EXILED PROFESSIONAL MEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22285, 11 June 1934, Page 6

EXILED PROFESSIONAL MEN

Fears have'been expressed both by the New Zealand Dental Association and by members o£ the British Medical Association in New Zealand concerning the danger of the over-crowding of the dental and medical professions in this country by the admission of exiles from Nazi Germany. The position is one of some delicacy and difficulty. There must be in New Zealand, as in all enlightened countries, considerable sympathy with Jewish professional men who are the victims of the cruel and irrational anti-Semitic movement with which the' Hitler regime is identified. Their professional colleagues here, and elsewhere, doubtless deplore the treatment they have received, and deeply sympathise with them. In normal times, it may be conjectured, New Zealand practitioners would be desirous of assisting them, realising that the introduction of men trained in other countries would almost certainly be to the advantage of the medical and dental services in the Dominion. But, as the president of the New Zealand Dental Association has remarked, the circumstances at present are extraordinary. Dentists —and medical men also —in New Zealand are, in common with other sections of the community, seriously feeling the effects of the economic depression. Moreover, both professions

arc already sufficiently competent, both as to number and qualifications, to meet the requirements of the community. Indeed, the over-crowding of the professions is a problem that has become somewhat acute. This is particularly so in the case of medicine. The number of medical practitioners registered in New Zealand at the present time is greater in proportion to population than in any other country in the world, with the exception of the United States, and it is now proposed to restrict the number of, students in the Dominion avlio may be trained in the Medical School. These are considerations that cannot reasonably be overlooked. It may seem ungracious on the part of New Zealand if she refuses an asylum to professional men of standing who, by reason only of their race, have been forced to leave the country in' which they were trained and in which they were practising. Unfortunately, however, it would be extremely difficult to devise any plan that would enable them to establish themselves in the Dominion except at the cost of gravely affecting the prospects of New Zealand’s own products —not so much of the doctors, and dentists already, in practice in New Zealand as of the students, natives of the country, who are being trained for professions in which, in the most favourable circumstances, they will have to work hard and successfully in order to obtain a secure footing.