The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1917. MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13448, 29 March 1917, Page 4

The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1917. MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS

Bitter complaints have been made by men who, before the inception of the ballot, repeatedly volunteered for service with the Expeditionary Force, but had been as often turned down by the medical officers appointed by the Defence authorities to examine recruits. Feeling, therefore, that there was absolutely no chance of serving with the colours, they undertook fresh obligations, in the belief that they thereby would be serving their country. Drawn in the ballot, however, they have been passed as fit, and now find that they will have to submit to considerable pecuniary loss in order to respond to the call and go into camp. These sacrifices for the most part would be gladly made did the men have any assurance that they would eventually get to the front. Many of the men are really anxious to "do their bit" with rifle and bayonet, but numerous cases have been reported wherein reservists passed by the Medical Boards have, after a short period in camp, been rejected, thus vindicating the verdict of the local doctors, and the men have had to return home to find that their additional sacrifices have been in vain and they have been unjustly put to additional expense and inconvenience to no purpose. Doctors, we know, are not infallible, but from sworn statements made before the Appeal Boards it would seem that the examinations in many instances have been of the most cursory and superficial character, and the re-

and disabilities have been altogether ignored. The Medical Boards in some cases have apparently adopted the motto of the Psalmist that "all men are liars," and, firmly believing in their own infallibility, have gaily sent the maimed, the halt and the blind into camp quite oblivious of the unnecessary hardship and sacrifice they were thereby inflicting. The Appeal Boards cannot go behind the Medical Boards, even in the face of palpable errors on the part of the latter, and on frequent occasions they have expressed sympathy with appellants whom they recognised would be sent back after a short sojourn in camp, and with very apparent reluctance dismissed the appeals. It is satisfactory to know that the Medical Boards have conferred and a uniform standard has been agreed upon, which it is hoped will have the effect of removing many of the present grounds of complaint, and that henceforth fewer men will have to be rejected in camp. Reservists surely have a right to demand that the initial medical examination shall be sufficiently rigorous to ensure them, if they pass, a reasonable prospect of getting to the front. We know it is impossible to give an absolute guarantee and that, be the examinations and tests ever so stringent, the strenuous work in camp will develop incipient weakness which no ordinary examination could detect; but it is scandalous when men can be sent into camp under circumstances as described by a correspondent in these columns a few days ago. "Yorkshire-

man's" experiences, we are sorry to say, are not unique, and neither are the victims confined to any one district. It would almost appear as if the fiat had gone forth that all men are to be sent into camp to be tested by experience. If that is the case, why the farce and expense of the preliminary examination; but if they are necessary the reservists particularly, and the country generally, have a right to expect that the Medical Boards shall justify their existence. There is another important aspect of the matter, and it is that previously enlisted and medically-rejected men have been despatched to camp, and have been sent home again a few weeks later practically broken down or seriously impaired in health because of the hardships and discomforts entailed. It is surely scandalous that such should be the case; that it is so is a serious reflection upon the members of the Medical Boards responsible for it.