The Skilled Recruit.
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Improved and More Systematized Methods are Wanted to Obtain Him.
The general Press has seen to it that public and official attention has been drawn to recruiting methods and shortcomings. From the first we have lived with a succession of pesters which have announced that " 100,000 more mew are required!' But there has been such an indefiniteness about such appeals, that we have for weeks been left in doubt as to whether it is the sixth, seventh, or eighth 100,000 that is needed. Amongst the first official requests made at the new sitting of Parliament was one that the Government should make some adequate pronouncement as to the ultimate number of men it would require, so far as it could foresee at the moment. This is a sensible sug gestion, and would consolidate the numberless efforts which are being made in all parts of the country to raise our huge volunteer armies, by virtue of the fact that they would then have a definite goal at which to aim.
This uncertainty as to the total number of men required has, as we have said, been a serious factor in retarding the recruiting returns for the general forces. It is even more true of the men who are being raised for the various technical branches of the army. This journal represents an industry which is in the first line of importance in respect of this demand. We have, from the early days of August, taken a considerable share in facilitating the enrolment of drivers and mechanics in the Army Service Corps, but we have to confess that we have been hindered in our efforts by the practical impossibility of ascertaining, at first hand, anything like an estimate as to the actual numbers required of drivers, or fitters, or mates, or the many other special craftsmen for which the Army Service Corps branches are revealing so great a demand in this war.
One morning a hurried pronouncement is made in the daily Press that 1000 drivers are wanted within the next few hours. The late-comers are bluntly told that all the men: that were required have been obtained, with the result that disappointment and grave incon venience has been the lot of many applicants. Such a, demand may come first of all laam the Central Recruiting Office. On the following day similar needs are notified from King's Road, Chelsea, maybe. Then follow spasmodic requests of a comparable nature from various parts of the country. It needs more acumen than we can command to keep track of these disconnected requisitions. With the best will in the world, we have not been able to make use of our influence to the full to assist in securing adequate supplies of the right elms of personnel. For instance, we are not now in possession of information which will enable us to state how, other than by a written application to the Central Recruiting Offices in London, a fitter, shall we any, in Carlisle, who is de
sirous of entering as a skilled mechanic in the Army Service' Corps, should proffer his services. Visits. to
the local recruiting office by such men are, in nine cases out of ten, resultant of little practical effect. Then, again, we cannot at the moment inform applis10 cants as to whether the Army Service Corps itself requires more men as drivers, as mechanics, or as mates, or whether its recent hurried request has been properly met. We believe it has. As we write, however, there is before us a cutting from a North Country paper, which shows that an appeal is being made by the Manchester Engineers' Club for "fitters, turners, drivers, lorry builders, mechanics, electricians and blacksmiths!' There are other similar requirements.
It would appear to the man in the street that the organization which would be best of all able to deal with this Government request for skilled recruits would be that of the Labour Exchanges.
As matters stand, no one is able to tell exactly for what units men are required at any special time, nor to give information as to where there is a shortage of such men, in order that would-be recruits can be directed to the nearest of such depots from their places of residence.
All this uncertainty, with its obvious waste of good material, and the great risk of discouraging men who have applied once or twice with little avail, might be easily avoided if an official communiqué from the Central Recruiting Office, co-ordinating all such demands for skilled help—and notifying where they do not exist, whether from the Army Service Corps, the Royal Engineers, the Royal Navy afloat or ashore, or the Territorial technical units, were to be issued to the Press, and to all other interested quarters, weekly or even at more frequent intervals. Only in that way will it be possible for all of us who are desirous of helping the men as well as the Government to use our undoubted opportunities to the fullest extent. We commend the suggestion for the issue of such a, weekly bulletin in respect of the skilled recruiting demand to the officials of the Central Recruiting Offices. For the ordinary recruit, there appears so far to be an endless demand, and he can "sign on" almost everywhere and anywhere.