LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 115, 1 February 1918, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE CI CAMP Sir,—Four hundred and eighty-six men. needlessly sent to cunipl That s the proud report of tho CI Cnmp! What a splendid record of severity and callousness. These 480 men, after all tho trials and uncertainty during the long period of waiting for ballots, and after n second examination, have been thrown out of employment and compelled to leave their homes, only to be again rejected. Why should the chance he on them? In all fairness, no man should be sent "to try out"—his risk is too serious. Why should careers be spoilt to no purpose? Whether it is to try to save the pampered Second Division, who have let the single .men, of mostly humbler walks of life, do the fighting up to now, I do not know. Anyway, it is scandalous that men should' have to needlessly ruin their careers and often their health. Why to goodness do. not the authorities override sneh injustice? Is this British considerateness and fair play? And now we also rend that the Second Division, a krgo number of whom have been recuperating on extra war profits while the First Division did the fighting to save the skins (and purses) of the Second, will not bn subjected to reexamination. One day the man with the big warehouse, the_ financier, the big shopkeeper, or station owner will stand before his Maker in exactly the same position as those less fortunate in this world's goods.—l am, etc., NO UNFITS SHOULD BE CAMPED. [Defence Headquarters consider it absurd to suggest that the 486 men rejected from the 01 Camp have ruined their careers or have been broken in health. The medical records show that the majority 'of these men have been much improved in health, though they have not become fit enough for military service. A few weeks' training in camp will not have mined their careers; their sacrifice is slight compared to that of the men who-have gone to the front. That the sacrifice made by the rejected CI men has not been in vain is "proved by the faofc that over 000 men have already been transferred from the CI Camp to the reinforcements. If the preparatory camp had not been established these fit recruits would have been lost to the country. The announcement that the Second Division 02- men will not he called w for re-examination does not mean that tho married men are being pampered. The explanation, as already given by the Defence authorities, is that the medical examination is no more searchinc than it used to be, and Second Division men who might be made m> in the CI Camp will be classified CI at. once. The only men classified U in the future will be those who in the opinion of the medical officers are unfit for active service and could not be made fit by tho special training given in the CI Camp. Our correspondent savs that "no man should be sent to ca'mr. to 'try out'—his risk is too serious " The'man who is tried out and found to be fit will face risk, in common with tens of thousands of other New Zealand soldiers. The man who is tried out and found eventually to be unfit will face no serious risk at all.]