CANADA AT WAR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20602, 1 November 1941, Page 2

CANADA AT WAR

| VAST, PROGRAMME £ INDUSTRIES MOBILISED ;< j HEAVY FINANCIAL BURDEN n - ■ | "Canadian weapons of war are mov--ting on to all the battle fronts of ■( Great. Britain, Russia and the Middle f'East, China and even New Zealand,” ? said Dr W. A. Riddell, High Commisfsioner for Canada in New Zealand, | during the course of an address on ; ‘his Dominion’s war effort given to t, members of the the Dunedin Chamjj ber of Commerce. Dr Riddell gave *an outline of the manner in which 3 the vast material resources of Canada ’ had been, mobilised to give aid to Britain in the fight against Nazi Ger'i many, and quoted figures to show n hoWv.great had been the expansion in •' industry in the Dominion since t the r outbreak of war.

jS Dr Riddell said J that Canada’s war i? programme had caused a great expan- ” gtan'in business, mining and foreign ij every employable man in » ttfe-Do'frfinipn was now. working. War i contracts, and commitments tip to the t ekCof Ufist month totalled £716,000,000 the Dominion was now making 1 1 §rP*l#-'Which it had never thought it I to make. Huge chemical j and .explosive industries had been f established,' and some of the plants | equalled in extent any in the British j Empire. Weapons being manufactured included naval guns, anti-tank j and • Bren guns, small-arms ammuni- | tion, bombs, rifle grenades, shells and ’ dll kinds of war vehicles. A total of A 200,000 lorries and trucks had been !'• turned out so far, and 135,000 had already be'en delivered. | Air Training Scheme.

L Canada had never been a great ? aeroplane building country, Dr Rid- | dell said, but she was now making I bombers for Britain. - Most of her proi duction in this’ sphere, however, was f designed to supply the Empire train- >! ing scheme with ’planes. Canada was working in co-operation with the •United States in. this .field, and was 3 obtaining a large number of aero en- ) gines.

Referring '.to the great progress made in the shipbuilding industry, he said ■‘that -at the ■ outbreak of war the Cansiidiap • Nav£ consisted of 15 ships and 1500 men; but at the present time she had 250 ships, and 23,000 .men were serving afloat. Besides building many corvettes and minesweepers, the Dominion was now embarking on a £2,000,000 programme for the building of small ships, while the merchant navy programme was going ahead. They were planning to build 250 freighters, and-in order to release ships from, the coastal trade many vessels were .being taken off the Great Lakes. Minimum of Strikes ‘All- this places a heavy burden on the-!human and economic resources oi the country,” Dr Riddell said, “but we are 'overcoming the-difficulties. We have,-had very, few strikes—indeed, the tiliie equivalent to only. .10 seconds - a day, and a quartei of that in,ijipnitions> industries —and strikes/ illegal under certain- conditions. A total of-350,000 additional men have been taken into ..industry since the war Ufegan',” Jjand are''Ura'ininu 100,000? i|o£e, |n addition to working out an'extensive scheme for the employment of women." ~””B‘r Biddell referred to the greai increases in the personnel of the

fighting services since the outbreak oi

war, and said that the Dominion now ■» ""ISa'd“nearly 509;(H)0' I nleh'tn''tKe army. many of whom were fighting over- | seas. The air training scheme was i well ahead of schedule and they were * now approaching the stage of maxil mum production. ; Turning to the financial side of i Canada’s war effort, Dr Riddell said * it was expected that direct war ; exJ . penditure for the present fiscal year J would be £400,000,000, more than twice jj as much as last year. The Dominion | was also providing financial assistance * to Great Britain to enable her to pur- | chase war materials from Canada. It | was expected that Britain’s total de- | licit to Canada for the present fiscal * year would~’be‘ £320,000,000; but the Dominion had promised to meet tha> i portion which.*, the. Mother Country t could not meet by. the transfer of gold and dollar^ •: Taxation. ? “We ha ye had to increase our taxa- ;■' tion very materially,” Dr Riddell corii tinued,v‘and the, policy Of the Gov- | eminent has been to pay as we go as | far as possible; Seventy-three to 79 per f; cent, of the expenditure is being met f but of taxation, and five times as j many people paid income tax last year jj >as in the previous year. A total of f' £400,000,000 had already been raised f. by .loan and war certificates, bringing J in £60,000,000 a year. One of the | greatest problems is to avoid inflation | and rising prices, and the busines: |■; men of the Dominion have been ap- | pealed to to reduce costs, while the £, people have been urged to spend -s less.”

Dr Riddell paid a' tribute to the K great assistance; and co-operation of | the United States tmder the Hyde Park j agreement between the two countries | and under the Lease-Lend Act. Under i the latter arrangement Canada could ■T inctease production, while the exchange situation was relieved. He i : also stated that Canada was endeav- § during to get close to the great problem.of .caring for the soldiers and the munitions workers after the. war was r over. If Following Dr Riddell’s address, | several films, released by the Department’ of Information, were shown de- ► picting various aspects of Canada’s * , war effort.--