It is idle to suggest that compulsion should have been applied in
Great Britain when the war began. The certain result would have been
resistance and disorder. The nation would have been weakened, divided,
disabled for the mighty task before it. Only actual experience and
the undesirable consequences of unregulated enlistment established
the necessity for selection and made compulsory service possible.
Railway workers, coal miners and various classes of skilled mechanics
had to be brought back from the trenches. It was found necessary
to reserve and organize labor for the shipyards and the munition
factories. Agriculture had to be stimulated to the utmost. For a time
there was a degree of industrial confusion, and under-production of
essential war materials because men had joined the colors who could
give better service to the Empire in the shops and mines than they
could give in the field. It was essential that transportation should
be efficient and the armies well fed and well equipped if battles
were to be won against the long preparation, the scientific machinery
and the accumulated war stores of Germany. Hence selection became
necessary in order that the industrial forces should be competent and
adequate and organized to secure the maximum of production. Unexpected
revelations of German brutality and ruthlessness affected the thinking
of multitudes of the British people. They began to realize that all
the energies and resources of the kingdom must be employed if victory
over the Germanic alliance was to be achieved. There was reason to
rejoice over the results of voluntary recruiting. What had been done
was magnificent. But it was recognized that there was still man-power
available and that the situation required the enrolment of every
citizen who was physically equal to military service, and engaged in
activities less vital to the security of the State. Great Britain
adopted every expedient to secure recruits before the selective draft
was applied. It was found that the voluntary system was costly, partial
and undemocratic. Enlistment was uncertain, haphazard and uneven. Many
incidents, when appeals for recruits became strident and coercive,
were repugnant to national self-respect and national dignity. Through
adversity Great Britain discovered that equality of service and
sacrifice is the essential basis of democracy. Under the system of
National Service there is no distinction of race or creed or class or
position. There is restriction upon freedom but only that the State may
be preserved and the citizen secured in life and liberty, under the
flag of his choice and in the land of his fathers.