XI.
It is idle to suggest that compulsion should have been applied in Great Britain when the war began. The certain result would have been resistance and disorder. The nation would have been weakened, divided, disabled for the mighty task before it. Only actual experience and the undesirable consequences of unregulated enlistment established the necessity for selection and made compulsory service possible. Railway workers, coal miners and various classes of skilled mechanics had to be brought back from the trenches. It was found necessary to reserve and organize labor for the shipyards and the munition factories. Agriculture had to be stimulated to the utmost. For a time there was a degree of industrial confusion, and under-production of essential war materials because men had joined the colors who could give better service to the Empire in the shops and mines than they could give in the field. It was essential that transportation should be efficient and the armies well fed and well equipped if battles were to be won against the long preparation, the scientific machinery and the accumulated war stores of Germany. Hence selection became necessary in order that the industrial forces should be competent and adequate and organized to secure the maximum of production. Unexpected revelations of German brutality and ruthlessness affected the thinking of multitudes of the British people. They began to realize that all the energies and resources of the kingdom must be employed if victory over the Germanic alliance was to be achieved. There was reason to rejoice over the results of voluntary recruiting. What had been done was magnificent. But it was recognized that there was still man-power available and that the situation required the enrolment of every citizen who was physically equal to military service, and engaged in activities less vital to the security of the State. Great Britain adopted every expedient to secure recruits before the selective draft was applied. It was found that the voluntary system was costly, partial and undemocratic. Enlistment was uncertain, haphazard and uneven. Many incidents, when appeals for recruits became strident and coercive, were repugnant to national self-respect and national dignity. Through adversity Great Britain discovered that equality of service and sacrifice is the essential basis of democracy. Under the system of National Service there is no distinction of race or creed or class or position. There is restriction upon freedom but only that the State may be preserved and the citizen secured in life and liberty, under the flag of his choice and in the land of his fathers.