The Amalgamated Society of Engineers was represented at the Treasury Conference; its representatives, however, had been instructed not to agree to any scheme until they had reported it to, and obtained upon it the instructions of, their Executive Council. On that becoming known to the Government, the Chancellor of the Exchequer convened another conference on March 25, 1915, at the Treasury with the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, and a further agreement was there signed. At the conference the Amalgamated Society of Engineers insisted that the Government should take steps to regulate employers’ profits, arguing that it was unfair to prevent the workman from using his tremendously increased economic power and at the same time leave employers free to use theirs. A supplemental agreement was then made with the Amalgamated Society of Engineers containing this clause: “That it is the intention of the Government to conclude arrangements with all important firms engaged wholly or mainly upon engineering or shipbuilding work for war purposes under which their profits will be limited with a view to securing that benefit, resulting from the relaxation of trade restrictions or practices, should accrue to the State.” The national need for limiting employers’ profits had been emphasized previously by the Committee on Production. This recommendation had the strong approval of Lord Kitchener; speaking in the House of Lords on March 15 (see _Parliamentary Debates_, 1915, H. of L., Vol. 18,723) he said: “Labour may very rightly ask that their patriotic work should not be used to inflate the profits of the directors and shareholders of the various great industrial and armament firms, and we are therefore arranging a system under which the important armament firms will come under Government control, and we hope that workmen who work regularly by keeping good time shall reap some of the benefits which the war automatically confers on these great companies.” Negotiations were undertaken by the Government with various armament and shipbuilding firms with a view to the Government taking possession of them, but these broke down and the Government abandoned the idea. Other negotiations to limit, first, dividends, and then, alternatively, net divisible profits, also collapsed and nothing came of them. The fact that workmen were prevented from forcing higher wages while employers were left free to make higher profits completely nullified the “Treasury” Agreements and something had to be done. On June 9, 1915, the Ministry of Munitions was constituted by Act of Parliament. Immediate steps were taken to draft the Bill which afterwards became the Munitions of War Act, 1915. The Government appreciated the importance of getting the Bill agreed to by Labour, as indeed they ultimately succeeded in doing. The first point on which Labour insisted was the limitation of profits of the employers. This was ultimately provided in Section 5.