GREAT EFFORT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 193, 17 August 1942, Page 4

GREAT EFFORT

BRITAIN AND WAR

AMAZING OUTPUT

"N" ' it: iit rv in the history of Hie w..ri(l has mobilised its manpower and womanpower to such a pom! ,i Britain in this war. . .

Hii; quotation from Mr. Frnest 1■ \ jn. the I ligh Commissioner for 1 *•' f Britain in New Zealand. Sir Haiis I"i 11' rlice, this afternoon gavo

nu-n 1 1)(•!•-, of the Rotary Club what ,lr (•dlril "a bird's-eye view of the 1 nitcd Kingdom war effort at the '•lose t f the third year of war." It was a revelation. He pointed out that of a population ol 17,000,000, .i.'j,000,000 were available for work. Leaving out the woim n engaged in the care of ehildand in household work there were no less than 22.000,000 in the 1 nited Kingdom engaged in fullliine war work. Apart from fullInne work there was an enormous amount of part-time work.

I ho;igh actual figures regarding the armed forces could not he given it. had been declared a short time ago that this year the ("nited Kingdom armed forces W!.uld be about the same as they were at the end or t no Inst war—footworn four and five million. In munitions production there were just about twice as many employed now as there were in 1014-18.

There were a million more men making munitions at the end of ID4I, after just over two years of war, than at. the end of the last war, after nr.re than four years of war. In addition, since the" outbreak of the present war, over a million women have pone into munitions production and vital industries and services. Five and a half million men and women are occupied to-day on vital war work covered by essential war work orders."

The average hours for the British worker were from 55 to 60 a week iinn some worked 70, as compared with 41 to 48 before the war. Yet despite these hours and rare holidays, air raid hindrances and the like, skill had been maintained and the output was exceeding estimates In September, for instance, the Ministry of Supply set as a target a 40 per cent increase in output for the next six months. It was exefceded. Huge Taxation In 1938 four-fifths of national resources were for personal consumption—now more than half was going into the national effort. Taxation had reached a magnitude never dreamed of and about 60 per cent of the national income was going into the war.

"Income tax and surtax /take 94 per cent of the largest incomes. Indirect taxation is so high that out of 22d the price of the cheapest pipe tobacco, 17d is duty; of 24d for 20 cigarettes, 17d is duty; of lid a pint for beer, 6Jd is duty. Counting contributions for social 'insurance, war risks and war damage as taxation, central Government taxation accounted for 40 per cent of the national income in 1941. Nevertheless, voluntary savings raised over £1,600,000,000, personal savings in 1941 alone being over -£900,000,000. Taxation this year is intended to raise £500,000,000 more than the enormous figure for last year and the total Government expenditure for the year is expected to be over £5,000,000,000."

War Factory Output

The Immense scale of the output from British war factories was sometimes not fully realised, said Sir Harry. In January Mr. Churchill had stated that the United Kingdom produced in 1941 more than double the munitions equipment of the United States. U.S. production had greatly increased during the present year.

"Britain's air production equals or surpasses that of Germany and her total armament production approaches that of Germany, thus leaving almost the entire American production as a victory surplus for the United Nations. We are producing tanks, jeeps and other mechanical vehicles at the rate of 257,000 a year and big guns at the rate of 40,000 a year. War weapons output as a whole doubled in 1941. "The output of machine tools was six times tnat of normal peacetime level towards the close of last year. In the seventh quarter of this war the total output of warlike stores was nearly twice as great as the corresponding quarter of the last war and equalled our production in the fourteenth and culminating quarter of the last war."

Agricultural Achievement

The agricultural achievement of the United Kingdom was no less striking, stated Sir Harry. Britain to-day was easily the most highly mechanised farming country in Europe, and British farm output per man was at least half as much again as that of Germany. Six million additional acres had been put under the plough and the yield per acre was being kept easily the highest in the whole world.

"This great expansion does not necessarily imply a threat to the market for New Zealand produce after the war, for the name of New Zealand products ranks very high with British housewives, and the products on which British wartime agriculture has concentrated do not for the most part compete directly with the staple New Zealand exports of lamb, butter and cheese, consumption of which has perforce been vastly reduced. Moreover, we look forward to a great increase of total consumption not only in Britain but in Europe as a whole and throughout the world after the war."