CORRESPONDENTS, VIEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 144, 19 June 1940, Page 6

CORRESPONDENTS , VIEWS.

NATIONAL RESERVE.

(To the Editor.)

As one of the victims I would like to point out the absurdity and ineoa- . eistenoy of the medical examination* for recruits for home service in the National Reserve (Class 2). There appears to be n» fixed standard eet, as - the severity of some doctors' examinations are the cause of rejecting , normally fit men, while in other cases men are ibeing passed as fit who, obviously, will be unable to stand up to the training, I will take my own case first. I enjoy perfect health and am sound in limb and l>ody. I have never been laid up in bed with illness for over thirty years, and have never had to undergo any operation to the body. As a farmer I am able to do all the necessary hard work on thf farm, with no ill effects. In spite of these facts, I was rejected as medically unfit for home service because I had had malaria at the war (with no return for over twenty years) and mild neuritis in my shoulder. Of the latter I informed the'doctor verbally, and in spite of a severe test he was unable to detect which shoulder the neuritis was in, for he marked on mv chart the left shoulder, when, as a matter of fact, it iva* in my rijrlit shoulder, lly friend, who was examined by a different doc-tor, was passed as fit, although he had had two operations for hernia, and was obliged to wear a truss. To reject normally fit men when every fit man. is needed in defence of this country while other doctors pass obviously unfit men is, in my opinion, a scandaL NOT WANTED.