FIT OR UNFIT?

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 10111, 19 October 1917, Page 5

FIT OR UNFIT?

(FHOM OtJB PABIJAMENTABy RtPOBTF.B.) WELLINGTON, Oct, 17. In connection with tho petition for the release, from military service of a young man at present in the C2 camp at ■ Featlierston, the, military doctors had said that tho man could lie made fit for service at the front. Civilian doctors had certified that he was unlit, owing to a weak leg and a Hat. foot, and several members of the House urged that' there was grave injustice in taking into camp men who would be sure to break down in training. The Committee recommended no action in the matter.

Speaking to your correspondent on this subject, one of the military medical officers said it did not appear to bo generally understood that there was no hard arid last line dividing tho lit man from the unlit. For every'man who broke down in training, there were a dozen men who showed rapidly improved physique, and if every man who might break down in the camps was rejected, the country would lose hundreds of recruits and the men themselves would miss an opportunity to overcome their weaknesses. "It is not possible to predict with certainty how the training will affect a man," said the, doctor. "Two recruits may present precisely the same characteristic* to the oye. One of them will develop rapidly in camp and the other will have to lie discharged. It seems to me the right thing to send into camp all the men who have a reasonable chance of becoming fit for active service. A proportion of the doubtful men will break down. But is their hardship as great as that of the man who is smashed up at the front?"