The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1915. INDUSTRY AND WAR
When Marshal EVonoh made his celebrated demand for ‘'munitions” ho touched the crucial point of the whole position. Britain received the call with a certain, amount of rather mild surprise. The public was then in an optimistic mood. It had recovered 1 from the panic caused by the'retreat from Mon's, had passed to the opposite extreme'after the battle of the Marne, and had settled down after Ypres into the happy belief that the nest few months would see the complete discomfiture of the formidable enemy without any further special exertion on the part of the owner of the. “silver bullet,” which Mr Lloyd George had branded as the winning missile. : When,, therefore, that call for munitions came from tho Western front, there.was surprise and a disinclination to accept it as anything more than the natural aspiration of a general anxious to discharge his responsibilities in the host manner. Tho general idea -.was that he would,' of course, get his munitions; in fact, that he was getting them with commendable speed. Since then the-significance of tho demand has been fully realised. So fully, .that, .with ample knowledge of the efforts made to place the production, of munitions on a satisfactory footing, tho whole nation is now aware that the shortage of munitions—on the immense scale necessary—was responsible for the loss of the spring and summer. In its optimistic mood the nation looked to the advance in the spring to end tho war, but .now after the success of the last effort of the British and French on the West front, it is quite prepared to wait patiently for the final victory-without any ■unreasonable ideas of the time limit. In tho interval between these moods the facts of tiro industrial position have had their effect.
The facts are wholesome, because they show, that every belligerent l has suffered from the want of munitions, Germany as much as any. They fill a largo mass .of literature on the relation between industry/, and war. At the head of them is the fact that dhe’admiration everywhere expressed for the superior organisation of Germany is without warrant, Germany was better organised industrially than any other country, for .war, all her industrial establishments from Krupps downward having the benefit of Government assistance. At the outset the preparation was undoubtedly far greater ic. Germany, hut when the Gorman strategy which depended for victory on> the accumulation of munitions quite as much as on the number of troops and their organisation failed both in Franco and on tho East fronts,- Germany found it necessary to take Up the industrial organisation and make it very much more effective. This she was able to do faster than tho Allies, because the basis of organisation was better ,and because of the great obedience to authority which distinguishes tho German nation.; But before the improvement was complete under Government control some very strange things were done by contractors who took advantage of the ox-' tremity of the nation to exploit the resources of the nation in'a way which has not been approached in any other country. When the organisation, was complete there came enormous accumulations which told their tale in the victories over the Russian forces. By that time, however, Franco had, in spate of the industrial inconvenience owing to the loss of the industrial districts of Artois and Lorraine, built up her industrial position, and was accumulating munitions at rates ■which. are now justifying themselves at the front. Russia,' industrially the most backward of the belligerents, grappled through the adverse season with her industrial problem, and has improved her position sufficiently, at all events,’to prevent the destruction of her armies in the field—a success which practically means the defeat of tho chief object of * tho v German strategy in the Last. Japan, no doubt, helped the Russians, and so did Britain and America.- The share of the latter country in the supply to the Allies generally has, according to a recent writer—Dr Sbadwcll, in the “19th-20th Century”—not been so largo as it has been generally supposed to be, but iti has been of exceptional importance in one respect. . Germany makes her own machino tools, whereas France has had to depend entirely on America, as has Britain to a certain extent. The war found the British establishments of the private munition makers in a languishing state, and the condition of the great Government factories—except those devoted to the Navy—in not much -better case- The rush of orders on a soalo incomparably larger than the experience of the most strenuous times before the war was •at first anything but beneficial. Labour was dissatisfied, and some capitalists were given to exploitation. Both interests suffered through Jack of
realisation of the actual pressure and chances of the war. The result was industrial trouble, which the Government met by persuasion, backed by legislation. The failure of these was followed by the Coalition of Parties, with more legislation, with a National Register whose value is greatly appreciated by all, and with the creation of a separate Department of Munitions. These things were done in. the midst of troubles, but the troubles gradually gave way before the growing national realisation of the war, and its heeds and sacrifices. Labour has recently agreed to suspend the industrial conditions which in peace time meant so much, and legislation has taken control of the profits of capital. The magnitude has been realised of .the munition problem, which involves the supply not only of the British forces, naval and military, operating in many places, but of the forces of France in some ways, of those of Russia in all ways, and of Servia, and any of the other small States that may come m under the flags of the Entente. There are people who .still doubt whether Labour will make good the promises, made by the Labour leaders. But there, is certainly no indication that it will not. The machinery., of production has been co-ordinated and the labour supply regulated, with the result that.munitions are certainly coming forth in the vast quantities required for victory. The recent advance in the West was a good test, and there is a general disposition to regard it as a guarantee that at length the: great industrial problem has been ' settled beyond all possibility of disturbance. The position is summed up in two sentences of Colonel Repington’s in one of this morning's London ca_bles; “With our heavy guns and howitzers we are able to blast our way anywhere. Our modern artillery is able to utterly devastate: the whole of the defended front, and pave the way to a successful assault,” These words touch the crown of the work of the last nine months. The industrial resources' of Britain, there is much good reason to believe, j are . now able to maintain her military and financial advantages. ,
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9171, 11 October 1915, Page 4
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1,150The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1915. INDUSTRY AND WAR New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9171, 11 October 1915, Page 4
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