AN ARRESTING STATEMENT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 4, 7 September 1943, Page 4

AN ARRESTING STATEMENT

THAT in view of the favourable climatic conditions in the Dominion, the profusion of good food and the absence of crowding, it was disappointing to note that the general health of the community was poor—and further that according to the latest figures the New Zealand soldier had the lowest disease-resisting record of any soldier in the present war! These assertions were made in an address to Voluntary Aids recently in Whakatane by Miss I. Crooke, Director-General of the New Zealand Red Cross Voluntary Aids. If they are: correct, and we have no desire to insinuate that they are not for one moment, then it is somewhat surprising to note the feats of strength and endurance performed by our fighting men overseas and the remarkable, manner in which they have responded to the trials of jungle warfare nearer home. At the same time we have to admit that the picture of the public health of civilian New Zealand is a sorry one and that our hospital populations appear to be registering a steady increase. That the same weakness is to be detected in our military forces, is however, most disquieting, and its cause must be a fundamental one which we should waste no time in discovering and permanently eliminating.