EPISTLE FROM EGYPT

NZ Truth, Issue 507, 6 March 1915, Page 5

EPISTLE FROM EGYPT

>, «_. _ iORE CONTINGENTERS' CANTEEN COMPLAINTS | SELLING PRESENTS TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS t : \ a "Cash Collected Not Antied-op" iff V ' 'Of \- }The Perpetually of the White Pill — Bogging m like Britishers

Since "Truth" first exposed the mismanagement of the canteens on the troopships before, they left New Zealand with the Expeditionary Forces, the charges then made have been repeatedly proven up to the hilt. ' Statements made by troopers and published In ;these columns were flrst ignored, next ,lnd 'Eimntly denied, then a show was made of removing the cause of complaint and a new system of canteefa control was introduced which, it wA5..... claimed, would remove all ground for growling and satisfy every one. And so the troopships sailed away and many parents who had parte<_Wwlth their boys, had their doubts al_layed, and tested confident that- the GOVEbNME^T WOULD DO THE RIGHT THING by those brave lads who had volun- .. teere'd to go tp the help of the Motherland m the hour of her need. This feeling of confidence fell to be all too soon and too surely shattered. Letters began to arrive from every port 6f call, and finally from the permanent training camp m Egypt, impeaching the Government Defence Department of God's Own with penurlousness and worse. '"Truth" has published, letter after letter, which emphatically asserted that "presents" sent by friends 1 were' being sold to those for whom they" were intended as freo gifts. In spito'-of the deflnlteness of this and other! charges, the Government mouthpiecOtt denied their accuracy. "Truth," In order to settle the vexed question once 'for all,' suggested that a small eommlfosion bo set up to make investigation,' examine witnesses and documents, and report its 'finding to the public press. Its suggestion, of dounte, has not been adopted by the GoVeftiment. What have they N to nt*de? ; Hereunder we publish another letter— this time from a Taranaki trooper, bearing on the same complaints. Surely it is time something was done to sift things to tho bottom, and have the grievances remedied,' or the base .coin, if base coin thero be, nailed ,to tho counter? "Truth" has no desire to Injure recruiting or m any. way hamper the Defence Department m its laudable efforts ty> help tho Motherland m tho present titanic sttuggfo, but, at the Same time, lt is anxious to see "Our Brave Boys" treated properly, and legitimate causes, of gnimbling removed. "Truth's" latest ,k Eplstlo from Elpypt" ij» as follows:— '■■ ~>iJ^eQJplp m New Zealand would haturfljlll be pleased if we told them that wp; the New Zealand Expeditionary Force troops, were being treated well, and also If wo stated that, up till now, we had been, treated well. : -Doubtless they think .wo have,, but let | ttto -tell you ? frankly and truthfully that wo have not. On tho contrary, we havo- been dealt with very unfairly Iri many ways. I will endeavor to give ? you some positivo facts, the truth of which, I stand to and defy (contradiction. First, lot me deal with tho way m which the military authorities gavo out and distributed goods Ya,nd food, etc., given to the troops by the people of New Zealand. A big case '.CQntaJplng goods was scon m the can'.t'efn. .on board the ship, addressed something Hfco this:— "'To the Stratford boys of the New • Zealand Expeditionary force', from the people of Strat- ' ford. This caso was opened ln the canteen ' 'and the goods enclosed sold to anyone 'on board who cared to pay for same. What do tho people of Stratford think .of,, that? . Let mo assure them that what I state is true. That was the way m which the Stratford boyß received their presents. . Cases similarly addressed to Eltham, Hawera, and Now Plymouth boys were taken into the ships' canteens and similarly sold. Taranaki people gave these goods to the boys and tho military authorities had the ttudaclty to actually SELt, THEM TO THEIR PROPER * ' , ' OWNERS. ' Thfere is another glaring case:— ■^rhllst stationed at Awapuni, New 'iZeahirid, about thirty pairs of boots 'fcrrlved, thero properly addressed to the Eltham boyß from the Eltham people. You will probably say: "They got ■ them, of course." But let me tell you .they didn't. The case was opened and a;fow distributed, thon they wero recalled and have not been seen since: \hat is, not by the Eltham boys at any rate. What do tho Eltham people ''think of that? We read ln the Wellington papers before leaving New Zealand, where sonic £1000 odd had been collected by .tho peoplo of Taranaki for distribution among the Taranaki troops, personally m cash- Such a sum. would, roughly, amount to £3 or £4 apiece, and would havo boen very much appreciated Indeed, more especially In view of tho 1 high cost of living here, nnd the fact that wo can draw only two shillings per day of our pay. This cash present HAS NOT BEEN DISTRIBUTED, and,' considering our other experience, wo fear that we will' r^cver see It. Of course wo'vo received some llttlo presents. Hero Is what we have actually got, up to date:— l pair sockH, \\_ cakes chocolate, 1 packet dates, r, cakes l iayjSWcic'" tobacco, l;' small box of wbofloh/rilatchcs (safety), half a writing )uid, i envelopes and half a pencil: . You will remember the trouble tn '.Wellington over tho canteen scandal. Well, one thing we got wns, lemonade (big bottle) reduced from Is per bottle to Bdi Now, here In Egypt, we are buying the same lemonade (the remnant.of .that mado In New Zee und not Hold on the Journey) In our dry can-Heetrs-'for 1 piastre per large bottle- - twoponoo halfpenny. I wonder why ll wns so dear before we landed here? You «er we're told by printed order that any prolll was to be devoted l<» the regimental fund. They must have made, v big prolll, but where has It gone? We loam that there was v lot of. presentation trult on board for the troops. We didn't get any, but we ••Vmrld ''buy from the canteen AT AN KXTOItTIoNATI-. PRICK. Between Albany ami Colombo, one day. exactly 44 cases of apples were •.brown overboard, rotten' Wouldn't £hey have been appreciated had ihey

