PHYSICAL STANDARD FOR WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3174, 27 August 1917, Page 8

PHYSICAL STANDARD FOR WAR

AMERICAN INVESTIGATION FAVOURS "REDUCTION".

As the result of a recent, exhnustive study by the committee on anthropology of the United States National Research Council, it is likely that recommenda-. tions to tlio effect Unit that country would be fully justified in changing its recruiting requirements, by reducing the minimum height from five £set four inches to five feet one inch, and correspondingly the minimum weight from 128 pounds to 120 pounds, will be made to the War Department. The report which the committee has forwarded to tho General Medical Board points .out that many European, nationalities, most of which arcs well represented in that country, have an average height of two, three, or four inches shorter than that of Americans, the small statures signifying normal variation according t? racial difference rather than degeneration. 'The Thisso-Japaneso War showed conclusively to every military expert that the small man may.be made into a magnificently capable soldier. Tho average Jap. appears physically insignificant alongside- tho burly Russian, but his fighting qualities are in no way .inferior. Less marked is the physical difference between the French and. the Germans, but the latter are decidedly the larser men. Wlion it conies to individual fighting. however, the Marne, \ ercluh. and other battlefields hnvc proved the superiority of the French over their Teutonic enemies. The English "nantam regiments." which are composed entirely of men under the original English heirrlit requirements, are also said to have shown conclusively that size is noi essential in a soldier.