ARMAMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 31, 5 August 1933, Page 11

ARMAMENTS

WHERE THE WAR OFFICE FELL DOWN

WASTED MONTHS

In the earlier articles of his memoirs, "Mr. Lloyd George has not disguised the antipathy he felt towards War Office methods in the early days of the war. The.27th instalment is an outspoken criticism of its policy in relation to the provisions of arms and munitions.

(By David Lloyd George—No. 27—Copyright.)

A good deal of play has been made in some quarters with the fact that the how factories organised by the Ministry of Munitions, and the fresh orders for • shells which it issued, only began to bear fruit on a large scale by the spring of 1916, and that until that time the bulk of the supplies reaching our armies in the field were in respect of orders given by the War Offico before the new Ministry was created. It is true that, partly under pressure from the Cabinet Committee on Munitions arid the Munitions of War Committee, appointed in the spring of 1913, the War. Office had by.the beginning of June, 1915, placed extensive orders at homo and abroad for shells. But it was one thing to order and quite another to ensure delivery. •By May 29, 1913, out of 5,797,274 shell bodies ordered by the War Office for delivery by or beforo that date, only 1,965,232 had actually been dcliv-

ere <l—this after ten months of war. A more important consideration is the fact that of the shells actuallymanufactured comparatively, a small proportion were fitted with' fuses and filled with explosive. They were just a collection of harmless steel mugs. The failure of the War Office orders to materialise- was largely due to its stubborn and stupid adherence to the policy of dealing only with the recognised armament linns, and leaving those firms themselves either to organise—or leavo unorganised —the rest of the engineering industry of the country.'. The Ordnance Department was still 'convinced that it was too.risky to entrust the manufacture of munitions to inexperienced firms and that the only safe course was to give the order to the well-established armament manufacturers, leaving it to them to peddle out the simplest components.