The Mayor of Luton (Alderman J. H. Staddon) has been making note of the cases in which men, obviously unfit, have been passed for general service. Here is another.

A fortnight ago we received a letter from "Sympathiser" calling attention to the case of a Luton man who suffers from bad feet and epileptic fits, and who had suffered a severe seizure on his way back from Bedford, where he had been passed for general service. Our correspondent expressed very decided views on the subject, but as he omitted to give his name and address we could not make use of the communication.

The particulars of the case have since come into our possession. The man in question is married and aged 30. Some years ago he joined the Army, but was discharged after being at Bedford one day only. Since the outbreak of the war he admitted himself for examination at Luton, but was rejected, which was not surprising considering that he is flat-footed and that some of his toes overlap, to say nothing of the epileptic fits to which he is a victim.

Being called up for re-examination at Bedford, he went and was passed for general service. The excitement at the occasion, however, was too much for him, and he had a very bad fit on the journey back. Since then, we are informed, they have recurred with more than usual frequency.

Now, one would like to know of what possible service could such a man be in the Army. Even if he had been passed for sedentary occupation only, the policy of placing such a man on the Army pay sheets for any purpose whatsoever would be an extremely doubtful one, but the idea of putting him into training for general service seems to be absolutely absurd.

The "unfits" can only act as a clog in the military machine, and they are nothing but a source of trouble from the moment they are put into khaki until they are invalided out of the Army.

Of course, it is the medical examiners who get all the blame for this sort of thing, but we presume they do their best to carry out the instructions given them from time to time, and it is the instructions which are at fault.

In the early days of the war thousands of good men were rejected because the medical examiners, we are told, had received instructions to pass none except such as were fit for immediate service abroad. Now the instructions seem to have been carried to the other extreme, and the result is witnessed in cases like that given above and others which have excited the amazement and indignation of the Luton Tribunal.

The question of whether men were properly medically examined at Bedford was again referred to at the close of the local Tribunal on August 30th, 1916, when it was again made evident that the Luton Tribunal was by no means satisfied on that point.

The Town Clerk (Mr William Smith) said he had received a reply from Col Henderson (the Commanding Officer of the local recruiting area) with respect to two cases of unfit men being passed for military service. The Colonel, it would appear, was himself content with the way those two men had been treated.

Having heard the Colonel's letter read, the Mayor expressed himself as anything but satisfied with the reply.

The Town Clerk then intimated that he had cited another half-dozen instances of questionable examinations at Bedford to the War Office, and added that he was awaiting an answer to his communication. The case of a man on the verge of consumption was one of them.

The Mayor remarked that the medical authorities were laying themselves open to serious trouble later if they passed men with consumption [as tuberculosis was historically known], and he now understood that suffering from heart disease was not sufficient to keep men out of the Army or from general service.

The Luton Tribunal was not prepared to send men, helter-skelter, in the Army when they knew that they were not getting the examination required by law. One man had been passed who could not even stand ordinary volunteering, and they refused to take any notice of private doctors' certificates.

The matter was not further pursued by the Tribunal, pending a reply from the War Office.

When an obviously short-sighted straw hat manufacturer had earlier been granted conditional exemption as being a one-man business, Col Fenwick (Military Representative) urged the advisability of applicants being medically examined before attending the Tribunal.

Mr H. W. Lathom, who appeared for the applicant, produced laughter when he said: "They sometimes keep them."

"They can't do that," said the Town Clerk, to which Mr Lathom replied: "Oh, but they do, and it is no use telling a man he can't be hanged after the event."

[The Luton News: Thursday, August 31st, 1916]