HUN MAN-POWER.

Mataura Ensign, 9 November 1916, Page 7

HUN MAN-POWER.

♦ ■ i CIMIMM.KS FOR WORKS-MOPS. i I Much nonsense has been written in i • Filmland flurinpr the war about ihc "old ' men" mid "cripple*" whom (in-many I has had to send into the trenches (•writes Frederic William Wile, late I lierlin correspondent of "The Daily , ! Mail'). British soldiers' have not' I smashed their way through any Hun! ; lines so manned. But the war has! ! made such colossal inroads on (Jerinany's lahor supply that a remarkable '-(•heme to replenish ii is now officially put forth. According to a communique- repro-: diiced by the 'Frankiurtcr Zeiunifj:' on j September 10. it is proposed to draw j upon the J<X).<XK> crippled youths officially tubulated in liMMi, with a view to converting as many of them as pos- ■ sible into artisans to (ill the places of workmen killed or incapacitated in the! war. The total indexed in the. Imperial ■census records ,-ik cripples includes ! "phy>ically abnormal and rpilopt ic" children. As the lai'fre majority are believed to ibe mentally normal, the State medical authorities think that tens of thou-and-. can lie entirely cured and jinst as many others rendered sufficiently lit to become breadwinners. The report says: "The tremendous .naps torn in the ranks of our working class by the war : make it uOce.-sary to utilise even youtli--1 fill .cripples who are capable of'beiiiii | trained for industrial pursuits. This I vvill be all the easier at the present moment, as numerous and elaborate institutions for 'repairing' soldiers mutilated in the war have been founded during the past two years. These can be u>ed ju-m as well for the healing i of cripples."