THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 1948. MEDICAL TRAINING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26672, 19 January 1948, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 1948. MEDICAL TRAINING

Few aspects of medical training were overlooked in the report which was presented by the Medical Committee to ithe Senate of the University of New Zealand, and the Senate’s action in accepting the recommendations as the basis of future policy will be generally approved. The report was the outcome of a discussion which arose at the annual meeting of the Senate in 1945, when a considerable amount of criticism was directed at the system of admission to the Medical School—a competitive system based on marks obtained in the intermediate examinations held by the different colleges. The problems arising from this system were the first to be considered by the committee, and its urgent recommendation that quotas should be allotted to the various colleges was adopted, and applied in 1947. The Senate has now approved this principle as a policy for determining admissions to the Medical School in the future, and the strictly competitive character of the intermediate examination has been removed by the decision that consideration shall be given to educational background, academic ability, laboratory skill and personal qualifications in fixing the order of priorities. The number of admissions annually to the Medical School will still be limited, but there appears to be no reason to believe that this restriction will prove overburdensome once the need for accommodating returned servicemen students has been met. If, moreover, the first year course is revised in a manner that will enable the work done to be considered for other science degrees, one of the principal causes for complaint on the part of students who pass the intermediate examination but are denied admission to the Medical School will be removed.

The clearly-expressed opinion of the committee that the Otago Medical School should remain the only national school should do much to clarify a situation that was rapidly becoming confused regarding the desirability of another medical training centre in New Zealand. Any long-range plan of university education must envisage the inauguration of a second medical school when the population of the country increases sufficiently to warrant a duplication of the facilities and the staff that exist in Otago; but any action to hasten the erection of such a costly edifice would be premature while the present school is fully capable of pi’oducing all the trained men that can be absorbed immediately and in the near future. There was some difference of opinion in the Senate over the committee’s stated disapproval of the specialisation of sixth-year? study in one centre. The argument that a more efficient teaching unit could be built up by concentrating final year students in one school is undoubtedly a sound one. On the other hand, the system of distribution recommended by the committee will probably enable sixth-year students to gain wider and more practical experience in hospital work, and at that stage of their training practical experience is what they require most.

OCCUPATION IN BERLIN

With the approach of the first meeting of the Allied Control Commission after the breakdown of t.he Foreign Ministers’ Conference, attention is being focused on Berlin. It has been announced that Marshal Sokolovsky has been recalled to Moscow to receive his brief, and already there have been speculations that this will include the breaking of the remaining ties between the eastern and western zones. On the other hand, rumour has been busy to the effect that Great Britain and the United States are preparing to withdraw from Berlin as part , of their joint preparations for the strengthening of their fused zones. This rumour can, however, be dismissed as Russian propaganda. Neither is it likely that there will be a collapse of the present organisation of the Allied Commission which has an enhanced importance because of the disagreement among the Foreign Ministers. It is a working fact—although it does not work as efficiently or as harmoniously as is desirable—and neither Russia nor the Western Powers have given any indication yet that the time is ripe for the final partitioning of Germany. The difficulties are, moreover, mainly on the political side whereas the co-opera-tion in the Allied Commission is based on economic relationships and neither eastern nor western Germany can be made a viable unit without the expenditure of much time and money. The United States Deputy Military Governor has stated America’s intention to remain in Berlin until it is once more the capital of a united Germany. The British point of view to the same effect has been even more definitely stated by Mr Bevin. .

One of the stumbling blocks in the way of greater economic co-opera-tion is the subject of reparations, which was also one of the fundamental obstacles in the way of progress at the London Conference. “ So long as the Americans withhold deliveries of reparations to the Soviet Union,” The Times recently commented, “ agreement in the Allied Control Commission in Berlin is out of the question.” On this matter there is difference of opinion between Great Britain and the United States as well as between the United States and Russia. For a time last year the Americans withheld deliveries to Russia but Great Britain continued to send reparations materials forward while insisting that Russia fulfil her obligations under the Potsdam Agreement by sending food and other goods from the east. After the breakdown • at

London the United -States again threatened to withhold deliveries, but Russia promptly announced that she was ready to commence shipments. This would be suitable to Great Britain but on the other hand the overall importance of the Marshall Plan makes Anglo-Ameri-can unity desirable. In the very nature of this disagreement, however, there lies a hope that a compromise will have to be arranged. Irrespective of what may be done in regard to economic policy, it is quite unthinkable that Great Britain and the United States would consider withdrawing from Berlin leaving the nascent German political parties to their fate under Russian control.