214 
THE SANITARY CARE OE THE SOLDIER. 
here ? Every possible religious denomination is going in for baths for 
the soldiers; you can get a Church of England bath, or a Wesleyan 
bath, or a Unitarian bath, you can get all kinds of religious baths, but 
no State bath. But the State is bound to wash the soldier. A devoted 
lady, devoting all her time to the soldier, said to me the other day, 
“ We do so much want a bath !" She suffered very much from the 
odour of the soldiers in going amongst them. Now, we must do away 
with all this bathless condition. My own view is that we cannot pro¬ 
vide little trumpery bath-rooms in very small groups of barrack-rooms, 
but just as the Municipality are building public baths there should be 
in every large barracks a separate bathing-house in which men could 
have plunge baths and wash and bathe themselves thoroughly. I would 
ask any gentleman going round the town here to go to the public bath 
buildings opposite the Town Hall, and I maintain (I do not care what 
his views are about baths) that he will be surprised at the municipal 
baths of Woolwich, they are splendid; the Municipality of Woolwich 
are laying out £40,000 to wash the Woolwich people, and you would 
be surprised—I maintain whatever your dreams are they will be ex¬ 
ceeded. There are two magnificent plunge baths into which you 
might put, I will not say an ironclad, but a very large vessel, and 
there are exceedingly good first and second-class baths which pro¬ 
vide everything that is wanted. If a soldier is in the army where 
he cannot express an opinion and has no vote, it is necessary for his 
officers to put forward this matter thoroughly for him, and to say that 
it is affecting the recruiting of the army; that better men will not 
come to us because of these things. If a man outside in civil life can 
go to the municipal baths, he will look upon the army when he comes 
to it as below a healthy standard. You must advance as the civil 
population are advancing. Look at Plumstead. You see house after 
house by hundreds built for workmen who a generation ago were liv¬ 
ing in single rooms, as 80 families of our own live in Woolwich. We 
have to-day 80 families living in 80 rooms, each family having but a 
single room. Then, I say, the baths have been thoroughly appreciated, 
and the result of our inspections on the Saturday is very marked. In 
one unit particularly I was charmed with the cleanliness of the men. 
I think I told an officer here about it, that their feet were so clean that 
they could have been used as ornaments for a lady's table. You come 
and say to me, “ Oh, but they will not care for them ; they will not 
use them." But they will do much if only we teach them to do it. 
I would say a word here on married quarters. I have said already 
that we have 80 families here living in 80 rooms, each family having 
but a single room. The new regulations from the Quartermaster- 
General's Department, about married quarters, seem very reasonable and 
very just. Quite recently I had the pleasure of going round the newly- 
built married quarters, and there is in them a great improvement in 
space and comfort. I think they quite satisfy the dreams of the most 
idealistic man. The whole system of married quarters is an evolution. 
Formerly the wife was not recognised at all; then she crept into the 
barrack-room and slept there, with a sheet or blanket put across to 
screen her from the soldiers. This was in the good old days, which 
