MUNITIONS MAKING

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 27, 31 July 1940, Page 9

MUNITIONS MAKING

MR. BURN'S CRITICISM

MINISTER REPLIES AGAIN

LOCAL PRODUCTION

Another reply to Mr. R. Burn, of the Precision Engineering Co., on the subject of munitions manufacture was made this afternoon by the Minister of Supply (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan).

"The second statement by Mr. Burn," said Mr. Sullivan, "is in a more subdued tone than his violently aggressive first barrage. I will not dwell on his reluctance to reply to the points made in my first statement answering his attack. His difficulties are obvious, and are a reasonable explanation of his avoidance of the issues. But it appears necessary for me to enlighten Mr. Burn on a matter, concerning which he should be better informed as one who, I understand, was associated with munition production in Great Britain during the last war. It is this: that the Supply Department has no power to make munitions or anything else except by and at the direction of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. "The question of the making of munitions in New Zealand has engaged the attention of the Government from time to time. Prior to the outbreak of war and up until the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Flanders and the great loss of equipment which took place then, the best expert advice was in favour of obtaining our munitions, with the exception of small arms ammunition, from Great Britain, which had first call upon Canada and the United States, from Australia, and from India, rather than to embark upon munition making in New Zealand. The sudden deterioration of the position in France made necessary a quick adjustment of outlook on the question of manufacturing munitions in this country. "That adjustment was instantly made and was followed by my visit to Australia, accompanied by a deleI gation of competent men from both outside and inside the Public Service, the appointment of a Munitions Production Controller, a resurvey of the capacity and suitability of our own workshops and engineering establishments, and the appointment of a munitions advisory committee representative of the fighting services, the Supply Depart- ' ment, and outside engineers and manufacturers. NEW ZEALAND PRODUCTION PLANS. "Plans have been made for production in New Zealand. Some orders have been placed with both private and State establishments, and other orders will be placed as quickly as possible. In the supervision of these tasks, both competent private business men and State servants are being used, just as they are doing in Australia. "May I, however, quote Mr. Essington Lewis, Director-General of Munitions in Australia, in a statement made by him and reported in the 'Sydney Morning Herald' on July 23: 'Mr. Lewis pointed out that there were certain inescapable facts about munitions production which were common in all parts of the world. Ordinarily it took about a year to place orders and to get production started, Mr. Lewis said, and a second year to finish any reasonable programme. The reasons for this lag were well known professionally. The problems of ordnance design and production were special, and industry in general had no counterpart to offer.' • "The statement by Mr. Essington Lewis quoted gives his estimate of time required to get into production on | munitions, but I am very hopeful of supplementing our existing New Zealand stocks of certain kinds of munitions during the next few months. SUPPLY DEPARTMENT'S WORK "What I have said shows the relationship of the Supply Department to the war services departments and will, I hope, convince Mr. Burn that he has been unjust to the Supply Department and its officers, who are doing a marvellously good job in conjunction with local manufacturers in organising the production of such things as uniforms, battle-dress, footwear, and other needs of the soldiers, the control of which has been handed over to us by the naval, military, and air authorities. "We will now try to do an equally good job in the more difficult field of munitions proper in co-operation with the naval, military, and air authorities, local manufacturers, and engineers, and all men of good will able to help us."