TRAINING OF RECRUITS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 January 1918, Page 2

TRAINING OF RECRUITS.

THE DIFFICULTIES OF MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS, Wellington, Jan. 15. A deputation from the Second Division League asked the Prime Minister in Christchurch for an assurance that any married men sent into camp would lie medically fit. The representatives of the League pointed out the hardship that was caused when a inan was required to dispose of his business and leave his family, only to be turned out of camp a week or two later as medically unfit. The point raised by the deputation has been before the medical authorities since the inception of the compulsory system, and it has been the subject of many official statements. The medical officers insist that in New Zealand, as in every other -belligerent coutnry, it is impossible to avoid wastage in the camps. That is to say, there will always be some recruits who are passed as fit at the first examination and who develop weaknesses in the course of training. The most skilful doctor cannot tell in 'every case how the human body is going to be affected l>y unaccustomed conditions. A man who appears absolutely fit may break down in training, while another man who looked a doubtful subject at the first medical examination may be as hard as nails after a little training., "The demand that the doctors should be infallible is absprd." said a medical officer who has had wide experience in the handling of recruits. "We are bound to make some mistakes, and we are bound to come across many cases where the only way of determining. fitne=s is to give the man a week or two in camp. Take, for example, the case of a recruit, who comes before, a medic til board', and states that he has a weak knee, injured at football many years earlier. ' A very close examination of the knee may fail to reveal any trace of .weakness. The man has lived a quiet life for a long time and the knee has suffered no strains. It looks normal and the man can move it freely. Are we to declare him unfit because, that knee may give him trouble when he gets Into camp? If we did, wt-l would op?n the door wide to the malingerer, and we would release some men who were simply reviving memories of injuries. long since healed. The Second Division men would hnveA'ecn the first to protest ,if v.'c. •••; -rifr. ihc First Division recruits in a loose '1 have examined many mti. who rtait 'that they tic sufferers.from' rhcamr.Usiu. They may ha,ve some swollen joints or on the otner hand thev may show >ui feigns of the trouble at all. Experience has :iiown that uiauv of these men bccom; thoroughly lit in i-amp. The general improvement' in their health, uwjiig to tut wholesome opc-n air life, regulei exercise* and good food, clears awa? :sr.j rwDaicfcg iraces <.! the rfieamatlani that c:m troubled tj;-,!. But there will Jv* other ms v/ho-- i-bennr.atism wi.l unsart itself irt -Ird aigfei, they hav-i'to 1;. dur.r. clotnes i„ * tent. Art' the ir.rSita 1 boii-di twiefou tc nice', all men -.v1'.0 eism. to have hji<: utteck- c. rheumatism at'ivnae 'h their lives': "Tht raly sale rule senilis, to he t\;/o if a. man has a reasonably good chance' of proving fit under cainp'conditions, ha should be sent to camp. If he breaks ilown and has to be discharged, he has 'done his bit' and he is still better off than the men who have gone to the front and risked their lives. His sacrifice has not been in vain, since a system that would have kept him out' of camp altogether would have deprived the country of many hundreds of fi.t soldiers. Br going into camp he has made It possible for us to sort out' the fit men from among the doubtful cases."