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35. Do you agree with Sergeant-major Blacklin that it would have been better to have divided those who attended the sick-parades and assigned each section to one medical man ? —lt would have been better, but at that time we did not have half the number. Sometimes we would get through the sick-parade in twenty minutes. I used to do some of the clerking. When I was a sergeant I had charge of the orderly-room. We had no bother and no complaints. 36. The Chairman] There was no pressure at all then ? —No, none whatever. If any serious cases came in, or any other cases that wanted to see a Medical. Officer, we used to take them straight along to see, the Medical Officer —at any time of the day. 37. Mr. Skerrett.] Was any record kept of the number of men attending sick-parade from day to day ?—Yes,-as far as I can remember. 38. The Chairman] That would be at the camp ? —Yes. 39. Mr. Skerrett.] That would show the number of men attending sick-parade, their diagnosis, and their treatment ?—Yes. There were long sheets, and they used to tell us what was the matter, and we would write it down. 40. So there ought to be a record which would give to the Commission information as to the number of men from time to time attending sick-parade. . —When I was in the orderly-room I had a record. 41. That was up to about the 15th June ?—Yes. 42. We know there were measles from almost the very beginning : is that so ? —That is correct. 43. When did the symptoms of sore throat, or septic sore throat, first appear ? —That I could not say—about its being septic. 44. As to sore throat, when did they first appear ? —We may have had one case on sick-parade in a day. 45. But the time must have arrived when your experience of sick-parade showed that the number of men was increasing ?—The number was increasing every day as the men came into camp. 46. Was there any parade at which it occurred to you that the numbers attending sick-parade, and. the character of their complaint, was significant of trouble brewing ? —No, it came on us all of a sudden. 47. The Chairman.] The men attending sick-parade- were they out ofjproportion to the numbers you would naturally expect ? —Not until tho Trenthams came into camp. 48. Mr. Skerrett.] When did they come in—on the 29th May ?—Yes. The number started to increase day by day, and we had had sixty cases like it in the hospital, and they had all been practically Trenthams. 49. So you date the significant increase of patients at sick-parade, as shortly following the arrival of the Trenthams ? —Yes. 50. Mr. Ferguson.] We had it that the Trenthams had their own sick-parade. You want to make it clear that the general sick-parade increased as well as the Trenthams' ? 51. Mr. Skerrett.] Mr. Ferguson points out that the Trenthams had their own sick-parade, because they were regarded as a regiment and as self-contained ? —Wo had those cases in the hospital. 52. But Mr. Ferguson desires to know if there was, after the admission of the Trenthams to camp, an increase in the number of men parading at your sick-parade ?- That I could not say. I know that the Trenthams had the greater part of the illness. 53. During your period—from December to June, —there must have been occasions on which the men required to have their throats treated ? —Yes. 54. By being painted ? —They were. I did not see it. I was not in the dispensary. 55. Have you any personal experience of the manner in which throats were painted ? —I was never in the dispensary during sick-parade. 56. So you do not know what brushes they had ? —No. 57. How they were sterilized, if at all ?—No. 58. How often they were changed, or any information about that ? —Nothing at all. 59. Can you give the Commission any information as to the manner in which the dispensary was conducted ?—No, I was never in the dispensary unless I went in with an order from a doctor. 60. The Chairman.] You were under the last two witnesses ? —I was under Sergeant-major Dorizac and Sergeant-major Blacklin. 61. Mr. Skerrett.] Which doctors gave lectures to the men ? —Captain Widdowson gave lectures. The others I did not know much about, because I|was in the hospital at the time. They used to give lectures, but I do not remember their names. 62. When you went, on about the 15th June, to the hospital at the racecourse, in what capacity did you go ?—1 was a quartermaster-sergeant then. 63. What were your duties at that hospital ?—To look after the equipment of the men [hb quartermaster. 64. And the equipment of the staff ? —Yes. 65. The Chairman] And of the hospital ?—lt was not my duty, but I used to do that. 86. Mr. Skerrett.] What department or section of the racecourse hospital were you concerned with . —I was concerned with all of it. 67. When you went there, where wasjthe hospital situated ? —ln the jockeys' building. That was the first place. 68. Is that where the weighing-room is ? —No, that is on this side. 69. That is adjacent to the gate, is it not ? —Yes. 70. The Chairman.] Itjjhas been called the gate hospital ? —I have heard it called the trainers' quarters. 71. Mr. Skerrett.] Were not some other quarters besides the trainers' quarters also started as a hospital at about the same time ? —No, only the trainers' quarters.
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