ABSOLUTE DUTY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 107, 1 November 1941, Page 11

ABSOLUTE DUTY

REMEDIAL TREATMENT

NOT VAGUE AND UNCERTAIN

MAN SENT TO GAOL

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, This Day. "The regulation prescribing treatment for the partially unfit man is vague and uncertain," said Mr. J. Hogben before Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., when defending John Herbert Torkington on a charge of failing to submit to remedial treatment.

The charge was denied. 1 Lieutenant-Colonel Hardie , Neil, Regional Deputy, said that so far as he knew, the injection treatment for varicose veins, which the defendant had refused to undergo, had not proved ineffective. At the Auckland Hospital it was standardised treatment and was administered by three senior men. He had never noticed a recurrence of the trouble after injections, '. Mr. Hogben: A few fatal cases have been reported, have they not?" Witness: Yes, but when the vein is tied at the trunk there is no possible • chance of that. . Mr. Hogben said that the' definition of the word "treatment" liad been under discussion by the Defence Department and himself since May. He submitted that the word as used in the regulations did not include anything. save medical treatment in the narrower sense.

The Magistrate said that "medical practitioner" was a very comprehensive term in New Zealand. Ninetynine per cent. Of the men sent for treatment required surgery, however slight, rather than medicine. Mr. Meredith, appearing on behalf of the Director of National Service, said that 130 men had been treated by injection at the Auckland Hospital since March/ and all had responded satisfactorily.

Mr. Hogben questioned whether the regulation was wide enough to include surgical ■ treatment..,. While recognising the necessity, he submitted that unde"r wider interpretation the regulations to some extent restrained the liberty of the subject.

The Magistrate: The liberty 'of the subject, when we are fighting for our liberty. What an extraordinary remark to make! . The regulations are clear and unequivocal. There is an absolute duty on the reservist when called to present himself for treatment. That includes any surgical or medical treatment deemed necessary for him for service. In all my experience I have never sat upon a case of such painful unreality. .1 can see no substantial basis in the argument, and , I am surprised at the military authorities taking the matter so seriously as to regard the prosecution as a test case.

The defendant was sentenced to a month's imprisonment.