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Meanwhile, the Battle of Britain
had begun. It brought some new and desperately urgent problems. The
weary war workers, at the end of this summer, now found themselves
thrust into the front line, for they themselves, their homes, their
factories, were now the target of the Nazis war machine. Every few
hours, day and night, the sirens wailed, the guns roared, and the bombs
came screaming down. But it was urgently necessary that work should go
on, except when enemy planes were directly overhead. Factories appointed
their own “spotters” and had their own alarm signals, and for the
most part ignored the general “alert” of the district, and this had
a marked effect on production. After air raids, whatever the damage,
work was quickly resumed for these men and women knew that it was they
who were being deliberately attacked, and they maintained a defiant and
unbreakable spirit. The world was watching them in wonder and
admiration; the world should see of what stuff they were made.
In this battered but indomitable Britain, which by
a last stroke of irony the Nazis have since held up as an example to
their own people, careful and elaborate large-scale planning now
succeeded hasty improvisation. It was necessary to have a programme for
the effective supply, control and distribution of the available labour
reserves of the country. Everything depended upon our use of our
manpower. Greater Germany alone had nearly twice the population we had,
and then there were Italians and such forced labour as the Nazis could
wrest out of all the occupied countries. The odds were great, therefore
the problem and its urgency were great.
 Machinery
for the Forces and Civil Defense, for war industries and all essential
services. On examination our manpower programme reveals three basic
principles: first, to secure, within the limits of our war economy, that
each citizen is so engaged that the maximum use is made of his or her
ability; secondly, to see that working and living conditions are as
satisfactory as is possible in the war time; and thirdly, although the
broadest compulsory powers have been conferred on the Government, it
must still ensure that individual rights are reasonably safeguarded and
the democratic spirit is preserved.
For this machinery of mobilisation is a most
unusual piece of apparatus: its component parts are nothing less then
flesh and blood, and the driving force in it is really the will of the
people themselves.
NEXT
SECTION
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