Immediately after the outbreak of war the Prime Minister gave a pledge that the whole resources of the country would be employed, and that our effort would be as great as that of 1914-18. As Minister of Labour and National Service I have a special responsibility in regard to the use of the man-power of the country; and I want to say something of what has been and is being done to carry out the Prime Minister's pledge. The enemy is constantly asserting that Great Britain is not waging the war seriously, and in his clumsy efforts to drive a wedge between us and our French friends he seeks to show that they are bearing the brunt of the struggle. Our Allies know all the details of our effort, and they need no reassurance in that respect, but it is none the less important to make widely known how our resources of man-power are being used. In 1914 we started to build a vast army on a voluntary basis, and the foundation was the small Regular Army with the Territorial Army as its supplement. By the end of that war we had forces whose numbers compared with that of any Continental Power; but this effort required a long time to develop. We are in a better position today, for our preparations were put in hand when the danger appeared imminent. The Territorial Army was doubled: compulsory military training was introduced in April "Phe result is that after several months of war we have reached a stage far ahead of what we were able to accomplish 25 years ago.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.