TRADE IN MUNITIONS.

Evening Star, Issue 23353, 24 August 1939, Page 17

TRADE IN MUNITIONS.

TO THE EDITOE.

Sir,—Your argument tmit " the danger of a State monopoly of munitions is that there would at ways be a shortage of tnem " is one that cun he countered by showing tnat reliance on a purely private enterprise monopoly would create a greater shortage, jt ear of that shortage ot munitions causcii MrGasey, Munster ot Supply and Industry in tne Gomniouweaiin lory Government, to take tne public into his conndence and let tnem know what , was being done. As the .New Zealand puulic ■know,'the iron and steel works , nere are developed in X\ew Zealand by tne State because over-capita Used private enterprise wild cat scnemes tailed. On July i, in Melbourne, Mr Casey referred to two of tUo munition annexes set up by the Commonwealth Government in the railway workshops 1-Vote the State works these private enterprise folk established) and private engineering establishments. Progress reports indicated that the remainder ol tin annexes would come into operation at intervals ranging from two to three weeks. By the end of the year there would bo in production 20 annexes, included in the original scheme, as well as three other shops which had been allotted orders under contract, but which it had now been decided to deal with as annexes. Said Mr Casey: “ It is a matter for congratulation that, despite the heavy demands made on the British engineering industry by the oversea rearmament programme, the Commonwealth Government has been successful in obtaining priority of delivery of its requirements of precision machine tools. The contracts to bo undertaken in the two annexes which would inaugurate the project involved machinery under highprecision methods of shell bodies for howitzers and anti-aircraft guns. Munitions components which would be brought into production under the complete scheme also would include shell bodies tor field guns, sUell fuses, primers, hand grenades, smoke grenades, trench mortars, bombs, and mines for coastal defence. Shell bodies within various ranges in use in the services would be forged in two speci-ally-selected shops. While the iron in Australia is mined by private enterprise the munition making to supply Australia’s needs is to be done largely in Australian Commonwealth factories, where satisfactory arrangements . are not agreed to with private enterprise. The difference in New Zealand is that here, iron supplies, in the event of war cutting off imports, would depend on the State iron and steel works. The manufacture of munitions here would be carried on by both State and private enterprise as in Australia.

Mr Savage has often made it clear that where private enterprise is doing the job his Government would not interfere. It only stepped in when the public interest made such action desirable. Therefore, the term “ State monopoly ” of munition making does not apply. The danger of allowing private enterprise to have a monopoly of munition making was recently emphasised by Mr Duncan Graham, M.P., showing not the actual profits but the increase in profits made by these professional patriots as follows, for 1937 over 1936:—Vickers, £807,693; Vickers, Armstrong Ltd., £679,127; English Steel Corporation, £536,259: Cammel, Laird, £275,760; Swan, Hunter, Whykam, and Richardson, £231,967; John Brown and Co,, £466,607; Thos. Firth and John Brown Ltd., £710,164; Hadfields Ltd., £222,960; Projectile and Engineering Company, £129,021. “ Similarly in the aircraft industry,” said the Scotch Labour man in the House of Commons, “ the eight firms concerned in it made profits in which tho increase ranged from 14 per cent, for the lowest to 353 per cent, for the highest.” In concluding, Mr Graham said: “A Government which, would allow this increased plunder in tbe nation’s hour of necessity, a Government that for all its expenditure (£1,298,205,000 on defence since 1932) cannot get the goods delivered, stands condemned.” The Glasgow ‘ Forward ’ states that, as a sequel to the Munich Pact and the consequent “ hurry-up ” m the armament face shares in British armament firms alone have risen by more than £20,000,000. The chief gains are Vickers Ltd., £8,000,000, and Baldwins Ltd., £5,000,000- The head of Baldwins Ltd. is Stanley Baldwin, the former British Prime Minister. Tho main argument for State munition and armament works is based on the fact that the profits for private enterprise are an incentive to war; that war never satisfactorily settled international disputes j that the State factories not run for profit would help in preserving peace while providing adequate defence.—l am, etc., August 24, J. E. MacMakus.