experiment was not unsuccessful. The numbers were small, but the men worked with zeal and loyalty. 1
Finally, before dilution is described, there must be' mentioned the employment of German prisoners. From the outset British labour refused to work side by side with these men, and indeed when their employment in the Medway shipways was mooted, a strike was only averted by dropping the proposal. They were in effect confined to agricultural work, and to certain isolated and uncongenial occupations such as quarrying. From the munitions point of view they may be left out of account.
The negotiations which preceded the introduction of dilution are dealt with below in the consideration of the Treasury Agreement of March 21 1915, and the subsequent events. What is described here is merely the mechanism by which a profound change was brought into industry without which it is certain that the munitions programme could never have been carried out. Before, however, the actual introduction of women on to work previously performed by men is described, it is necessary to make it clear that this introduction on the mechanical side was only rendered possible by the immense simplification of the processes of production. It was the designers of jigs, the manufacturers of the automatic machines that rendered dilution possible, and the credit of making dilution possible must be laid at their door. And it is incidentally interesting to note, as will be noted more than once in the course of describing the regulation of labour, that war necessity introduced great and often beneficial changes in the whole structure of industry that have every appearance of permanence. In so far as the war preached the lesson of the automatic, a far-reaching change had been introduced, whether beneficial or not will be a matter for the future to decide.
There were two fundamental difficulties in the way of dilution. In the first place the employer resented the complete change of his system of working that dilution involved, and this attitude was only changed as the result of a long process of persuasion in which it is fair to say leading employers played an equal part with the officials whose special duty this persuasion was. In the second place there was the deep-seated objection of the trade unions to the invasion of the jealously preserved sphere of the skilled men by overwhelming numbers of possibly permanent com- petitors. When it is realized that both parties to the scheme employers and employed equally resented it the wonder is not that it took so long to launch but that it had in the end so con- vincing a triumph.
Up to Sept. 1915 practically no progress had been made. On Sept. 9 Mr. Lloyd George made an appeal to the Trades Union Congress at Bristol. 2 It met with some opposition, but undoubtedly had a profound effect on the labour movement as a whole, and the steady advance may fairly be marked from that date. One immediate and practical result of that speech was the establishment of a Central Munitions Labour Supply Committee (which was partly an extension of the National Advisory Committee, referred to below, which had negotiated the Treasury Agreement) with the following objects:
" A joint committee representing the National Labour Advisory Committee and the Ministry of Munitions with additional members to advise and assist the Ministry in regard to the transference of skilled labour and the introduction of semi-skilled and unskilled labour for munition work, so as to secure the most productive use of all available labour supplies in the manufacture of munitions."
The committee met for the first time and appointed two sub- committees to consider and report on (i) the fixing of wages in connexion with the introduction of semi-skilled and unskilled labour where only skilled workmen were previously employed and (2) the constitution and functions of local labour advisory boards. The proposals of the second committee, with regard
1 The total number of Dominion workmen came to about 7,000 of which by far the largest number (5,158) were Australians, whose passages, subsistence allowance and unemployment pay were met by the Australian Government. The number of aliens (Belgians, Dutch, Portuguese and Danes) was probably in the neighbourhood of 75,000, of which the large majority were Belgians.
Trades Union Congress Annual Report 1915, pp. 353-362.
Central Munitions Supply Commit- tee.
to the duties of each board, were adopted' by the Ministry on Oct. 14, as follows:
(1) Its general function was to act as agent of the National Advisory Committee in the district, reporting to it and negotiating with the local representatives of the trade unions. But the board should in no case take up disputes with employers. That was either a matter for the Ministry of Munitions or for the trade union.
(2) It was the board's duty to see that employers carried out the provisions of Schedule II. of the Munitions of War Act, to report all cases of failure to the labour officer of the National Advisory Com- mittee for action by the Ministry and to record or verify changes of workshop practice.
(3) The board should assist the Ministry in the enrolment and transfer of war munition volunteers. It would receive from the Ministry a statement of the number of men who could be set free from the various workshops, and should take steps to encourage the enrolment of men up to this number at least. The labour supply officer would also report to the board particular cases where suffi- cient enrolments could not be secured, in order that the board might remedy this if possible through the trade unions.
(4) The board should report to the labour officer or the National Advisory Committee all disputes and difficulties and cases in which men were engaged on private work or insufficiently employed, and should cooperate generally with the labour officers and the local representatives of the trade unions, to secure the most effective use of labour on the production of munitions of war.
Finally it was proposed that each member of the board should receive a fee of 2s. 6d. for attending a minuted meeting (not more often than once a day), travelling expenses (if he had a distance exceeding two m. to travel), and compensation for time necessarily lost from work at the rate of is. an hour. Trade union officials in receipt of fixed salaries were not entitled to claim this compensation.
These boards, though their mere existence probably con- tributed to the smoother working of the scheme, did not have considerable effect as executive agents. Nor is this surprising when it is remembered (a) that they consisted of members all of whom had full-time work in other directions, and (b) that dilution required for its effective institution the full-time work of specially trained men, whose sole object was the successful achievement of their task.
More important was the consideration by this committee of the all-important letter, known as CEi, addressed to all con- trolled establishments by Mr. Lloyd George early in Oct. 1915. This letter enjoined in the most precise terms the necessity for the immediate introduction of dilution, and to give point to this injunction the firms were required to fill up a form showing the number of skilled men employed in operating (i) machines of any kind on shell and gun work, (2) capstan lathes and other automatic and semi-automatic machines or other work, or (3) engaged in other processes which might be performed by less skilled labour. The result of this letter was entirely disappointing, the replies indicating that, in all the firms circulated, only 2,124 skilled men were available for transfer. But if it proved nothing else, at any rate the letter proved that the scheme could only be put through by actual personal visits on a large scale.
The next matter to which the committee, with a great measure of success, devoted their attention was the procedure for effecting dilution. The recommendations made by the committee on this head were adopted by the Ministry of Munitions and circulated as circular L6 to controlled establishments. The essence of the circular was to insist on ample consultation of the workpeople and their representatives before introducing dilu- tion a recommendation which, if more faithfully observed in practice, would have prevented many disputes. It also gave a preliminary list of processes upon which women might suitably be employed. Further it emphasized the desirability of intro- ducing a three-shift system where possible, and of avoiding the employment of women on night-work again an interesting example of the emergence from war necessity of a practical contribution to permanent social reform.
While the committee, in these directions and particularly in respect of wages matters, was rendering service of first-rate importance by preparing labour opinion for the ac- ceptance of dilution, steps were being taken to set Dilution up the executive administration machine without which it was clearly impossible to carry out a policy dependent for its success on its detailed application. After numerous
