THE MAN-POWER PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 72, 25 March 1918, Page 2

THE MAN-POWER PROBLEM.

<JOM_NG GREAT "COMB-OUT." SIR A. GEDDES' POLICY. r }• <From Our Special Correspondent.) 'V_- LONDON, January 15. *"jt Sir Auckland Geddes' encyclopaedic - review of the man power situation before the House p£ Commons on Tues- *-' c day last made clear two facts. The first-is that the Army urgently needs ... more men physically capable of endurv Sng-'tho- strain of general service. The second important fact is that the only ... iuntapped source of general service men is to be found in tbe national factories and controlled establishments. The output of ships and munitions of war is ?.---. as necessary as the upkeep of the iArmy. Sir Auckland Geddes, however, "" "assured- the country that the young men engaged in war and national industries, ' who have hitherto been ex- .«" 'empted, can now be spared, and that their places can he adequately filled. It is estimated that over 400,000 men " can safely be ■ "combed out." The •majority of these men have directly benefited from the war while their brothers have been fighting and suffering T-% and dying, and a very large number of i them are hefty young fellows on the sunny" Side of -thirty, who are doing !"";" work .which is only '"skilled" by court- ,:."' esy, and demands very little in the way of" physical strength or . brain-power. Either these young men must be relentlessly "combed out," or the Government, will have to both lower and raise the ; . age limit, continue arid intensify the practice of returning" to active service — a men. who have been severely wounded '-" twice, thrice, or oftener, and drastically curtail the now very limited opportuniVK ties of rest and leave for men who have been a J long time on the real battle fronts. --.- .'As regards men for the Army the - position is, Sir Auckland Geddes said, 'that the problem of finding them is not at the moment the most urgent, but that a time is coming, and is not far -distant, when it will be. Sir Douglas Haig in his last dispatch emphasised -'• ±fie importance of arranging for drafts :<- ~"' sufficiently far ahead, in order that by ..,-. the time they are called upon to par- - rr-Jticipate in critical operations the men '-_■'. have heen. thoroughly trained. It .'.'.'. 'is impossible for a commander to secure either success or economy of casualties lunless his troops are not only numerous , enough hut of sufficient high quality; and. quality is impossible without training. For this reason, among others, it __' would he disastrous to delay longer ■"- preparations for reinforcing our lArmies in the course of the next campaigning season. The need is accentuated by the withdrawal of Russia from - the war, which is releasing many hundreds of thousands of trained German and Austrian troops for the various '" British, French, and Italian fronts; and the necessity for transferring large •bodies of men from France and —landers -to Italy. Sir Auckland Geddes estimated that the number of men made available to the enemy by ■- the collapse of Russia at 1,600,000; and ... he put the number of men which it will ' J he Jiecessary at once to raise in Great Britain from, amongthe civil population .if or the exigencies of 191S at 450,000. Seeing that the British Empire as a •whole has produced 7,500,000 soldiers down to the present date, and that 72.4 "' per cent. of. them have come from the '-~: Motherland, it will be seen that the strain on British man-power is very severe, and there cannot be many alternative ways of meeting it; indeed, Sir - intimated plainly that the jonly considerable pool of young and fit men which is left in Great •Britain is that of men engaged in war ■_■ -industries and in industries more or less directly associated with the supply of war material. Some of these young men are no doubt still indispensable to war . . but thousands are not, for ri:T 'they are engaged upon work which re- ... quires only such "skill" as may be im- -.-..' parted to any person iiot wholly devoid •--£:• of sense in the course of a very brief '.""';. training, and makes very little demand \_, upon the "" physical powers of the Workers. „>. . rj.. ne j,£V| U p on t] lese young men iB now 'to he made, and it is to he feared that '-- 'Jo the "combing out" process will be the '*■ signal for trouble; indeed, Sir Auckland Geddes intimated in tbe course of his speech that a movement to resist the combing process was already being en's* gineered. '"-. Sir Auckland gave a short account of his recent conference with the Labour leaders, to whom he paid a glowing tribute" of appreciation. But the Amalgamated Society of Engineers -—' ihas been demanding a preferential ill.* treatment, which, he said, the Govern•ment were determined not to grant. Then he described the trouble which a number of young men are now making, threatening "drastic action" if the comb-out takes place, and vowing that they will bring the works to a standstill rather than enter the Army. Sir 'Auckland analysed in a few dramatic sentences the real meaning of these : "T "cowardly threats, and drew loud cheers '■:;. as he spoke of "the M_st of hatred and -*' Contempt" to which these young men i - -will expose themselves as soon as the : public realise- what their attitude ia. >- The Government, he intimated, are resolved 1 that no soldier who has been seriously wounded more than once shall he sent back to the firing-line, and that those now in tlie firing-line who have twice received such wounds shall be restored as soon as possible to civil employment. These young men in the factories will be allowed no. longer to draw high wages and keep the men who have fought and suffered from getting leave home or returning to civil life. The whole matter was summed up in a phrase. "TVe intend," said Sir Auckland Geddes, "to reinforce our armies with the youngest men (not boys) we can get. We are going to take the young men out of the essential, industries and substitute them by men of those trades who have fought and been wounded, if male substitutes are necessary at all." Sir Auckland has enunciated- his policy in the plainest possible terms, tut it remains to be seen what the Government will do when it comes to grips with the young men bent upon "drastic action." Hitherto "caving in" to the demands of organised Labour has heen the fashion, and" it is much to he feared that when the comb comes to be applied to the engineering shops of the Kingdom many of its teeth will be missing, and the 450,000 young men Sir Auckland calculates upon will fail to materialise.