MUNITIONS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 153, 26 December 1918, Page 5

MUNITIONS

CREST OF THE OUTPUT

REACHED WHEN THE WAR

ENDED

DIVERSION OF ENERGY TO PEACE

(BNITBD PHHSS ASSOCIATION.—COPIRIdHT.)

(AOBTKAUAN-NEW ZBALAKD CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, 23rd December.

v Mr. Winston Churchill (Minister of Munitions), addressing a conference of the Trade Union Advisory Committee and the employers, said that when the firing ceased on the West front six weeks ago the Ministry of Munitions was at the top of its form and had reached the culminating poinb of its output. They had a vast series of terrifying novelties in readiness for the 1919 campaign, when suddenly the task was swallowed up in the victory. The Munitions Department's effort, ho added, culminated in the discharge, over fifteen successive days on the West front, of twelve thousand tons of shells daily upon the reeling, quivering German front. The average shell-production for October -was 47,000 tons per week. The Ministry was now. gradually relaxing its control and stimulating alternative production, to avoid putting masses of workers out of employment. Its task was threefold—liquidation of contracts, assisting firms to convert war into peace industry, and disposing of the stores of material in the war theatres, iVorth one thousand millions sterling. The Ministry was now reducing its headquarters personnel and relinquishing the commandeeered hotels (used as offices). It was estimated that by the end of next week 220,000 workers would have left the Munitions Department. Already 20,000 were out. The inspection staff of! between forty and fifty thousand women were released within a few days of the armistice. The majority or restrictions on materials have been swept away to enable the diversion of industry to peace purposes. The Government during the war had used practically all the available steel, and therefore dislocation of the engineering shops would be inevitable for some months. There was no reason to apprehend any shock or setback for the steel industry. The British steel works were already fully occupied. The fixing of home prices, coupled with the gradual removal of the subsidies, had steadied the irdn and steel trades. Large Government stocks of non-ferrous metals would be placed on the market at fixed prices, which policy was calculated to encourage the trade. The Ministry was doing its utmost to develop alternative industrial production during the transitional period. An effort was being made to obtain orders from theN Government Departments and also the Dominions. He urged every man to find a peace job. "If," he concluded, "all pull together with the same loyalty as during the recent period of great anxiety the great industries will soon resume their natural activity."