The following resolutions, passed by the Management Committee,
were submitted and approved:—
1. That the Management Committee of the Football
League be instructed to arrange with such Leagues as they
think necessary that all players registered by the clubs of
the various Leagues should be respected as retained players
until the 7th day of August next, and that no contracts be
entered into with players prior to the 2nd of August, 1915.
2. The clubs of the Football League request the Football
Association to make the signing of a registration form for
next season prior to 2nd August, 1915, illegal.
3. That the rules of the League be suspended, so far
as is necessary, until after the next conference between the
three Leagues—Football League, Southern League, and
Scottish League—and that the officials of the League remain
in office until the next annual meeting, which shall be called
on a date subsequent to such conference.
The following letter was read from Colonel C. F. Grantham,
commanding the 17th (Service) Battalion, the Duke of Cambridge's
Own Middlesex Regiment (Football):—
White City, Shepherd's Bush, W.,
26th March, 1915.
GENTLEMEN,—As the officer commanding the Foot-
ballers' Battalion it is my duty to bring the following facts
to your notice. You are aware that some little time ago
there was much controversy in the papers with regard to
the manner in which the professional football player had
failed in his duty by not coming forward to serve his country
in its time of stress. The laxity of the football professionals
and their following amounted to almost a public scandal.
Mr. Joynson Hicks, M.P., therefore raised the Footballers'
Battalion, and public opinion died down under the belief
that most if not all of the available professionals had joined
the Battalion. This is not the case, as only 122 professionals
have joined. I understand that there are forty League
clubs and twenty in the Southern League with an average
of some thirty players fit to join the Colours, namely, 1,800.
These figures speak for themselves. I am also aware and
have proof that in many cases directors and managers of
clubs have not only given no assistance in getting these men
to join but have done their best by their actions to prevent
it. I am taking the opportunity of your meeting on Monday
to ask you gentlemen if you and your clubs have done every-
thing in your power to point out to the men what their duty
is: "Your King and Country calls upon every man who is
capable of bearing arms to come forward and upon those
that are unable to use their best endeavours to see that
those that can do so."
It is no use mincing words. If men who are fit and
capable of doing so will not join, they and also those who
try by their words and actions to prevent them will have
to face the opinion of their fellow men publicly. I will no
longer be a party to shielding the want of patriotism of these
men by allowing the public to think they have joined the
Football Battalion.
Yours truly,
(Signed) C. F. GRANTHAM.
