The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1917. MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16309, 10 August 1917, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1917. MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS.

The figures which show the results of medical examinations of ballotted men conducted by the Medical Boards seem to require some close attention from the authorities. The returns are especially interesting in their relation to the various military districts- They show that, whereas of the men examined in the Auckland district 43 per cent, were passed as fit for foreign; service, and for Wellington and Ota go the proportion was 39 per cent., the proportion of passes from Canterbury, which for military piirposes includes the West Coast, was no more than 32 ner cent. To put the matter another way, while a total of 8889 men. examined in the Auckland area, provided 3860 men for camp, a total of 11.243. called up by ballot in the Canterbury area, provided only 3636. The Condi-. tions_ which breed--vigorous men or rejects in a small country like ISTew Zealand surely are much the same_ for all its parts. That certainly is the public impression, confirmed by statistics of mortality. There seems no reason why a medical test, condvcfpd ort the same lines for both districts, "should not return +h> e.nrrip proportion of fit men for as for Auckland. Tof flip results of such te=te differ widely, and only less widely as between! Canterbury and the other military areas. The conclusion operas inevitable that the tests, as they are —died in the different, areas. are not the same. A common standard of rer/uirements was fixed when they beo-an their work, but different Boards havs interpreted it in different ways. The Canterbury Boards may have) been too strict, or the Boards in the Auckland province, for example, may have been too lax ini their requirements. That; question can only be determined when! another set of figures is afforded. The Defence Department has nol ■published yet the statistics of men who have been returned from camp, for medical reasons, .after they have been passed as'fit by the Medical Boards. When it does publish them, and we know / the proportion of men who have been_ sent back to the variousdistricts, we shall know better how the Boards are working. A certain number of men, who may seem fit when they are examined beforehand by a doctor, must be expected to develop defects under th? more searching test of military training-, but this should not be_ a large proportion. A belief exists, however, that the percentage of rejections' after men have been_ passed as fit has been much heavier than it would have been if all the examinations by the Boards had l-, ee n made with a proper thoroughness. The loss and inconvenience that are caused to individuals and to the community when men are sent" into camp who should no so there are serious, and will keconie intolerable if men of the Second Division, who usually have more responsibilities, are subjected to the same treatment without reason. At the same time there will be no less cause for complaint if some Boards, through an over-strict interpretation of requirements, are failing men who are quite fit to serve. Mistakes which may have been due to over-strictness will have their chance of being remedied when the rejected men of the First Division are re-examined, and they will be remedied more surely if each Board is allotted to a different district, and not made to rovise its own work, when tha re-examinations are performedThe Department should have all the information which will show it how the Boards are working,and assist them to apply a. common standard. If some doctors cannot, fulfil that requirement, they should give place to other 9 who can. _ Uniformity in examinations is most necessary, and uniformity is not sue-Q-ested when returns for different districts of a small dominion display such disparity as the latest figures show*

German comments on the fighting: in Flanders show that the vast strength which Britain is exerting in that theatre and magnitude of the stakes involved are not lost upon the enemy. One correspondent warns his people that only the first stage of the tremendous battle on this front has yet passed, and " while Germany is able to rejoice, it is also her duty to weep." "While he mentions only Bixschoote among a dozen villages carried by the Allies at their latest blow, he admits very plainly that the resisting powers of the German armies axe beins - strained almost beyond endurance by the terrific » equipment which the British can. now employ. It is "most brutal" o£ the enemy to ust, such machinery, thousrh the poison s-as, the unmatched big guns, and machine sruns in uninue profusion with which Germany prepared for "war were but evidence of her peaceful mind. If the British equipment is withstood with so much difficulty now. the Germans should be askino- themselves how they will resist it when it is doubled, by 'America's advent in full force.

The correspondent quoted keeps up the pretence, which was started by the Kaiser, that the sole object of the British blows in Flanders is to reach the Üboats. Captain Persius should have taught him where thej stand in the scale of the war. The "Yossiche Zeitung" fears lest Germany should be cut off from ihe sea, and new bases formed for the establishment of British aeroplanes, which would threaten the great German industries in the Rhine valley with destruction. On the Flanders stru"-"le, it declares, depends the issue of the war. and certainly if the Allies should break throu.o-h in Flanders no successes in Galitda would touch help the Germans. British air fleets are already powerful. "Despite the weather," Marshal Haig reports to-dp- "our aeroplanes bombed ammunition deoots, rail tracks, sidings and trains, forty miles behind the German lines, doing much damage." it is stated that the enemy has reorganised his troops behind the Flanders front. More heavr batteries have been brought and it may be long before his wall is broken. The latest success renortcd is that the French have o-aineo* some ground northwest of Bixschoote.

Truculence, encouraged by good fortune in Galicia, is still the first mood of the German mind if we can trust some indications. Promoters of the so-called peace resolution by the Reichstag hare had to assure their Tjeopk that that was no more than a trick, and Professors of Bonn University Protest indignantly against the suggestion that, as a nrelude to any peace talk, the German armies should -withdraw beyond the Rhine. They would not object to that if their desire was for an honest neace. Russia states unofficially that advices from the front, which confirm the satisfactory rallying- of various units, have greatly heartened Petrograd, but the rallying- i s not shown m official reports, which sneak still of retirements. In the American Senate it has been stated, but perhans not officially, that the next American troorw will go to Russia and Italv. The submarine report twentv-one large and two small—is ors6 than last week's—eighteen larsfe and three small-— and slightly better than that of the week Before.

Argentina after all may »et before China as the nest aJIr K July tne Buenos Aires Government demanded fornication from Germany for the torpedoinot Argentine shin*, and the >ote was considered virtually aD ultimatum. y 0 satisfaction has been eiven, and now it is stated that a great sensation lias been caused by the discovery of a German espionage system to facilitate the retraction of Argentine shins. Washington is s aid t * Jiave been informed ihnj- the Argentine will mobitise 100 000 troot>s this month. nrenarnforv to a break with Permanr. which is inevitable. .AH the minor accessions to the Allies are useful from the economiV. if no t from the military viewpoint.