CO129-581-16 British propaganda in Hong Kong 18-4-1939 - 29-10-1939 — Page 25

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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.