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Show Washington, D. C. CONSCRIPT' DOCTORS National Guardsmen and the new draft army are going to have plenty of medical and dental service. Army plans call for a corps of 12,000 doctors and 2,287 dentists by July 1, 1941 who will be summoned from the Medical and Dental Reserve as the expansion of the army pro- 6resses- u 1 ins At present the army has 1.196 physicians on active duty and expects ex-pects to add another 2,700 from the mobilized National Guard. The remaining re-maining 8,400 will be secured from the Reserve Corps, the draft and volunteers. Dental vacancies will be filled the same way. The 7,000 nurses needed for the Nursing Corps will be obtained chiefly chief-ly through Red Cross registers. The nurses have warrant officer status and receive $60 a month, plus board, room and laundry. They cannot marry while in the service. Animal medicine also will not be neglected, with 1,143 veterinarians to be added to horse-drawn units. The army is strict about its medical med-ical and dental qualifications sccept-lng sccept-lng only graduates of Class A colleges. col-leges. Under a bill introduced by Rep. John McCormack of Massachusetts, Massachu-setts, the army would be required to give commissions to graduates of Class B schools, but this is being opposed vigorously. ; There are only two such schools in the U. S.: The Middlesex college , at Middlesex, Mass., and the Chicago Chi-cago Medical school. Their graduates gradu-ates can practice only in Massachusetts Massa-chusetts and Illinois and the army refuses to admit them as physicians. It applies the same rule to chiropractors, chiro-practors, osteopaths, naturopaths, neuropaths, and podiatrists. The over-all medical ratio of the army is: For every 20,000 men a 1,000-bed hospital; with each 1,000-bed 1,000-bed unit manned by 73 doctors, 120 nurses and 500 non-commissioned officers. BALKAN MESS Diplomatic dispatches from the Balkans indicate that Russia is not having a ver good time in her dealings deal-ings with the Axis. The Russians are worried over the troops rushed by Hitler and Mussolini Musso-lini across her southern border in Rumania. The Axis has taken over the Rumanian military system completely com-pletely and even plans to conscript Rumanian troops. This came as a surprise to Moscow, Mos-cow, which asked Berlin about it. This was the answer: 1. Nazi troops are needed in Rumania, Ru-mania, first to protect the oil fields, since oil is all-important to Germany. Ger-many. 2. Italian and German troops may want to invade Turkey later in the year, and they want 60,000 men who could be rushed immediately from Rumania to Istanbul and the Straits. The Nazis also explained that they were not taking any chances with Stalin's troops, because after Hitler had agreed to Russia having Bessarabia, Bes-sarabia, Russia also seized Buko-vina Buko-vina without even consulting anyone. Therefore, the Germans say they wiH station their own troops near the Russian boundary to see that this does not happen again. The Nazis also explained that the Bulgarian and Hungarian armies still were itching for more territory, so Nazi troops have come in to protect pro-tect the sovereignty of these small Balkan countries. ARMY UNIFORMS , Young men who want to be officers of-ficers in the new army are finding that the greatest obstacle is the cost of getting dressed. The army does not provide uniforms for its officers, and the cost at a tailor shop is enough to send them back home as conscientious objectors. For an officer called in from Reserve, Re-serve, here is the list of minimum requirements. It does not include the "special evening dress," which would add another $105 to the total. Olive drab blouse (coat) with "pink" slacks $ 60.00 Overcoat 58 00 Garrison cap 8.50 Campaign cap 3.00 Sam Browne belt 10.50 Puttees , . 10! 50 Field boots 18.50 Six shirts at $3.00 18 00 Breeches !'. 2500 Total $212.00 This does not include a $16 saber, which has now been made optional! And it includes only one suit of blouse-and-slacks, whereas three or four actually are required. The Quartermaster corps of the army estimates that $250 would be required to purchase a "modest outlay" out-lay" for a young officer. RATS AND WAR Rats in America are getting a break as a result of the war in Europe. For the war has interfered with shipment of red squill from Ine Mediterranean area, and red squill is the most effective rat poison ever discovered. It is a bulb, like an onion. You buy it in powdered or liquid form and mix it with raw meat. Rats go for it, but they only g0 once. Department De-partment of agriculture recommends recom-mends red squill, but supplies are being interrupted by war. |