10 JAMES NANGLE. 



The earliest efforts at training the injured commenced 

 as soon as wounded men began to return. These efforts 

 were made by the different State branches of the War 

 Council, with the assistance, mainly, of the technical 

 schools carried on by the State Governments and by the 

 various Councils. Very good work was done by the War 

 Council in this way, and it would be impossible to over- 

 estimate the value of the help given by the authorities 

 controlling the technical schools in all the States. 



On its establishment early in 1918, the Repatriation 

 Department took over the responsibility of training the 

 injured. At this time, a total of 527 men, who were then 

 in training, were taken over from the War Council, and 

 though necessarily the men were not disturbed in their 

 training, the responsibility for them passed to the Repatri- 

 ation Department. 



That Department had many very big and difficult problems 

 to face, but it recognised that not the least of these was 

 the training of the injured with a view to their re-entry, 

 if at all possible, into civil life. Two very important con- 

 ferences of experts were immediately called to discuss the 

 problem of training in all its aspects. One conference was 

 attended by the heads of the various State Technical 

 Education Departments and by others who were qualified 

 to deal witli the purely educational side of the training. 

 The members of the other conference were mainly repre- 

 sentatives from the various State Chambers of Manufacture 

 and Trades and Labour Councils. This conference dealt 

 mostly with questions affecting the proposed training 

 scheme in its relationship with the industrial laws and 

 conditions in the different States of the Commonwealth. 

 Both conferences dealt most exhaustively with all the 

 questions then thought likely to require attention, and 

 very valuable recommendations as to how a training 



