GERMAN YOUNG MEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 72, 25 March 1936, Page 14

GERMAN YOUNG MEN.

IMPROVED IN PHYSIQUE.

MEDICAL. INSPECTIONS SHOW.

BERLIN, 12.

Public health in Germany has improved, compared with pre-war years, to judge by the results of medical inspections held in connection with the reintroduction of conscription.

Of the conscripts of the annual classes 1914 and 1915. now serving in the fighting forces or in the labour service, the military doctors pronounced 83 per cent as fit for military service whereas this figure was only 76 per cent in 1913, tho last year statistics were issued in Germany on military It is added, however, that the doctors of the Third Reich "were milder in pronouncing their judgment because they did not want to disappoint the zeal of the young men eager to serve in the army."

Of the conscripts of 1935, 77 per cent were pronounced fit and 6 per cent as "conditionally fit." Another 8 per cent were pronounced "fit in a limited degree," and 9 per cent as unfit for military service.

The statistics reveal that approximately 100,000 young men volunteered to servie in the .German fighting forces in the time from June to August, 1935. Of the volunteers, 80 per cent were pronounced fit for military service.

Of the young men pronounced unfit 2 per cent suffered from flat feet and weak ankles. Quito a number were turned dowu because of bad teeth.