GREATER EFFORT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 42, 29 November 1940, Page 5

GREATER EFFORT.

THE MANPOWER OF BRITAIN.

WOMEN AND INDUSTRY.

LbNDON, November 22

The Government has announced that the nation’s manpower must be further enlisted on an enormously increased scale, both for the fighting services and for the munitions industry. In addition to the 1,000,000 more men who will be called to the colours to-morrow, probably 1,250,000 more men and women will be drafted into war industries. Half of these will be women. Overhaul of Resources. The Government’s announcement is not so much an admission that the slow tempo of training and production of the early months of the war has been allowed to continue, as vividly proving the Cabinet’s realisation that the country must be ready and girded for an unlimited effort in the coming year. The plan involves a complete and rapid overhaul of the manpower and womanpower available and hitherto untapped. Individual men and women will be “hand-picked and graded” according to their qualifications and. aptitude for training in the various branches of industry. This recruitment of the labour army will permit of the release of nearly the same number of men from factories, who will be absorbed into the Navy, Army and Air Force, especially the Army, which must be ready for both defensive and offensive operations next spring.

The Minister of Labour* Mr Bevin, has found that many factories are employing a higher percentage of skilled to unskilled labour than necessary. These factories have been informed that they cannot expect to receive many more men, and must train women to replace young skilled men, who will be taken for the fighting services.

The magnitude of the problem is seen when it is revealed that the objective is double production# in the next nine months, while at the same time large numbers of skilled men will be taken from factories for the Army. The scheme, takes into account the yearly crop of young-men and women leaving school and entering industry. It also raises the age limits above which men engaged in engineering and allied trades arp exempted from Army service. In some reserved occupations men as young as 21 are exempted. Not Enough Women. Some Government training centres, apart from the four centres in which men are now training as Army tradesmen, will be made available for the training of women. The Ministry of Labour expresses disappointment at the slow rate at which women have been entering industry, blaming employers for lack of foresight, but a larger factor is that the Army has not suffered casualties on the scale which might have been expected during long-drawn battles on the Western Front. Heavy Army replacements have therefore not been necessary.

It lias also been noticed that there has been considerable delay in absorbing women volunteers into the various auxiliary services.