The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1941. TOWARDS A TOTAL WAR EFFORT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 286, 3 December 1941, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1941. TOWARDS A TOTAL WAR EFFORT

'J'HE first criticism of the British Government's new conscription proposals was that they did not go far enough. That tells us a great deal about the determined spirit of Britain to-day, and about the change in sentiment since the early months of the war. The people of the United Kingdom, unlike those of the Dominions, have long since discarded the notion that a war can be waged in comfort and still be won. Moreover, they have discarded the notion that it can in any circumstances be right and proper for a section of the population—the men in the Services—to make much greater sacrifices than the rest. They have realised—and German bombing powerfully helped them to realise—that this is everybody's war, and though ideal equality of sacrifice is unattainable there must be stern and unremitting efforts to approach it. Hence the latest instalment of conscription—it is certainly not the last. Every man between 18h and 50 years becomes liable for military service; every single woman between 20 and 30 for service in the auxiliary armed forces or in industry. What this will mean cannot be readily imagined unless it is borne in mind that this compulsory diversion of men's and women's services from civil life to the purposes of the State is an addition to all that has already been done. Conscription of men was accepted before the war, and they have been regularly called Up in successive age-groups. Now the age-limits are to be lowered to 18i and raised to 50. There has been no conscription of women, but millions of women hav- voluntarily worked, whole-time or part-time, in war organisations of every kind. The great majority of men not until now liable to military service have spent much of their spare time working or training in voluntary organisations. But all this is not enough. In future no ablebodied man under 50, and able-bodied unmarried woman under 30, will be able to choose his or her occupation. The State will prescribe their duties.

There was a period when the idea prevailed, without official discouragement, that manpower was less important in this war than last, that what the nation must do was to produce plenty of machines. People were urged to think in terms of machine-power and not in numbers of men and divisions. Such opinions overlooked the cardinal fact that Germany had, and has, a superiority not only in machines but in men. They minimised the other fact that though men without machines are of little value, machines without men are of no value at all. And the men must be trained, and thoroughly trained, in the use of the machines. Mr. Churchill pointed out two months ago that Britain can never have more than a medium-sized army, as armies are counted in these days, but it must be an army fully mechanised and trained to the highest degree of efficiency. These latest conscription proposals' are designed to ensure that the numbers of men needed will be available as and when required. Most of the men who have now become liable to calling-up are, no doubt, doing useful work, many of them in munition factories. Yet the new scheme must envisage the withdrawal of these men from civil occupation and their replacement by women. Inevitably much civilian work of non-essential kinds will not be done, for there will be no one to do it. That is one of the consequences of waging total war It means, broadly, that the demands of the fighting forces and all the services behind the fighting forces must be met first; the civilians have what is left. A revolutionary change in outlook is needed before such a proposition is acceptable in a democratic country. Mr. Churchill's proposals—and the criticism that they do not go far enough—show that in the United Kingdom it is being accepted. How long will it be before we in the Dominions accept it?