APPEAL TO ARTISANS AND EMPLOYERS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 121, 15 February 1941, Page 8

APPEAL TO ARTISANS AND EMPLOYERS

I Work And Co-operation >| MINISTER CALLS FOR GREAT EFFORT r (By Telegraph—Press Association.) 'J CHRISTCHURCH, February 14. . An appeal to every manufacturer and - every artisan to pull together and to ’ pur every ounce of their energy into their work was made by the Minister t of Supply, Mr. Sullivan, in an address ■ at a social held in his honour tonight ■ by the Linwood branch of the Labour ’ Party. "1 know J shall not appeal in ■ vain," he said': “This is no time for “ airing petty' grievances or clamouring 1 for the moon when we do not: know the day or hour when we may be beset ' by the danger now threatening from ' without. Notwithstanding the difficulties that confront us, we can accomplish much and thereby give an adequate account of ourselves should the need arise.” Mr. Sullivan dealt at considerable length with the work of supply and munitions on which his energies were now chiefly centred. “An earnest effort." said the Minister, “is being made in this country to equip ourselves with adequate defence, and world conditions have necessitated a programme of munitions manufacture in which our secondary industries are privileged to play a very important part." In many quarters there had been no real appreciation of what domestic production could achieve, but he was happy to say that after a great deal of organization and careful planning some 130 contracts had been let for the manufacture of grenades, bombs of various kinds, mortars, universal carriers. tanks, armoured cars. .303 ammunition, and a thousand and one of the miscellaneous articles required for the three branches of the armed services. The basis of the programme was of course, the heavy engineering establishments of the railway workshops, where a magnificent effort had been made in providing other engineering works with inspection gauges, drills, chucks and a variety of ancillary equipment to enable contracts to be not only speeded up, but also to be carried out with great precision on mass production lines. Still Greater Effort Needed. “I have just visited southern engineering works in various centres,” said Mr. Sullivan, “and I am very gratified with the progress I have witnessed. All concerned are entering on their tasks with great enthusiasm, realizing the vital nature of the work in maintaining our national welfare. It gives one a sense of greater security when one sees the excellence of the job being done. Batteries of lathes and drilling and grinding gear have been brought together to enable the advantages of mass production to be secured, but greater and still greater effort is required. “We need the earnest co-operation of every employer and worker in the land, and I am sure we are now getting it. A large meeting of railwaymen pledged to me their assistance in every possible way, and I know from my experience of them, from the things they have already done, that they mean what they say and that they will do their utmost to advance the common cause."