CAMP FOLLOWERS

Thames Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 18357, 2 June 1917, Page 2

CAMP FOLLOWERS

A singular condition has arisen in connection with the military training camps. The necessity for providing accommodation near the camps for the wives and relatives of soldiers is creating a greit difficulty, and the military authorities are greaHy concerned over the matter. In fact an intolerable situation appear* to Have grown up, calls for the intervention of the Government. As recently described by a correspondent, both military camps are set in the midst of sparsely-S'rttled districts, and the number of houses available for the accommodation of wives and families within a radius *oi, say, two miles is very small. If the

available houses! were multiplied fiv»-

told ait once there would still be a short, age. These conditions have forced hundreds of soldiers to rent houses for their women folk, and the trouble has started there. The landlords have seen chances to make money, and their charges in many cases have been beyond all reason. A fe'V illustrations may be quoted. The occupants of a small five-roomed house have let four rooms; a stable, and a lean-to^ that apparently was intended originally to be a fowlhouse. They have got the wives of five soldiers in the place, with half a dozen children, and they #re drawing in rents something betw.een £6 and £7 a week. The conveniences are few, and the overcrowding is only tolerable because the tenants know that if they leave they may be unable to find a rw£ hear the camp at all. A three-ro>!>med cottage with a little furniture is let for £3 10s a week. The officer who is paying this rent can little afford the money, but he must pay it if he is to have his wife and children near him. The wife of a private is paying 7s 6d a week for a very small room. She has no cooking facilities in the house, and has to carry water from a creek some distance away. If as is alleged, the Government has no power to deal with the situation, and prevent soldiers from being robbed in this oarcf&cod manner by rapacious landlords, the sooner Parliament enacts a measure dealing with the matter the better. In the meantime the health authorities ! should take steps to ensure that the tenJ ants who are compelled to pay ffiese high rents shall be protected adequately in the matter of sanitation, and that the rooms leased to them shall be in a reasonable state vi repair, and suitable I {or occupation by women and children.