EXAMINATION OF RECRUITS

Nelson Evening Mail, 19 May 1917, Page 5

EXAMINATION OF RECRUITS

(Discussing the question, of ihe re-ex-amination of the medically rejected and also of men discharged from the a,rmy early in the war as permanently unfit, the medical correspondent of the London Times says that in the eai'ly days of the war medical examination of recruits was to a deplorable a political business. Those who desired ■to save the voluntary system desired to see j as few men as possible rejected. Towards the end of the Derby campaign l medical examination passed through a; rapid degeneration until in the last stage of all it practically ceased to exist. The next stage was the exact reverse of this. 1 The -politicians who had failed to save the voluntai\y system now began to defeat the compulsory system by doing all in their power to get men exempted an d rejected. The War Office tried to stem this tide. Medical Boards were .foi'med, and the abuse of the/ local d° c ~ tor examining his own patients was sw«pt away. These boards were very efficient. But they became the target of every political hack, and almost every tribunal rejoiced to hold them up to contempt. Utterly ignorant people enjoys ed cheap humour at their when doctors were found' to have differed about some 'doubtful case—as if that was a new phenomenon or as if differences of opinion were confined' to recruiting doctors. Unfortunately some private doctors lent themselves to this business by givintr certificates too freehand thus placing the unfortunate members of the Medical Boards in a quandrv. This period saw a very large number of men rejected who should have been recruited, and who would have been recruited but for the politicians, the tribunals, and the easy-going medical certificates. It also saw a great many men who did not look like being fit for service in six months discharged <ii gether. Much more than six months have passed, and many of these oikcharged vonths n.Te now qnito well again. Manv of the rejected men, too*, are quite well. And the political pressure has iargely disappeared.