Abstract
FEW features of the opening weeks of the War have received more widespread approbation than the desire manifested in our general policy to conserve human life so far as possible. If loss of life is inevitable in warfare, strategy and tactics have been designed to secure objectives with the minimum of loss, and to avoid the appalling wastage which so often characterized offensives in the War of 1914–18. The announcements that the earlier age groups will not be among those first called up for service with the armed forces and that the former militiamen are not to be drafted immediately to active service units, the fundamental idea in evacuation schemes, and even the redundancy or waste in certain branches of civil defence against air attack which have been the subject of recent criticisms, are all signs that lessons of the last war are being taken to heart. It is realized that the man-power of Great Britain is a most precious national asset, and a serious effort is being made to conserve it.
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Man-Power and the Needs of Youth. Nature 144, 843–845 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144843a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144843a0