H.—l9b.

156

|E. Y.EATES.

201. Mr. Salmond.] You said that in a climate like this the camp would have to be shifted every three months? —Yes; it is a moist climate. 202. Are you prepared to state definitely thai these huts were erected on the site of the old latrines? —I have pointed out where the huts are, and there were old latrines there. 203. That is your statement?— Yes, and I abide by if. 204. Were they in the same place in your time? —No; 1 never saw any tents upon the site where there were the old latrines. 205. Did you hear Dr. de Lautaiir say that the tents were also on the sites of the old latrines?—No; he said he thought they were in that direction. 206. The Chairman.] What 1 understand was that where this photograph shows certain thing's there were latrines, anil there are huts there now. He asked an officer and his son, and they gave him a general indication that latrines were in that direction ?—r-1 may say this: that so far as the latrines go there was nothing to show him that the tents were over latrines, because there were no marks. I may also say this: that the old latrine-sites were not marked, but you could see them and judge them by the flies and smell. 207. In the isolation camp?— Yes; it was away from the Ambulance about, a, hundred yards or more, and they had the latrine opened, and I objected to it, and it was closed, It was away towards the horse-lines. These old latrines were never marked to show that there had been latrines there : therefore 1 do not see how any one could say definitely whether the tents were over the old latrines in the camp or not. lam only speaking of the one set of latrines Ido know of. 208. Mr. Salmond.] Did you regularly attend the sick-parade?—l was on sick-parade every morning I was in camp. As a matter of fact, I was the first one, to turn out to the sick-parade. 209. You were the first there?— Yes. 210. Were the arrangements for that parade the same as you have seen elsewhere? —I never saw such arrangements in my life before. 211. In what way did they differ? —In that there was no proper regulation regarding the sick men seeing the Medical Officers. As a rule I saw eighty to a hundred and twenty men. On a wet morning they had to stand in the open. They came in batches of from five to twenty. There were too many Medical Officers there, and only two orderlies to take down the instructions and fill up the sick-reports. There was great confusion, and a man was very liable to be taken by three different, medical men, and diagnosed either in the same way or differently. 212. Would it. not be his own fault?—No; you cannot expect all the men to have military experience : some of them had never been in a camp before. 213. Do you think (he men were exposed to any undue hardships or risks by having to wait outside? —There was hardship in this sense: there were many young fellows, and older men too, who came in with new drafts, and when they came in they did not know what to do. They were tired out, and they turned in in a tent, They never had been accustomed to it, and in the morning they were run down. I can suggest a way in which that hardship could have been obviated. 214. Was there any place where the men could take shelter or rest? —No; they had to stand about outside the marques. 215. However ill they were?— Yes. 216. And would measles patients be mixed up with the others? —Yes. 217. How long would the sick-parade last?— Well, it lasted from 6.30 in the morning till 8 o'clock. 218. This was summer-time?— Yes. 1 was there by 5.45 a.m. It lasted as long as there were men to be examined—it all depended on the number of men. 219. You never saw arrangements like that anywhere else : what arrangements did they have in other camps which you have been at? —I have always had a separate tent with one orderly, and perhaps a couple of dressers, and the men would come in in an orderly way, and be examined properly one by one. Some of them 1 would see again the next day; but under the Trentham arrangements I might see a man one day and the next day he would be examined bj' another Medical Officer. Thus he might get a remarkable mixture of medicines according to the different idiosyncrasies of the doctors. 220. Have you seen these men having their throats brushed with the same brush? —I have seen it tried, but I have stopped it. 1 have seen the brush used on one man and taken up and put into another man's throat, and I have objected strongly to the practice. That was part of my duty to go to the dressing-tent aud see what was done. 221. It was the orderlies who did that? —Yes, unless it was a very special case of malignant tonsilitis or something of that sort, when the doctor would do it. 222. Do you think that when there is an epidemic of measles or other disease some form of inspection should take place in. the tents, and not on the parade?—l think there should be a medical inspection not only of the men in the tents, but there should be an officer present at every parade, and also to examine new drafts coming into the camp, so as to watch each man individually. You should have a preparatory camp apart from the drilling-camp to take in the new troops, and, as it were, nurse them up to a state of camp life before; bringing them in. 223. Is not that rather impracticable?—No, sir. 224. The Chairman.] Are not these men examined immediately before they come into camp? —No, sir; a man might be examined to-day, and he might not go into camp for five weeks. 225. But I think that, at that time they went in quickly after their examination?—l do not know that that was so, but I do know that at, that time men came into camp who had been examined a considerable time before. 226. That, would suggest that there should be a further examination? —I think that a new draft of men should not be allowed to go into camp, or go to the front, without a medical inspection being made first.