PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2662, 6 January 1916, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The event of the moment is the publication of Lord Derby's report upon tho results of his recruiting campaign. It must be said at once that the details of the report, so far as they have been transmitted at time of writing, are rather disappointing. Close upon three million men are shown to have responded to the voluntary appeal, but this total becomes less impressive when it is added that the number of attested men available, after all deductions have been made, is 831,012. Of this net total considerably more than half are married men. The position is rounded off by the statement thj.t 651,000 "unstarred" single men, that is to say single men who are not exempted from military service on account of being engaged in essential industries, arc not accounted for; they did not attest. It is considered, however,/that of these men less than 200,000 are actually availr able. The position in a nutshell appears to be that if these 200,000 men arc compelled to enlist, Britain will have reserves immediately in sight totalling a million, nearly onehalf of the total. being _ married men. The ultimate limits of recruiting in Great Britain, of course, have not been touched under Lord Derby's scheme, and an exact opinion as to how nearly they have been approached is impossible meantime, owing to lack of information on two essential points—the percentage of rejections for physical unfitness andthe percentage of men employed in essential industries. On tho latter point Lord Derby himself is not fully informed. He expresses dissatisfaction with the detail working of the "starring"_ system, and this implies a defect in the national organisation which precludes for the. time being a really comprehensive recruiting test. All that is definitely established meantime is that Lord Derby's campaign will have made a million recruits available when the Imperial Government compels the enlistment of the 200,000 eligible men who have refused to respond voluntarily. _ This being done, a certain margin of recruiting will remain. the extent of which, will be largely, determined,_ finally, by the number of able-bodied men required to carry on the production of munitions and other essential industries. U * *

Although for the reasons stated, and for others, a precise comparison between the results attained by Lord Derby's campaign and the ultimate possibilities of recruiting in Great Britain is not at present possible, some leading facts are in sight which deserve consideration •in their bearing upon the position reached. For practical purposes, as has been said, Lord Derby's scheme makes a million men available. The enforced enlistment of the 200,000 fit unmarried men who have refused to enlist.is necessary to make effective the attestation of at all events.the married men who have _ voluntarily declared themselves willing to enlist. Lord Derby's pronouncement upon this point is emphatic, and it is clear that the Imperial. Government must either resort to the measure of compulsion which the occasion demands or begin all over again. Taking it that a, million j'ecruits are now available, Britain is in immediate prospect of reaching a total enlistment of something over four million men. In the middle of September, 1915, Mr. Asquith announced that almost three million men had enlisted since the beginning of the war. ' This total related exclusively to Great; Britain, excluding the Dominions and India, but it included the regular and reserve forces of the Army and Navy available at tho outbreak of war. Recruiting since September must be added, but the number of enlistments with the addition of the million recruits brought into sight by Lord Derby's campaign probably does not procluce_ a total much in excess of four millions. It may conceivably exceed it by one or two hundred thousand. With a population of 45,370,000,- Britain is ■ thus in the _ position of having secured the enlistment or attestation for enlistment of approximately nine per cent, of her population. Ten per cent, of the total population is commonly taken as approximating to the maximum effective recruitment of which the average European country is capable. Any country is capable of • increasing this percentage by drawing upon men over or under age, and men who are to be classed as something less than ablebodied, but such a policy entails a certain loss of military efficiency. Germany has already been forced to adopt that policy.

On the present basis, Britain would seem, with tho attestation of recruits under the Derby scheme, to havo trenched very deeply upon her resources in man-power of military age. It is maintained by some authorities that British reserves in men are still large—very much larger than the test of a ruling percentage would seem to imply, but it is a striking feature of the particulars so far given of the working results of Loud Dekby's canvass that though very largo numbers of men were dealt with in tho first instance, the net total of available recruits, when necessary deductions have been made, is relatively small. Nearly three million men attested, but of this number loss than one million are shown to be available as recruits. Again, though 1,029,231 single men of military age did not attest, only 651,000 of them were "unstarred." The further reduction of this 651,000 to less than 200,000 _ looks, on tho face of it, extraordinary, but in addition to exclusions on account of physical incapacity it is likely that allowance has been made for a proportion of single men being as heavily burdened with responsibilities as the average run of married men.

Tiie fact, at all events, stands that very large reductions arc being made from the totals of men of military age in arriving at the numbers of eligible and immediately available recruits. The Derby report makes it clcar that a margin of recruiting exists beyond the limits of the present scheme, one notable reason for this being that the "starring" system has been 'in some cases misapplied. It should not be forgotten Hint. i» ndditioii lis the limit* fasted single wen some 1,152.947 mwx.

ried men are also unaccounted for. If this total were treated in the same way as the total of unattested single men. by the exclusion of "starred" men and those physically unfit, the number of eligible recruits, available at need, which it comprehends, would probably be something like three or four hundred thousand. Obviously an investigation and readjustment of the "starring" system would increase the total of eligible and unattested single men. now stated to be in the vicinity of 200,000. Possibly, it would be increased to a material extent.

