In the late autumn of 1914, it was discussed at various conferences between the employers’ federations and the unions, but without success. In January 1915, the Government entrusted the problem to the Board of Trade, and in February the Committee on Production under the chairmanship of Lord (then Sir George) Askwith was appointed to formulate a programme for Government action. It is easy, of course, to be wise after the event, but it was an unfortunate circumstance, and deprecated by employers themselves, that it should, in the first instance, have been left to “Capital” to propose to the Trade Unions suspension of customs and practices which the Trade Unions had spent years in establishing, and which were regarded by the average workman as the bulwarks of his trade rights. All these customs, for example, the limitation of apprentices; the restriction on the working of certain machines by skilled men only; the remuneration of overtime; the limitation of output; the exclusion of women and also of men who had not served an engineering apprenticeship, were designed for the purpose of building up a system under which the Trade Union craftsman would have a monopoly of his trade, and be secured as far as possible against unemployment. It was regarded by the men as the natural instinct of every employer to break through these rules, and so, by securing the right to bring in unskilled labour, to reduce the standard of wages of skilled men. In spite of all undertakings by employers that the alterations in working conditions would be only for the period of the war, the workmen were never convinced that such measures were really necessary in the interests of the country or anything but devices of unscrupulous employers. Had Government in the first instance undertaken the negotiation of these proposals, and not left it to the employers, the history of munitions production would have been very different. The “Treasury” Agreements of March 1915