MINISTRY OF SUPPLY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 135, 5 December 1939, Page 6

MINISTRY OF SUPPLY

MR. BURGIN'S TASK

"WILL DELIVER THE GOODS"

(By Air Mail. From "The Post's"

London Representative.)

LONDON, November 10,

One of the key posts in the British Cabinet is the Ministry of Supply. This war is economic and industrial as; well as military, and it is the Minister's duty to transform Britain's industrial system into a vast machine for the manufacture of armaments. Every British "Tommy" in France will need four tons of supplies a year. The Minister of Supply must expand munitions output at a tremendous pace; he must make sure that the clothing factories provide enough uniforms; he must organise the nation's, industry so that it will produce the maximum quantities of material. The man who is' doing this great job is Mr. Leslie Burgin., Mr. Burgin is a. youngish man as politicians go, aged 52. His academic | record is distinguished: he was educated at Lausanne and Paris, took the highest honours in the law examinations, became Principal^ and Director of Legal Studies to the Law Society, wrote theses which have become standard legal text-books, and had a distinguished practice as a solicitor, He is a first-class linguist, and in the last war served as ah Intelligence Officer, was mentioned in dispatches, and was awarded the Italian Grace di Guerra. Like scores of other British and French soldiers, Mr. Burgin subsequently turned to public life. In 1929 he became Liberal M.P. for Luton, and attracted attention from the start by his debating skill. In 1932 he entered the Government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, a position | which he held for five years of industrial recovery. In 1937, he was Minister of Transport, thus entering the Cabinet for the first time, and in 1939 he was appointed Minister of Supply, first with the job of equipping Britain's first conscripted Army, and now with that of turning the nation's production | to munition^. COMPREHENSIVE CONTROL. An energetic start has been made with this monumental task. Britain has twenty-eight. Eoyal Ordnance Factories in production, compared with four only three years ago. Sixty-eight firms are manufacturing shells. The Ministry has contracts with 6500 firms, and has surveyed the resources of 9000 firms. In the first three weeks of the war orders were placed to a total of £70,000,000. Besides actually ordering munitions, the Ministry has the responsibility for ensuring the supply of raw materials,. It has taken full control of the production of iron and steel, of nonferrous metals, of textile materials, of timber, of paper, and of other key materials. In the last war the Government did not realise the need for comprehensive control, so there was profiteering and shortage, and the munitions works were unable to get the materials they needed. This time, comprehensive control has been taken from the start, so that the munitions works will be ensured of their supply of raw material. The whole planning of the Ministry of Supply is being done energetically and imaginatively. Mr. Burgin is aided by a Supply Council of civil servants arid distinguished industrialists, j The best indication of the spirit with which the job is being tackled is expressed in Mr. Burgin's speech to the newly-appointed Supply Council: "We must, and we will, deliver the goods."