X-RAY EXAMINATION OF RECRUITS

Southland Times, Issue 24597, 20 November 1941, Page 4

X-RAY EXAMINATION OF RECRUITS

SUGGESTION BY R.S.A.

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, November 19. The Dominion executive committee of the Returned Services Association considers that in view of the number of men who entered camp and subsequent to an X-ray examination had been discharged as unfit no recruit should enter camp until the result of his X-ray examination is known. Representations on these lines were made recently by the association to the Minister of Defence, who in reply pointed out that the instructions provided “that an X-ray examination shall be made before entering camp unless this would make recruits absent from home for more than a day or would cause undue expense or inconvenience.”

The association is of the opinion that expense and inconvenience brought about by a recruit being away from home for more than a day is infinitesimal compared with that occasioned as the result of such recruit entering camp and disposing of his tools, possibly his business and personal effects, only to find that the X-ray examination results in his discharge fi om the forces. In addition in a case of breakdown in health serious questions of war pension and treatment arise. Further representations are to be made accordingly.