_______The Basis of Future Operations
the construction of positions was of simply incalculable importance, and to keep up the war industries at home.
" Fit for garrison duty only " was always a thorn in my side, When everything was at stake, why should not the garrison duty man, who was employed in the field, carry a rifle as much as the " general service " man ? The men, however, looked on their garrison duty classification as a sort of passport to safety. G.H.Q. never succeeded in adjusting this conception to the urgency of the army's needs or in getting rid of the ill effects of this expression. An order of the Minister of War, issued in the autumn of 1918, was too late to do any good. In the meantime, the standard of fitness for general service had been again revised, and below the class of " garrison duty in the field or at home " there was created another, " labour duty."
The system of re-examination and control generally at home seemed to me to be defective. Complaints of the most incredible shirking were always being made. I urged the War Ministry to act energetically, which was only bare justice. I was never able to feel, however, that in this respect things were as they should be, having regard to the spirit of the army and the public.
The law left untouched labour that should have been devoted to the State. The duty of service was only laid on men between 17 and 45. I regarded this limitation as quite inappropriate in view of the iron necessities of the war,
• As early as September, 1916, the Chancellor received the first demands of G.H.Q. for the ruthless requisition of all our manpower. We insisted emphatically on the point of view that in war the powers of every citizen are at the disposal of the State, and that accordingly every German from 15 to 60 should be under an obligation to serve, an obligation which, with certain limitations, lay on women too. The duty could be fulfilled by service at the Front, or by work, in the widest sense, at home, and was in no sense limited to workmen in the ordinary meaning of the word, although it, of course, fell mainly on them.
The introduction of compulsion for war services was of the greatest moral importance, placing as it did every German at the service of the State in these anxious tim^s, in accordance with
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