The report proceeds to state briefly the conclusions of the
Govern- ment as announced by the Prime Minister. Among the "minor proposals" made is one for keeping time-expired men with the colours until the end of the war. This will be a considerable gain in quantity and a still greater one in quality. Then we learn the true results of the Cabinet compromise. It is recognized that the flow of recruits is not steady or ample enough for the needs, and there is to be an immediate effort to increase the voluntary enlistment of un- attested men. But if by May 27th fifty thousand men have not been obtained by those means, the Government will ask for com- pulsory powers over married men. After that date the flow must be maintained at the rate of fifteen thousand men every week, and if it is found necessary, power will be taken to keep up that average by compulsion. These arrangements will hold good until two hundred thousand unattested men have been enlisted—that is to say, for ten weeks from May 27th.
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