Suggestions, in more or less urgent terms, that the military
should be called in to reinforce certain of the more heavily overstrained defence services multiply. A writer in T he Times, I see, proposes that soldiers be detached for the work of spotting by day, or of fire-watching by night, in important factories. The case for that, particularly in the case of fire- watching, is very strong. At present the strain on the staffs of many factories is almost intolerable ; I was talking last week to a worker of the very best type, who is fire-watching seven nights, and driving a van six days, a week. The human Physique can only stand that for a very limited period, and long nights are coming. Elsewhere it is urged that ex-miner soldiers should be used to construct deep shelters. Nothing could be better, and with the fall in the coal export trade, numbers of miners over the present conscription age, unem- ployed or under-employed, could put in invaluable work at this. In The Spectator of February 24th of last year Cel. Dale Logan, who was in close touch with the Tunnelling Companies LE in the last war, composed mainly of enlisted miners, spoke of the admirable work they did at the front, and pointed to the equally admirable work such companies, if reconstituted now, could do in providing safety for the civilian population of cities hie London. To omit to make use of such experts would be worse than folly.
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