ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that struggle between the police authorities to retain their best men and the continual pressure nationally by the army to encourage the release of fit men of military age; in this, the police faced similar challenges to other occupations seen as essential to the war effort at home. The discourse of serving King and Country in The Police Review developed from the outbreak of war. The initial national fervour to serve King and Country saw tensions arise very early in the war around resistance by men who were unwilling to volunteer. Showing that rumours of police involvement in recruiting volunteers into the army was viewed as harassment by the public as well as government desperation to compel enlistment by offering financial incentives to the police. The War Cabinet was portrayed as directly intervening, in February 1917, by sending instructions to call up all policemen fit for service and under 22 years of age.
