State registration of all persons, male and female, between
the ages of fifteen and sixty-five, the particulars to
include each person's age, work, and employers, and his
registering to be accompanied by an invitation that he
volunteer for work for which he may have special fitness,
was the provision introduced in the House of Commons on June
29, 1915, and passed by that body on July 8. In explaining
the bill's intent its introducer, Mr. Walter Long, who is
President of the Local Government Board, replied on July 9
to the objection of critics who saw in it the first steps to
compulsory service. He said that the National Register stood
or fell by itself. So far as the use of it went, so far as
the adoption of compulsion went, he declared frankly that
the Prime Minister would be the last man in England to say,
in the face of the situation in which Britons found
themselves, anything which would prevent the Government
adopting compulsory service tomorrow if they believed it to
be right and necessary in order to bring this war to an end.
Their hands were absolutely free. On the same day Earl
Kitchener opened a recruiting campaign with a speech in the
London Guildhall, which appears in part below.
_The Lord Mayor of London, in calling upon Lord Kitchener, said the
Empire had indeed been highly fortunate in having him at the head of
the War Office in this great national crisis. Earl Kitchener was
received with cheers as he said:_
Hitherto the remarks that I have found it necessary to make on the
subject of recruiting have been mainly addressed to the House of
Lords; but I have felt that the time had now come when I may with
advantage avail myself of the courteous invitation of the Lord Mayor
to appear among you, and in this historic Guildhall make another and a
larger demand on the resources of British manhood. Enjoying as I do
the privilege of a Freeman of this great City--(hear, hear!)--I can be
sure that words uttered in the heart of London will be spread
broadcast throughout the Empire. (Cheers.) Our thoughts naturally turn
to the splendid efforts of the Oversea Dominions and India, who, from
the earliest days of the war, have ranged themselves side by side
with the Mother Country. The prepared armed forces of India were the
first to take the field, closely followed by the gallant
Canadians--(cheers)--who are now fighting alongside their British and
French comrades in Flanders, and are there presenting a solid and
impenetrable front against the enemy. In the Dardanelles the
Australians and New Zealanders--(cheers)--combined with the same
elements, have already accomplished a feat of arms of almost
unexampled brilliancy, and are pushing the campaign to a successful
conclusion. In each of these great Dominions new and large contingents
are being prepared, while South Africa, not content with the
successful conclusion of the arduous campaign in South-West Africa, is
now offering large forces to engage the enemy in the main theatre of
war. (Cheers.) Strengthened by the unflinching support of our
fellow-citizens across the seas, we seek to develop our own military
resources to their utmost limits, and this is the purpose which brings
us together today.
Napoleon, when asked what were the three things necessary for a
successful war, replied: "Money, money, money." Today we vary that
phrase, and say: "Men, material, and money." As regards the supply of
money for the war, the Government are negotiating a new loan, the
marked success of which is greatly due to the very favorable response
made by the City. To meet the need for material, the energetic manner
in which the new Ministry of Munitions is coping with the many
difficulties which confront the production of our great requirements
affords abundant proof that this very important work is being dealt
with in a highly satisfactory manner. (Cheers.) There still remains
the vital need for men to fill the ranks of our Armies, and it is to
emphasize this point and bring it home to the people of this country
that I have come here this afternoon. When I took up the office that I
hold, I did so as a soldier, not as a politician--(loud cheers)--and I
warned my fellow countrymen that the war would be not only arduous,
but long. (Hear, hear.) In one of my earliest statements made after
the beginning of the war I said that I should require "More men, and
still more, until the enemy is crushed." I repeat that statement today
with even greater insistence. All the reasons which led me to think in
August, 1914, that this war would be a prolonged one hold good at the
present time. It is true we are in an immeasurably better situation
now than ten months ago--(hear, hear)--but the position today is at
least as serious as it was then. The thorough preparedness of Germany,
due to her strenuous efforts, sustained at high pressure for some
forty years, have issued in a military organization as complex in
character as it is perfect in machinery. Never before has any nation
been so elaborately organized for imposing her will upon the other
nations of the world; and her vast resources of military strength are
wielded by an autocracy which is peculiarly adapted for the conduct of
war. It is true that Germany's long preparation has enabled her to
utilize her whole resources from the very commencement of the war,
while our policy is one of gradually increasing our effective forces.
It might be said with truth that she must decrease, whilst we must
increase.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the value of the response that has
been made to my previous appeals, but I am here today to make another
demand on the manhood of the country to come forward to its defence. I
was from the first unwilling to ask for a supply of men in excess of
the equipment available for them. I hold it to be most undesirable
that soldiers, keen to take their place in the field, should be thus
checked and possibly discouraged, or that the completion of this
training should be hampered owing to lack of arms. We have now happily
reached a period when it can be said that this drawback has been
surmounted, and that the troops in training can be supplied with
sufficient arms and material to turn them out as efficient soldiers.
