THIS SIDE UP.

Observer, Volume XXXV, Issue 51, 28 August 1915, Page 2

THIS SIDE UP.

With Care

THE Army," said the old soldier, "treats wounded soldiers- like fragile parcels. The system is as impersonal and accurate as a high-class machine. The system is perfectly simple. It is all laid down in exact words, and it is a breach of the King's Regulations to depart from it." Civilians in New Zealand have been anxious and angry at delays and 1 inaccuracies in regard to casualty lists and progress reports of the wounded. The New Zealand civilian appears to believe that it is only necessary to drop into the first post office on Gallipoli to wire a mother or father at WhangO'inlonina. It seems impossible that wan- can disturb any mechanism or any human habit. Members of Parliament have plainly intimated that they consider New Zealand officers in Egypt fools. And the remedy ? Send civilians to look after the business side in Egypt.

Colonel Allen has truly said that a man may wear uniform and brainsat the same time. In fact, Colonel Allen is perfectly accurate when hesuggests that persons who wear uniform in Egypt, and who have charge of the system, such as it is, ARE civilians, and therein is the temporary weakness. You can't detach a man from the Stamp Licking Department in Wellington, throw him into a colonel's uniform, and expect him to have a knowledge of army routine, and army routine is the only possible routine for British: wounded, whether they come from.