ARMS INCREASE

Grey River Argus, 22 July 1942, Page 5

ARMS INCREASE

Australia Goes Ahead

DESPITE BRITISH AD.VICE.

MELBOURNE. July 20. Expert British advice to Australia to restrict arms production had in a very friendly way, been disregarded, said the Minister of Munitions (Mr Makin) in a speech to the Constitutional Club. Mr. Makin added that a delegation headed bv Sir Alexander Roger had advised Australia to exercise caution before imposing new forms of armament- production. Mr. Makin said that production schedules now in operation were, in volume, and variety, half as much again as those expected by the British mission. By the end of the I'ear the. number engaged in munitions works would be almost 100,uUO, compared with 5.500 at the outbreak. Expenditure on Government war factories had been 130,000.000 and on private war factories £8,000,000. The value of machine tools made £10,000,000. Orders for war goods ' since the outbreak had amounted to £200,000,000. some classes of production, exceeding by 50 per cent, the figures for a similar operation in the United Kingdom. The Minister said the Director-General of Munitions (Mr. Essington Lewis) possessed the greatest organising and supervising brain, in Australian industry.