OF LOW MENTALITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 136, 10 June 1943, Page 3

OF LOW MENTALITY

* GRADE I SOLDIER

DOCTOR'S FRANK COMMENT

"My opinion is that it would be sheer cruelty to court-martial this man. I have not seen his full medical file, but it is hard to believe that he has ever been examined by a properly constituted medical board and graded 1. He is a clear-cut case for urgent medical boarding, and his obvious medical grading is 4," declared Lieutenant-Colonel F. W. Kemp, senior medical officer, Trentham, at a courtmartial of a soldier on a charge of desertion.

The accused was aSbsent from the Army for 21 months, and was arrested in Auckland last month, wearing civilian clothes. He was stated in a medical report to be simple, childish, and of low mentality, "but had been graded 1 when called up, by.ballot for military service.

Captain E. C. Matthews, of Auckland, said he regarded the accused, when the latter made a statement to him, as a very shrewd man, and War-rant-Officer G. Lyttolis, of Auckland, said he regarded a man who earned £17 a week as no fool. WarrantOfficer Lyttolis said that when he questioned the accused on the Auckland waterfront, the accused produced ration and E.P.S. cards and a wharf pass in the name of Norton. The accused collected £17 pay for the week when arrested, and said he had earned £18 the previous week. INCORRECT GRADING. "*"""*

I Lieutenant-Colonel Kemp, in evi- [ dence, said that his opinion was that I the accused was definitely of low mentality. It was incorrect to. have graded the accused fit for military service. The accused was not insane. The cunning attributed to the accused by other witnesses was a common symp- | torn of persons of low mentality. Taking an assumed name was another form of cunning. The accused's physical condition was fair. The fact that he earned big wages on the waterfront was not proof, in witness's opinion, of it being better than fair. He did not think that the accused could stand up to real hard labour, but he could do moderate exercise. If he were punished his mental position would deteriorate, and he might become a permanent charge on the State. Continuing, Lieutenant-Colonel Kemp Lsaid that he agreed with the report jof Dr. N. I. Lewis, acting deputy Director-General, Mental Hospitals Department. This stated that the accused's family's history showed his mother and sister to be inmates of a mental hospital and a brother a mental lease who had been on a State farm for six years. The accused had a typical feeble-minded appearance. He was simple and childish in manner, speech, and outlook; his intelligence was subnormal. If was quite clear he would be unable to compete successfully with his normal fellows in the Army. Dr. Lewis's report continued that he thought there was every reason to believe the accused when he said that was his reason for deserting. He did not think treatment would help the accused at present. Under existing conditions he could earn a living in the outside world. • The court's finding will be announced later.