The timid futility of this attempt at organising the resources of the country is shown _first_ by the fact that it left to the option of each employer whether he will reply or not. Businesses which do not wish to have their employees taken away need not give an answer. It is compulsory for individuals to disclose all particulars of their income; why, therefore, need Government shrink from making it compulsory upon firms to disclose all particulars of their staffs? ... The _second_ vice of this application is that the information asked for is quite inadequate for the object. Even if the enquiry were answered faithfully by every employer and householder in the country, it would not give the Government what they require for the purposes of organising industry or recruiting the army.... In the _third_ place, a certain group of trades is singled out at haphazard. If it is desired to organise the resources of the country what is needed is a general census of all males between 16 and 60. One does not know whether to marvel most at the belated timorousness of this enquiry, or at the slatternly way in which it has been framed. [8] One who is no longer alive--Queen Victoria--would possibly have hated it even more. Imagine her late Majesty's feelings on seeing the walls of Windsor plastered with the legend--'_Be a sport: Join to-day_'--and with other appeals of the same elevating character! ... But perhaps the poster which is more remarkable than any other--considering the source from which it springs--is one showing a garish but recognisable portrait of Lord Roberts, with the motto, '_He did his duty. Will you do yours?_' If the timidity of politicians is apparent in certain directions, their courage is no less noteworthy in others. The courage of a Government (containing as it does Mr. Asquith, Lord Haldane, Mr. Runciman, Sir John Simon, Mr. Harcourt, and Mr. Acland--not to mention others) which can issue such a poster must be of a very high order indeed. One wonders, however, if this placard would not be more convincing, and its effect even greater, were the motto amplified, so as to tell the whole story: "_He did his duty; we denounced him for doing it. We failed to do ours; will you, however, do yours?_" [9] This aspect is very cogently stated in Mr. Shaw Sparrow's letter to the _Westminster Gazette_ quoted on pp. 370-371. {382} CHAPTER VII PERVERSITIES OF THE ANTI-MILITARIST SPIRIT