Australian Troops

Levin Daily Chronicle, 2 March 1918, Page 4

Australian Troops

WHOLESALE REJECTIONS IN ENGLAND. In view of the urgent need of men for war service, the 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 as unfit, shortly after their arrival in England. The belief is held in some quarters that the A.I.F. authorities in England are insisting upon a needlessly high physical standard. Whatever may be tho cause (states the Melbourne "Ago"), it is an undoubted fact that hundreds of soldiers who have successfully passed a most exhaustive 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 arc being turned away. Yet notwithstanding this claim, men are still being sent back from England. It is pretty obvious that if the '.nodical standard in Australia is unneceasarily 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 tho fact that men who have been rejected in Australia have fjone to England *a t their own expense and have been accepted gladly by the British Army authorities for war scryice - Some explanation is demanded from the A.I.F. authorities in England, and it is understood that correspondence on the subject has already passed between Defence headquarters in Australia and the Commandant A.1.E., England. A prominent Australian Army medical officer stated recently that it was essential that some action should be taken, as the Australian Headquarters in England was sending back men apparently fitter than the volunteers who were now being accepted in Australia.