The Sun TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 1917. THE MEDICAL TESTS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 963, 13 March 1917, Page 6

The Sun TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 1917. THE MEDICAL TESTS.

From the early days of the war to the tiiiie that voluntaryism practi- j (•ally exhausted itself, men applying for service at the front were expected to pass searching tests before! they were sent along to the mili- 1 lary authorities as physically fit. A, high standard of physical well-being! was insisted on, and rightly so, but, of late that standard has been relaxed, willi the result that there have been a number of cases in which, men who have been passed as fit have developed serious weaknesses ui- broke down altogether when subjected to the rigours of camp; training. In such instances, appar-l ciilv nothing remains but to discharge these unlit, win* are thus thrown back on the world, some of them without relief unless the patriotic societies come to their assist-! anee'. as the Defence Department declines to recognise any responsi-. bilil.V in such cases. The Mayor of Dunedii: expressed himself in very strong terms on this point, ami his] indignant comment is fully justified. The medical boards are the servants of the Government, :uii\ when they certify to the fitness of a num. who afterwards breaks down under the strain of training, the Government is as morally responsible for the care; of thai man until lie is well again as j it is I'm the imalided fighters re-1 turned from Europe. The Govern-! men! has no rigid whatever to expect 1 any recruit, after he has been classed i as fit by a medical board, to fend fori himself when his misfortunes are transparently the result of work in cam]). lis usponsibilily begins when the doctors certify as to a; man's fitness, and, in such cases as j are referred to, it should end only | when that individual is returned to! civil occupation in something likej his normal condition. It is easy to i imagine grave'hardship being im-j posed in those instances where men j called up under the ballot, ami j passed as up to the physical stand-j .'ir<!. have had to sell their busi-! j liess before responding to the call | to go into camp. The trouble could; be avoided if there was more uni-! fortuity among the medical boards, j It is obviously a waste of time and j money, and sometimes a source of serious injury to the recruit himself, to pass on weaklings carelessly to the Defence authorities. Before the first appeal boards got to work a common understanding was arrived at, a working basis, which made for consistency in decisions. It seems that the medical boards, and particularly those recently set up, could profitably follow suit. Failing that, they should have very definite instructions from General Menderson as to their duties, and—this point Is important—as to the degree to which 111e standard of Illness has been relaxed. At present there appears to be no such understanding, if we may judge from what is occurring somewhere probably every week. It is possible that this aspect has been overlooked in the increase of work and the number of medical boards, but unless some sort of uniformity is insisted on by the authorities responsible, instances of unfit men being thrown out of camp with (heir health seriously impaired will recur. The allegations and criticism of the Dunedin Patriotic Association call for an explanation by the Min ister of Defence; an explanation to which the reservists of both divisions are justly entitled.