formed as the British Expeditionary Force. The recruitment drive would be spearheaded by Lord Kitchener once war had been declared in August 1914. It was abundantly clear that the army that the Kaiser had referred to as a "contemptible little army" would need thousands more recruits. Young Britons answered the call, for King and Country, and voluntarily joined the British Army. By early 1915 much of the regular army had been killed and were now replaced by the part-time volunteers of the Territorial Force and Kitchener's new volunteer army. A feature of the volunteer army was the Pals battalions, recruited from single communities or even factories, who were allowed to serve together. The Kitchener recruitment campaign had proved to be very successful, as on 1 September 1914, over 30,000 men enlisted. With each day passing, thousands more were clamouring to be taken. The British Government soon realized the main drawback of this campaign, as opposed to the French and German conscriptions, which selected each individual men, a high proportion of men from skilled industries left their works, which would prove to be costly in the war effort. A better-controlled enlistment program would be required. The Military Service Bill was enacted with effect from January 1916 and specified that men from the ages of 18 to 41 were liable to be called up for service unless they were married (or widowed with children), or else served in one of a number of reserved professions. By the end of World War I, almost a quarter of the total male population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland had joined up, over five million men. Inter-war period 1919–38 After the Great war and the inevitable defence cuts that would follow, the army was reduced in size, and by 1920 had fallen to a strength of 370,000. There were a number of factors for the reductions in the size of British Army, and the cuts to the budget of the Army. The army now had competition from the new armed service, the Royal Air Force, which could patrol far greater land areas, and keep the far flung corners of the Empire policed from the sky at a relatively cheaper cost. The defence budget for the army was repeatedly cut yearly, as in 1923 the army defence budget was 43.5 million pounds sterling, and during the Great Depression in 1932 to just under