THE MEDICAL TEST

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2478, 3 June 1915, Page 6

THE MEDICAL TEST

DEPARTMENT'S REPORT. Owing to the disparity ill the numbers of recruits rejected by the medical officers as unfit in the ditferent districts, the Minister of Defenco some days ago asked for a report from the Department on the subject. The substance of this report was made available to the Press by the Minister yesterday. The report stated, said tho Minister, that the conclusions previously come to had been misleading. For instance, as the result of investigation in the records it had been found that on one night 6ix doctors in Wellington had examined 135 men and had declared over CO per cent, of .them unfit. Two nights later the same six doctors had examined another 115 men and had rejected only 2 per cent, of them as unfit. It was, therefore, impossible to take specific examinations, and on them base the whole of the statistics. Any criticism must be based cu a series of examinations, and not limited to any number. The examinations undertaken since the beginning of the war up to now' showed the real difference between the districts. They showed about 2-5 per cent, rejected in the various districts. As far as this examination of recruits was concerned, there was one standard set of regulations, and, stated the Minister, it was reported to him that these had been fairly evenly observed by the doctors in all the centres, and there was proof sf this.

Tho report also dealt with the ques-' tion of men rejected for wearing glasses. Ct was stated that men were not always rejected because they had to assist their eyesight with glasses. For iustance, many men could now be seen in camp wearing glasses. But it was laid down by the British War Office that the eyetest regulations must be obeyed in all cases, and no relaxation must be permitted. The reason given for this was the utmost limit demanded by prudence and safety. The test adopted was set not for men entering into a long army career, but was set down in 1911 for the Territorial Army. It was liot as severe a test as that demanded for the Regular Army. ■ It, also, was not as severe as Canada and Australia demanded of their recruits; and Australia, said the Minister, had, he was informed, found that- her test had not been stringest enough, and she was acting accordingly. Tho Department discussed also in its report the question of taking into the Ambulance and Army Service Corps, or clerical staffs, men who might bo otherwise rejected, but they said that these departments of military work imposed more arduous strain and longer hours. I'lie men iu these tasks had to be fitter, physically, if anything, rather than the reverse. If. anything, the regulations were noi; stringent enough for these services, and steps were being taken to make them more so. «

The Department, said the Minister, also mentioned wliat lie, himself, liad been endeavouring from the very first to impress upon them, and that was the cost to the country of taking hito camp any men who inighfc have to be medically rejected later on. The D&partment now said that any man who was turned out of the ranks for medical reasons 011 the way to the front cost the country a good deal of money. In the ease of one contingent of reinforcements 15 men had had to be sent back from one port on route to Egypt because they had broken down from disabilities. This cost could have betfn saved and that of their training, etc., if they bad been rejected at the preliminary examination.