ENGLISH HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

A STORMY WINTER.

ON January 1 the Prime Minister issued the following New Year message to the nation :

"At the beginning of a New Year the message I should like to send to all at home is an appeal to do their utmost in these later trying days for the cause for which the democracies of the world are now leagued together.

"The sacrifices which the men-and the women also-are making at the front we all know. Despite all that they have gone through, they are still facing frost and mud, privation and suffering, wounds and death, with undaunted courage that mankind may be freed from the tyranny of militarism and rejoice in lasting freedom and peace. No sacrifice that we who stay at home are called to make can equal or faintly approach what is daily and hourly demanded of them. So long as they are called upon to endure these things let us see to it that we do not take our ease at the price of their sacrifice.

"There is nobody too old or too young or too feeble to play a part. If we cannot fight in person, we can fight by the vigour and good will by which we do our work, the wisdom of our economy, the generosity with which we meet the nation's financial needs.

"At the moment lending and saving are specially important. Money is essential to victory, and economy is the condition of financial power. It is therefore the duty of all to save what they can and to lend what they can to the community at this time. Every man, woman, and child ought to make it a point of honour to increase his holding of National War Bonds as the year goes by, bonds which have behind them the whole strength and credit and resources of Britain itself.

"To every civilian, therefore, I would say: 'Your firing-line is the works or the office in which you do your bit; the shop or the kitchen in which you spend or save; the bank or the post-office in which you buy your bonds'. To reach that firing-line and to become an active combatant yourself there are no communication trenches to grope along, no barrage to face, no horrors, no wounds. The road of duty and patriotism

is clear before you; follow it, and it will lead ere long to safety for our people and victory for our cause.

"D. LLOYD GEORGE."

The appeal was timely, for the year had opened badly. The war had brought disappointments, and at home a number of causes tended to add to the depression. January registered extreme cold and stormy weather. The temperature in the Thames valley was the lowest on record for years. There were violent gales at sea, rivers were frozen and then flooded the surrounding country so that traffic was impeded and crops damaged. There were also two hostile air-raids during the month; in the one, on the night of the 28th to the 29th, 58 people were officially given as killed, and 173 as injured; in the other, on the night of the 29th to the 30th, there were 10 killed and 10 injured. To complete the record, on January 12 a mine explosion occurred in North Staffordshire, one of the most disastrous in the annals of the local coalfield, at the Minnie Pit of the Podmore Hall Colliery, Halmerend. The death roll was 160.

The general depression was heightened by the unsatisfactory food situation. There was a scarcity of most foodstuffs, and food queues were reported from all parts of the country. Meat in particular was short, the dearth being caused by the killing of stock because of the scarcity of feeding-stuffs. It was no uncommon thing to find butchers' shops closed. The protest uttered by the Labour Party Conference at Nottingham (Jan. 25) against the difficult food situation only expressed the feelings of the working classes, who in several localities organised orderly demonstrations against queues and profiteering. Thus at Manchester about 100,000 workers marched to the Town Hall to express their dissatisfaction (Jan. 17).

The Ministry of Food was active in its attempts to improve the situation. An order was issued (Jan. 23) limiting the quantity of staple foods, such as meats and fats, which might be consumed by visitors in hotels and by all people taking casual public meals, the prices of fish, of mutton, and of marmalade were fixed, and the food ration of the men in the army whose duties approximated to those performed by the civilian population was reduced by the Army Council. It became more and more evident, however, that compulsory rationing for the whole population would be inevitable, though on the whole the system of voluntary rations hitherto advocated had worked well. According to this system the ration per head per day in each household was as follows: (1) Bread, for men on heavy work, 1 lb. 2 oz.; for men on manual work, 1 lb.; for men on sedentary work, 10 oz.; for women, from 8 to 11 oz. (2) Cereals other than bread, 1 oz. (3) Meat, 44 oz. (4) Butter, margarine, and other fats, oz. (5) Sugar, 14 oz.

The first experiment in rationing was made with meat. On February 25 meat tickets (reproduced below) came into force

in London and the Home Counties, and the official announcement which offered some explanations of the scheme was in the following terms:—

"The Food Controller has decided to adopt for the rationing of butchers' meat, under the London and Home Counties scheme, the principle of fixing the ration by monetary value, while keeping to a weight basis for other meat and for meat meals. This proposal has been approved by the Consumers' Council and by representatives of the trade concerned.

"Each coupon on the adult meat card will represent five pennyworth of uncooked butchers' meat, including pork and offal, or a weight of other meat according to an official schedule of equivalent weights.

