THE ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS.
Pro ens Eerree or me “Srecrcroa."1 13m,—The public and temporary officers of the R.A.M.C. welcome the appointment of a Committee of Inquiry to investigate the medical work of the Army. They demand, however, that the investigation shall be thorough—they want no whitewashing. The temporary officer of the R.A.M.C. recognizes that the administra- tion and work of the Corps leave much to be desired. Ho feels also that his work has been too often misdirected. He is heart find soul in his work, but finds himself constantly hampered and thwarted by the administratien. His special knowledge, know- ledge that he has attained after much labour and study, is not taken advantage of. He frequently finds himself, a square man. put into a round hole, while the square hole, that he is beet fitted to fill, is occupied by a round man, to the mutual disadvantage of both men and the Service. The R.A.M.C. is now well supplied with specialists in all branches of medical science. These men must be weeded out from the ranks of the routine work of the R.A.M.C., where their special knowledge is wasted, and their time devoted instead to work in their special branches. The Committee must insist on interviewing junior officers of the R.A.M.C.—the men who are doing the work, men who have come fresh to the Army from civil life, and whose brains, active and unprejudiced, ere unwarped by a lifetime spent amid the red-tapeism of the Regular Army. It is these men who have the initiative, who, taking a broad view of the necessities of the times, are best able to meet its requirements, and to get the work done expeditiously and efficiently. To these men conformity to regulations is not the most important consideration in meeting an emergency, but rather the care, cure, and well-being of the men under their charge. The public realizes that the great work of the R.A.M.C. in this war has been done in spite of a good deal of maladministra- tion from Headquarters, and considers that a still greater work may yet be done when once the old and regulation-bound officers give place to men of a younger school—men fired with the energy and initiative of enthusiasm and untrammelled by obsolete regu- lations of the past.—I am, Sir, Ac., C. E. THIVArris. Bath.
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