Abstract
THE population of the Union of South Africa is slightly more than ten millions, of which about one fifth are of European stock. The others, comprising seven million aboriginal Bantus, a quarter of a million Asiatics (Indians and Chinese) and about a million 'coloureds' (that is, Eurafrieans and Eurasians) on the whole exist at a lower socio-economic level than the bulk of the white population. Nearly a fifth of the Europeans fall into the category of 'poor whites'- people who, from one cause or another, have lost their sense of responsibility. In fact, they are below the aboriginal race in physique and in general nutritional level. The 'poor white' problem in the Union was investigated in 1929, by Murray, for the Carnegie Commission, and his report, published in 1932, so shocked the amour propre of the Government of the Union that, in 1937, it instituted a survey of the state of nutrition of the school children throughout the Union. The results of this survey so far published are scattered through various journals or appear in special reports. In order to make the methods and results of the survey more available, further studies are to be published bi-annually in a new journal called Manpower, the first number of which has recently reached Great Britain*. It contains, besides a very thoughtful and thought-provoking editorial, two original papers by E. H. Cluver, E. Jokl and T. W. de Jongh-authors already well known for their researches on nutrition in the Union and for a monumental work on the results of a rehabilitation service for young men.
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BURNS, D. PHYSICAL FITNESS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN SOUTH AFRICA. Nature 151, 704–705 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151704a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151704a0