WAR PRODUCTION
HUGE EXPANSION BRITISH ACHIEVEMENTS. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (10.30 a.m.) RUGBY, March 25. Opening the second day's debate on production in the House of Commons the Parliamentary Secretary' to the Ministry oi' Supply (Mr Assheton) said it would be, a great mistake if the House did not fully appreciate that British 'war production had risen to a very high level and the output continued to rise. It was in September last year that the Minister of Labour said he hoped lor a 40 per cent, increase in production, Mr Assheton added. "I now have the satisfaction of being able to tell the House tha.t not only has this 40 per cent, been achieved but passed. As far as rny department is concerned we already see the way clear to go far beyond this. Our present production has been reached by a tremendous and expansive programme of concerting and supplementing peacetime production to make it suitable for war, and also by the very great programme of factories built, organised and controlled by the -Ministry of Supply. We now have over 40 ordnance factories which alone employ 300.000 workers, and it is not surprising that this expansion has taxed the abilities of the management to the utmost.
"The picture which I give the House is of an arms industry which has grown to great proportions. In the engineering trades alone over one million workers are working for the Ministry of Supply. As far as factories are concerned, we have already nearly obtained the full requirements of labour in some of them and have been able in these cases to renounce our priority accordingly. In certain others we hope to be able to do the same before long." Mr Assheton continued : you realise that -in one of the modern tanks there are as many as 40 : 000 different parts and that the failure of any one part to appear at the right time and at the right place holds up the, whole of production you get some measure of the problems with which we are faced." —Official Wireless.
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Bibliographic details
Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 99, 26 March 1942, Page 5
Word Count
346WAR PRODUCTION Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 99, 26 March 1942, Page 5
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