H.—lla

Had immediate action not been taken by the Government to safeguard the continuity of industrial operations and essential services, this sudden and indefinite withdrawal of man-power would have had the most serious effects on every kind of industrial activity. Safeguards were provided, however, through the granting of a fresh right of appeal against mobilization, and this threw a sudden volume of work on to Man-power Committees which were called upon to deal with these appeals. Over 7,000 men were affected by appeals, and of these, 54 per cent, were withheld from mobilization, including 14 per cent, temporarily deferred and 11 per cent, adjourned for later review. 12. THE CALLING-UP OF MARRIED MEN The January mobilization was only the beginning. Throughout 1942 the whole administrative machine of the Department was working at high pressure calling up men in an attempt to bring the Dominion to a state of complete mobilization in the shortest possible time. During the year no fewer than 160,004 men were called for service, the great majority being married men. Order of Priority in Calling up. —The problem of determining the best order of priority in calling up married men had been under discussion by the Government for some time, and it was finally decided that— (i) Married men without children should first be called as a class ; (ii) The remaining married men —i.e., those with children—should be called by age-classes, commencing from the youngest class, irrespective of the number of children. The points in favour of an age-class system were, briefly (a) Prom the military point of view, a rapid flow of quickly trainable men was needed. It had been found that the younger men were fitter and less affected by appeals, so that a more rapid flow of man-power to the Army was secured by this method at a time when it was needed. Further, younger men had been found to be more adaptable to mechanized warfare and subject to lower sickness rates when in the Army, and were therefore to be preferred even after the mobilization stage was passed : (b) From the industrial point of view, the most valuable type of man was the somewhat older type who was thoroughly skilled and experienced, often holding an executive position, and able to train female or other replacements for men called up. The method of calling by age-classes left these more valuable industrial workers to be called up last, and hence was much to be preferred to any alternative : (c) From the personal point of view, there were pros and cons. The age-class system gave some certainty as to the likely time of call-up (an important factor), though the proportion of hardship cases arising from the calling of men with larger families was inevitably higher (a factor which was softened, however, by the appeal system) : (d) From an administrative point of view, the age-class system was much to be preferred. Continual changes of records and movements of men as between sub-groups following notifications of births and deaths of children, and the many status appeals arising from wrong inclusion of men in ballots (usually due to failure of the men themselves to notify births) would be completely avoided. Even in spite of these arguments it was felt that the wisest course would be to call up first those married men who were without children. In some respects this was a happy compromise with public expectations based on the last war and with the sociological arguments which favoured recognition of size of family, and it certainly had the additional feature of freeing the maximum number of wives without children for work in industry. The whole class of married men without children was accordingly called up in January, 1942, and all the remaining married men right up to age forty-five were called in a series of ballots, which included also the inflow at age eighteen and the " seepage " into classes already called up. Full details of these ballots are given in the Appendix. Medical Examination of Married Men. —The medical examination of married men disclosed two prominent features which had already been anticipated from earlier analysis : — (i) That the fitness of married men, as of single men, decreases rapidly with advance in age : (ii) That married men of a given age are, on the average, fitter than single men of like age. The second point is of particular interest as reflecting, among other factors, the effects of the selection exercised at time of marriage (the less healthy section of the single men not being subject to as high a marriage rate as the more healthy). In the case of balloted men in particular there was also the factor of the withdrawal of the fit volunteers prior to the operation of the ballot, this reducing the proportion of fitness among single men more than among married men. Further details of the results of medical examinations are set out in the Appendix. Appeals arising from Married Men's Ballots. —Turning to the volume of appeals arising from married men's ballots, it was found that as the process of calling men advanced deeper and deeper into the remaining sections of the population, the volume of appeals rose to higher and higher levels, until in the last few ballots some 70 per cent, and more of the men called up were affected by appeals. This increase in appeals was due to a whole complex of reasons, including the increasing proportion of key workers included as the older classes were reached, the extent of losses of man-power already borne, and hence the increasing difficulty in releasing further men owing to lack of suitable replacements, and also the increased average size of family of the older men. It may be remarked in passing that there were fewer conscientious objectors among married men than among single men. Not only was there a higher proportion of men affected by appeals toward the end of the ballot process ; it was also found necessary to postpone from service an increasing proportion of these men. The whole policy of appeal tribunals had to be reoriented to meet the new position, and an increasing

12