It was obvious that this change would not be effected without the most strenuous opposition from the trade unions. It might have gone through, however, without actual industrial disturb- ance if it had not coincided in point of time with an amending Munitions Bill, which among other provisions rendered possible the compulsory introduction of dilution on private work. The combination of these new factors led in May 1917 to the out- break of perhaps the most serious strike which the Government had to face during the World War. In the result the Government adhered to their schedule, but it was announced that progress with that part of the bill which provided for dilution on private work would be deferred. It did not, in fact, reappear.
Reference must here be made to the work of the Reserved Occupations Committee, which, dealing with non-munitions trades, had functioned continuously since Sept. 1915, side by side with the Ministry of Munitions and the Admiralty, and was finally absorbed in the Ministry of National Service in Aug. 1917. As the recruiting campaign was intensified during the end of 1915, and particularly when the tribunal system came into operation with the Derby scheme, it became obvious that a real neces- sity existed for the creation of some central body which could give advice to tribunals in respect of trades not covered by the Ministry of Munitions and the Admiralty. This committee, originally appointed in Sept. 1915, and composed entirely of experts, framed successive lists of occupations in which, in their view, men should be protected from recruiting. The lists had regard to the necessity of maintaining national trade and food supply. At no stage did the issue of these lists entitle persons covered by them to automatic exemption as was the case with badged men. The only effect of the list was to set clearly before the tribunals, before which the men concerned would appear, the view that recruiting in the " certified " lists should not be encouraged. The " certified " lists originally included " badged " occupations, but these were gradually eliminated as time went on, it being made clear that in the case of these trades men must rely on their badges and not on the list. The general tendency of these lists was, after the first general scheme had been settled, to reduce the area of exemption. This reduction was carried out in three ways:
(l) By removal of industries from the list;
S2) by removal of occupations; 3) by fixing, and from time to time raising, the age limit below which protection should not be afforded. The age limit was taken in conjunction with the question whether a man was married or single in some of the earlier lists and in the fiftal list with his medical category.
Even the institution of the schedule of protected occupations, and the progressive reduction of the area covered by the lists issued by the Reserved Occupations Committee, did not meet the needs of the situation. By the middle of 1917 it became evident that an effort on the widest possible scale must be put forward to rally the man -power of the nation for the campaign of 1918. The Government set themselves to attempt to remove the difficulties which had been indicated by the successive failures of the Man- Power Board and the first National Service Ministry by setting up a reconstituted Ministry, which (a) was responsible both for recruiting and for allocation of civilian labour, and (b) had an effective labour priority committee which weighed the claims of the various classes of production, under the general direction of (c) the War Priority Committee, a Cabinet committee presided over by Gen. Smuts, which had power to give general instructions as to the parts of the programme to which special attention should be directed.
The new Ministry of National Service came into effective operation at the end of Aug. 1917. It was presented with a very
formidable task. The Russian collapse and the like- Second lihood that the campaign of 1918 might be decisive, ^fNafioaal together with the heavy wastage in the forces during Service. 1917, rendered it vital that there should be a large
addition to the forces. On the other hand the man- power resources at home were subjected to the greatest strain, (a) to meet the ever-growing and varying munitions programme.
(J) to meet the urgent claims of food production rendered daily more vital by the increasing menace of the submarine campaign, and (c) to maintain normal private industry at the highest point possible in the interest of the nation's credit.
There can be no question that the associating under one minister of recruiting and the supply of civilian man-power profoundly affected and improved the situation. The mere transfer of military recruiting to a civilian organization in itself tended to inspire confidence in the ranks of labour, a confidence which was increased by reason of the fact that the same civilian authority was generally responsible for the supply of labour for all other national purposes. But this confidence in itself did not supply the necessary recruits. It became necessary as 1917 progressed to make new and drastic proposals to meet th demands of the armies. But while these proposals were maturing steps were taken to provide a new pool of substitutes for mei released for military service. The men in the army at horn unfit for general service were catalogued in a card index showing their civil trades and the employers for whom they worke< before enlistment. These men were available not only for muni tions work, but for work of national importance. The needs o the land were met by the provision of part-time labour, by German prisoner labour, by the enrolment under the Board of Agriculture of the Women's Land Army, and by the temporary release for harvest operations of units of the Home Army.
But all these measures of themselves could not solve the central problem of recruiting which was more and more becoming one of a scientific removal of exemptions at a far increased speed. It was becoming obvious all through the autumn of 1917 that it was necessary to get rid of exemptions held on occupational grounds, thus avoiding the long and tedious process of applying to the tribunals for the withdrawal of individual certificates of exemptions. This policy, currently known as the policy of the " clean cut," naturally was regarded with disfavour by labour. But after a long series of conferences it was finally embodied in the Military Service Act of Feb. 1918. This Act was supplemented by a second, passed in April 1918 immediately after the beginning of the German offensive of that year, raising the age limit to 51 and giving powers to cancel certificates of exemption on personal grounds.
Under these two Acts, two Withdrawal Orders one in April and the other in June were carried cancelling exemptions in a large number of trades and occupations, including most of those named in the list of certified occupations, though the withdrawals in that case were generally confined to men in medical Grade I. The result of these measures may be summed up in the statement that, from the inception of the reconstituted Ministry to the Armistice, 70,000 men were posted to the colours. At the same time so far as food production is concerned the position may be summarized in the following table ':
1918
Quarters
1916 Quarters
Increase over 1916 Quarters
Wheat .... Barley .... Oats ....
Potatoes
11,644,000 7,768,000 31,196,000 Tons 9,233.000
7,472,000 6,613,000 21,334,000 Tons 5,468,000
4,172,000 1,155,000 9,862,000 Tons 3,765,000
Finally the trade of the country had been maintained so that it emerged from the war second only to the United States in point of its financial credit.
(B) THE INCREASE OF LABOUR SUPPLY. In order to estimate the problem to be faced in reenforcing the ranks of labour de- pleted by recruitment, it is necessary to set out what was the estimated employed population at July 1914, what was the total enlistment for the forces until July 1918, and what numbers, apart from any extraneous action, would in the ordinary course of nature have flowed in to fill the gap thus created.
There is no absolute statistical basis for the period in question, but a trustworthy estimate can be framed by an examination of the Z8 returns obtained by the Board of Trade, checked by the
Cabinet Report for 1918 (Cmd. 325).
