BRITAIN’S ARMS SUPPLY

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 July 1941, Page 5

BRITAIN’S ARMS SUPPLY

CHURCHILL’S RE-ASSURANCE

GREAT PROGRESS GENERAL . RUGBY, July 29. “The picture so luridly drawn of a chaotic convulsive struggle of the three supply departments without guidance or design, is one which no aoubt would be pleasing to our enemies, but happily it has no relation to facts.” These words occurred early m Mr. Churchill’s speech, on the third day of the Production debate in the Commons. Mr. Churchill had recalled the - speech he made on January 22, in which he gave in detail, the form of supply organisation he proposed to adopt, and to which he proposed to adhere. 2 He stated that as Minister of Defence, he prepared for the War Cabinet a general scheme, based on the forward programmes of the fighting services, which brought together the whole home munitions production and imports programme, and prescribing the largest reasonable target at which to aim. Pointing out that each fighting department in the mam had its own chain of factories, Mr. Churchill said that except on the fringe of these powerful organisations, there was almost no friction or overlapping between one depart - ment and another. He shortly reviewed the departmental organisation, and said: “We are not a 'Totalitarian State, but we steadily, and 1 believe as fast as possible, are working ourselves into total war organisation.” jn , „ ~ Dealing with the work of- the Purchasing Commission in the Un iced States, Mr. Churchill said it reached a very high level, ana though a year or six months ago, there was a lot of trouble and discordances, his information was mar they had largely died a . wa . y w „TJ?® United States naturally asked foi rhe fullest and clearest information about the goods they were supplying, and whether there w.as xVaste or misdirection. Their criticism was searching and - well informed, and it was the Government’s duty to reply to their questions. _ . Turning to home production,. Ml. Churchill dealt with the allegation of departmental disputes, and said. All I can say is that for the last tom months, no question of departmental rivalry or dispute has been brought to me or the War Cabinet.” He dismissed the suggestion of the appointment of a Minister of Product on, and stated that such would be unnecessary and unworkable. Dealing with the specific allegation that aircraft orders to the United States were not accompanied by maintenance and ancillary equipment ordered at the same time, so that the aircraft were to be seen idle for want of spares, Mr. Churchill said that so far as British aircrait was concerned, this was quite untrue. But after the collapse of France, aircraft built for French requirements had to be altered befoie the R.A.F. was able to use them and new spares had to be ordered. They were practically all now m use. Dealing with new aircraft, Mi. Churchill said: “I am glad to tell the House that Spring and Summer fashions in aircraft this year are further ahead of the contemporary German production than they were last year. The. enemy borrowed many dies from our fighter Dianes, and we borrowed some from him, but in the upshot, we confronted mm L 1941 with fighter aircraft which m performance, speed ceiling, and above all, armament, left oui pilots with the old and even with an added sense of technical s £ pe &?Jp r af£ Technical superiority --to -airci-atu sometimes meant the adoption nf new ideas, even at the expense of numbers of output. “The struggle tor ‘air mastery requires a vast nnmbei but those vast numbers would not have succeeded alone, unless; thefolward leading types constantly achieve the highest level of enterprise and perfection.

