Page:Engines and men- the history of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. A survey of organisation of railways and railway locomotive men (IA enginesmenhistor00rayniala).pdf/237

 were the vital channel. Yet drivers and firemen went hungry under rationing, and never were provided for in the way they ought to have been, although the Society got certain increases made for them.

Another phase of life in war-time which affected the entire community, and locomotivemen in particular, was military service. By November of 1915 we were getting to the last phase of voluntary recruiting, under which every man was expected to wear his khaki armlet, and there were house-to-house visits to rake men out. There were starred and unstarred men in industry, and late in 1915 we had the introduction of Conscription. 's group system had closed on December 12th, and on January 5th of 1916 the Government introduced the Bill imposing compulsory service on single men, the Labour Party remaining in the Coalition by the decision of the Bristol Conference on January 28th, the day after Conscription had passed all its stages and come into operation. The great roll up of the youth of the nation had begun, and on May 2nd compulsion for all men of military age was introduced by Mr. Asquith, who had himself made the poetical speech about "Conscript me no married man nor widow's son." Under compulsory military service we had medical panels rapidly passing men, and local tribunals hearing many thousands of appeals against service. Conscientious Objectors were interned, and throughout 1916 and 1917 Military Service Acts tightened their grip until every man below 45 years of age was in contact with the barracks, and carried a wallet full of cards and forms.

Mr. Lloyd George became Prime Minister on December 7th of 1916, and a Man Power Bill was introduced to transfer men of all sorts anywhere for war production. Industrial conscription was plainly hinted at by Mr. Henderson, then a Cabinet Minister, and a world of Alec Gordon's, and similar secret agents, had arisen. All these facts had an intimate relation to the railways and our Society. By appeals and some amount of pressure, exemptions were secured for the General Secretary and the organisers of military age, and the Executive was constantly at work to protect the rank and file.