4.
25
A National Register.
The British Government and the British people have persisted in
their belief that no civilised Power would go to such criminal lengths
as to provoke war in Europe. In that belief the demand of some public
men for a national register of the British people has been refused by
the Government for some considerable time. Now signs are unmistakable
that the folly of the dictators may lead to the final catastrophe, and
the British Government have announced the details of a registration
scheme.
The scheme has been in preparation for some months; the machinery
is now complete and can be put in operation at once. The country has
been divided into 65,000 enumeration districts. Every man, woman and
child will have a registration number, with an identity card which will
serve as a basis for any further rationing regulation, Full provision
has been made for recording births, discharges from the armed forces,
landings at ports, and so on. A system of central and local registers
has been planned so as to adjust and equalise the burden of the
transactions involved in the maintenance of the register, and to
obviate the defects usually experienced in any system of moving
population registers.
The chief purpose of the register will be to see that everyone is
given the work for which he or she is most fitted. Should war be
averted, the scheme, which has been planned on census lines, will be
put in operation later to take the place of the 1941 census. It is,
of course, more detailed and more comprehensive than the usual census
mode of procedure, as it has to serve a much wider purpose, and for this
reason the number of enumerators is 16,000 larger than the number
employed in the last census of 1931.