TRAINING MAIMED SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 120, 7 February 1918, Page 6

TRAINING MAIMED SOLDIERS

« ■ NEW LEASE OF USEFUL LIFE WHAT BRIGHTON IS DOING In a quiet but effective way the Brighton (Viutoria) Society for the Heeducation aud Preadaptation of Returned Soldiers, which was founded about 18 months ago, is giving proof that, though a man return from the front either maimed or so severely wounded that ho cannot follow his former occupation, thero is no reason in very many cases why lie should lose heart. He can be taught other ways of making a living. In some instances, indeed, they may be better ways, for the wciety has taken men who, before they, wont to the war, wero engaged in unskilled labour, and has made them into skilled tradesmen. For example, there is a man who, before he was wounded, was a carter and driver, lie is now learning the trade of carpentering. At the office and workshops in Brighton, carpentering is. taught by a skilled carpenter, himself a returned soldier, and every visitor expresses surprise at the progress made by those who havo been at the trade but a fow weeks. Then Mr. W. Groom, the manager, will take visitors round to shops in Brighton where men are qualifying as boot repairers, French polishers, cabinetmakers, and saddlers. A number have indeed already qualified, and are now earning full wages. Then, in the city, the society have men going through courses in typewriting, stenography, and bookkeeping. While the men are in the probation 6taae thejr income is made up to £2 10s. a week if they are single, and to £3 if they are married. Nor is that all. If a man has lost a limb the society will provide him with an artificial one; that is, if he has not already been supplied with one hy tho Defence Department. Thus equipped, the men do wonders. They can walk up stairs, not very fast, it is true, but still without any painful effort; and they stand so naturally and firmly beside their work benches that at first glance one might take them to be whole and sound. One man has an artificial arm, and it would be little exaggeration to say that he can do almost as well with it as he could with his own arm. During a visit he was seen shovelling bluestone; but he can use a file, saw, or a hammer, an axe or a pick just as well as he can a shovel. This is one of the country boys, and the thought that he might never be able to work on a farm again greatly depressed him; for it was to the land that he wanted to return rather than take up some lighter occupation in the city. However, the chairman, Mr. J. M. Coane. who had been in communication with Pans, obtained the drawings of the famous "Amar" ?rm, and had two of them made in Melbourne. The "Aimu arm, it should be said, is the "official arm issued by the French AVar Office. After practice this man is delighted to find that he can not only do general farm work, but that he can work very hard. Others will he supplied with these arms in course of time. . The young soldiers whom the society have taken in hand show remarkable powers of adaptation. A man at Brighton was a blacksmith before lie went to the war, but on the Western front his right elbow was shattered, mid the muscles of the arm so injured that it was impossible for him to resume his trade. So he has taken up joinery, and, being a handy fellow, he is rapi'dlv becoming expert. .Others who had never done a bit of cobbling in their lives, perhaps, seem to take to boot repairing as naturally, as a duck fakes to water. Boot repairing suits men who though they, may have an artificial leg of the most approved design, vet find standing painful. indeed, it is a class uf work well adapted for all those whose injuries prevent them moving about freely. A typical case that might be selected at Ungnton is that of a man who was very severely wounded with shrapnel. It was an almost permanently disabling wound, for v his hip was smashed, and the muscles of his back lacerated. And when he first took to his new work he suffered such pain that it seemed .as though he would be compelled to give it up But he is possessed of unusual wit, and though sometimes he may be incapacitated for a day or two, he wiU always come hack to his last, hie is doinc well at his trade, and physically" he is gradually improving. The Place of Hope. It is pathetic to watch crippled men who have heard what is done by the society pay their first visit to the workshops. From the expression of their I faces it is too often plain that thougli thev mav have brought with them some little curiosity, they have left all hope behind. Presently they will enter into conversation with one of the boys—per'hiips it will be a "hoppy," for that is the title that men who have lost a leg have conferred on themselves, just as the one-armed men are "wingies. Those who are hobbling laboriously about on crutches watch the "hoppy' at his work, and ho takes special care on such occasions to show how well he can manage with his artificial leg. Presently they begin to cheer up in spite* of themselves, and if they have brought mothers, wives, or sisters with them, they, too, cheer up. Some of the men will be sure to have a talk with Mr. Groom on their way out, and they will find that Mr. Groom is suffering" from enthusiasm of the most infectious kind, and thus he is afflicted with an' incurable optimism. Someone becomes inoculated before he knows it, and ho will arrange to come back again and be enrolled amongst "tho boys."

.What has been done at Brighton may well be clone in other centres. Indeed, when the Repatriation Act is proclaimed the local committees that it provides for could not do better than take what the society has done as their model, and then they will avoid mistakes that are inevitable in all pioneer work. It is not only that the men are put on their feet who might otherwise become a burden to themselves— and that, of course, is the first consideration—but the whole schemo appears to be run on sound business principles. In teaching the men carpentering, for example, the outlay on timber is "considerable, but what they make finds a ready sale, and this helps to swell the funds and increases the society's power of doing good.