Lord Selbome argued that the food of the people was
as important as munitions. It was inevitable that some single men should be exempted in order to work on the land. Lord Harris entirely disagreed with Lord Selborne, and as a practical farmer declared that there were no unmarried agricultural labourers who could not be replaced either by married men or by women. Lord Lansdowne assumed that Lord Selbome had intended to refer only to foremen when he spoke of indispensable unmarried men. Ho admitted, however, that the lists of reserved occupations were "portentous." A Departmental Committee of the Board of Trade was revising these lists. But he felt that farmers would not conquer their prejudices against the employment of women till they knew that their labourers were certainly going to be taken. There were now one million six hundred thousand women experienced in industry who were unemployed. Lord Derby then uttered another warning. Unless the Board of Trade Committee revised the lists more drastically than was at present proposed, his later groups would be as disappointing as the earlier ones. Lord Selbome had rejected the proposal to release single men under thirty-one, but that was suggested even by the Board of Trade Committee.
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