* * The C 3 Population No one will be
in the mood to rejoice at the increase of population announced by the Registrar-General, or to be greatly distressed by the prospect Of a decreate a few years hence, when confronted with some of the facts about the quality of the population. How much of it is C 3 ? General Sir Cecil Romer gave some dis- turbing figures when he was speaking about recent recruiting experiences for the Army. There is no lack of men offering themselves as recruits, but there is the utmost difficulty in getting enough men who are physically fit. .What is the explanation of this ? Is it that , the Army is unpopular, and that the fittest men are unwilling to enlist ? That can hardly be the whole explanation at a time when the Army provides better- conditions of life than ever before, and when so many men are out of work. And it is scarcely compatible with the large number of men who offer themselves. For the whole country the percentage of rejections is 52 per mut., and in the industrial north, where there is most unemployment, 68 per cent. The Adjutant-General, knowing how men put on weight in the Army with Army fare, thinks that bad feeding due to ignorance, rather than a quantitative insufficiency of food, is the cause of poor physique. But the B.M.A. figures :have -shown that the nutrition dole-money will provide is by no means equal to that provided in the Army.
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