Britain's new militia, the equivalent Europe's conscript armies, is now in process of formation and training. The point which ha: attracted most comment is the high physical standard of the youngsters who have registered for service. Of the first 200,000 called up for examination an average of more than 80 per cent. were passed out physically fit. This is an extremely high standard and in the opinion of more than one medical examiner the youngsters are physically and mentally far better than the recruits examined for the "First Hundred Thousand" in September, 1914. One examiner adds:
They are not much bigger in stature, but their teeth are good, their tonsils and adenoids have been attended to, and one does not see the bandy legs or knock-knees so common among the 1914 recruits. They have all a keen realization of what they are being called up for, and the very few who have been turned down for some physical defect look completely crestfallen.
Considering that the new militia are not even as old as "war babies" an important moral is to be drawn. The high physical and mental standard of the young men of today is undoubtedly due to the emphasis on social service, hygiene, and physical and monal education pursued since the end of the Great War. It all boils down to the idea that if A.-I. nation is wanted A.-I. methods must be employed, and this has been the lesson assiduously followed in Britain since the last war, not-as an emergency. for the production of troops but as a design for a better, more active and more vigorous people. One examiner quoted by the London "Daily Telegraph" draws attention to the importance of routine medical inspection of school children which is so largely responsible for the improvement in physique, and he adds he never expected to see so many perfect mouths without any decay or irregularities of the teeth—thus confounding a charge formerly held against the British people. An increased alertness of mind accompanies the irhprovement physique and this the medical examiner associates with the fact that although they come from factories most of these establishments have sporting and recreational facilities such as swimming pools for their employees,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.