The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1916. HOSPITAL SHIPS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLI, Issue 9257, 26 January 1916, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1916. HOSPITAL SHIPS

It gave us as much pleasure to publish the appreciation of the Maheno’e services by the Chief Sea Transport Officer of the Mediterranean as it did to this Defence Minister to supply the same to the newspapers. The appreciation was very full and very handsomely expressed. As the Defence Minister pointed out, it “showed how much the services of the staff were appreciated by the officer most competent to judge.” We cannot, of course, tell whether the Minister is under the impression that this was the only appreciation or , the first which has reached this country. But it may seem to casual observers as it he ware replying to some disparagement somewhere. Now, we are not aware that there has been any disparagement of the Maheno and ‘ her staff. On the contrary, we have heard nothing but unqualified praise of all concerned from the captain and P.M.O. downwards. At all events, we have always had and expressed such appreciation of the efforts of the staff, and of the equipment of the ship in general, that we have been able very readily to welcome the publication of the official appreciation that has come now from the highest quarter. There has. of course, been criticism about the Mahenfj’s movements, hut that is another story. The appreciation felt by the. whole community of the ship and the ship’s company has never been disturbed. We beg to compliment the staff on the handsome official recognition which they have received of their services. And m doing so, it gives ua much pleasure to point out that the official recognition is but the final and proper endorsement of all the B°ed things thought and said about the services of the Maheno. The Maheno was a new departure for Maorilaud. It seems to have reached at least as far forward as anything of the same kind which has been seen during the war, as witness the tar-reaohmg words of the Chief Sea Transport Officer: “1 know of no qpore efficient or harmoniously worked ship in the whole of the sea hospital transport service.” The words place the Maheno in the vejry first rank of the service. This, for the first time of trying against competitors of great and varied experience, is, a superlative test of merit. Once more we congratulate all concerned. The other story, the story of the appearance of the Maheno in these waters, does not concern her staff or the people who equipped her, for the fane service of which the above is so fine an appreciation. . The vessel being in these waters, where she is not wanted, wo are reading the lament over her absence from the waters in which she is urgently required. The author of the lamentation is the same Chief Sea Transport Officer in the Mediterranean. His lament is'open and plaintive. He writes; “ My dear Colonel Collins, 1 cannot tell you how deeply I regret having to part with the Maheno. Words fail the Chief Transport Officer, the highest authority in the Mediterranean, to express the regret he feels at seeing this most useful, most efficient vessel, the vessel so well manned by a ship’s company' which never hesitates to work might and main for the comfort, welfare, and cur© of the victims of war committed to their care. •He cannot tell how deeply he regrets this curious turn which takes the ship away from the waters in which she is doing magnificent service of the kind she was so elaborately and thoughtfully fitted up to do, to waters where she is of hut little more use for her special beneficial purpose than any vessol of the common garden variety of transport. It has been explained that there were cot cases. But these were comparatively few, and it would have been hatter in any case had they been sent to hospitals nearer than' New Zealand. There was no valid reason that wo know for taking this valuable and expensive ship away from the right work to put her on to the wrong work. She has had a new coat of paint, it is true, since her arrival- But is there no paint in the whole region' of the Mediterranean? Is corn the only thing that is to be found in Egypt? And as for recommissioning the ship, it is hut a scrape of the pen, and do pens cease to scrape in the Mediterranean or in Home waters? Bnt why pursue the subject? The Government are in possession of the Chief Transport Officer's lament, Jn which he foils to express the depth of his regret at losing the Maheno, just wken he most wanted her. That ought to be sufficient warning to them that our hospital ships must remain in the sphere of most usefulness from this out, no matter what influence is brought to bear to bring thorn hack to waste time,-. We have, or shortly will have, two hospital ships qfear the firing line. We trust they will both be kept between that line and the nearest hospitals, so that they can do to the best advantage the work they were equipped especially to

do. There were rumours that the Marama is returning here. We trust the Government will veto any such project. They must remember the inability of the Chief Transport Officer of' the Mediterranean to express the depth of his regret at having to part with the Maheno. There is another matter on which there has been criticism, of course quite apart from the efficiency of the hoq.dtal ship and the good work of the staff. Miss Isitt, a lady journalist of conspicuous ability—her name has been openly mentioned in Christchurch, and therefore we feel we can go farther than we did a few days ago in referring to her—has openly stated, as we have pointed out, that the nurses who travelled to the front in the Maheno were not at all fortunate in the treatment they received. She got. her facts, we presume, from some of the nurses concerned. She reflected in no way on the people in authority on board the Maheno, cither for lack of courtesy or want of food or its poor quality. The statement was that they had no cabins, and that there was no stewardess to attend to them. The Hon. Doctor Collins has expressed 'his great surprise to the Defence Minister at these “alleged” complaints of the passenger nurses, appearing in our columns of the 14th of the current month. Wo presume he 'was surprised that any of the passengers should have talkgd in.that way to Miss Isitt, or to someone who communicated with that lady. The P.M.0., in his explanation to the Minister admits that there were no cabins for these ladies and no stewardesses. As to the first point, it must be admitted that the ship could not have offered cabins. The bulk of her accommodation had been turned into wards for sick and wounded men. She was not a passenger ship. Those who were given passage in her probably quite understood that circumstance. At any rate they must bq ready to admit that no other accommodation could have been found for them on hoard. in these wards, moreover, there was probably far more air and comfort than in cabins. On that point, therefore, the complaints made to Miss Isitt must bo ' dismissed. As to the want of stewardesses—that is a very different thingThere was no privacy, says tjjo complaint. Precisely, it is the strongest reason why stewardesses ought to have been provided. Orderlies were told eff /to do work, hut in the matter of nurses, the orderlies ought to bo stewardesses. It is hardly necessary to elaborate that point, we hope. Moreover, all the other complaints, so far as we understand what has been published, are included in that one of the absence of stewardesses. By all means, let any nurses who may make voyages in these ships continue to have the attendance of the orderlies at table and so forth as described by the P.M.O. But let them have stewardesses for their wards. It is simply wrong to ask them to do the work themselves, and as wrong to send orderlies. If this point is settled, as it ought to be in the case of the next hatch of nurses travelling in a hospital ship, there will probably be no complaints. If it is not so settled there will he a public scandal. Officers have orderlies for their quarters. Nurses rank as officers, and the only orderlies they can have are stewardesses. Can anybody pretend that it is difficult to get them?