AN INDICTMENT OF PACKERS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 145085, 9 September 1916, Page 5

AN INDICTMENT OF PACKERS.

A PROTEST FROM THE FRONT-

The. following extract from a. If'ttM* just received by a Christchurch "sidnnt , yin *»ive an ittafi ot tlu* Wiisto thftt o<. curs "throug’n neglect ol xeeurelv packing the parcels that are sent to our men at- tho trotn. hf-onif* ol tho statements ■ire so strong as to the carelessneai sliown by the packers that, it is considered desirable to publish these extraets so as to warn those who are sending awav parcels to the members of the. Expeditionary Force ot the ahsoliue necessity of making secure all that is forwarded to the front. “Southampton. Juno •»_ lyoaviin; Loncfon at 1) a.m.. 1 duly reached Southampton. Here I was put in ehargo of New /calami stores ill sited No. ’(hey consisted of sandbags, about- 6000, leather waistcoats, a groat many gifts, a great deal oi juni, and a lot of stiulf tor tho Red Cross people. Everything had come from Egypt aeross France, nml had been landed here to be repneketl and sent buck to France again. Captain had suggested that the ..sandbags be handed over to the Salomon people, that the Now Zealand division he credited with them, and draw lo Unit, extent on the Ordnance Department in France, whenever they needed bags. This commonsense suggestion "'"s vetoed on sentimental grounds. Now Zealand bodies .should !>e protected by the work of New Zealand lingers, nml so on, and so a dozen relays of handlings and general exasperation. Lie Red Cross goods had been well parked, and arrived generally in good order. A fair proportion cl tho had h(y?n b;iclly parked and the bale:-, had hurst asunder, quadrupling -the work of handling. S-oino ol ,lio gitt stuff had been insecurely put together, with the result that many packages wore damaged, and 1 suppose many had been pilfered. A promirtion of the waistcoats had been done up iu a most, sketchy fashion ami J’m sure many hud been looted. As for the jam, it was absolutely d ble. The cases in which if was packed wore utterly inadequate. Numbers had fallen to pieces, leaving piles of oozing tins which were very d to handle. Such boxes as had not burst had yet not been strong enough to protect their contents, Which wore .sweating jam from every pore. Tho floor was like a shambles with pools of crimson jam. which adhered to everything it touched. If you had heard the language used by the unfortunate Tommies whose uniforms were ruined in : upacking and stacking it. you would realise the condition of things more clearly than from anything I can say. A consignment of condensed milk from Christchurch parked in exactly similar cases arrived intact because the .consignors bad the good sense to wire their cases up with hoop-iron before dispatebing them. This also accounts for the satisfactory slate of Rod Cross goods. Unless consignors ran do that, they arc only prolonging the war by keeping men employed in such .non-productivo work as described above who might otherwise ho in tho firing line.’’