NATIONAL ORGANISATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16964, 28 March 1917, Page 6

NATIONAL ORGANISATION

MR CHAMBERLAIN'S GREAT TASK. MORE VOLUNTARY HELPERS WANTED (From Oor Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 26. The Government National Service scheme under Mr Neville Chamberlain is now getting shipshape. Great Britain will be divided into six areas, with a director in each. One area comprises Wales, another Scotland, and England has four areas, with headquarters at Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, and Bristol. In the latter areas the superintending inspector of factories for the district will be the director.

The appeal for voluntary workers, male and female, will shortly be made, and there ■will be no age limit. Industries are now being classified according to their relative national importance, and as soon as this is ready it will be published, with an appeal to the people engaged in trades of minor importance to volunteer for service. Service bureaux, where volunteers may register, will be opened in each centre of population, and local committees, with the mayor or chairman of the council at the head, will be formed to further the scheme. It has been decided that Mr Chamberlain shall only have charge of -the civil side of National Service, and that General Geddes as hitherto, shall be in charge of recruiting for the army. ARMY OF INDUSTRY.

Mr Chamberlain received a great welcomo at Birmingham on his first appearance at a public meeting as Director-general oi National Service. He explained that we wanted sufficient reserves oi trained men to enable us to put forward our utmost strength in order to carry the struggle to a successful conclusion. The Military Service Acts have already given us the grdat part of the men of military age and litness who are not protected by Government exemption of one kind or another. In order to get the drafts we require we shall have to ask the munition workers, the mines, the industries that are connected v.'.th war work, and agriculture, to make fresh adjustments of their man-power. At the same time we have got to find substitutes from other trades to take the places of those who. join the forces. A nation organised for war, Mr Chamberlain added, has to provide three essentials—men for the army, ' munitions, and money. It was a colossal task to organise the whole nation so that these three essentials might bo produced to the fullest possible extent, but if it was faced with courage and enthusiasm it could be successfully carried out. The Prime Minister has said it shall be done, if possible, by voluntary effort. " I want the nation to understand that the Government are very much :n earnest about this matter, and that while they desire to give the nations every possible opportunity of their own volition to come forward in their country's need, they will not hesitate to take any steps that may be necessary to bring the war to a successful conclusion, including compulsory national service if voluntary service is not found sufficient."—(Cheers.l WOMEN'S HELP WANTED. Anotiiur iiSiJv.cE 01 tile queat.on was touuueu upon oy nu jionar Law at a great war loan mec-u.ng m u u.sgow. lie nuuie an appeal to tne women ot the country. We ail know," lie sa.a, "wnat tne women nave aone, and how tuey ha»e come forward wnen munitions were needed to savo tne l.ves ot our soiditrs. T'Hey nave aono sonittnmg harder tnan that. Ihey Jmvo not urged tne men to hoid back wnen tne cry ot tneir country came to tiiem. Ihev nave urged tlieir Husbands, their brothers and their lovers to go lorward, and give up tne:r lives, it necessary, m tne service of tnear country. I ask tlae women to show tne same spir-t now, not merely in tlie casos wnere tuey have s&vings of tlieir own but to use their influence to get the men to savo something to g.ve to tne State in her hour of need. 'lhc strength of this country depends on its econom.e conditions throughout, and noth.ng cou.d weaken it so much as useless expenditure. In my belief, the high prices from which the very poor classes so largely suffer come not so much from the scarcity of commodities as from the freedom with which who have good wages are spending the money they receive. I a.ppeal to that class to respond.

THE LADS OF EIGHTEEN. Xn order to reuueo the m.ntary requirements ot men ot more mature years, who are only lit for tue lower medical' categories, the War Cao.net lias decjdtd to call up tor. service all lads, as, and when, thev attain the age of la years. They will not go overseas until 19 years of age. They w:ll be trained and employed in homo defence. ihe order states : '•'ihe omy lads as a class who should not in the meantime rePort are those who have passed through an apprent.eeship in one or other of the tk.lled engineering trades, and who are fully engaged on war work in the shipyards or munition factories. Such' lads should remain at their work. Others who have passed through an apprenticeship as above, but who are not lully engaged on war work m the shipyards or mun.tion factories, may report to their recruiting office and request to be trade tested lor posting as artificers." WOMEN'S DAY.

t . February 27, is to bo known as '"Women's Bay," when souven.rs wiLl be sold on behalf of the Woinaji War Time Workers' Fund, established by the Y.W.C.A. to extend their rest homes, huts, xiostols, ancl cluL>s. .A. mcGt ng of was held at the Mansion House, when Dr Addison (Minister of Munitions) said" there were 900.000 women now actus as substitutes for men in industries in th s country. By means of training schools and perseverance they had proved that there were few operations which, with sufficient training, women were not capable of performing. At the present time there were more than 500,000 of them engaged in munition production, and the number was increasingdaily. At the present t : rae the emplovment agencies were bringing into the munition works about 34.000 additional women per month. In large filling factories, even in the neighbourhood of London, they wanted an additional thousand women in each.

POTATOES SEIZED. The military authorities have been commandeering potatoes on a large scale during the past few days. Following a warn noto merchants in Covcnt Garden, King's Cross, Spitil fields, and Borough Markets, that certain quant,'ties of potatoes wou'd be requisitioned at £8 a ton, about 100 tons wero taken at King's Cross, ancl 50 or 6{J tons at each of the other markets. B r requisitions have been made in Lincolnshire, Hunt : ngc!on, Cambridgeshire. Bedfordshire, and Hertfordshire. At Spalding 1500 tons and 10C0 tons respectively wero taken from two dealers. Another dealer at ■March had 1000 tons conunandeeored. Farmers at Ormskirk refused to sell at the Food Controller's reported price—£B a ton, • —and dealers would not give more.