BRITAIN’S TASK.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 274, 4 November 1916, Page 2

BRITAIN’S TASK.

A MIGHTY effort. WHAT OUR SAW. A very mterestiiig account Or , lns travels m England and e.sewhero was given to a representative of the “Herald” by Mr. P. M‘M. Glynn, who, with other members of the Parliament taix paitv, leturned to Sydney last week. “)ii the nuance of war. in instant and sustained naval effectiveness, and the development of army organisation, said Mr. Glynn, "the mother country has shown that it only requires to be loused bx a gi it initigcnix to stand the stuncst nit) nn » stirrhmg ©st ct circumstances, riimlali from April I to July 22. 1916. the average expenditure lias been £5.000.(.100 a dav. ot which U 1.000.000 icptestnt idtaiiti* chieflv in material, to the A.lies and the Dominions, there was no appearing ot st am The i ct a field unit lion abiiit 1 40 000 t > ihi nunibci now at the tront was not the onlv miracle ot organisation, lhe transport ot supplies across the sea. ot enormous quantities or material —coal, stono for roads, thousands of tons of metal, munitions, etc. —was a remarkable manifestation oi enterprise and organisation. AA e saw scores of thousands or troops in training. Me saw a splendid arruv ot aeroplanes. 1 went up in a machine presented bv the Malay States, and within an hour it had started for the front m I?rance. MAKING Ob MINITJONs

■ JJio production ot munitions and other material at places wo visited in Great Britain was remarkable. In the first works inspected were 5200 employees. ot whom 600 were young women —making motors, aeroplanes, armoured cars shell eases, and what not. In another munition factory run by tlio Government through company management, 300 men and 4000 women were employed in turning out 501 b shells. There was one army factory with 10.000 employees. The girls were healtby and cheerful, and were doing skilled work in places. In the different works of.one company alone in the United Kingdom 61,000 men and 14,000 women arc employed. “The great shipyard rang with preparation. Vessels of all sizes and types —some of dimensions and class that would astonish —were at various stages, from the laying of the keel to readiness for sea. Great turrets of 150 tons weight were lifted in two or three minutes through openings in a shed roof to the ship outside. It was wonderful. Ireland, too, was contributing in shipbuilding and munition-making. Everywhere the men and women were working as if with a sense that upon the output of munitions depended the date and the decisiveness of victory for the Allies. BRITAIN'S MIGHTY FLEET. “The spectacle of the fleets at the northern bases was at once an assurance and an inspiration. AA’e were received by Admiral Sir David Beatty on the Lion, which looked none the worse for her dashing experience in the North Sea. From the flagship we went to H.M.A.S. Australia, and we found everything in the best trim and everybody in the best temper. Vessels of all sorts, visible evidence of rhe supremacy of British sea-power, were near. But it was at the northern base that the tremendous naval strength of Britain was most apparent, Resolution, efficiency, readiness, and vigilance were everywhere to be seen. AA'o met Sir John Jellico© on the Iron Duke—a man of composed and quiet, simple bearing, contrasting with the sharp, eager, dashing appearance of Sir David Beattv. WONDERFUL FRANCE.

“And then—-Franco, visited in the middle of July, is still the Fiance of history, and unconquerable hope. The French fight with the confidence of men who feel that the victory and its results will compensate for their sacrifices and sufferings. The President and the Premier, at receptions in Paris paid a tribute to the work done by the British, and spoke in feeling terms of the association of the French and Dominion troops as comrades on the battlefields of France. We were at the front ,near Arfhdntieres, the second day after the attack by the Australians on the German trenches in the neighbourhood. Oiir boys fought, as they always do—like men. They took the German trenches upon which they were ordered to advance. I saw many of the wounded. “I hope,’.’ said a Red Cross boy to me, as I knelt chatting to a young fellow from South Australia, who had been hit in the side and lay two nights on No Man’s Land, ‘that the work done by this brigade will not be forgotten.’ About a week after my w’ife.and I spent a day in a London hospital with some of the wounded from Pozieres. They need not fear that Australia will forget what they have done for her sake and the cause of the Allies. One feels more than ever proud to be an Australian. One cannot envy the feelings of a man of physical fitness who, when this great struggle is referred to hereafter, will not be able to say he was with them at the time.” CANADA’S SHARE. Referring to Canada’s contribution in men, Mr. Glynn said: “Canada, by September, had raised about 350,000 men, of whom 210,000 had been despatched to England and the front. The number at the fron(, is, of course, less than the total despatched, as training is continued in England. Some six months ago the 7>omi>iion Premier declares that it was intended i > raise 500,000 men, but as far a- 1 <vu d ascertain the enlistments were about 150,000 short of the half-million. The proportionate enlistments are greater in the western provinces; but as most of the ineu who attested were not born in Canada, and immigration is least into the French provinces, the shortages in Quebec and Ontario are not altogether due, us some say, to the comparative meagreness of response by Canadians of French descent. In some places, such as Winnipeg, a modern and busy city of over 200,000 inhabitants, of whom about 70.000 are Austrian | Ruthenes. there arc many races. Atj Camp Hughes, near Winnipeg, some of the 22,000 men there were pure Indian. Apart from raising men, however, I Canada is producing munitions, and a i special small craft of submarine destroyers.”