Lord Derby asserted that, much as he regretted the need
for compulsion, the whole scheme would have been a failure without Mr. Asquith's pledge. Yet there had also been a notable wave of patriotism. The best proof of this was that married men who might consider themselves secure from compulsion were coming in freely. Single men were also coming in in a greater proportion than married men, and yet not freely enough. As for the exemptions by the Government, as distinguished from the exemptions of the tribunals, he begged the Government to give the whole question their most careful consideration. He would not enter into the vexed problem of the numerical propor- tions required by the Army and by industries, but he noticed that since he issued his Report no fewer than four lists of reserved occupations had been published. Finally, he supported the denial of the Government that industrial compulsion would be applied under the guise of military compulsion. Such an act, he said, would be most unfair. The Bill was read a second time without a division.
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