Evening star., 1938-12-26
Britain Is PLANNING
Voluntary Service
Civil Defense
Sir John Anderson's
Ideas Expected to
Win Approval
BY H. J. J. SARGENT.

BY H. ]. J. SARGENT.
LONDON, Dec. 26.-Some weeks
ago said in this column that Eng
land had set her hopes for the re-
organization of all her measures for
civil defense in time of war on Sir
John Anderson, who had been given
post in the cabinet as Lord Privy
Seal. Anderson took little time to
consider the situation. He went
about the country and talked with
local government people. He then
came back to the metropolis and be-
gan putting his ideas in the form of
q rough draft.
These ideas have now gone beyond
the drafting stage and they appear
to be sound. At least. their inher-
ent soundness has not been chal-
lenged by the government opposi-
ton. whose business in normal cir
cumstances is to oppose, and the
impression one has is that Ander-
sons plans, unless they are radically
altered from the lines disclosed, will
be generally accepted by the coun-
try.
Anderson has elaborated the idea
of a national register, which had
been more or less in the air toward
the end of the Great War. Then
the plan had not been carried very
far, but, this time, given an oppor-
tunity Of getting on with the job
before the guns begin to fire and
the bombs start dropping, there is a
chance that it may be brought to
full fruition.
Voluntary Service Basis.
The scheme is based on the prin-
clpal OF voluntary service. The
dominating idea is that the inhabi-
tants of the United Kingdom will
be asked to come forward according
to their occupations, and not ac-
cording to their individual wealth
or lack of wealth or the facility
with which they can drop their jobs.
Certain occupations are exempted
from war service in the army, the
navy or the air force because they
are more valuable to the country
than If people so employed dropped
their jobs and shouldered a musket,
and everybody, roughly speaking, in
these occupations, except the very
young, will be exempt.
Every household in the land is
going to receive within the next few
weeks a handbook setting forth all
the services for which volunteers
are needed. These will include DO
lice, fire services, nursing and the
like, over and above the men re-
CURED for service in the field and
af1oat. The book will give a clear
indication of the types of men and
women who can most suitably VOL
unteer for each kind of job, and
full list also will be given for all
the key occupations which, if this
country had to mobilize for defense,
would become so essential to the
war effort of the nation that per-
sons engaged in those occupations
could not be spared for any other
form of service. Something like
10000 900 of these books will be dis
tributed.
Plans are already we'll on the way
for starting a great recruiting CAM
paign to induce practically every
body IN the country to enroll volun-
tarily in the national register. This
enrolment will give the government
authoritative information on the
manpoWer and womanpower avail
able in an emergency, and it also
will indicate who the people are who
must remain in their exempted
jobs. These will include miners,
aircraft workers, agricultural en-
ployes, people employed on rail-
ways, shipping, iron and steel shops
and certain light industries. 1t is
said that those engaged in the
newspaper industry also will be ex-
empt, but that remains to be seen.
Anderson Compromises.
Now the question of voluntary
service as against compulsion might
be considered. There were those
who asserted, when the national
register system was first discussed,
that the likelihood of making
successful job of voluntary regis
VCA "do lCillOtC. 1llCy WdIlttu IIle
register itself to be compulsory,
though leaving the service volun-
tary. On the other side there were
those, particularly on the liberal and
labor forces, who stood out for the
voluntary principle pure and simple.
Anderson compromised by saying
that, in peace time, voluntary sys-
tenn of registration was all that was
. necessary or desirable, but, at the
same time, machinery would be set
up to prepare compulsory rules, to
become effective Immediately on the
outbreak of a war.
Even now there is certain
amount of compulsion foreseen in
the voluntary register. People VOL
unteering for certain classes of ci-
william service must undertake to re-
spect the contract between them
selves and the government binding
them to that service. A man resign
Ing from a national service post
would be expected to give formal
notice, and he would also have to