MOBILISING MAN-POWER

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LXI, Issue 17, 1 March 1940, Page 3

MOBILISING MAN-POWER

The Royal Proclamation of last month, extending liability to be called up for service to all men in the United Kingdom over 19 and under 28, adds nearly two million men to those who are either serving or liable for service in the fighting forces, notes the Spectator. These men, in groups as required, will be ordered to register at various dates during the present year, some being drafted into the services, others retained in reserved occupations. Thus the process is to be continued of making enormous increases in the military forces, while keeping the necessary men in armament factories, general industry, agriculture and essential civilian services. The number of men who have already been called to the colours or .are about to be called shows how,, far Britain has moved from the conceptions which governed defence pojicy for 20 years after the last war. During most of that period it was supposed that never again would Great Britain be called on to provide gigantic armies on the Continental scale for major operations abroad. Now we find ourselves committed to the utmost expansion of fighting power for use on land no less than at sea and in the air, with no limitation whatever except that imposed by the necessity of equipping the forces and maintaining the war in the economic sphere.