INDIA’S WAR EFFORT

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

INDIA’S WAR EFFORT

Impressive Production

Increases

Some 40,000 items are required in

i the equipment of a modern mechanized [ army. India is manufacturing more | than 20,000 of these. So rapid has I been the expansion ot her ordnance factories Hint within nine mouths of., the outbreak of war the production of shells had been multiplied twelvefold and her peacetime production of all lethal stores increased sevenfold. The achievements of the Indian Munitions Board in the peak period of output in 1918 were far outstripped. The output of small arms ammunition increased 24 times, rifles 1} times, complete respirators 7 times, respirator containers 224 times, signal cartridges 51 and harness and saddlery 31 times. In the same period supplies sent overseas included 75,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, 200,000 shells of all categories, 6000 rifles, 8500 tents, 4,500,000 sandbags, 10,000 sets of webbing equipment, 600,000 blankets, 3,000,000 yards of khaki drill. .150,000 pairs of boots, 20.000 greatcoats. 73,000 groundsheets and 17.000 saddles. Masterly Planning. Behind this imposing record is a story of able planning directed toward the conversion of Indiir’s engineering resources to the production of war requirements and the training of personnel. Officers of rhe Ordnance Factories Directorate carried out capacity surveys of some 140 engineering and railways workshops, with the assistance of industrial planning officers in Calcuttir, Bombay, Madras and Lahore. Initial orders were placed Io the value of Rs. 8 lakhs (about £125,000) for shell forgings and machined shell bodies. Additionally a number of railway engineering shops embarked on Lite production of shell guages and handgrenade bodies. In the Calcutta area private enterprise undertook the production of tools for ordnance factories, and an experimental order was placed for copper driving bands for shells. In June the Government of India announced n Rs. 7 crores ('about £7,000.000) scheme for the expansion of ordnance factories. Orders were placed for Rs. 90 lakhs of additional plant for the manufacture of high explosives. Rs. 1 crore 'is being spent on the extension 'and modernization of ordnance factories engaged on the production of high-grade steel of the latest types for field guns and barrels, anti-aircraft guns and non-ferrous alloys needed for the manufacture of ammunition, air bombs and small trrms ammunition. Vast sums are also being spent, in extending factories which produce field guns, rilles, light machine-guns, shells, land mines ami depth charges. 'Hie Workers.

Within eight months staffs and labour forces in ordnance factories increased by more than 100 per cent. The response of Indian workmen has been magnificent, and warm tributes have been paid to the initiative and adaptability of industrialists. Difficulties that, have arisen have been tackled with determination.

The training of skilled workers for munitions factories is a problem not so easy of solution as the figures of expansion in the early days of war indicate. Large batches of men were drafted from private enterprise into workshops engaged essentially on war production, and then arose the problem of finding men in adequate numbers and with the necessary technical qualifications to take their place in industry. Ordnance factories had their own expanded training schemes, increasing the establishment of apprentices and boy artisans under training from about 388 to more than 1050, and the civil authorities have embarked on a far-reaching scheme of technical education to prepare youths for war production factories and industry generally. For the ordnance factories, numbers of young Indian chemists have been engaged and are undergoing training, and young Indian engineers are receiving instruction in chemical plumbing and similar trades to enable them to take over the maintenance of plant.