Evidently the two great factors which as matters stand set definite limits to recruiting in Great Britain are the maintenance of a high standard of physical efficiency (indicated in_ the heavy reductions from the original numbers of men available) and the necessity of speeding up and multiplying the production of munitions, a necessity which involves withholding a large number of fit men from service in the field. Britain is fighting the war with the cream of her male populationmen of 19 to 40 years of ago, in whom a high standard of physical fitness is demanded. Both Germany and Austria have been compelled to depart from a similar policy. Exactly to what extent they have relaxed their original standards is not known, but there is no doubt that they are utilising youths and elderly men and men who are physically unsound and unfit to bear the strain of campaigning. The British policy is obviously sound since it resolves itself into opposing superior to inferior personnel, and so represents the best method of striking for the speediest possible decision in the war. If the worst comes to the worst, Britain can fall back upon the men whom she is now rejecting—men as good as, if not better than, the men Germany and Austria are now sending into the field. It is also a factor of major importance that Britain is being developed. as a giganitic arsenal, filling not her ow : n needs only, but to an extent those of her Allies as well. • This development has entailed the retention in war industries of large numbers of men of the highest physical standards who are both fit and willing to serve in the field. As time goes on and unskilled labour, including the labour of women, is being brought to bear upon war production, numbers <jf men are being released for service, The limitations indicated in the results of the Derby canvass are thus notf absolute. The number of eligible recruits will_ bo added to in' this way for some time to come; and there is a still larger source of supply available, should the need arise, in men rejected at present on physical grounds, but quite capable of rendering reasonably effective war service.

Equally from the standpoint of recruiting and that of the production of munitions, tho labour troubles of which there are some tentative indications to-day constitute a- direct threat to the prospects of the nation in the war. It is absolutely necessary that as many fib men as possible should be released for miliatry service and that the production of_ munitions should be speedily raised to a maximum, ancl both objects'demand the fullest measure of that cordial co-operation on the part of Labour organisations for which Mr. Lloyd George is constantly working and appealing. His appeals have riot gone unheard, and the instances of Labour hostility mentioned to-day must be set down as deplorable exceptions to the better state of affairs which is now almost universal. Threats of a striko on the South Wales coal-fields are made by Mr. Winston, the president of the South Wales Miners' Union. He will be remembered as the candidate who was not long ago heavily defeated in a by-election for the Merthyr Tydvil seat by Mr. Stanton, who took as the chief plank of his programme the effective prosecution of the war. The result of the by-election affords some ground for a hope that tho defeated candidate' may find it a difficult matter to give effect to his threat. There has been some trouble also on the Clyde, but it is attributed by Mr. Lloyd George not to any general attempt by the Clyde workers to hamper the measures of tho Government, but to a section of Syndicalists, who are in revolt against the trades union leaders and officials. At this stage of the war it should not be a difficult matter to suppress fanatical minorities of this typj, who would wreck the nation if they had_ their way.- None should more readily assist to this end than the workers, who have already done so much in the field and in , the workshop to make victory possible. There must be few of the men whom a happily limited class of reckless and fanatical agitators are attempting to convert into traitors who have not a brother or a son, or' some other relative, in the Army or Navy, and the fanatics who are inviting them to down tools as a protest against compulsion or for any other- reason are asking them not only to make victory impossible, but to basely betray there own kith and kin. There should be no doubt about the nature of the general response to such a base and treasonable oampaign,_ whatever troubles it may provoke in limited areas and sections of industry.

The allegations made in connection with the sinking of the German submarine which committed tho dastardly crime of torpedoing the passenger liner Arabic read very like a German-American story. Sir Edward Grey, it will be noted, does not accept the affidavits of the professing Americans as being conclusive evidence of the truth ■ of the story of tho shooting of the piratical crew of murderers by the British sailors, and we must await the other side of the tale. But to a nation which openly glories in the murder of innocent non-combatants—help-less women and little children—and which makes such protest against the execution of the murderers, the answer of Sir Edward Grey is effective enough. Let Germany,' he says in effect, submit her case to an impartial tribunal (American naval officers are suggested) and Britain will submit her proofs of German naval atrocities, and we shall see who comes out best. In the old days the vavd-arm was tho recognised fate of pirates when captured, and to-day the crews of German submarines which sink without warning peaceful passenger ships and send hundreds of innocent non-com-batants to an untimely doom deserve no better treatment. As a matter of fact, however, there is amnio evidence, as is pointed out by Sir Edward Grey, to show that, the British 'Navy has behaved with the utmost generosity to its enemies, the men on occasions such as the sinking of the Blucher even risking their own lives to suve those of the drownjus; Gsi'imn. mUqi'K.

There is cxjcelllaat news of the Russian offensive on the southern section of i their main front, but it calls for little present comment since the position has recently been traversed at length. The Russians are pressing the enemy hard on several sections of _ their long attacking front, hurling back his counterattacks and steadily gaining ground. They have been notably succcssful in the vicinity of the Rumanian frontier, where they are thrusting the enemy back upon Czernowitz, the capital of Bukowina. An unofficial report declares that the enemy has evacuated Czernowitz, but at' time of writing this awaits official confirmation.

There is evidence that tho Allies are maintaining a heavy pressure upon the Germans in the Western theatre, but no momentous development is reported. In the Balkans tho immediate trend of events is again doubtful. Yesterday the enemy was said to be concentrating against Albania, To-day there is mention of a concentration of German heavy artillery on the Greek frontier. Both reports may contain an element of truth, but as matters are developing the enemy is likely to find more pressing employment for heavy artillery against the Russians on the main front than in any part of the Balkans.