AN ARMY MARCHES ON ITS STOMACH

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22465, 28 July 1938, Page 9

AN ARMY MARCHES ON ITS STOMACH

TO TUB EDITOR OT TUB I’RESS. Sir—ln “The Press” of Saturday we read with a sense of its ever-growing, monotonous regularity, a manifesto signed by some senior officers of tne New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The manifesto, the general context ot which was advocacy of compulsory military training, contained some interesting points which I would like to examine. ~ . . The first point, is "that jhe establishment is aboutf’' 9000, and’ of these only about 3000 attended camp last year.” After taking into consideration the implied statement that the force of 9000 is far too small, and as we know that Government employees in the territorial forces are given every facility to attend camps, parades, etc., one can only surmise that private enterprise is not doing its fair share towards helping its employees m the. forces to perform their military duties. J . The second thing I want to comment on is that "of the depleted number of 3000, it is estimated that no more than one third are of sufficient age and physique for active service.” This assertion is absurd, for the fact is that a recruit has to pass a medical test to join the army, and if he is physically fit enough to join the army, he is fit enough for active service. A cable message from London on July 20 announced "that the high level at which’ army recruiting has been running for some time has created a new record.” Recently Father Dudley. a Catholic priest, told the people of New Zealand that in England more than 20,000,000 people are living in a state of semi-starvation. A glance at some figures connected with the British Army will prove this. As an indication of the physical and medical state of a nation, the number and percentage of recruits who are rejected from enlisting because they fail to pass the physical and medical tests are probably one of the best indications. In the 10 years, 1925-1934, 760,705 recruits applied to join the British Army; 287,260 got in and 473,445 were rejected. In 1933, of 56,768 recruits examined, 22,638 were rejected. In 1934, of 80,000 recruit. 43,000 (52 per cent.) were rejected, notwithstanding a lowering of the medical standard. In 1935, 68 per cent, of recruits were rejected, and in 1936, of 57,712 recruits examined, 35,737 (roughly 62 per cent.) were rejected. In 1936 the British Army Council, alarmed at the large number of men who were rejected on medical grounds, lowered the physical standard for certain army corps; this no doubt explains the lower (?) percentage of rejections for that year. When one remembers Napoleon’s famous saying one can only surmise that the British ruling classes are more concerned with the “army” than with the “stomach.” Incidentally, one point of the New Zealand officers' manifesto says that "it is estimated that only 1000 men are of sufficient age for active service.” The "Dominion” on October 9, 1937, said; “In the opinion of many thoughtful people it is a serious defect of our political system that the privilege of the franchise is extended to young people at an age at which they take no serious interest in politics.” In other words, a person aged 21 is unfit to vote but is quite capable of making suitable cannon fodder. —Yours, etc., ' TRUTH. July 26, 1938.