RAID ON FORMOSA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 80, 14 January 1944, Page 4

RAID ON FORMOSA.

JAPANESE PLANT OBJECTIVE (Rec. 11 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 13.* It was United States heavy bombers which attacked the island of Formosa on Tuesday night. Their target was the Japanese aluminium plant on the south-west coast. On the same night American aircraft attacked railway yards at Bangkok, capital of Siam.

DISCARD SHELLS.

MADE FOR NINE MONTHS.

£16,000 WASTE IN TWO PLANTS.

'LONDON.

Because of slow and inefficient “change-over’ methods 41,000 181 b shells were turned out at a cost of about £16,000 when it was known-to manufacturers and the War Office that the shells were obsolete and destined for the scrap heap, the Committee on National Expenditure announced in making public its twelfth report.

The committee reported that the War Office had given final requirements for the shells in December, 1941. Fifteen of the seventeen firms making that, particular shell body ended production in January, 1942, but two small firms continued for six to nine months to- produce the article no longer needed. It was explained that the two firms doing the work had “very oldfashioned machinery and'it was difficult to find other work for them, but at the same time the Ministry of Supply did not want to lose the plants’ shell-making capacity.” The committee also criticised arrangements for the disposal of scrap ammunition, saying that shipping and reshipping these materials could bo avoided and much time and transport saved.