BRITAIN INEXHAUSTIBLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16847, 11 May 1918, Page 8

BRITAIN INEXHAUSTIBLE.

OUTPUT OF MUNITIONS. PATIENCE OF THE PEOPLE. : ; LONDON. April 28. Ix the course of his speech in the House of Commons, on the munition supplies, Mr. Winston Churchill. Minister for Munitions, said that since May last the Ministry of Munitions bad released over 100,000 men for , the army, and had continued to release them at the rate of over 1000 daily. ■ * Mr. Churchill stated that recently leas than one-sixth of the total time worked had been lost owing to disputes, while this loss had been more than wiped out by the extra time worked at- Easter. "Let ua end this carping about the attitude of labour/' he added, " regarding the war. We ought to congratulate ourselves on the loyal heart of the people whose servants we .have the honour to be." Mr. " Churchill also paid a -warm tribute to the work of 750,000 women munition workers, to whom over nine-tenths of the whole manufacture of our shells was due. "We are now," he said, "turning out more aeroplanes per week than during the whole of 1914; more per month than during 1916} more per quarter than during 1916; and the output in 1918 will be several times the output of 1917. The quality of the work, has, in every respect, improved." He confidently anticipated the primacy of our air servica among the allies, and an increasing superiority over the enemy. Regarding the use of poison gas. Mr. Churchill said officers concerned with it had told him that undoubtedly our gases killed more 'Germans than the German gases killed our men, but the German irritant gases inflicted more casualties of a comparatively transient nature. Our gas-masks were the best in the world. We supplied them by the million, not only to our own men, but to the Italians, and had largo stores available for the Americans. We were now producing guns at the most rapid rate. As far as could be foreseen we would have sufficient guns in 1918 to fire more than all the ammunition we could manufacture. Mr. Churchill said that all the great armies in the later stage of this war would be fully, supplied with guns and shells, but the gunners would be the limiting factor in the artillery development. Thus there was ground for believing that the Germans' great capture of guns would not be of so much use to them as some people thought. Mr. Churchill concluded thus: "Look where you will, you will not get to the bottom of the resources of Great Britain. No demand is too sudden to be met; no need too unexpected to be supplied; no strain too prolonged for the patience of our people. No sufferings can daunt our hearts." (Cheers.)