11. H. Firth, ‘'Military Hygiene. 1908,” whoso work is one of the textbooks, writes, p. 9(34; ‘‘An abandoned camp site should never be utilised except under circumstances of great necessity. Old camp grounds must bo considered as more or less perinea ted with the organic soakage incidental to human occupation. Soil contamination is certain, and there is a strong probability of its specific infection.” ‘‘Here again apparent trifles have far-reaching effects, for, probably, nowhere does obedience to the laws of hygiene bear greater reward than in camp, and, conversely, nowhere is their violation visited with greater disaster.” Another still more recent textbook is that by Captain Blake Knox, R.A.M.C., “Military Sanitation land Hygiene, 1911.” After condemning old camp sites, ho writes; “Change the position of camps as frequently as possible. Scatter divisions, regiments, and even individual tents, when at a distance from the enemy.” In the R.A.M.C. Training Manual issued by command of the Imperial Army Council, all the foregoing principles are embodied. The following words also appear: “In a properly arranged camp, the intervals should always be sufficient to render the shifting of a tent to a new site possible.” These are the opinions of great authorities based on experience and scientific training; they are also the orders', nay, the commands, of the Imperial Army Council. They are also the foundations on which the success of an army in the field depends and are the A B C of a medical officer’s training. So important is the matter that it is laid down in the Training IManual (sec-, tion 143, p. 95): “The duties of a medical officer in charge of a unit are particularly onerous and responsible, because ho is the first link in the chain of protective measures Which safeguard the health of the division. While ho must use every effort to prevent undue depletion of the fighting force, he must also remember that his paramount duty is. to prevent an outbreak of infective disease, which, originating in his unit, may spread to the whole division.” To the untrained eye Trentham is the beau ideal of a camp, Where under the careful supervision of the officers in charge, everything looks clean and cheerful. But in the light of the above principles the intelligent observer, will see, that this is a surface appearance only. Looking more closely he will notice that the orders laid down for the safety of the soldier • in' camp and for the protection of: his health have been violated—because: —

(1) The camp has been pitched on a site previously camped on and fouled by the territorial forces, and also by rifle clubs for many years before them. Thus the ground was not clean. * (2) The camp was pitched, compressed, narrow streets, and the tents so close that the pegs touch or overlap, and this too without any “exigencies of the moment”; the enemy is far distant, and there is ample room —further, this compression has not been for one night only or for two nights, hut has lasted- for many months. Thus the camp has been overcrowded. A simple ■ calculation will show that with, eight men to a tent the camp has been pitched to contain tho men at the rate of some 600 to the acre instead of 330, which is the maximum in the Imperial service. (Firth’s “Hygiene;” p. 268). (3) The men have been sleeping on the bare ground, which has not been regularly aired and cleaned. , ■ (4) The tents have not been struck and aired regularly every four days, or even weekly, or fortnightly. (5) Tho tents have hot been moved at short intervals to fresh sites—the men of incoming reinforcements sleeping on tho same soil fouled ..by their predecessors. ■ (6) The whole camp lias remained on the same site, and has not, as it should have been several times, moved on to clean ground.—l am, etc., HARRY A. DE LAUTOUR, V.D. (p.), Lieutenant-Colonel (retired).