WORKING EFFICIENCY Mr. Churchill deprecated the use by newspapers of such phrases as “the general feeling of the House was of grave uneasiness,” when no vote had been taken. Parliament, he said, should be the arena in which grievances and complaints became vocal, and the Press should be a prompt and vigilant alarm bell, but ideas should not be spread abroad as to the feelings of the House, when its opinion had not been tested by a division. Mr. Churchill devoted particular attention to the examination of the statement made by Sir J. Wardlaw Milne, that “our people were only working to seventy-five per cent, oi the total efficiency.” This statement taken from the context, conveyed a wrong impression of the speech, but it had been circulated over the world. Testing the truth of the allegation, Mr. Churchill said he tried to find a datum line to find out what seventyfive per cent, represented. He had taken the three months after Dunkirk, which would be admitted as a time when the British people worked to the limit of their powers. Working men and women did not taKe their clothes off for a week at a time, and their output was the utmost limit of strength. This produced abnormal inflation of production. Now, it is true we are only working seventyfive per cent, of that.” Mr. Churchill explained that if such conditions had continued, there would be a crash, costing far more in production than the minimum periods of leisure now adopted. He also explained the temporary retarding effect of labour dilution, and the permanent dimunition, because of the dispersal of the vulnerable plant to different centres. The latter, he illustrated, by the Bristol Aircrait firm, which had been dispersed over nearly forty-five sub-centres. “We may sutler and the output' be retarded, but we can no longer be destroyed.” Mr. Churchill gave “facts and figures to show how we succeeded by improved organisation, and by smoother running of our expanding machinery, in overcoming the difficulties. itg troubles and difficulties the Ministry of Supply output in the last three months had been one-third greater than in the three months of the Dunkirk period. He continued: “Though our navy, army and air force are larger, the Ministry of Supply has one-third more people working at its factories. Each man is turning out each day on a scale as much as in that time of almost superhuman effort. This, despite dilution, dispersion, air raids, black outs, and all the troubles I have described. Let me present a balance sheet —one-third more workers and one-third more output is quits, but all the adverse factors I described have somehow been cancelled out by superior development and organisation. We made in the last three months more than twice the field guns made in the Dunkirk three months. The munitions we are turning out are half as much again, and the combined programme of merchant and naval shipping now in hand is greater than at any period during the last war.” Since the present Government took over, progress and expansion have been enormous and continuous. Our fighter aircraft are at least as much ahead of the Nazis as a year ago, and there has been no sacrifice of quality to auantity. As for bombers, in British production alone, the bomb discharge on Germany has been doubled “and to the next three months we shall double it again.” The output of warlike stores in this seventh quarter of this war is nearly double the pro-

duction. in the seventh quarter of the last war, and equal to that attained m the iourteentn quarter. Time lost through labour disputes has been much less. Twelve million days were lost in the last war, but so far less than two minion in this. I received just before coming hero, to-day, information that at 11 o’clock, tms morning, there is no stoppage of work of any Kind arising from any dispute m. any, part of Britain.” to the Minister of Labour, and the great work he was accomplishing, Mr Churchill gave what he described as a “VERY SERIOUS WARNING.” “There are no doubt temptations to optimism, it is a fact that the mightv Russian State so foully and treacherously assaulted, has struck back with magnificent strength and courage, and inflicted prodigious and well-deserved slaughter for the first time, upon Nazi armies. It is a fact ' that the United States, the greatest single Power in 1 the world, is coming to our aid on a gigantic scale, and is advancing, in rising wrath of conviction to the very verge of war. It is a tact that German air superiority has been broken, and German air attacks on this country have for the time being ceased. The Battle of the Atlantic, although i'ar from won, has, partly through American intervention, moved impressively in our favour. It is a fact vhat the Nile Valley is much safer than twelve or thirteen months ago. It is a fact that the enemy has lost all pretence of theme or doctrine, and has sunk even deeper in moral intellectual degradation and bankruptcy, and almost all his conquests have become burdens and sources of weakness. But with all this we must not be led for a moment to suppose that the worst is over. The formidable power of Nazi Germany, the vast mass of destructive munitions which they have made, and the ruthlessness of their centralised war direction, the prostrate condition of so many peoples under the yoke, and the resources so many countries which have been to some extent available to them, all these restrain and forbid the slightest relaxation. It would be madness to suppose that Russia or the United States, are going to win this war for us. The invasion season is at hand, and all armed forces have been warned. By September 1, we have to reckon with a gambler’s desperation. We stand here still champion. If we fail, all fail. If we fall, all fall together. It will only be by a superb, intense, prolonged effort by the whole of the British Empire that the great combination of about three-quarters of the whole or the human race against Nazidom, will come ito vehement domination of life. For more than a year, we have been all alone. All alone, we have had to guard the treasure of mankind. Although there have been profound and encouraging changes m the situation, our responsibilities remain undiminished, and we shall only discharge the© by continuing to pour out in the common cause and utmost endeavours of our strength and virtue, and, if need be, proffer the last drop of our heart s blood. — 8.0.W. BRITAIN’S NEW TANK. LONDON, July 28. Among the munition workers who saw the handing over of the new , Crusader tank to the armoured forces was Mr J. Ashton, who helped to make the first tank ever used in battle. The ceremony took place when Major Andrew Bolt, who recently gave £lO,OOO to Lord Beaverbrook for the purchase of a tank, affixed his name to one of the famous Crusadeis, ■Ovhich had just come off the assembly line. ’ '