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The injured man is not compelled to take the training. He is advised by the doctor and by the vocational staff to attend the classes, but there is no penalty if he refuses. The choice of a career is settled upon at a conference of a doctor, the educational organizer, and the patient himself. The disabled man's own inclination, his physical disability and his suitability for the calling from medical and educational standpoints, are the determining factors in deciding his career.

It is the rule at the South African Military Hospital that no man is kept a day longer than is necessary for his medical treatment. After his discharge he is kept as an out-student, and can receive further medical treatment as an out-patient.

Upon discharge from the hospital, the men are not discharged from the army, but are kept as Union soldiers in hostels close to the hospital, and continue their training in the hospital workshops. The men are uniformed and subject to military discipline. A man may or may not undergo training as an out-student just as he chooses, but if he does take the training he must obey military orders.

Most of the students acquire sufficient training at Richmond Park to ensure them good livelihoods in South Africa, but wherever possible they are placed in workshops in England for several weeks prior to their embarkation so that they may get practical experience under actual working conditions. During their stay at Richmond Park the men receive, instead of pay or pension, certain allowances from Union funds. It has been estimated that over ninety per cent, of those for whom re-education would be appropriate undertake the training.

The problem of reinstating the returned man in civil life in South Africa has been placed by the Union government in the hands of the Central Committee of the Governor General's Fund, and the whole Union has been divided into districts with a local committee in charge of each area. On these committees rest the responsibility for finding employment for returned soldiers.

When a man is committed to the workshops, a full report is prepared as to his previous employment, physical disability, and the trade for which he is to be re-educated. This is sent to the Union government with copies for the committee for the area in which the man desires to live upon return to South Africa. Copies of progress reports on each case are sent from time to time to these committees, so that they have complete information well in advance and should thus have little difficulty on his return in finding for him suitable work. In fact, students are often notified prior to their return that there has been found for them employment upon which they can enter immediately after their arrival at home.

CHAPTER XV
ACROSS THE FIRING LINE

Prepared as she was for war, so also was Germany prepared for the consequences of war. At the outbreak of the war, she had of all other countries laid the most solid foundation for the care of the crippled soldier. The German national Federation for the Care of Cripples is an organization of long standing. There had been developed, during half a century's experience, fifty-eight cripple homes, under private auspices, ranging in size from six to three hundred beds. Some of them were already taking adults as well as children, and they had among them 221 workshops, teaching 51 trades. In addition, there were sanatoria and re-educational workshops for industrial cripples under the employers' accident insurance companies; there were orthopedic hospitals operated by municipalities, and there were trade schools and employment bureaus under various government auspices.

All these resources accumulated in peace time for the rehabilitation of cripples were mobilized immediately after the outbreak of the war -- almost simultaneously with the military mobilization. Eight days after the outbreak of hostilities, the Empress, at the instance of Dr. Biesalski, Germany's leading orthopedist and secretary of the national Federation for the Care of Cripples, addressed to existing institutions for the crippled a letter pointing out the necessities ahead and urging them to open their doors and provide facilities for the treatment and training of disabled soldiers. To this all the homes immediately consented. Dr. Biesalski undertook a tour of Germany and visited the principal cities urging the formation of voluntary committees for the care of war cripples. The immediate result was the formation of volunteer committees in many cities and of larger ones in some states and provinces. At the present time, Germany is thoroughly covered by a network of such organizations. A local committee usually comprises representatives of the municipality, of the military district command, the accident insurance association, the Red Cross, the women's leagues, the employers, the chamber of commerce, the chamber of handwork, and the labor unions. In the fall of 1915, a national committee was formed with the object of coordinating the work and making investigations and plans for the future.