BATHING PARADE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 9999, 17 June 1918, Page 2

BATHING PARADE

NEXT TO GODLINESS

HOW MEN OF BRITISH ARMY CLEAN.

There -is at least one parade no soldier in the British Array would ever dream of seeking to escape—the bathing parade after a tour in the trenches. The weekly bath is a weekly treat and lie would, if it came to a matter of choice, almost sooner “cut” pay parade than bathing parade. It is for him a matter of sheer physical comfort, for the Army that provides him with the bath a matter of urgent hygiene.

The hygienic arrangements of the British Army have been one of the marvels of tlio war.

In the South African War there wore over 400,000 admissions to hospital on account of disease, as compared with 21,000 on account of wounds. Deaths from disease were exactly twice as numerous as deaths from wounds. It is recognised to-day that a great deal of this disease is preventive by sanitary and hygienic measures. Many of those measures, _ such as inoculation and isolation of infectious cases, are the pro. Tinoo of the medical service, but there is much that can be and is done by the regimental officer in enforcing simple rules of health and sanitation. THE BOON OF CLEAN CLOTHES.

Bathing parade moans something more than a hot bath ; it means also clean underclothing. Anyone who has spent a week in an average trench knows what a boon is conferred by clean clothes, for he is a thrice-lucky man_ who in those days escapes the attentions of the pediculus vestimenti, or, not to mince words, the body louse. The louse .is hated not alone for his ov/n _ sake, but for what he brings with him, for he is a potent carrier of disease. Typhus and trenchfever o*r© two of the legacies he can learve behind him. Ono can readily sympathise with the n.c.o. who, at a smoking concert held at the back of the front, sang the following lines to a once popular air:—

-there are acres of mud in my trench. There is mud in my pouches and pack, There a mud in my hair, there's mud everywhere. There's layers of mud down my back. But I'd take all the mud that’s in Franco To be rid of the unwanted truest. Who has dug himself in and is raiding my skin Prom his little gay heme in my vest. Bathing parade is an institution whose principal aim is the extermination of “the unwelcome guest.” Tinder the auspices of the local Field Ambulance, every billeting area has its divisional bath-houses. These are sometimes installed in existing buildings, sometimes an specially structures of wood and corrugated iron. As soon as a battalion reaches its billets, arrangements are made for bathing the men. There is accommodation of from ten to twenty men at a time. There appears In battalion orders an announcement somewhat as follows: “ ‘A’ Company will parade by platoons at the Divisional Baths from 2 to 6 p.m. to-day.” THE PROCEDURE. Before the hour wa s struck—for 2.0 in military parlance means 1.65—bi0. 1 platoon, in fatigue dross, carrying towels, is lined up outside the building and numbered. Jibs. Ito 12 are marched into the undressing room. Two minutes later twelve men are standing there, mother-naked. their used undor-oloth.ing piled into a basnet, their caps, uniforms, and hoots neatly stacked on honchos. They proceed with thoir towels into tho bathroom, which has a zinc floor, sloping down to a gutter on on© side. Twelve largo zinc basins and twelve tablets of soap await them. For something less than ten minutes twelve naked and happy children disport themselves with soap and hot water, of which a constant supply is maintained from a boiler, erected outside tho building, and tended by permanent bath orderlies. Meanwhile the benches of clothes have been transferred to the dressingroom, and Nos. 13 to 24 have taken possession of the undressing-room. A whistle goes. Nos. 1 to 12 vacate the bath-room and enter tho dressingroom. whore they find clean and newly fumigated sets of underclothing and thoir own boots and uniforms. (In extreme cases even new uniforms are provided). Nos. 13 to 24 invade tho bath-room, and are replaced in the undressing-room by Nos. 25 to 86. And so it goes on until at tho rate of about 60 men an hour tho whole company has attained that blessed state that comes next to godliness. When ihe clothes-basket is full, dts contents are deposited at the fumigator in a. neighbouring field, and tho inhabitants thereof submitted to a temperature in which they find it inconvenient to live. From tho fumigator tho clothes are transferred to the divisional laundry, and, having been cleaned, are subsequently returned to tho bath-house, if iu good condition, for distribution to future bathers. Torn or damaged clothing is dispatched to tho rear to bo patched or mended or put to whatever useful purpose it may.

It scorns a simple process, but it Is one of the thousand and one simple largo scale processes of Army life which demand a first-rate oragnisation to keep in running. When it is remembered that some hundreds of thousands of men daily receive fumigated, cleaned, and mended shirts, pants, and vests in- exchange for verminous ones, it will he realised much care and system must he expended on the one little side of keeping men clean.