The Dominion. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1915. THE MEDICAL SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2566, 14 September 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1915. THE MEDICAL SERVICES

Now that General Hendekson has taken oontrol of tho Army Medical Services tho public will hope that the working of this important branch 'of the Defence Department will be placed on at moro satisfactory footing. The methods of administration 01 the lata Director during tho past twelvo months were peculiar, and we havo no doubt that General Henderson will be a more than, usually busy man for some time to conic. By this time we take it he will be in possession of the local official view on various matters connected with the Medical Services, and it is as well that his. attention should be directed to certain points oh which the public will await his recommendations with interest. There are, for instance, quite a number of matters in connection with the construction of tho hutments and the general sanitation of Trontha-m Camp which have remained in abeyance pending the arrival of tho new Director. On some points we have had a nice conflict of opinion between thrco sets of authorities—the rccentlloyal Commission, Mn. Allen's private board of doctors, and the- Army Council telegrams. The tendency of the Department has been to resolve these conflicts by the simple expedient of adopting whichever recommendation seemed likely to interfere least with existing arrangements. Economy is an excellent'thing, o£ which tho country has seen too little, but- in camp sanitation efficiency is after all the first consideration, and we hope the now Director will be able to tell us that we havo not been saving pennies now to spend pounds later on. _ Another matter in which tho public is Especially interested, and which has been the subject of "much discussion in the Press, is the medical _ fce&t for ■ recruits.-for activo 'service. • ' Many": instances have -been stuote.d of tjis rejection 1 ol

liealtliy and able-bodied men on purely, "fancy" grounds. An active country man who had walked forty miles to the recruiting office was told he was flat-footed, and would never be able to march, and sent home. We have heard of a man who had run in tho harriers for years, and was similarly rejected because of a. bent toe. Instances of this sort could be multiplied. Then we have tlie contention that tho same, test should apply in all branches of the servicc, which means that the man in the harriers with tlie bent toe cannot even be accepted n$ a, pay clerk. We notice that in Britain in July it was announced in the newspapers that "in future Ul > man who is organically sound will be refused, for if he is not fit to be enlisted in an active service battalion he will be included in a unit lor home defence on garrison duty.'' Under this all men with weak eyesight, defective teoth, or slight physical defects were invited to re-submit themselves. It is unfortunate that such men in New Zea.la.nd who wish to serve the Empire should, be obliged to prooeed at their own cost to Australia, or Britain and enlist there. Somewhere between a quarter and a third of tjho men' who have volunteered in New Zealand have been rejected by. tho doctors, and the application of the tests has been by no means uniform in the different districts. To turn -from, tho recruits to the doctors, we again find, a somewhat curious state of things. At the beginning of June the Minister of Defence announced that tho War Office had asked New Zealand to send forward a hundred medical men. "The urgency of the demand and the

vital issues at stake," it was stated, render it imperative for ths country to supply the demand for medical men to its utmost limit." A few weeks later Mr. Allen explained that this was the only direct call maao upon 'New Zealand since the war began. He said: They [the Imperial authorities] have never asked us for a man with, the exception of the 100 medical men to serve with the Royal Army Medical Ooiys. Never once have they asked us for a thing." On July 9 a paragraph appeared in The Dominion announcing on the authority of the' Minister of Public Health, that New Zealand would require all its own doctors for its own future reinforcements, and except under exceptional circumstances none could be spared for Britain. This is very much on the lines of the policy being pursued in the matter of the dispatch of fighting men. The authorities appear to oe so anxious to conserve the supply for future reinforcements that, they are inclined to underrate the needs of the present. If, as we are told, doctors are very badly .needed at the front now, and that their- presence there will mean the saving of valuable lives, it seems a wrong policy to withhold our assistance in order-to be able to protect men who may go to the front a year hence. The man who ougfit to take, Ms chance of getting proper medical attention is not tho man who is serving his country now, but tho man safe at home who may or may not be callod upon to go forward a;t some future date. Possibly the strained relations between' the Defence Department and the British Medical Association have had a; sha.ro.in .compelling the Government to this decision. Wo do not propose to go into the rights and wrongs of those differences, for we arc convinced that once matters are approached in the proper spirit on both sides any differences which may remain will speedily disappear.' A conference between the new Director and tho Association would probably clear the air and lead to that hearty co-'operafcion and understanding between the civil and military sideß of_ the profession which the present situation demands.

General Henderson will no doubt find that there is much to bo done, and that a decidedly firm Kand is needed if the Medical Services are to bo put on a di'odst footing, but wo think ho will find the country anxious to profit to the full by the advice and suggestions of so experienced an officer as himself, and desirous that fcho year he is to spend in New Zealand shall not come to bp counted anions the least pleasant memories of his life.