THE COLONIST. MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1918. THE MAN-POWER BILL.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14621, 28 January 1918, Page 4

THE COLONIST. MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1918. THE MAN-POWER BILL.

The Bill to further increase the strength of Britain's army, which is now on its way tt rough Parliament, aims at a further "combing out" of exempted industries to achieve what some critics, notably Colonel Repington, condemn as an inadequate result. In his original speech on the Bill in the House of Commons, Sir Auckland Geddes described man-power as the central problem of the war. He said that tie Government had examined the entire question of the strength, character and composition of the forces of ourselves and our Allies and of our enemies in the light of the situation in Russia. The result of tie inactivity of Russia was that 950,000 additional German troops would be available for the forces on the Western front, and several AustroHungarian divisions for the Italian front. Taking everything into consideration the Russian defection would possibly mean 1,600,000 Austro-German troops available for elsewhere. Nevertheless, the resources of the Allies wero sufficient to assure victory. Nothing but a psychological catastrophe in one or other of the Allied countries could save the Central Powers. TTie Government had most carefully con-1 sidered the question of casualties, and I determined that carelessness as regards human life should be stamped out everywhere. Sir Auckland Geddes made an illuminating comparison in explaining wlat the British nations' had already done. He said that in August, 1914, the personnel of the Navy was 150,000, of the regular army, including reserves, 450,000, and the territorials 250,000, while the Air Service strength in 191*"4 was 2000. The position to-day is a*1 follows: British Army/ 4,000,000; Royal Navy, 400,000; Air Service, 125,000. To the above figures must be added the killed and missing, prisoners, and disci arged men. Taking everything into consideration, the effort of the British nations under the heading, "Provision of; Men for the Armed Forces of the Crown," amounts to not less than 7.500,000. England has contributed 4,530,000 men, Scotland 620,----000, Wales 280,000, Ireland 170,000, and the Dominions and the colonies 900,000. Tie remaining million is composed of native fighters, labour corps, carriers, and others. This represents a splendid contribution by India and the various African and other dependencies. But even these figures fail to indicate our total effort, for they take no account of manufactures of munitions, ships1, naval and mercantile, aircraft, the increased production of food, iron ore, oil, .and supplies of all kinds we furnished to our Allies. The object of the Man-Power Bill is to maintain tie effort during 1918 by raising an additional 450,000, men in the "United Kingdom. This is to. be done without altering the age limit, and without the application ofl compulsion to Ireland. The Cabinet has determined to make available for the military forces' a very large number of youths engaged in essential industries, replacing them with women and former soldiers. THs will leave in civil life a large reserve of men over 41, which our enemies do not possess, and which could be thrown into the scale if necessary. The main object of the proposal is to secure equality of service as far as is practicable, whether at the front or in war activities at tome. The success of the scheme'is vital to tie success of this year's campaign, though some authorities hold that the number of men it is intended to secure is too small for the probable necessities of the year.