444 
THE SANITARY CARE OF THE SOLDIER. 
No doubt the good management on which I rely depends mainly on 
the Regimental Officers, especially on the Commanding Officer; if he 
is watchful against all fraud at the expense of the soldier, resolute that 
all rations and allowances shall be made the most of, zealous for justice 
in short, the management will be good and the soldier will be comfort¬ 
able. In this good work the Commanding Officer will be greatly helped 
by a sensible Medical Officer, but I doubt if any amount of hygienic 
lecturing will have the effect of producing that good management. 
And much harm may be done if a lecture, such as Lieut.-Col. Evatt has 
delivered, be found unsound in the facts adduced to support the argu¬ 
ments. For instance, there will be found at pages 220-223 a lengthy 
and impassioned statement of his objections to the soldier’s ration, 
from which I extract, principally from page 222, the following state¬ 
ments which are capable of verification (or otherwise), and will thus 
serve as a test of the general accuracy of Lieut.-Col. Evatt’s facts. 
<f We are trying to keep the soldier on a ration that he cannot do his 
work on. We give him his lib. of bread and his fib. of meat, and 
stop him 3Jd. or 4|d. a day for the grocery ration, but it does not 
keep the man going, and the way to prove it is that in those corps that 
are better paid, like the Army Medical Service, the Royal Engineers, 
and the Army Service Corps, the men lay out much on food. 
A man drinks because he wants food. ... A man wants at least 
his 1 lb. of meat a day. I have asked dozens and dozens of soldiers 
if the f lb. meat ration is sufficient, and I find they are all laying out 
extra money ; those other well-paid corps are all laying out more money 
to keep themselves strong and fit. . . . Look at those young re¬ 
cruits who are going out to India to fight typhoid ; they want to be 
well fed most awfully. ... I say the measure of his drunkenness is 
the measure of his want of food. And also another thing is his tobacco; 
the soldier is perpetually smoking. I think his drinking and smoking 
are his attempts to satisfy his demand for food. . . . The moment 
a sergeant is broken and put back to the ranks, he is pulled down at 
once by the want of food.” 
I will now simply state facts within my own knowledge which will, 
I believe, show how far the above statements are accurate and thus 
give a fair measure of the probable accuracy of the other statements 
in the lecture. 
Experience in many corps has shown that the fixed part of the ration, 
the meat and bread, supplemented by the variable part, bought at the 
canteen by a stoppage of 3Jd. to 4Jd., can only be insufficient through 
bad management, which should not last long without inquiry from the 
General commanding the district. When the Army Orders on the 
subject are carried out, and the attention of the Commanding Officer 
is duly given to the cooking, experience shows that the ration can supply 
four fair meals daily. I know that in the three units at the station 
from which I write this is the case. In the R.A. Sub-Depot the recruits 
pay 4^d. for grocery, because they have meat or fish for breakfast, as 
well as puddings and pies for a second course at dinner; though I 
believe that equally good meals might be given at a lower rate. Soup 
is also provided for supper. There is a well-supplied supper-room at 
the canteen, but it is very little used, owing to the plentiful meals 
