ABSTRACT
During this period the abnormal war-sources of supply have practically dried up. On the other hand, the Universities and training Colleges have resumed their full annual output. /
7. It has therefore become possible during the last two or three years to take stock of the position and to get a better idea of the relation between supply and demand, under conditions which might be expected to be fairly permanent. It became clear that de nite measures would be needed if the increased demand in regard to both quantity and quality was to be met, and if the higher training required to cope with recent developments was to be provided. I will deal with these measures later, but, before doing so, I should like to invite attention to certain factors which have considerably in uenced recruitment, and which had therefore to be taken into account in considering measures for its improvement. 8. ere seems to be a lack of enterprise and a tendency to stay at home amongst the post-war generation. is has been commented on at the Headmasters Conference and elsewhere and has, I believe, been noticed by the Civil Service Commissioners, who recruit for di erent groups of services. is tendency may be largely due to a temperamental reaction from the war, but there appear to be
other factors at work; though in discussing them I know that I am on di cult and, possibly, controversial ground, and can only give my opinions for what they are worth. e kind of man who usually proves most tted for the Services under discussion needs certain personal qualities and an educational background mainly to be found in the type of family which has been most severely hit by the war. e loss of his father or elder brother may strengthen the desire to keep a boy at home. Beyond this we have the undoubted fact of the limitation of families; and it was generally the younger sons of large families who went overseas in the past. Economic pressure has also made it harder for such families to send their sons to a University. Fewer of them, therefore, get the type of education we prefer, and, as, for climatic reasons, we cannot usually send a man out till he is 21½, those who cannot go to a University tend to dri into other employment before we can take them. It must also not be forgotten that we lost 30,000 o cers killed in the war. e e ect of such a wholesale destruction of leaders cannot be made good in a short time, and it is men with the qualities of leadership whom we especially need. Finally, it is, I think, generally accepted that business rms are far more alive than they used to be to the value of the type of man we seek to attract. We have therefore to face a far sti er competition from this quarter than in pre-war days, and the greater nancial rewards, which a business career o ers, are doubly attractive in these times of economic stringency.
