WOUNDED SOLDIERS COMPLAIN

Food Does Not Please Them

WE are sure the general public have every sympathy with the gallant lads who have been wounded and maimed in the defence of our country, and this has been manifested in Newport and Monmouthshire by efforts to ameliorate their lot while patients or convalescents in the various hospitals. From time to time however, complaints have been made as to their treatment in certain institutions, and efforts have been made to remove friction and better the conditions. We are glad to say that, generally speaking, our wounded soldiers have been well fed and cared for, and it was with no little surprise that the Editor of the South Wales Argus received a letter in which the following complaints were made from "Some of the Boys, Aux. Military Hospital, Griffithstown":

"The way we are fed in this hospital is absolutely disgraceful, some of the food being unfit for human consumption. we never get hot dinners on Sundays - always cold. The diet is never changed, and if you are not in dining hall exactly on time you have to almost beg for your food. I am quite sure the public are unaware of the treatment they boys are receiving here; otherwise it would soon be rectified. I might mention that some of us have been here three months, and have never had anything different to bread, margarine, and jam for tea, and a very limited amount of this, everything being weighed to the ounce."

An investigation

With a view to verifying this complaint, a representative of the South Wales Argus got into conversation with a number of wounded soldiers, who, generally, declared that the charges were true. It should be mentioned that the Griffithstown Auxiliary Military Hospital is the old Workhouse, the master of which has been acting a quartermaster to the patients. These are all convalescent cases, and the majority of them are youths and young men, naturally and happily blessed with hearty appetites, which, pour representative was assured with some warmth, were never really appeased. The major complaint was as to the shortgae of the bread ration. This should be 11oz per day, per man, but apparently never more than three half-rounds (or slices), more often two, are issued. The bacon was condemned on all hands as being deficient both in quality and quantity - a microscopic ration at time being varied by no ration at all!

"Good Water Spoiled"

On occasions it had been sent back as unfit to eat. There was also a general complaint as to the tea - one indignant Tommy describing it as "good water spoiled!"There was a consensus of opinion that the evening meal was entirely insufficient for any man. One man, who had been a patient for five months, said that the diet of bred, margarine, and jam had never varied since his admission. only about a spoonful of jam was placed on each man's plate, and even with the greatest economy it was impossible to make the margarine sufficient to cover the meagre quantity of bread issued. The men until recently had soup issued "once a week", but it was such wretched stuff that it had been discontinued, as there was no demand for it. The principal complaint against the dinner was that it was scarcely sufficient, and there was sameness about it - the same dish being served up each day - and a shortage of vegetables.