Not more than three out of four coupons may, as a rule, be used for the purchase of uncooked butchers' meat in each week.

D

The weekly ration of butchers' meat will accordingly be 1s. 3d. worth.

coupons

"Each holder of a card will be able to use any of the for the purchase of other kinds of meat (bacon, ham, poultry, game, rabbits, preserved and prepared meats, etc.) up to the amounts fixed by the schedule of equivalent weights. The schedule will be published at the beginning of next week. The weights of the other meat are fixed so as to correspond substantially with 5 oz. of uncooked butchers' meat with average bone.

"Coupons may also be used for the purpose of meat meals. "The general result is to make the weekly adult ration 1s. 3d. worth of butchers' meat together with other meat equivalent to 5 oz. of butchers' meat.

"Each coupon of a child's meat card will represent half the value of an adult's coupon.'

On February 25 there also came into operation the scheme for butter and margarine rationing in London whereby 4 oz. of butter or margarine was the amount allowed each person per week.

These measures tended to allay the discontent connected with the food situation. No less difficult was the question of man-power, one of the first problems with which the House of Commons dealt on its re-assembly on January 14, after the Christmas recess. Sir Auckland Geddes, the Minister of National Service, introduced a Bill the chief effect of which was to call up from civil employment a number of young men who had hitherto been exempt from military service. Sir Auckland announced that it was necessary to raise immediately in this country 420,000 to 450,000 men from among those now in civil life. The Bill had two main objects-to abolish the automatic addition of two months' exemption then enjoyed by certain men, and to give the Director-General of National Service power to withdraw any certificates of exemption granted on occupational grounds.

On the whole the Trade Unions showed signs of co-operating with the Government in carrying out the proposals of the scheme. Only the Amalgamated Society of Engineers stood aloof, stubbornly refusing to act in the matter in association with any other trade union in the engineering trade except on the basis of amalgamation or absorption of that union.

On January 17, during the debate on the second reading of the Military Service Bill, while Mr. Hogge was speaking, Mr. Pringle "spied strangers," and the House went into secret session for the seventh time during the war (April 25 and 26, 1916; May 10 and 11, 1917; June 9, 1917; Dec. 13, 1917; and Jan. 17, 1918).

The Act was passed and received the Royal Assent on February 6, 1918, and the Trade Unions representing war industries, including the Amalgamated Society of Engineers,

ultimately agreed to co-operate in making the working of the Act effective. Important as this measure was, its significance can hardly compare with the Reform Act, perhaps the largest effort of the Third War Session of Parliament, which came to an end on February 6. The main provisions of the new Reform Act were as follows:

1. FRANCHISES.

Men.-Qualifications for a vote: Twenty-one years of age, and six months' residence or occupation of business premises.

Women.-Qualifications for a vote: Thirty years of age, and either a local government elector or the wife of one. (The qualification for the local government franchise is six months' ownership or tenancy of land or premises. Lodgers in furnished rooms are not qualified.)

University. The qualification for this franchise is the attainment by a man or woman within the above age-limits of a definite standard, which in England and Wales is the taking of a degree. A woman is also qualified to vote for a university which does not admit women to degrees if she has fulfilled the conditions for the admission of a man to a degree.

War Service.-Naval and military voters to be registered for the constituencies for which they would have been qualified but for their service. This provision applies to (1) sailors and soldiers on full pay, and (2) merchant seamen, pilots, and fishermen, and persons engaged on Red Cross work or other work of national importance abroad or afloat. Male voters who have served in the war will be qualified at the age of 19 years.

Dual Voting.-No person to vote at a General Election for more than two constituencies.

Disqualifications.-Conscientious objectors to be disqualified during the war and for five years afterwards, unless they satisfy the Central Tribunal that they have fulfilled certain conditions, such as employment in work of national importance. Only British subjects to be qualified. The receipt of poor relief to be no longer a disqualification.

2. REGISTRATION.

Registers of Electors.-Two to be prepared in every yearone in the spring and one in the autumn.

Registration Areas and Officers. Each Parliamentary borough and county to be a registration area, with the town clerk of the borough and the clerk of the county council respectively as registration officer.

Appeals. If from a decision of a registration officer, to lie to the County Court. A further appeal on any point of law to lie to the Court of Appeal, whose decision is to be final.

Registration Expenses. -Half to be paid out of local rates and half by the State.

3. METHOD OF ELECTIONS.

Proportional Representation.-To be applied to university constituencies returning two or more members; 11 seats