SUSTAINED DRIVE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 77, 27 September 1941, Page 9

SUSTAINED DRIVE

HELP TO RUSSIA

SIX TO 12 MONTHS

BRITISH PRODUCTION

(Rec. noon.) BUGBY, Sept. 26. Speaking at an Institution of Production Engineers, the Minister of Labour and National Service, Mr. Bevin, said: "The effort of the country has been amazing. It is impossible to reveal all that has been accomplished, but a nation less determined would have been defeated in the Battle of Britain, in the Battle of the Atlantic, or in the Middle East. The ingenuity, resourcefulness, and energy of our people deserve the highest praise. I believe they have won the admiration and respect of the world and have made the greatest possible' contribution ito winning every day more and more friends of freedom. They recognise that a nation wiiich is willing to speed itself to work as our people have worked, both management and men, and to organise as we have organised, with all the terrific handicaps against us, must win. They respect a nation that wholeheartedly believes in the cause for which it is fighting.

, "You will appreciate," he added, "the obligations that are now imposed upon us. Russia has made brilliant and resolute resistance, but much of her production capacity has been knocked out and her transport impeded. We must make sacrifices. I am convinced that there is a great untapped reserve of materials and productive energy and drive in this country that must now be called out. It is like bringing up your reserves, and this drive must be directed to a great objective. We must sustain at least a six to twelve months' drive so as to enable us during that period to hand to Russia out of our own production, and in addition we can create a great flow of materials towards her in her defence and our mutual final victory." OPTIMUM HOURS QUESTION. Mr. Bevin added that he would like to have seen more attention paid by the production engineering organisation to the working out and application of optimum labour. "In my view,"