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The system based on schedule of Reserved
Occupations was a system of block reservation, with men automatically
kept out of Forces simply because they belong to various occupational
groups. Some further refinements were soon found to be necessary.
 Firms
were divided into “protected” and “unprotected” establishments,
according to the urgency of the work they were doing. In certain trades
there were now two ages of reservation, and men working in “protected
establishments” were deferred at the lower age. This meant that firms
engaged in the work of the highest importance were prevented from
loosing the Forces too many of their younger skilled men in vital
occupations; at the same time it made available for the Forces, or for
more urgent civil work, men of the same age classes in those occupations
employed by firms on work of less urgency. But this was not enough. With
the increasing demands for more men, a finer instrument was required.
For while total war lasts, the manpower problem can never be actually
solved; no point of equilibrium or rest can ever be reached; the war
machine has to be geared up and up to avoid the disaster of slowing
down.
Further more since beginning of 1942, the system of
block reservation has gradually replaced by a more thorough system of
individual deferment. Increasing numbers of men, outside certain special
occupations, were now liable to be called up unless their employers
could establish, in applications to special Manpower Boards set up in
forty-four districts, that their firms were engaged on work of national
importance, that the work performed by the men was essential to the
employers that the men could not be replaced, and that the position
created by the calling up of the men could not be met by other means,
such as reorganization. The teeth of the comb were now set much closer
together.
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