DRIVE FOR ARMS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20255, 24 May 1940, Page 5

DRIVE FOR ARMS

BRITISH SPEED-UP SHELLS, TANKS, GUNS SACRIFICE TO FREEDOM MORAL FACTOR COUNTS MINISTER’S STIRRING CALL (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, May 22. In his first broadcast since taking office as Minister of Supply, Mr. Herbert Morrison said he had been called upon to direct one part of the great effort which fell upon the British peoples, who were now at grips with a more deadly menace than had threatened the British Isles for nearly 400 years. “Now that the full pressure of war is upon us,” he said, “the drive behind work must increase. Its pace must quicken and its scope must be extended. More shells —more tanks—more guns. These are the swords that we at home can place in the hands of our brave sons —the shields we can throw before their bodies. Here is our assurance of victory—but we must create it.” Speaking of the decision announced in Parliament, to mobilise the whole of the population and resources, Mr. Morrison said: “The rich treasures of our land, our factories, our ships, our metals, minerals, resources at home and abroad —all are being thrown upon the altar of war as a sacrifice to our freedom, which we hold more dear than any material possession.” The department which he controlled, he continued, must have all the materials it needed for the task, and in doing so must leave for the civil population a harder and sterner way of life. Enemy Standard After a stirring call for the maximum effort in the whole field of production, Mr. Morrison said: “Remember that the underlying thought the enemy is trying to convey to you is the thought that nothing counts but material methods and material might. That is what he would like you to believe. At the moment his material position may seem superior to ours. If we accept his standard, we have opened the door for the first success of his attempt to weaken our confidence or our strength of mind and our.will to work. But we do not accept his standard. We know that even in this terrible conflict of mechanical armed power it is the moral factor that counts in the last resort. Napoleon said —and who should know better? — in war the moral is to the material as 10 to one.” Mr. Morrison said there was time for nothing but the intense concentrated effort of muscle, mind and will. ‘‘lt must begin now,” he declared. “We must turn the nation’s wealth into bullets, shells, guns and tanks. We must expand plant and expand output. We shall not permit private vested interests to stand in the way. The enemy has had a long start in the race and we have not yet caught up.”