H.—llA

(c) Comparative Fitness of Single and Married Men called by Ballot By comparing the above figures with the corresponding percentages of single men placed in Grade I at each age-point (Table 8 (a)) it will be seen that balloted married men have been found fitter than balloted single men of like age. This is due to a combination of factors, notably (a) the fact that the ranks of single men are continually being depleted of relatively fit men by transfer to the married classes on marriage, and (b) the fact that a relatively greater number of fit single men had volunteered and been accepted for service prior to the introduction of compulsory service, leaving a greater proportion of less fit volunteer rejects to be included in the ballots. The following graph shows the comparison between the proportions of married and single balloted men respectively who were actually placed in Grade I.

There is, however, another factor which tends to reduce the number of fit men yielded from the whole group of married men (as compared with single men) when considered in one block ; this is the relative age-distribution of married and single men respectively. As will be seen by the graph below, the average age of single men is much below that of married men of military age, so that the married men, while fitter at each age-point, are older on the average.

The following table gives the percentages placed in each grade for the whole block aged twenty-one to forty inclusive :—

This table shows the extent to which the superior fitness of married men at each age is offset by the fact that they are an older group of men. Had the limits of the group been taken as eighteen to forty-five years, however, the single men would have shown a marked superiority overall, owing to the inclusion of a preponderance of single men at the fittest ages (eighteen to twenty), while the majority of those at the unfittest ages (forty-one to forty-five) are married.

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Grade I. Grade II. Grade III. Grade IV. Total. All single men aged 21-40 inclusive .. 49-9 11-3 13-8 18-4 6-6 .100-0 All married men aged 21-40 inclusive ! 48-3 10-9 16-2 22-8 1-8 I 100-0