The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. "We nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice." TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1017 MILITARY MEDICAL BOARDS

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 309, 11 September 1917, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. " We nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice." TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1017 MILITARY MEDICAL BOARDS

Probably in every military district in the Dominion there are to be found cases of men who, having been passed by the Medical Boards as fit for active service, have subsequently broken down in camp. In some instances this may lit- due to negligence or incompetence on the part ot the examiners, but in most cases it is unavoidable, because there are cases of latent weakness and defects which the most skilful medical man might fail to detect. Further than that, it lias to be remembered that the examiners are sometimes faced with the problem of the would-be shirker, and of having to decide whether an apparent defect or ailment is simulated or genuine Experience teaches, and no doubt the officers of the Medical Boards nre nowadays able to much more quickly detect the symptoms of malinger ing. Still, cases must, and do arise, in which the doctors find it dificult to decide-the man they are examining may be a humbug, trying to evade his duty, or he may be a genuine case, and the only way to satisfactorily determine the matter is to send him into camp. Sever;.! cases have occurred where men who have tried to dodge the doctors have been dealt with in this way, and have subsequently turned out to be perfectly tit for service, whereas if they had been given the benefit of the doubt other more scrupulous men would have had to fill their places in the ranks. Whatever mistakes the Medical Boards may have made, it has never been urged against them that their decisions have been influenced by improper motives.