We have dealt fully elsewhere with the monstrous accusations made
against Lord Derby and the Government of a breach of faith in respect of the married men. Hero we will only say that we note with special satisfaction the signs that the Government mean to adopt a very drastic, policy in revising the exemptions allowed to unmarried men in what we can only describe as a fit of panic lest the industries of the country should be disordered. No doubt there are quite a considerable number of men who ought to be dislodged from the shelter of the munition factories. The fact that the Government have blundered here does not, however, in the least give any excuse for the married men not to do the duty which they so patriotically undertook, provided always that the Government would apply a scheme of compulsion to the unmarried, though reserving to themselves the right to consider their pledge about compulsion redeemed if it should happen that only a negligible quantity of unmarried men refused the call of duty.