been given out to us before the apples had a chance to get rotten? This is only one instance, and there were others. Oh, yes, there has been a fair amount of sickness m the camp since we've been here, as also happened on the ship. You would see bunches of men parading at the doctor's tent or cabin, with various ailments or complaints, and what puzzled tis was this: No matter what was wrong with vs — sore feet, sore? back, .headache, influenza, seasickness, constipation, dyspepsia, or whatever the case might be — we never failed to get that , NEVER-TO-BE-FORGOTTEN "WHITE PILL." Sometimes also a small liquid drink, but always the same drink when we did get one. In Zeitoun here this still goes on. A ' week or two ago one of the soldiers was lying m his tent for three days, practically neglected, seemingly the authorities were unable to diagnose the case. .Later on it was pronounced as smallpox, the victim being immediately removed and his tent mates' clothing fumigated and destroyed. Another case, a private m the Wellington Infantry was 111 In his tent for three days. The authorities eventually discovering that it was a case of pneumonia. This private has since succumbed. You see there's neglect or incompetency somewhere. It seems rather hard to us that we have to pay out of our own pocket for the- mending of our boots, more especially when taking into consideration tho fact that we have to do miles and miles of rough marching day after day. This m conjunction with the high cbst of living here and also In view of the 2s per day paid to us m wages, is hard to bear. Of course I could go on quoting case after case, instance after instance, but I leave the above facts to your consideration. It will give you an Idea that we are not being treated as our fathers and mothers would have wished. Don't think that we never have our happy moments, we do, and very happy ones too. Outside of the things I've mentioned and a few more, we're having an excellent time, hard work of course we must expect. We get It and buck into it with a will and are only too glad to serve our country, and are anxiously awaiting our turn to go to the front. It is midwinter here and it is a beautiful climate, beautiful warm sunny, days and snappy mornings and nights. Quite a contrast to our New Zealand winters, but of course we've, to wait till summer comes. I might state that we will be very disappointed if we do not see France before that. The camp here is . just as full of humors about our departure for the front, or for tho Suez Canal, or going to fight the Turks at Jerusalem or whatever it may be, as !t was while w© wer6 m camp m Awapuni, — Good luck.