making and maintenance, quarrying, on the railways and at the base ports, plus forestry and various tactical jobs at the front. The total required for September 1916 was 64,500 men but in August there were only 52,000. The difficulty was in finding enough men to do this work without taking them from fighting units. Amongst the solutions proposed by the new works directorate was the use of women in clerical jobs in France and as cooks, and the use of prisoners of war.
