We need 720,000 men continuously employed in this industry... This is where you boys come in... [O]ur fighting men will not be able to achieve their purpose unless we get an adequate supply of coal.

Broadcast to sixth-form boys (12 November 1943), quoted in British Information Services, British Speeches of the Day, Volume 1 (1943), p. 23. Bevin had introduced a system whereby some men conscripted for National Service would be transferred to working in coal-mining; because of this speech, they were known as 'Bevin Boys'.