100 Years Ago in the papers: Russia and women's suffrage

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/100-000-men-at-once-xsgc3zvlr

March 30, 1917

100,000 men at once

Mr Bonar Law made a grave statement on the urgency of the manpower problem in moving the second reading of the new Military Service Bill in the House of Commons today. It was the opinion of the Government, he said, that the Bill, which provides for a new examination of discharged and rejected men, was an absolute necessity in view of the present military situation. He explained that arrangements were made last autumn for the provision of men for the present campaign on a certain scale. That anticipation had not been fulfilled, because the Cabinet found the needs at home so pressing that for a time those in the Army had to give way. He thought it right to tell the House that the recruits obtained since the beginning of the year had fallen short by 100,000.
The House agreed that such a falling-off was serious. Members, however, were glad to hear that the deficiency had been made good to a degree by the taking of fit men formerly behind the lines for the fighting line. Relief had also come from the greater use of the services of women. A deficiency still existed, and the Army felt that unless it could be made good our prospects in the coming campaign would be jeopardized. The Bill to which Mr Bonar Law asked the assent of the House, would enable the military authorities to deal with 1,000,000 men, and their estimate was that at least 100,000 recruits would be forthcoming within the next three months. The Government recognized the hardship which the Bill would impose on individuals, but the war had reached such a point that the only principle that could be recognized was that every man who was found fit to go into the fighting line should be there, unless his services were required for needs of equal importance at home. He was sorry to say a considerable number of men had succeeded in avoiding service by something like fraud.
Mr Bonar Law stated that one reason why the falling off of recruits had not had the disastrous results it might have had was that our casualties so far this year had been less than anticipated. Still, a time of great fighting with terrible casualties was in front of us, and the whole value of this year’s campaign might depend on our being able to drive home any success we might achieve.

100 Years Ago - the Great War and Votes for Women

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-01-28/register/famine-with-plenty-in-russia-kmphx76xk

january 28, 1917

Famine with plenty in Russia

Russia is experiencing famine in the midst of plenty. The scarcity of food is the one thing talked of throughout the land. Last summer the poorer people took up their positions outside the Petrograd municipal meat shops at 10 o’clock in the evening. The sun had hardly set over the Elagin Island, where fashion and wealth enjoyed their ease and the wonders of the white nights, before the poor, basket in hand, began their weary vigil. Some waited 10 and 12 hours for a morsel of meat. Since then we have seen queues become the rule — for meat, for bread, for milk, for vegetables, for sugar, people wait in long “tails”. Rich and poor participate, the latter in person, the former by proxy through their servants. With the thermometer sometimes at 20 below zero Fahrenheit, people have to wait hours outside each shop to get daily necessities. The writer of this article saw a “tail” of more than 1,200 people outside the cooperative shop for railway employees at Kosloff waiting for white flour. Kosloff had then been without flour for 10 days, though half a dozen of the largest flour-mills in Russia are within a 250-mile radius of the town.


Probably there is sufficient food in the country to feed the population for the next two years. The problem to solve is how to distribute it. The Department of Provisions has borne the burden of supplying the Armies in the field since July, 1915. As time went on the deficiency in provisioning the civil population increased. The Ministry of Trade and Industry considered the question and appointed committees, but there the matter rested. Now its efforts have completely ceased.


Throughout the war the railways have supplied the Army with all that is needed or was available. This shows some organization; but it was done at the expense of starving traffic to the capitals and large provincial towns. With thorough, or even partially, efficient organization the great towns and manufacturing centres could have been supplied with all necessities in sufficient quantities if ordinary care had been taken in the use of goods trucks. Organization and co-ordination are, however, essential if Russia is to cope with her food problem; and it is for this reason that the absence of a strong, capable, and united Ministry has been felt during the past year.