What has happened, in fact, is that many thousands of
young mon who were discharged from hospital completely cured of their wounds are now, under the solemn legislative enactment of the State, excused from all further service, while men who have been wounded since that time are patched up in hospitals over and over again in order to be sent back to the lighting-line. We have heard of men who had recovered from wounds for the fifth or even the sixth time being sent back to the trenches. This seems intolerably unjust when their case is compared with that of the men who wore wounded once in the earlier part of the war and have long since completely recovered. At the same time, the pledge of Parliament is a pledge that cannot be disregarded. We do not mean for a moment that such a pledge can possibly be, ignored, but we do say that the questions raised by this existing reservoir of men (amounting perhaps to a hundred thousand or more) should be faced.
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