BRITISH CALL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20629, 3 December 1941, Page 5

BRITISH CALL

RESERVE POWER WOMEN AND MEN NEED IN WAR SERVICE EXTENSION OF AGES (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 11 a.m. RUGBY, Dec. 2. Outstanding points in the speech given in the House of Commons by the Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill, in tire debate on woman and man-power were:— (1) The raising of the compulsory military service age for men from 41 to 51 years. (2) The lowering of the military service age from 20 to 181 years. (3) Compulsory service in the uniformed military forces for unmarried .vomen between the ages of 20 and 30 years. (4) The registration 'of boys and (iris between the ages of 16 and 18 /ears. Mr. Churchill said: ’We have to call upon the nation for a further degree of sacrifice and exertion. The /ear 1941 has seen the major probcm of creating our production in factories and providing equipment largely solved, or on the high road o solution. The crisis of equipment s largely over and an ever-broaden-ng flow is now ensured.

“The crisis of ir.an-power and .voman-power is at hand and will lominate the year 1942. This crisis omes upon us for the following eason. Supply plants have largely ieen constructed. "Many are finished, iut they must be staffed and fuffy . tailed. “We must maintain a powerful nobile army. We must maintain our armies in the East and be prepared for a continuation of heavy fighting .here. Expansion in 1942 “We must provide for an expansion of the armed in 1942 and for the far greater expansion which will ake place in 1943. We must provide nodern equipment for the large armies being raised and trained in India. “Apart from our needs we must meet our engagements and send subJantial supplies of tanks, planes and other war weapons and commodities o Russia. To help make good the oss in the munition-making capacity which Russia has sustained by .he German invasion we have had also to forgo very important supplies we had expected from the United States, but which now, with our consent, are diverted to Russia. “We have also to recognise that he United States production is only low getting fully under way and -hat the quota we had expected will in many respects- be retarded.” Mr. Churchill went on to contrast the British and German preparations for war and added: “All comes 'out even at the end of the nay and all will come out far .more even when the period is ended. We have been at a disadvantage in having to fight a well-armed enemy with ill-armed or half-armed troops. That part is over and in future Hitler will feel in his own person the sharpness of the weapons with which jhe has subjugated an unprepared and disorganised Europe and imagined he was about to subjugate the world.

“In future our men will fight on equal terms in technical equipment and a little later on they will fight on superior terms. We have made arrangements for all this and in good time.

Heavy Burden

“A heavy burden will fall upon us in 1942 We must not be found unequal to it. We shall not be found unequal to it. “The demands I am about to make will affect the people of the nation in the fcßowing ways: There will be a further very definite curtailment of the amenities which hitherto we have been able to preserve. These demands will not affect physical health, nor that contentment of spirit which comes from serving a great cause, but they will make further inroads upon the comfort and convenience of very large numbers and upon the cl aracter and shape of our daily life.

“Much has already been done. Luxury trades have been virtually abolished by cutting off raw materials

“It must not be supposed that there are large reserves of idle people leading a leisurely existence who can now be called into the national ranks. If all the efforts of everyone were really devoted solely to making war :here would be no food, fuel, transport or clothes.” Mr. Churchill described the process now about to be applied as a sharpening up and shifting forward of the proportion of effort into channels more directly related to the war. Harder Turn of Screw “We have to make a definitely harder turn of the screw,” he said. “Eighteen months ago I proposed ‘blood, tears, toil and sweat.’ There has not yet been, thank God, as much blood as we expected. There have not been so many tears, but there is another instalment of toil and sweat, of inconvenience and self-denial, which I am sure, will be accepted with cheerful and proud alacrity by all parties and all classes in the nation. ‘ “The population is 46,750,000. Of these 33,250,000 —16,000,000 men and 17,250,000 women—are between the ages of 14.. and 65 years. Making allowance for the increase in population, we had already reached by the 27th month of this war the same employment of women in the military services and forces as in the 48th month of the last war.”

The Prime Minister claimed that the changes would be gradual, not violent, and would gradually be increased in intensity.

Beginning first with men he said there would be three important changes. “It is proposed to change over gradually from the system of bloc reservation to; a system of individual placement,” he said. “The method of reservation under the heading of reserved occupations was a sufficiently good and flexible instrument so long as there was no acute shortage of manpower. It avoided waste of all men with highly-special-ised attainments which so disastrously characterised the opening years of the last war.”