ORGANISATION FOR WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2579, 29 September 1915, Page 14

ORGANISATION FOR WAR

WHAT NEW ZEALAND SHOULD DO A CANTERBURY VIEW A forcibly-put appeal for industrial concentration for war work was mado by Mr. C. 11. Hewlett in a paper read at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Hewlett said:— I wish to bring before the meeting a matter that has been occupying tho minds ofi a great many people for some time, and that is, the urgent necessity, for the purpose of present aud future 'national defence, of 'establishing a factory or factories, for the manufacture of small amis and machine-guns, and, if possible, 18-pounder shells and guns; also, tho necessity of organising tho industrial resources of this Dominion in order to enormously increaso the present output of war material. With this in view, 1 beg to propose the following resolution' That this meeting strongly urges . the Hon. tho Minister of Munitions to establish a small arms and ma-chine-gun factory, ■ and to organise the industries capable of manufacturing military supplies, such as boots, clothing, gun-carriages, transport wagons, etc., with a view to enormously increasing tho present output of wrfr material."

As the matter of machine-guns has been discussed rather freely in tlie papers of late, and as I think we are mostly of one mind on this subject, I, will not deal with it at any great. length. As you all know, our troops are severely handicapped by the fact of their having a much smaller supply of ma-chine-guns''than our enemy. Had we been in ft position to supply our boys with a better equipment in this respect tliero;is no doubt that a large number of lives would have been saved. - Wo are fortunate in having the seas clear at the present .moment, but, in the next war, such may not bo the case, and wc may for a time, at least, haveto defend ourselves. Even beforo this war is over.the seas may not be as clear as they are now, and New Zealand must be self-contained as far as possible in regard to ber self-defence. If an early peace is patched- up wo shall have to fight for our national existence later on, and we ought to lake steps now never to allow ourselves to be in the position in which the outbreak found us. The Minister of Defence has stated

that ho cannot get machine-guns or manl.inery for making them in England Then, we must try America and Japan. From present appearances, unless co can do something, it is only a matter of a very short time before our reinforcements have to go away unarmed. We should have followed the lead of Franco at the outbreak of tlio war, and secured machinery from America, and established a factory straight away. However, it is of no use crying out about tlie past; we must get to work straight away, and provide for present and future. I say emphatically that as a people we are not doing our duty. Our factories capable of turning out war material, such as boots, clothing, gun carriages, transport wagons, etc., aro working only eight hours per day for 5} days per week, whilst our engineering works aro turning out only half of what they dc in times of peace. THEY SHOULD BE WORKING- 24 HOURS I'Elt DAY FOR 7 DAYS PER WEEK 1 Some people aro of the opinion that New Zealand should concent-rate on food supplies and not on the manufacture of war material. I say wo can do both; tho country can produco and tlie town can manufacture.

There is great anxiety to lie'p throughout New Zealand, and thcroaro a great many people, especially in the towns, who aro only too anxious and willing to work in factories and liolp in tho manufacture of war material. Take tho Citizens' Defence Forces as an example. Many of these would bo willing to work two or three hours each evening and put in their week-ends in such a factory, whilst many men who for one cause and 1 another cannot go to the front, could give almost tlie whole of their timo to this work. It is not sufficient to give money towards these objects—that does not increaso the supplies. Wo must give service, and thereby increase the output. When we see the way in which Germany has organised the whole of her population, and when we look around and see the largo number of our citizens anxious to help by working in munition factories, if only facilities were provided, and when, apart from our Expeditionary Force, we ask tho question: What are we who are left behind doing?—the 'more wo must realise that, as a peoplo, as a portion of a nation, we are only playing at tho game of war. Germany' and Austria aro fighting as a nation, and wo must do the same, 'by every one of us giving personal service, and we, must ask tho Government to givo us the facilities for rendering such personal service, by organising our industries and factories throughout the Dominion. Compared with what England and France are doing, we are not doiii"; our share! I nave been' met by tlie - statement that we aro only a small country of a million inhabitants and nan do very little. Just so; we have a population of one million against Germany's and Austria's one hundred millions, equal to

1 per cent. Well, if our industries are organised and wo tackle the job properly, we shall nullify tho effect of a. million of Germany's population, and thereby reduce our enemy's effectiveness by 1 per cent., that is, lessen tho duration of tho war by 3J days each year; allow, say, 2 days per year; as what wo aro now doing and tho troops we aro sending frward would account for H days. That would mean that New Zealand's efforts would have an appreciable effect on the war, and would save us and our Allies millions of pounds and thousands of lives. People here are willing to assist, and it is only fair to those who cannot go to tho front, but are willing to help, that the Government should provido facilities to give such assistance to our troops'and to those of our Allies. I shall probably bo met by the statement that wo aro producing sufficient, for our own requirements. That is not enough; we should produce as much as ever we can —hoots, clothing, guncarriages, transport 'wagons, rifles, machiuo-guns, and other war material— by running our factories 24 hours per day, and by sending our surplus supplies to England, thus relieving a certain number of men engaged in those industries in England to go and work under skilled workers in ammunition factories-

It was only yesterday wo saw in tho paiier that some of our Allies were suffering greatly from want of boots, and yet we have in Christchurch alone several boot factories that could turn out four or five times the quantity tliey uro at present, vndcr proper arrangements. Aro we doing our duty to the brave fellows we have sent forward to defend us? Are wc doing our duty to the Mother Country- and to our Allies who are straining every nerve to keep their troops supplied. I £ay emphatically that wo are not. We should concentrate the whole of our industrial resources in turning out all the war material—whether it be clothing, guns, boots, or anything else —that we possibly can, and thus relieve the men engaged iu these industries at Home to go and work under skilled ammunition workers in the ammunition factories in England. When we hear of peoplo writing from England saying how splendidly New Zealand is doing, and when wo think of - what little we who are left behind aro doing, it almost makes one blush with shame. i - Many ill-informed and optimistic peoplo will says, "Tho war will soon be over; wait until afterwards." I consider the spirit which underlies such footling optimism mainly responsible for our present unpreparedness and for our criminal complacency in allowing the present conditions to continue .without the most serious attempt to remedy them, and is merely an cxcuso for shirking our duty.

Birds go on singing at the front, unperturbed by the heaviest shell fire.