SUPPLY POOL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 135, 10 June 1942, Page 4

SUPPLY POOL

N.Z.'S CONTRIBUTIONS "A SPLENDID SHOWING" (0.C.) WELLINGTON, this day. During a brief and busy visit to New Zealand on his return from India, prior to taking up duties for the Government in Australia, Mr. F. R. Picot, New Zealand member of the Eastern Group Supply Council, gave in an interview a glimpse of the work of this organisation, paying an enthusiastic tribute to the part his own country is playing in this vast effort. Because of its substantial contributions to the Allies' supply pool, net only of food, but clothing, boots and manufactured goods for the use or the fighting services. New Zealand, said Mr. Picot. has gained high prestige overseas. Considerations of secrecy essential in wartime prevented him from indicating in detail the output of our factories, but he gave an assurance that the figure is impressive.

The Eastern Group Supply Council, explained Mr. Picot, has swung into being a great organisation of armament factories, munition works and other classes of supplies for the fighting forces ranging through Libya, Iraq, Iran, West Africa. India. Burma and the East. "They are all essential requisites of war,"* he said.

"many of which had not previously been produced in the Eastern Group area, and the relief thus given to British production has been most helpful, if I could enumerate in terms of sterling the millions and millions' worth of value of the goods produced, it would give a vivid impression of the magnitude of this work.

Dominion's Skilled Workers "New Zealand's part in this great supply organisation," continued Mr. Picot, "has not been that of a suppliant at the council table, seeking as much as possible for itself. On the contrary, it has made valuable contributions to the common pool. 1 must crmment on the surprisingly creditable effort forthcoming from the Dominion. We arc, of course, primarily a food-producing country, but millions of pounds' worth of orders have been accepted by the New Zealand Ministry of Supply in the categr.ry of munitions, clothing, boots and the hundred and one essentials of a fighting force, some of them requiring high technical skill in manufacture—it makes a splendid showing. "Among the members of the Supply Council it was early recognised that New Zealand possesses a type of skilled labour adaptable to munition work not surpassed in any ether part of the Empire. Thus we find that a particular call was made on New Zealand manufacturers for articles requiring, in engineering terms, the lowest tolerances, or, in other words, finished to very fine limits. This was a class of work new to our manufacturers and their staffs, but New Zealand 'sprang to it' so readily, and subscribed so completely to undertake this important precision engineering work that one felt very proud of the good repu-

tat ion our country is making in a wide circle. It was satisfactory to me to find on the Eastern Group Supply Council such appreciation of what New Zealand has dene, and is continuing to do on lines which are new to its industries. Critics Found at Home "Travelling many thousands of miles in the course of my duties, I never heard the slightest adverse criticism of New Zealand's war effort until, strangely enough, I came back to hear it at home," declared Mr. Picot. "This must surely he due to lack of adequate knowledge of our outstanding effort—exceeded in proportion to population by no country fighting for democracy. Self-criticism is not altogether bad, if it makes for more effort and leads to' more being done. Supplies are the fundamental necessity for winning the war against a political system which conscripts all avenues of manufacture and supplies. So, in any self-condemnation by New Zealanders let them not forget. than what their country has done so far is a really stout effort. "Having made these observations about the secondary industries, I do not overlook the magnificent effort of the farming community. In expanding cheese production our farmers have rendered vital service to Britain, to whose fighting men cheese is a nourishing article of diet, not a relish eaten in small quantities. Ijlnen Flax Production "Without going over the whole range of farming commodities, let me only mention linen flax. We started in this country from zero and planted over 20,000 acres, building 17 factories for preparation of the fibre. It has all meant manpower, and our farmers should be encouraged when they know that their total production of linen flax is not only larger than pre-war Northern Ireland production and approximately double the present output of England, but that the methods of harvesting and processing the fibre are probably the most modern in the world. It is a commodity essential to certain vastly-expanding war industries so here again is an example of New Zealand's effective contribution to Empire supplies, without which war cannot be waged with success. All this has only been made possible by the splendid response of our women to the call for assistance to the administrative side of the fighting forces, our State service. our factories and our farms."