INDIAN MUNITIONS

Grey River Argus, 6 February 1941, Page 6

INDIAN MUNITIONS

20,000 ESSENTIALS PRODUCED Some 40,000 items are required in the equipment of a modern mechanised army; India is manufacturing over 20,000 of these. So rapid has been the expansion of her ordnance factories that within nine months of the outbreak of war the production of shells has been multiplied twelvefold; her peace-time production of all lethal stores increased sevenfold. The achievements of the Indian Munitions Board in the peak period of output in 1918 were far strippedThe output of small arms ammunition increased 21 times, rifles one and a fourth times, complete respirators 7 times, respirator containers 221 times, signal cartridges 51, and harness and saddlery 31 times. In the same period, supplies sent overseas included 75,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, 200,000 shells of all categories, 6,000 rifles, 8.500 tents, 4,500,000 sandbags, 10,000 sets of webbing equipment, 600,000 blankets, 3,000.000 yards of khaki drill, lot),000 pairs of boots, 20,000 greatcoats. 73,000 groundsheets, and 17,000 saddles. MASTERLY PLANNING Behind this imposing record is a story of able planning directed towards the conversion of India’s engineering resources to the production of war requirements and the training of personnel. Officers of the Ordnance Factories Directorate carried out capacity surveys of some 140 engineering and railway workships, with the assistance of Industrial Planning Officers in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Lahore. Initial orders were placed to the value of Rs.B lakhs (about £125,000) for shell forgings and machined shell bodies. Additionally, a number of railway engineering shops embarked on the production of shell gauges and hand grenade bodies. In the Calcutta area, private enterprise undertook' the production of tools for ordnance factories, and an experimen- j tai order was placed for copper driving bands for shells. In June, the Government of IndVa announced a Rs. 7 crores (about £7,000,000) scheme for the expansion of ordnance factories. Orders were placed for Rs.9o lakhs of additional plant tor the manufacture of high explosives. Rs.l crore is being spent on the extension and modernisation of ordnance factories engaged on the production of high grade steel of the latest types for field guns and barrels, antiaircraft guns, and non-ferrous alloys needed for the manufacture of ammunition, air bombs and small arms ammunition. Vast sums are also being spent in extending factories which produce field guns, rifles, light machine guns, shells, land mines and depth charges. THE WORKERS Within eight months, staffs and labour forces in ordnance factories increased by over 100 per cent. The response of Indian workmen has been magnificent, and warm tributes have been paid to the initiative and adaptability of industrialists. Difficulties that have arisen have been tackled with determination. The training of skilled workers for munitions factories is a problem not so easy of solution as the figures of expansion in the early days of war indicate. Large batches of men were drafted from private enterprice into workshops engaged essentially on war production, and then arose the problem of finding men in adequate numbers and With the necessary technical qualifications to take their place in industry. Ordnance factories had their own expanded train- 1

Ing schemes', increasing the establishment of apprentices and bo.y artisans under training from about 388 to over 1,050, and the civil authorities have embarked on a far-reaching scheme of technical education to prepare youths for war production factories and industry generally. For the ordnance factories, numbers of young Indian chemists have been engaged, and are undergoing training, while young Indian engineers are receiving instruction in chemical plumbing and similar trades to enable them to take over the maintenance of plant.