The Dominion MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1916. BRITAIN'S MAN-POWER

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2921, 6 November 1916, Page 4

The Dominion MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1916. BRITAIN'S MAN-POWER

Questions involved in the current man-power agitation in Great Britain . are clouded to some extent by a iacjc of specific information, u facts . as are available snow _that the agitation is not without justification. So much is admitted. even by those who resent anv suggestion that Britain is not doing her best, and that she is behind -Kussia and France in the sacrifices she is making for ihe common a><V>e. The Spectator, for instance, maintains that inere is no question as to .Britain, h o fc making .sufficient S r| C J 3 6 Question," it was, our man-power is »eipß as economically and efficiently ap.phed—or shall wo say allotted 1— ■ it might be; whether, that is | there may not be some danger of our giving too many men to/the I creation of supplies, and therefore not keeping- as many as we might for tho firing line." Even newspapers which look rather diffidently on < tho. "more men" demand admit the necessity of reviewing the whole position, so that the man-power of tho country may be ..utilised on some more scientific basis than has yet been established. It is, in fact, universally recognised that the Imperial Government stopped short of the orderly and methodical organisation .of man-power which would have ireen the natural complement to. the Military Service Acts and would have given them free wqrfyiflcf scope. Some clashing was inevitable in meeting the conflicting claims of tho Army and tj/l6sc of the munitions factories and essential industries, but tho charge made by at any rate the more outspoken critics of tho Imperial Government is that the absence of efficient oversight and central control has, resulted in a distribution of men of military age which leaves a great deal to be desired, and must be speedily rectified if the country ' is to do itself justice and make provision for all contingencies that may arise. In an article advocating drastic reforms, the military correspondent of tho Times (Colonel Repington) sums up the existing position as follows:—

Lord Derby's report of December 20, 1915, showed that at that date wo had over 5,000,000 men of military age in Great Britain, exclusive of our armies in the fiold and at home. The Military Service Acts placed these men at our disposal, in addition to youths reaching the age of 18 annually, this latter category representing some 350,000 men each .year. Excluding all Questions of our Dominions and dependencies, the available numbers were ample, all legitimate deductions mado, to authorise us to maintain 100 .divisions (about 2,000,000 men) in the field. But no soonor had wo compulsion than a number of authorised or unauthorised persons began to make inroads upon our stock of men. .The Service Acts themselves afforded many boltholes for men to escape, whilo a Board of Trade Committee, for which Mr. Runciman must be held responsible, invented many more, and decreed long lists of exemptions as they pleased.

The Times and 'Daily Mail declare that it\has been established that there are only tbreo possible channels of enrolment loft : (1) To raise tho military ago (from forty-one) to forty-five or beyond; (2) to extend the Military Service Acts to Ireland—a proposal which does not seem to do hopefully regarded in any quarter—(3) to prosecute tho "combing-out" of young and fit men from the starred, badged, and certified occupations with greater vigour than in the past. _ The Spectator makes three additional proposals: (1) Tho transfer to service abroad o£ large numbers of men at present retained for various forms of homo defence; (2) the calling up for military service of all males who have reached the ago of 17; (3) further drafts upon the manpower of the dependencies (as distinct from tho Dominions).

With tho exception of lowering tho military age, a measure to be considered, if at all, only as a last resort, these proposals all deserve consideration in a war in which it is essentially necessary to take long and wide views, but there does not seem to bo any doubt that tho first thing required is a methodical organisation of the man-power Britain already has in hand. This at all events snould go hand in hand with any steps take/n to roleaso men retained, for home defence or to raise additional troops, as might no doubt easily be clone, in tho dependencies. Tho number ol men of military age who have received badges entitling tbem to exemption and over whom the tribunals lave no power at all ia given by

Gqr,om REriNQTQN as MQp~ooo,"and it, is a feature of tho situation that sorao of thp tribunals are ' "charged Uth exempting men who should h* n khaki. On the whole tti& conclusion seems warranted that tho Mlll. taiy Service Aots are very f ar from being enfold as they should be b Great Britain, and that" tsvJniZ reforms and a drastjq revision of rasa ®v,<gffz p4 maintaining tho ffi n L° gard ? adequate strength and >, - leS reinforcemcnte ® ."P and must carry wu ; T sonco of a ' 11 s t ? <i»mmniMr really comprehensive S- F ' of th ° facts that as rej). -y as September 20 the Press ■ .ui'cau announced the appointment ?> a > „"M an -P°wer Distribution Board, under the chairmanship of Mr. Chamberlain, to determine all questions arising between Government Departments relating to the allocation or economic utilisation of man-power for the purpose of the successful prosecution of the war. The powers of tho Board extend to the distribution or utilisation of both men and women, but it was appointed to deal only with thirteen Government Departments. These included the War Office (where "combing-out" has now begun), the Ministry of Munitions, the' Board of Trade, the Post Office, and others. ,According to an official return there were in April last 51,232 men of military age in these Departments, 5086 being. in , the Inland Revenue Department alone. Many of the offices have already released large numbers of men for service, but it is generally believed that they might without inconvenience release- more, replacing them either by women or by men who are too old for the Army. Evidently what tho situation calls for is the constitution of a central authority which would have the same power to deal with the country at large as Mr. Chamberlain's Committee has to deal with; Government Departments. The matter is one in .which New Zealand is only indirectly concerned, but the circumstances present a lesson and a warning by which New-Zealand should be able t"o profit. This should be all the easier since our local circumstances in regard to the disposal of manpower are simpler and lend themselves better to satisfactory adjustment than those which obtain in the Old Country. It is necessary, of courso, both from the Dominion and Imperial standpoint, that the primary industries of this country should be allocated an adequate supply of labour, but this does not raise any complex problem. If our responsible authorities profit as they should by the experience of the Mother Country they will seo to it that from the, outset such exemptions as are necessary are granied_ on a standardised busi?. The ruling idea must bo, of course, to make as many men as possible available for military service, and it should be hardly necessary to insist . that exemptions must not be granted too readily merely because the men concerned are not needed at the moment or likely to be needed in the immediate future. We must prepare to meet indefinite calls, and if it should prove ultimately that not all the men available arc needed, so much the better.