The rugged daily growled that recruiting zealots who had just been to visit miners of the region "were met with the now common question 'Why don't you go yourself instead of persuading workers to enlist?' "

"Some men have heavy responsibilities resting on them here at home which could not be left to incompetents. The fact that some men are worth more at home providing employment and managing the business of the country was not recognised at the first stage of the war.

"When it was found that the army was short of munitions it was also found that large numbers of men able to make them were in the trenches doing work which could be done just as well by men who were unskilled in the preparation of war material. These men in the trenches had to be sent back because they could do better work at home in making ammunition to be fired off by those who were not able to make it.

"It would be ruinous to the country to take away all the men who are controlling the industries of the country, and who are physically fit for service, and to replace them with men who are physically unfit and who have never proved themselves mentally fit for the work. Every available man is wanted at the front, but the men who are required to manage the wage-producing industries are not available."