When the great rush of recruiting occurred in August and September of
last year, there was a natural difficulty in finding accommodation for
the many thousands who answered to the call for men to complete the
existing armed forces and the New Armies. Now, however, I am glad to
say we have throughout the country provided accommodation calculated
to be sufficient and suitable for our requirements. Further, there was
in the early autumn a very natural difficulty in clothing and
equipping the newly raised units. Now we are able to clothe and equip
all recruits as they come in, and thus the call for men is no longer
restricted by any limitations, such as the lack of material for
training.
It is an axiom that the larger an army is, the greater is its need of
an ever-swelling number of men of recruitable age to maintain it at
its full strength; yet, at the very same time the supply of those very
men is automatically decreasing. Nor must it be forgotten that the
great demand which has arisen for the supply of munitions, equipment,
etc., for the armed forces of this country and of our Allies also, as
well as the economic and financial necessity of keeping up the
production of manufactured goods, involves the retention of a large
number of men in various trades and manufactures, many of whom would
otherwise be available for the Colors. In respect of our great and
increasing military requirements for men, I am glad to state how much
we are indebted to the help given to the Recruiting Staff of the
Regular Army and to the Territorial Associations throughout the
country by the many Voluntary Recruiting Committees formed in all the
counties and cities, and in many important boroughs for this purpose.
The public has watched with eager interest the growth and the rapidly
acquired efficiency of the New Armies, whose dimensions have already
reached a figure which only a short while ago would have been
considered utterly unthinkable. (Cheers.) But there is a tendency,
perhaps, to overlook the fact that these larger armies require still
larger reserves, to make good the wastage at the front. And one cannot
ignore the certainty that our requirements in this respect will be
large, continuous, and persistent; for one feels that our gallant
soldiers in the fighting line are beckoning, with an urgency at once
imperious and pathetic, to those who remain at home to come out and
play their part too. Recruiting meetings, recruiting marches, and the
unwearied labors of the recruiting officers, committees, and
individuals have borne good fruit, and I look forward with confidence
to such labors being continued as energetically as hitherto.
But we must go a step further, so as to attract and attach individuals
who from shyness--(laughter)--or other causes--(renewed
laughter)--have not yet yielded to their own patriotic impulses. The
Government have asked Parliament to pass a Registration Bill, with the
object of ascertaining how many men and women there are in the country
between the ages of fifteen and sixty-five eligible for the national
service, whether in the navy or army, or for the manufacture of
munitions, or to fulfil other necessary services. When this
registration is completed we shall anyhow be able to note the men
between the ages of nineteen and forty not required for munition or
other necessary industrial work and therefore available, if physically
fit, for the fighting line. Steps will be taken to approach, with a
view to enlistment, all possible candidates for the Army--unmarried
men to be preferred before married men, as far as may be. (Loud
cheers.) Of course, the work of completing the registration will
extend over some weeks, and meanwhile it is of vital and paramount
importance that as large a number of men as possible should press
forward to enlist, so that the men's training may be complete when
they are required for the field. I would urge all employers to help
in this matter, by releasing all men qualified for service with the
Colors and replacing them by men of unrecruitable age, or by women, as
has already been found feasible in so many cases.
When the registration becomes operative I feel sure that the
Corporation of the City of London will not be content with its earlier
efforts, intensely valuable as they have been, but will use its great
facilities to set an example of canvassing for the cause. This canvass
should be addressed with stern emphasis to such unpatriotic employers
as, according to returns, have restrained their men from enlisting.
What the numbers required are likely to be it is clearly inexpedient
to shout abroad. (Hear, hear.) Our constant refusal to publish either
these or any other figures likely to prove useful to the enemy needs
neither explanation nor apology. It is often urged that if more
information were given as to the work and whereabouts of various
units, recruiting would be strongly stimulated. But this is the
precise information which would be of the greatest value to the enemy,
and it is agreeable to note that a German Prince in high command
ruefully recorded the other day his complete ignorance as to our New
Armies. (Laughter and cheers.)
But one set of figures, available for everybody, and indicating with
sufficient particularity the needs of our forces in the field, is
supplied by the casualty lists. With regard to these lists,
however--serious and sad as they necessarily are--let two points be
borne in mind, first, that a very large percentage of the casualties
represents comparatively slight hurts, the sufferers from which in
time return to the front; and, secondly, that, if the figures seem to
run very high, the magnitude of the operations is thereby suggested.
Indeed, these casualty lists, whose great length may now and again
induce undue depression of spirits, are an instructive indication of
the huge extent of the operations undertaken now reached by the
British forces in the field.