MILITARY TRAGEDY IN ENGLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11797, 28 July 1900, Page 11

MILITARY TRAGEDY IN ENGLAND.

SHOCKING MUDDLING.

(Fnon Or/R -Own Co-respondent.)

LONDON, June 15. All England has been thrilled with horror this week by another example of that murderous muddling which has cost so many valuable lives in South Africa, but which in this instance has in England itself produced as heavy a butcher's bill as some real battles. The facts are simple enough. A grand field day was ordered at Aldershot last Monday. About 25,000 troops were engaged, including regulars, militia, and volunteers. A severe heat . wa.ve had set in a day or two before and reached its culminating point on that day, when the shade temperature was 88deg in London—the highest ever reached so early in the summer; while in the open at Aldci'shot camp the thermometer was stated to read HOdeg. These exceptional conditions did not suggest to the authorities any special or even ordinary precautions. The men were marched all day, long distances, with no adequate head protection—nothing beyond small forage caps, and without food. Rations had been ordered, but it was nobody's business to see them delivered, and so the unfortunate soldiers went hungry. It needed little foresight to predict what would bo the effect of all this hard work and heavy marching with empty stomachs under that broiling sun. More than '100 of those hapless soldiers went down with sunstroke and heat apoplexy. Five died on the ground and 400 are still in hospital. Indeed, it is not certain even yet that all the victims have been found. Some may -have died 'under hedges and in ditciies where they dropped. Search parties with lanterns were out all the night which followed that tragic day, and picked <j up numbers of prostrate comrades. The roads are described as being "strewn with gasping soldiers." The military authorities seem to have treated the matter in their usual careless offhand way. The General told the Colonel, who informed the adjutant, who directed the quartermaster, who instructed the contractor, who did nothing! And so the unhappy men assembled and marched and dropped by the hundred. Even to-day, five days after the catastrophe, there are still nearly 50 men suffering from the effects of Monday's sun. There are, however, no cases now that arc likely to turn out fatally. A well-known-doctor in Farnborough yesterday gave a graphic description of Monday's scones in the road under his windows. '" rihc banks by the roadside were strewn with gasping, writhing men," he said. " Two men died within 20 yards of my gate, and rank after rank marched past their corpses. Waggoners and cab-drivers on the road packed their vehicles with unconscious men and took them the hospital. It was an appalling sight." A private in the Royal Eeserves writes to say that at 10 o'clock yesterday morning many men were still missing, and that one man had been brought in nearly dead.

From all corners of England, and from people of all ports and conditions, letters have poured into the office of the Daily Mail expressing indignation at the mismanagement which caused Monday's mishap at Aldershot. The writers call for vengeance on the officers who insufficiently fed the unhappy victims ot the misconducted march, and sent them, out :n that scorching sun with no protection on their heads. In spite of the present condition of public feeling, the War Office seems unable to find a rea-l guarantee against the'danger which continually threatens every man in the service. The forage cap was Lord Wolseley's invention, and at present at any rate there are no means of substituting for it an efficient guard against tho sun.. At this present momcnt_ there is not in the whole country a sufficient stock of helmets for the soldiers at Aldci-ehot. The suggestion has been made that wideawake 2;ats should be used for manoeuvres, as is the practice in America; but of these also it would be hard to find a full quota. Some of the. troops at Aidershot have helmets, but for some inscrutable reason tho general in command did not Gee I fit to use his discretion as to their being ! on Monday. j Sir Ralph Kaox was unable to tell a, Daily^ Mail, representative yesterday what tho War Office intended to do in the matter of headgear for the troops. "Until a report has been presented," ho said,"•and the matter has been carefully considered—for, of course, there will bo an inquiry,—it is impossible to say what. measures may be taken. As army costume is developing itself at present, it seems not impossible that the whole army may eventually wear slouched hats. But such a reform cannot be effected m a moment."

An army officer of high rank was more definite in his remarks. "It is entirely within the power of a general in command," ho said, "to order the troops to wear any headgear he chooses. The responsibility for sending men out on such a day in forage caps and cloth service caps can therefore be easily fixed. For I gather that many men had helmets, and were not allowed to use ,them. The fact is there are not enough officers at Aldershot at present to look after the men properly." In the House of Commons yesterday Mr W.yndham informed Mr Charming that the general officer in command of the Aldershot manoeuvres had been instructed to supply a full report with regard to the regrettVble incident which had occurred- there. -Major Rasch will suggest in the House of Commons to-day that the War Office should provide a forage cap to cover more than a third of a man's head, an emergency ration for the home service, and discourage tho drilling and manoeuvring of troops in a temperature of abnormal severity. A general inspection of troops at Aldershot was to take place today by General Sir Evelyn Wood, V.0., Ad.jutant-genoraJ. . ,

A Birmingham man who was engaged in the oxercises at Aklershot on Mori'day has written to his fatlior as follows:—"It was the most heartrending day ever known here. We had several dropping- dead with thp heat and over-exertion, and hundreds of casualties, some going raving mad and others into fits. We marched 27 miles in the- broiling sun, so you can tell how it was when the colonel gavo the order to lie down. The troops dropped down as if dead." Certainly the whole affair is one of tlie most outrageous scandals of fatal ineptitude with which even -British military, history has been disgraced. ■

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