NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 129, 27 November 1940, Page 8

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

CANADIAN DRIVE

MAKING MUNITIONS

VAST PLAN OUTLINED

The march of Canada's war plans, which has been mentioned in a message reporting the progress of the country's industrial drive, is now one of the most spectacular sides of the Empire war effort and is probably not exceeded in Britain itself.

Today Canada is spending 24 per cent, of her national income for war purposes and is taking 49 per cent of it in taxes. Yet the only complaint that a visitor to the Dominion hears is that money is being spent too cautiously. The most spectacular side of the war effort is the organisation of the home front, the pouring out of new material i? vast quantities, and the building of new plants which will make things that have never been made in Canada before.

Canada and Britain are committed to spend 650,000,000 dollars for munitions and supplies. Of • this sum 225,000,000 dollars will be, spent on extension of plant, more than half of it on British account. Orders on behalf of the Canadian Government already stand at 350,000,000 dollars. Some idea of the vastness of the investment in. new plant is gained from the fact that it is equivalent to the manufacturing investment in the combined cities of Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Windsor. Range of Manufactures. This new investment covers not only armament plants, which account for 67,000,000 dollars, but new metals plants, automotive plants, and machine tools plants. The arms plants proper will make the new British 25-pounder quick-firing guns and carriages, and; also naval guns. The original unit of this plant will be in production before the end of the year. A new plant near Toronto will make Lee-Enfield rifles, others will make Colt-Browning aircraft machine-guns, Smith and Wesson sub-machine-gur^, two-pounder guns and 5.5 in howitzers and carriages. •An anti-tank.gun plant making 3.7 in weapons will be in operation within the next nine or ten months. Three co-operating Ontario firms are to produce 40-millimetre (I.6in) ■ Bofors anti* aircraft guns. Additional metal pro» duction covers- aluminium, aluminium products, brass and metallic magnesium used for flares and in aeroplane work. This last might seem a small matter, but the investment needed is 15,000,000 dollars. Aeroplane Production. Some production details of the nevr plants have been published. The Bofors guns will be turned put at the rate of 30 a week. The aircraft, plants, which employed 1600 workers at the beginning of the war and have 11,000 on their payrolls today, have another 14,000 workers engaged in the making of parts for the machines they are building. Today their output is around 40 planes a week. By early next year it will be 360 a month..These machines are of 12 types. One of them, the first Hampden bomber to be built in Canada, was flown on August 8. Some of the factories have been built from the ground up. The extension of the automotive and transport industry has been mainly in, the direction of providing new machines. In the last war an army division had mechanical equipment totalling only 4000 horse-power. Today a corps of two divisions, such aa Canada has in Britain, needs 10,600 vehicles of 50 different types and their total horse-power is 692,000. Well Equipped. Canada is exceptionally well equipped to meet this need. Detail* of production have not been published, but one plant is being got ready to turn out universal carriers (a type of light tank armed with machineguns) at the rate of 50 a day. In addition it has been announced that Canada will shortly be producing three types of tank. At the Canadian-Pacific Argus shops the Mark 111 British mediums tank is being assembled; Component parts are made in four other plants. The 25-ton "cruiser" tank, of which Britain has ordered 4000, is also expected to be assembled in Canada, andi the third type is unrevealed, but is Canadian-designed and will be in production "before the end of the year," the Canadian Minister of Munitions has said. The most recent information on ithe output of Army vehicles is that Canada is building them at the rate of 400 a day. By the end of the year the rate is expected to be-600 a day. Army Vehicles. These consist of four-wheel-drive gun-tractors capable of pulling the 25----pounder gun, three-ton load carrier trucks, trucks classed as 15-cwt units and capable of use either as tractors for light anti-tank guns or for transport purposes, and light two-wheel drive trucks classed as 8-cwt units and designed to carry personnel or light stores. A large order from South Africa is being filled by one plant alone. Another side of Canadian war production is its huge output of shells and ammunition. These are of the aiost varied types: 25-pounders, 18-pounders, 40 millimetre, 3.7 in, 4.5 in, 6in, and 9.2 in. On the basis of present orders Canada will produce at least 1,000,000 shells a month. New plants are being constructed to make shell-cases and cartridge cases, to fill shells and make fuses, and the investment represented is about 40.000,000 dollars. Small-arms Ammunition. Production of small-arms ammunij tion is being multiplied rapidly. The capacity of one arsenal alone ha* been expanded sixfold and today it is 300,000,000 rounds a year. Another plant will have more than double that capacity. The shells are 100' per cent. Canadian: steel, copper, brass and explosive are produced within the country. There are also many other aspect* of the-war plan which cannot be treat* ed in a brief space: the vast expansion of the metals industry, the growth ; jof the oil industry, which has now to provide, among other things, more aviation spirit, the establishment of an industry making optical glass, tha vast extension of Canadian shipyard activity (in these yards a 60,000.000-dol-lar four-year programme is now being pushed ahead by 14,000 men and fast patrol boats are being built at the rate of two a week), the making of fuses and primers, and the establishment of nine new chemical and explosive plants. It will be seen that Canada is staking her claim to be the arsenal of the Empire. c-