VD and scar....

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

In the good old days a dose of clap could be fixed by the tiffy and pennicilin...
Not today.....

Letter to the editor - RE: Canadian War Museum (CWM) statistics on VD flawed
OTTAWA, July 12 /CNW Telbec/ - One of the several items for concern in
the exhibits in the new Canadian War Museum states that, in the Korean War,
41.4 percent of Canadians who served in that war contracted venereal disease.
Confronted with the information by officials of The Korea Veterans
Association of Canada, Joe Geurts, CEO of the CWM, agreed to remove the
offensive description. On examination, the government officials covered up
only part of the sign with the offensive statistic.
It is known, for example, that, although there was some VD, much of it
was due to prostitution while the veterans were on leave in Japan. Dr. Victor
Rabinovitch, President of the Museum of Civilization Corporation which
operates the CWM, states in a letter to the publisher of the Manitoba Korea
Veterans Association newsletter that the VD information "was taken from solid
scholarly sources, notably the work of Brent Watson."
Watson wrote a 180-page book titled The Far Eastern Tour. He quotes
Private Jacket Coates, whose comments, according to Watson, came from the war
diary of the 2nd Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
Our research indicates there was no such person in the entire Canadian
Army by the name of Jacket Coates. He appears to be a figment of the
imagination of Rabinovitch and was invented in a novel by the late Lt-Col Herb
Wood, who commanded a battalion of the PPCLI in Korea. Quotes, according to
Rabinovitch, also come from a book titled The Private War of Jacket Coates.
Irrespective of whether Rabinovitch's sources are correct, we must be
critical of the CWM in posting the information in the first place. The
publisher of the Korea Veterans Association web site states that the statistic
is "disgusting, false and maligns every soldier who served."
The matter has reached high echelons. A Past President of KVA wrote to
the Korean Ambassador in Ottawa. We learned that the Korean government,
quietly, we suppose, is raising the issue with the Canadian government.
Retired Major Jacques Boire of the Royal 22nd Regiment wrote to Heritage
Minister Liza Frulla, stating that the signage was "an offense to the courage
and integrity shown by Canadians."
Korean veterans are demanding that the signage be eliminated in its
entirety. As Chairman of the 52-member National Council of Veteran
Associations, we go one step further. There are grounds, in our view, for the
Canadian government to offer an apology.
This kind of scurrilous attack, on extremely weak (if not nonexistent)
evidence of those who have written books on Korea, stands as a significant
insult not only to Korean veterans but to all Canadians who served. To have
contracted venereal disease is hardly concomitant with the purpose of CWM,
which is to tell Canadians the full story of war.
We cite no less an authority than Rudyard Kipling, famous British poet.
He is generally thought to be the author of the description that soldiers are
not plaster saints, but they take up the world's most dangerous profession: to
fight for their country against dictators who would take great joy in
criticizing those of us who are willing to lay down our lives.

Yours sincerely,
(signed)

H. Clifford Chadderton, CC, O.Ont., OStJ, CLJ, CAE, DCL, LLD
Chairman