MAKING MEN FIT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19606, 7 April 1927, Page 13

MAKING MEN FIT.

VALUE OF MILITARY COURSE. LARGE SAVING TO COUNTRY., [BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] CHRISTCHURCH. Wednesday. "Military training is saving an immense amount of money in preventing men from becoming invalids in middle age," declared Dr. P. C. Fenwick in an address to the Y.M.O.A. Optimists' Club this afternoon, on "A Man at His Best." "I had the ghastliest time of my life," he said, "when I had to examine medically a group of men before compulsory military training was in force. Hundreds of young fellows struggled to get into the room and their language was lurid. Years later, after drill had been made compulsory 5 I examined other batches, and the men came in like gentlemen and their conduct was splendid. "Give me 600 men and I will pick out which of them have been trained as cadets. 1 loathe and detest war, but I know that military service will save the country millions of pounds in time to come. We want not Boldiers, but men who are ready to step in if war comes." Dr. Fenwick said military service gave physical benefit and disciplined the minds of boys and young men. Loafers who frequented street corners were given a foundation upon which to build character and a useful life. It wa3 the unfit rather than the fit who required training, and this would not cost the country anything. Two years' training for the unfit in physical and military drill would work wonders for the country.