MUNITIONS OUTPUT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 8

MUNITIONS OUTPUT

AUSTRALIAN EXPANSION ARMY PISTOL FACTORY. MACHINE TOOL PRODUCTION By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright SYDXF.Y, Dec. 27 A new armament factory is being built in Sydney for the manufacture of army pistols for infantry and air force officers. The factory will be one of the best and largest: in the Empire, with an output of 3000 pistols a month, made from the highest grade Australian materials. The expansion of the Australian machine tool industry since the outbreak of war is technically one of the most significant developments of the Commonwealth's drive toward selfsufficiency. The Department of Supply recently announced that more than ."!() firms are at present turning out machine tools in every mainland State. The total number of machines and tools made or on order now exceeds JI3OO, and the value of this output is considerably more than £2,000,000. Adaptable as readily to the ends of peace as to those of war, the machine tool industry will provide a solid base for post-war reconstruction of heavy industry in Australia. DEPORTED ALIENS REPLY TO CRITICISM SEA TRAGEDY SEQUEL LOXDOX, Dec. 20 Criticism of the methods used in selecting aliens for deportation is answered by Lord Snell, the Government spokesman in the House of Lords, in a report on the inquiry into the sinking of the Araridora Star on July 2. This vessel was torpedoed while taking Austrians, Germans and Italians to Canada, and t-hero was heavy loss of life. Lord Snell pointed out that the security authorities were responsible for deciding who were dangerous Italians. All Austrians and Germans on board, he said, were in the category of aliens —namely, persons whom tribunals, after inquiry, had ordered to be interned. therefore there was no reason to question why they should bo deported. But there bad been no classification of Italians by tribunals, and as time had not permitted of further scrutiny the Government accepted the security officers' lists, which were based on membership of the Fascist Party, this being the only evidence against many of the deportees. Apparently, said Lord Snell. the view was taken that those who had been only nominal members of the Fascist Party and those who were ardently Fascist were equally dangerous. Lord Snell said tho result was that the deportees included a number of men whose sympathies wholly were with Britain. One deported Italian bad lived in England for 15 years, and was not a member of the Fascist Party, and was erroneously included in the list. Errors which occurred in about a dozen cases were due largely to the fact that the work was carried out under great pressure. "Taking the broad view of the programme of deportation and the conditions under which the selection had to be done," said Lord Snell, "I do not consider that this number of errors provides cause for serious criticism." NATIONALITY RESTORED LOXDOX, Dec. 2(> Fifty women of British origin married to Germans regained their British nationality in November, states the London Gazette.