The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1915. "MEDICALLY UNFIT"

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2474, 29 May 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1915. "MEDICALLY UNFIT"

A position little short of farcical has been reached in the mcdical examination of recruits for the Reinforcements. Mii. Allen on Monday oxpressed surprise that one man in four enlisting in Otago should have been rejected, as against one in every twenty in Wellington. But if the position in Otago is extraordinary, it is as nothing to that disclosed in the latest Chnstchurch figures. Of 115 men examined there only 41 were pronounced by the doctors to bo fit to go into camp. Of the remaining 74, 33 were declared temporarily unfit, and 41 were rejected absolutely; It is difficult to believe that the physique of the Christchurch volunteers is so poor as these figures indicate, especially in view of the repeated statements that men rejected in the South have successfully passed the doctors in Wellington. Something is very obviously wrong somewhere. From statements that have reached this office appears to be a great discreriancy in tlfe standards set by the different doctors. In numbers of cases a recruit's acceptance or rejection has apparently depended very much on the doctor by whom ho chanced to be examined. One doctor will almost look for varicose veins with a magnifying glass, and another will ba blind to any but the most glaring case's. One will put a stringent eye test, and another will tell a man who boggles over the card to see what he can do with his spectacles on. Taken by and large, it cannot be said that a reasonable common-sense discrimination is being shown by the medical side of the Department in its handling of the men who are offering their services to tho country. Absolute rejection of an otherwise sound, healthy man for some trifling fault is indefensible under present conditions. The tests to which the recruits are submitted wero, we believe, originally designed for the selection of men entering on a life-long career in a professional army. Thoy are being applied in many cases with equal severity to menenlisting for every branch of the service. The Army Service Corps, the Ambulance, the clerical staff, and so_ on, are filled up with men who might equally well be in the firing line. Hundreds of single men who could carry out every duty in these branches with oredit to themselves and their country are rejected because of some slight deficiency. And now the call has gone forth for married men to fill the gaps. The sensible procedure surely would be to fill the non-combatant, but equally necessary, sections of the force from the men who are not quite up to the standard set for the firing line. Tho mcdical examination system plainly needs a thorough overhaul.