BRITISH SHELL SUPPLY

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 41, 17 August 1916, Page 7

BRITISH SHELL SUPPLY

WONDERFULLY INCREASED OUTPUT

SMALL NEED FOR FOREIGN AID

(Router's Telegram.)

LONDON, 15th August. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Minister of Munitions, continued in the House of Commons his statement on the increase in the British output of munitions.

Lord Montagu said that the output of shells at the beginning was so negligible that any percentages of increases gave fantastic results. For example, 18-pounder and heavy shells had increased 2650 times, and for the last week of June, 1916, was sixteen, and a-half times the average weekly output during 1914-15, with corresponding increases in other classes of artillery and munitions. "Altogether, we are.now manufacturing weekly the equivalent of our entire pre-war stock of ammunition. We can now turn out in three or four weeks machine guns equivalent to. the total stock existing when the Ministry of Munitions was established. Our method of purchasing, and the limitation of tho prices of metals, have saved us forty-one millions." He would not be divulging a secret, ho added, by saying that our artillery had acquitted itself entirely satisfactorily in the recent fighting. The difficulties of replacing damaged and worn-out guns had been satisfactorily surmounted. The conditions of modern warfare had emphasised the value of long-range guns, and an ever-increasing range was demanded. Our unpreparedness for the war had the advantage of giving us entirely modern, weapons. .Reports from the front showed that the steady improvement in the quality of the ammunition had been a. distinct measure of our successes, but against an enemy like Germany our progress must be continuous. Tho Ministry, lie added, had been aiming at independence of foreign supply. When the Ministry was established, the American factories supplied 70 per cent, of the light shells. We were now independent. We found the American heavy shells invaluable during the development of the British factories, but it was expected that the Home and Canadian outputs would ultimately make us independent. The cost of the factories was decreasing ; the cost in some cases had been completely covered in from six to twelve months by the difference in the cost between Home and'foreign munitions. His Lordship concluded with a tribute to the women. "Where," he asked, "is now the man who will deny to women the civil rights which they have earned?" The Ministry's programme would not be completed until the number of guns had been increased many times, and tho supply of ammunition was sufficient to maintain an indefinite offensive along the whole front had been accumulated.