AUSTRALIAN TROOPS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 127, 15 February 1918, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN TROOPS

— — WHOLESALE INJECTIONS IN ENGLAND. In view of the urgent need of men for war service, tlio Defence authorities have taken steps to ascertain the reason for the return to Australia of so many soldiers who have never seen active service) but have been returned rs unfit, shortly after their arrival in England. The belief is held in somo quarters that the A.I.E. authorities in England aro insisting upon a needlessly high physical standard. Whatever may be the cause (states the Melbourno "Age"), it is an undoubted fact that hundreds of soldiers who have successfully passed a most oxhaustivo series of medical tests in Australia have been rejected for active service before they were many weeks in England. It- is claimed by responsible officers that these wholesale rejections have had the effect of so tightening up the medical standard applied to recruits in Australia that men who are really fit for service are being turned away. Yet, notwithstanding this claim, men are still being sent back from England. It is pretty obvious that if the medical standard in Australia is unnecessarily severe, then the medical standard insisted upon by the A.I.F. authorities in England is altogether absurd. On the other hand, if the standard in England is the correct one, then the Australian standard is really too low. As against this contention, however, there is the fact that men who havo been rejected in Australia have gone to England at their own expense and been accepted gladly by the British Army authorities for war fiervieo.

Some explanation is demanded from the A.I.F. authorities in England, and it is understood that correspondence on tho subject has already passed between Defence Headquarters in Australia and the Commandant, A.1.F., England. A prominent Australian army medical officer stated recontly that it was essential that some action should bo taken, as the Australian Headr|iiarters in Enpland was sending back men apparently fitter than the volunteers who were now being accepted in Australia.