LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE RELATION OF PHYSICAL TRAINING TO DEFENSIVE POWER.
(To TOR EDITOR OW THR " SPECTATOR." J SIR,—There is one part of the problem of national defence to which I hope that the Spectator will give attention,—the quality of the men available for service in the Army and Navy. Almost every one svho knows both our towns and foreign towns has long been convinced that the physical condition of our men is very inferior to that of the men of Germany and the Scandinavian countries, but as the only statistics which could be used for comparisons have hitherto been those relating to the rates of rejection of recruits for the armies. of the various countries, and most of our recruits come from the badly paid, badly fed classes, hopeful people have been able to maintain that there is no good reason to believe that there is more physical deterioration in this country than is found abroad. But the figures relating to the rejection of boys for our Navy seem to prove that a far worse state of things exists here than in any other country. As sailors in the Royal Navy are now well fed, as they can spend their lives in the Service, and get good pensions when they leave it, the Service is now very popular, and boys of all classes up to the middle class seek to enter it. The boys who do this are, of course, to a certain extent the pick of the population, because weak or spiritless lads do not wish to enter a profession in which they must face danger. So the physique of the candi- dates would be better than that of the youths who are com- pelled to enter the German Army if the physical condition of the two nations were about equally good. The statistics of rejection for the German Army and the British Navy appear to prove—and, I believe, do prove—that the condition of young Germans is far better than that of young Britons. Our Navy needs on an average five thousand lads a year. It cannot get so many who are quite up to its standard, end to get five thousand that it can use it has to reject on an average thirty-five thousand annually! I am from home, and Can give you the German figures only from memory, but I Shall not be far wrong. Taking Germany as a whole, fifty- four per cent, of the men who reach the age of twenty years are Physically fit for service in the Army. Even in Berlin, where the abominable nature of the housing of the working Classes, the underfeeding due to very high rents, and alt the evils of a large city have a very bad influence on health and strength, thirty-four per cent. of young men are fit for service. There are country districts where the proportion is over eighty per cent. Our twelve and a half per cent. for the Popular Navy is a terrible contrast.
All the doctors and other physiologists whose opinions I have met with agree in saying that it is military service, and the gymnastic training given at schools as a preparation for it, which are enabling Germans to some extent to resist the bad effects of urban life. Dr. Anton von Vogl, the head of the sanitary service of the Bavarian Army, says that the influence of the Army and the physical training preceding service is so good that Germany has no need to dread that large towns will deprive the German race of its defensive
Power. Mr. Harold Cox is right in saying that in Germany only about half the young men who are liable to serve actually do serve in the Army, but he is quite wrong in supposing that those who do not servo do not have their health improved through the influence of the German military system. Owing to the existence of that system, all boys physically fit to receive it have gymnastic training at school. Through Germany's having her attention drawn to the need of main- taining the fighting and working power of her people by the annual examinations of recruits, and her being :thus forced to see how bad is the influence of large cities on health and strength, both the German authorities mod the well-to-do Classes are giving far more thought and effort to attempts to Improve the physical condition of the mass of the people than our authorities and well-to-do classes are giving to similar work. Till recently only two hours a week were given to gYmnastie training in schools, and comparatively few German Children bad opportunities of taking part in athletic games. Now a third hour weekly has to be given to gymnastics, and one afternoon a week for games is being made compulsory everywhere, and is so already in many places. Physical training is also being made part of the curriculum of the compulsory continuation classes which are so valuable a part of the training of young Germans. To encourage, and to P, rovide teachers for, wholesome games, a vast society, which has the patronage of the Emperor and strong support from the State, the Society for the Promotion of Popular and Children's Games, has been formed which holds classes in about forty towns each year, and has already trained about eighteen thousand teachers—men and women—to act as leaders of games on the afternoon for compulsory games.
An account published in &nide Praxis last month of the 11PPer Silesian Association for the Promotion of Games
!hews bow much more seriously Germans regard the Improvement of the national physique than we do. The Aaiun:hake' was formed in 1902 for the Governmental dis- trict of Oppeln. It has a chief inspector, and publishes a magazine of which twelve thousand copies are sold. Two hundred societies with over eleven thousand subscribing
al.embers are connected with it. The members include ekateen hundred teachers, sixteen hundred artisans, fifteen buadred coal-miners. In the year 1907 the authorities in tha Governmental district subscribed £1,115, the Councils of towns and villages £1979, large employers of labour e2,269, the State 23,375. Its total income for the year was 27,788, so that it could work on a large scale.
I do not think that there is another population in the world :which could be so easily restored to physical and moral Ilealth by sensible physical training, accompanied by good manual training in schools, as our own nation. The man who gave me the terrible figures respecting the Neatens for our Navy told me that eighty years ago the
ajwedes were in as bad a physical condition as our town P..0Pulation, in great measure owing to drunkenness. But tbeY conquered their drink-sellers, they carried tree-planted
streets through all their towns, and gave all their young People physical training in schools, and military training ° then* young men, and now they are physically the finest
Previous page
