SPECIAL TRAINING CAMPS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17092, 25 August 1917, Page 11

SPECIAL TRAINING CAMPS

FOR MEN PREVIOUSLY REJECTED. RENDERING THE UNFIT FIT. A statement was issued in Wellington on Thursday regarding the medical re-examination of First Division rejects and the measures being adopted for training those who aro accepted. It has been decided to establish a prepartory training camp at Feathorston for the men accepted', and as they are passed fit to pass them into the roinforcemcnt drafts for active service abroad. The medical reexamination will bo commenced in tho Auckland district on September 3, and as tho work there is completed the other military districts will bo taken in rotation, working down throughout tho country. Tho statement reads as follows"Of tho total number of men called in the first nine ballots (the number being 49,586), 20.608 wore found unfit, and tho very great mar jority of these men were classified' C2, n relatively small number being classified CI and D. A man classified CI is a. man , likely to become fit for activo service after spocial training. A man classified C2 is a j man found unlit for active service beyond tho seas, but fit for service of some nature in New Zealand. A man classified D is a man utterly unfit for any service. It has ] always been intended that men found unfit should be re-examined, and that those ' who, in tho meantime, have become fit for service, or who could be made fit for ' service, shonld bo utilised for this object. A special , Medical Board will be set up for the purpose of re-examination, and a subdivision of 1 Featherston Ca-mp will bo established as a training ground for those men whom tho board may classify as Iflcely to become fit for service after special training. "It is intended that all men who will ultimately reach tho special camp should pass through the hands of tho new board for re-examination, so that there will be ono standard set upon which men will be classed as fit to enter tho special camp, or rejected _as unfit for the purpose. The' camp will not be a new one. but -will be a subdivision of the existing camp. at Featherston, although the subdivision will contain only the men who aro to undergo tho spocial training, and who will be handled by t a special staff. It should be_ clearly understood that the object of this camp is to make men fit to be trained for activo service who now are not sufficiently fit for that purpose, and it is believed that much can be done in this direction. There are two classes of men who will enter this camp—namely, those men tho board have already classified CI, and who have not been called up, and those the new board will select for training with a view to fitting them for active service. l Men called up for .examination by the new board will be almost without exception C2 men, and the board's action in selecting them for training in the special camp will be tantamount to their re-clas?ifica.tion as Cl.' All men, therefore, who go into tho special camp will be men who after special training are likely to become fit for active scr-

"The camp will bo known as the 'Cl training camp.' The training in 'Cl training camp' will bo devised for the purpose of buildint* up the physique of the recruits, and will consist of a . graduated training or system of exercise aimed solely at the creation of a physically fit man out of a man who when he enters the camp is not physically lit man. It is intended thp.t this training, devised as it is to build up physique, -will be under the closest supervision of medical officers, who will have the recruits under their review day by day. All men sent into this camp will be treated and classed alike. Officers will not enter this preparatory camp as officers, nor noncommissioned officers as non-commissioned officers. All will enter on tlio same footing, and as a result of their, training will oither be advanced in classification to thr A standard (fit for active service beyond the seas), and drafted to a reinforcement camp, or be put back to the C2 classification and rejected for training for active service. "The first draft will arrive at the special camn on September 26. and for a beginning will consist of 500 men. Orders have iust been issued for the concentration of the Cl men for this camn for tlin date above named, and' orders have als£ been issued for the' C2 re-examination" Board to commence its re-examination of the G2 men on S n ntember 3, commencing in the Auckland district."