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The War Effort of New Zealand
Part I
Part I.
There are certain words which before the war were rarely used, but which now meet the eye in the head-lines of newspapers. One of these words is "Repatriation." It is an expressive word, conjuring up a vision of the lines of grey ships which carried 100,000 New Zealanders far from their homes to the great war, of the fighting in many distant fields, and the return of our war-worn soldiers to their native land.
But this is not enough. Repatriation is only beginning when the soldier with his twenty-eight days' notice of discharge and railway pass in his pocket steps on to the wharf and wonders what it will feel like to be a civilian again. In the public mind the word includes everything undertaken by the State in fulfilment of a duty to place the returned soldier as nearly as is possible in the civil position he occupied before he was called away. In this wilder sense it will be used in this chapter.
The Home Coming.
As they were sent to many lands in "the far flung battle line," so they came home from many ports, and by many routes.
The earliest to return were members of the Samoan Advance Party which left New Zealand on the 12th August, 1914. The first boat was the Monowai, which returned with prisoners and escort on the 16th September, 1914. The balance returned three months later by the Talune, leaving a small garrison of approximately 220.
The Athenic arrived from Egypt on the 22nd January, 1915, with men who refused to be inoculated, and a few others. The first ship bringing wounded men was the page 164Willochra, which arrived on the 15th July, 1915. There were 284 wounded from Gallipoli, mostly cot cases—the first of the 41,315 wounded during the war. During 1915 the following boats arrived, bringing invalids: Tahiti, 11th September; Aparima, 15th September; Matai, 13th October; Tofua, 26th October; Willochra, 30th October; Tahiti, 25th December. No hospital ships arrived from overseas during 1915.
During 1916, 28 ships arrived bringing wounded men, including the hospital ships: Maheno, 1st January, 11th April, 19th December; Marama, 22nd October. At the end of 1916, 8,093 men had returned.
In 1917 the wounded continued to arrive in greater numbers from England and Egypt. Thirty-one ships returned, and at the end of the year 14,142 were back.
During 1918 twenty-nine ships came home, and on the 31st December, 1918, 28,182 men had returned. At the time of the Armistice there were 56,684 men to be returned to their homes. It was expected that owing to the shortage of shipping, years would elapse before they could again reach New Zealand. The difficulties, however, had been foreseen by the Demobilization Committee, and all arrangements had been made. During the twelve months succeeding the Armistice no less than 52,833 men were repatriated, and at Christmas, 1919, there were only 792 overseas.
Every effort was made to secure the comfort and well being of returning soldiers on the voyage. Complaints were occasionally made of bad food and of overcrowding. Sometimes these "grousings" were justified, but on the whole there was little ground for dissatisfaction. During the voyages efforts were made to carry out the system of educational training begun in England after the Armistice. In some ships good work was done under the adverse circumstances of slackened discipline and insufficient accommodation; in others a few earnest students derived considerable benefit; but the bulk of the men considered that they were returning soldiers, and not students, and took little interest in the classes held. The fact that most of the educational books used on the voyage were purchased by soldiers before disembark-page 165ation showed that the efforts made had awakened a real interest, and that some of the seed sown had fallen on good soil.
Before Discharge.
Soldiers came back from the war either invalids or fit men. If invalids, they remained soldiers until no longer requiring medical attention, and their care remained one of the duties of the Minister of Defence; if fit, they were discharged, and came under the care of the Repatriation Board. For administrative purposes a line was drawn at discharge.
As the sick and wounded came off the hospital ships they were passed through a medical board which allotted them to the various hospitals of the Dominion either as in-patients or out-patients. There they remained till no longer requiring medical treatment.
Before the Armistice no systematic effort had been made to give educational or vocational training to invalids returned to New Zealand, though some occupational work had been done in hospitals under the supervision of lady instructresses. It had, however, been intended to extend such training, and a number of workshops attached to hospitals had been built, or were in the course of erection. In December, 1918, it was decided to establish an Administrative Branch to continue in New Zealand the scheme of education which had been in force in England during demobilisation. With this end in view a considerable staff of vocation officers and instructors was engaged under a Director of Vocational Training. The training scheme was developed as speedily as possible. Additional workshops were built and equipped by the generous assistance of the New Zealand Red Cross, and soldiers were instructed in a large variety of subjects including carpentering, splint-making, motor and general engineering, wool-classing, boot-repairing, commercial knowledge, and occupational subjects such as basket and leatherwork. Wherever such work was strictly curative, involving regulated exercise for the strengthening of wasted muscles, it was made compulsory under the supervision of a medical officer. It was, indeed, soon realised that the scheme would be unworkable without close co-operation with the medical page 166branch. The Director-General of Medical Services took an active interest in the work, and most medical officers in charge of hospitals gave valuable assistance to the vocation officers. The medical results were remarkably successful, and the provision of useful occupation not only lightened the tedium of convalescence, but hastened recovery. In most hospitals classes were attended voluntarily. As the scheme developed the numbers attending the classes steadily increased.
A spirited controversy at one time took place over the question of payment to the soldiers for work done at classes in hospitals. Certain classes were "productive," particularly the basket and leather work classes, and large numbers of saleable articles were made. In other classes, such as splint-making, boot-repairing, tailoring and clerical work, articles were not made for sale. To have allowed those who attended productive classes to make money by the sale of work to the public would have penalized the unproductive classes and made them unpopular. The matter was finally settled by allowing the proceeds of the sale of work to the public, without deduction for material, to be paid into a recreation fund for the benefit of all soldiers attending classes at the hospital.
In addition to the training in hospitals every facility was given to out-patients to attend technical schools and universities, and arrangements were made with the Repatriation Department to continue the training after discharge in approved cases. At Queen Mary Hospital, Hanmer, and at the Pukeora Consumptive Sanatorium, adjoining farms were acquired, and managers were appointed to teach farming to neurasthenic and consumptive patients; and at the Consumptive Sanatorium at Cashmere a poultry farm was established.
Experience has shown that with few exceptions returned soldiers took little interest in improving their general education. A laudable attempt was made to instil the principles of economics at some hospitals, and competent lecturers were engaged for this purpose, but it was quite evident that the invalided soldiers preferred amusements, (with which they were well provided) to lectures, and few page 167will be so pedantic as to blame them. It, must be remembered that the scheme was applied in New Zealand to invalids only, who had little inclination for mental exertion.
On the other hand, classes in vocational subjects, especially carpentry, motor engineering, and wool-classing, were readily formed and were well attended, and invalided soldiers were able to get a preliminary training which helped to qualify them to take their places in civil life after discharge. Though the training given was of practical value the scheme did not aim at turning out finished tradesmen. Its immediate object was to induce invalided soldiers whose initiative had been deadened by the inertia of "hospitalism" to regain an interest in life by gradually acquiring the habit of work, and to show them that the State was ready to give sympathetic help in bridging the gulf which separated them from the life of active work of their fellow citizens. Its success in this respect was undoubted.