ADMISSION OF REFUGEES

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23545, 24 January 1942, Page 6

ADMISSION OF REFUGEES

MEDICAL REGISTER IN N.Z.

REPLY TO CRITICISM OF UNIVERSITY SENATE

(P.A.) HAMILTON, January 23. Mr F. A. de la Mare, a member of the New Zealand University Senate, in reply to a statement made by Dr. W. Newlands, chairman of the Medical Council, on the admission of refugee doctors to the medical school, said that the ad eundem statute of the University enabled the Senate (inter alia) to admit any student who had completed any part of an undergraduate course at any university with an equivalent standard to the same undergraduate status in New Zealand as he had in his own university, “The discretion allowed has for many years been exercised, whenever the Senate has been satisfied that the work done has been a full equivalent,” said Mr de la Mare. It would seem that the idea was generous and universal, to enable bona fide students to carry to a further stage work already commenced in another country. “It now appears that the New Zealand Medical Council wishes to exclude from the benefit of the statute a particular class of student. I think Dr. Newland’s proper course was to move to amend (he statute in question by excluding refugees, however difficult it might be to draft a clause which would square with the spirit of the Hippocratic oath. At any rate, the British Medical Council has control of the Medical Register. It imposes a threeyear term of elementary work, even should they be victims of world conditions.

“In Dr. Newland's contention, as I see it, the Senate is asked to refuse to admit refugees to the brotherhood of the university. Any attempt to ‘pass (he buck’ of ‘exclusion’ to a university body should, in my opinion, be resisted to the uttermost. I can attach no meaning to Dr. Newlands’s reference to unfairness to earlier refugees. except the desire for uniformity of exclusion and the fairness of such terms I am unable to conceive or explain. As to the ‘great flow’ of refugees referred to, I would remark that, as far as I can ascertain. New Zealand stands at the bar of civilisation as the most exclusive dountry in the world.”