UNFIT SOLDIERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24102, 22 October 1941, Page 8

UNFIT SOLDIERS

REMEDIAL TREATMENT LARGE CAMP URGED THE MANPOWER PROBLEM Although months have elapsed since the Government announced its intention of building a convalescent camp or depot in each of the military districts, there is still no indication when construction is to start. This is in spite of very widely-held opinions that such a camp is urgently necessary if the Dominion is to make the most of its manpower and if it is not to continue to acquiesce in Expeditionary Force wastage which has occurred ever since the war started.

It has long been apparent that, unless a comprehensive scheme was introduced to remove the unfitness of the large temporarily unfit group, then thousands of men would never go overseas. After more than a year had passed the Government introduced a plan whereby men suffering from certain simple ailments which could be removed by a month's hospital treatment were compelled to undergo the prescribed attention. Now, in addition to this, a start has been made at Papakura camp with remedial training courses for men with types of unfitness which it is considered can be removed by the special corrective training which is given them. Limited Schemes The latter scheme follows the principle which in the last war led to the establishment of a C 3 camp, men suffering from certain simple types of unfitness being sent into camp to have their unfitness removed at the same time as they receive modified military training of a type which their special weaknesses enable them to perform. It is widely held that the establishment of such a camp for this war is long overdue.

Both the remedial schemes which have been outlined are good beginnings, but they are no more than beginnings. Hospitals can give remedial treatment only to a certain number because they are already strained by other demands upon them; and camps can find room for only a few remedial cases because they also are generally fully occupied. Thus, the value of the scheme is limited by the number of men which can be handled. The process of dealing with one small draft and then of continuing with another small draft is necessarily so slow that while the cumulative value of the system may be apparent in another two years' time the war may end before the remedial treatment system has been able to make the contribution toward solving the country's manpower problem which it seems fully capable of making if tackled on sufficiently large a scale, and, also, if tackled at once. Better Grouping Better than three district convalescent or remedial treatment camps would be one central New Zealand canvp, capable of accommodating, say, 2000 men at a time. This would enable the men to be grouped better. For instance, instead of having three sets of men with feet troubles in the district camps there would be one larger group of such men. Medical and instructional staff would probably be smaller than if there had to be three sets of doctors and instructors, and building and administrative costs would probably also be less. While it is better to start such a scheme in a camp where fit men are also receiving training, instead of not starting it at all, the continuance of such a system of joint training produces one important objection. This is. that it is not good for fit men to see other men receiving lighter training than they are being given. A remedial treatment camp should for this reason be separate from the ordinary mobilisation or training camp. Large Wastage in Past

The manpower wastage which has been occurring in the past is both positive and negative in its aspects —positive in that hundreds of Expeditionary Force men have needlessly been discharged from the Army after entering camp, and negative in that thousands have not been given the duties they would probably be capable of undertaking if remedial treatment had been provided. The Expeditionary Force men tailing into the first category had to be discharged because there was no provision made until recently for special corrective training to be given. It is not argued that remedial treatment removes the unfitness of every man. The Expeditionary Fofcce percentage of men made fit has been about SO and the Territorial Force percentage, since the men start off from a lower grade of fitness, will probably be less. If 500 fit men can be produced from 1000 unfit men -within a short time the value is obvious, and that being so, the sooner the remedial treatment schemes which have been started are enlarged the better.