THE MUNITIONS QUESTION

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 21 May 1915, Page 5

THE MUNITIONS QUESTION

DISCUSSION INOPPORTUNE AT

PRESENT

GOVERNMENT DOING ALL POSSIBLE TO MEET THE STRAIN.

LONDON, May 20

Lord Kitchener, in the House of Lords, referring to the gas poisons which the Germans employed in defiance of the recognised war rules to which they had pledged their word, said the English and French were utterly unprepared for this diabolical method of attack, which undoubtedly had long been carefully planned. The Germans persisted in the use of the gases, causing agonising deaths, whenever the wind was favorable and other opportunity occurred. We know, he said, that sometimes the offensive against the enemy's trenches demands an enormous expenditure %f ammunition, both of the usual type as well as the high explosive pattern. We are now making the country aware of the energetic steps taken to produce sufficient ammunition.

In the House of Commons, Mr Asquith, interrogated as to whether provision had been made for a three years' war, replied that the Government could not neglect the possibility of a. long struggle, and is doing all in its power to husband the country's resources and meet the strain. A discussion on munitions was highly i»opporcune and prejudicial to the strategical situation at the present moment. There would be ample opportunity for a debate in the future.

The Times, in a leader, says that Lord Kitchener's statement implies an unsatisfactory position to-day. The revelations show a muddle in the manufacture of munitions, aoid the failure to send sufficient shells to France has created a painful impression. There is a feeling ■with all parties that the Government requires to be reconstructed in the direction of strengthening the central factors. There is unquestionably an absolute necessity for relieving the "War Office of the control of supplies, which is a task needing separate direction.

Sir Ernest Cassell, in a letter to the newspapers, denounces the German war methods.