THE WAR EFFORT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24834, 6 February 1942, Page 6

THE WAR EFFORT

OUTPUT OF MUNITIONS A RAPID EXPANSION ALL CLASSES COOPERATE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 5. A cable message received by the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand from the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire reads as follows: United Kingdom.—Three small news items this week typify the unconventional co-operation which is contributing to the rapidly-expanding output of munitions disclosed in the Prime Minister’s speech on Tuesday. Office workers in various parts of England are doing Sunday work in arms factories. These experiments are likely to spread. In one factory in the Midlands, a managing director, two bank managers, clerks from Government offices, and girls from the firm’s office arie working machines on Sundays where the skill required is only small. This enables the machines to keep up a seven-day week. Mr MacMillan, speaking for the Ministry of Supply, describes an interesting little plan by which a number of industrial firms are, without profit to themselves, to launch and manage for an initial period some new shell-filling factories. When they have brought the factories to full production, they will be 1 transferred to Royal Ordnance factory management. Arrangements have also been made whereby during “lull” periods civil defence whole-time personnel may be employed on necessary jobs such as the construction, adaptation, or improvement of air-raid shelters, civic defence posts, -fire stations, or static water containers.

Textile Industry Labour Northern Ireland—The Minister of Commerce has been consulting British Ministers and departments about using Northern Ireland’s surplus textile industry labour in the national war effort. Some thousands of Northern Ireland men and women are already working in munitions factories in Great Britain, and the Commerce Minister’s visit seems to ensure that all able-bodied men and women in Northern Ireland are given an opportunity of .making their full contribution to the war effort as far as possible In their own area. There has been a firm resolve throughout this war that no one shall be allowed to make profit out of ft. Excess profits tax has throughout stood at 100 per cent., and steps have now been taken to prevent black market, transactions from providing an illegitimate means of money-making. The Board of Trade has lately announced a Price of Goods (Restriction of Sale) Order which will put a stop to the abuse of goods passing through an unnecessary number of hands, thus causing an unjustified increase in price, although each individual trader is able to claim that he is complying with the regulations as to his own margin of profit.

Enemy-occupied Countries France: The Agentisches Tageblatt states; that during the first nine months of 1941 the Vichy Government delivered to Germany 40,000 tons of bauxite, 8000 tons of aluminium, 500 tons of magnesium, 1200 tons of borax, 25,000 tons of iron ore, 20,000 tons of wine, 1,000 tons of vinegar, and 500 tons , of grapes. Holland: Zinc is to replace silver for coinage in Hollands. This was announced on .the Dutch/- wireless on January 21. Last year new duebbeltjes and kwartkes were issued, but very soon disappeared. They will now be replaced by zinc coins, which it will no longer be worth while to collect and hoard, ■ ■ . Tin.—The tin output which Japan now controls In Indo-China, Thailand, and Malaya amounted in 1940 to 45 per cent, of the world output. The Netherlands East Indies produced 19 per cent., while China (in areas unoccupied by the Japanese) and Burma together accounted for fi per cent. Thus 70 per cent, of the world output is in Southeast Asia. There are several ways of meeting the stringency in tin: (1) Tin production in non-Asiatic countries can be increased. Of the 30 per cent, of world output produced by these countries, five-sixths comes from Bolivia, Belgian Congo, and Nigeria. It has been suggested that the annual output in Nigeria and Belgian Congo might be increased to about 20,000 tons each —nearly twice the 1940 rate of production. (2) Stocks of tin in the United States are estimated at rather more than a year’s consumption at the present liberal rate. (3) Considerable economies in consumption can be effected both by doing without certain tin-plate products and by the use of .. substitute materials. (4) In the United States in 1937 tin derived from scrap: amounted to 2754 long tons, ,or about one-quarter of the American consumption that year. V

Out-produping the Axis Aluminium.—Aluminium is vital in war, especially for aircraft production, excluding Russia, whose output is unknown, tne chief Allied producers are U.S.A. and Canada. In 1938 Germancontrolled production was superior, but by 1941 North America had exceeded. the Nazi output, while the margin will be considerably : larger in 1942. Fighter aircraft take perhaps a ton of aluminium, and bombers, say, four to seven lons, according to their 'type. The key to expansion in production is cheap electric power (10 to 12 kilowatt-hours are required for one pound of aluminium) in which North America excels. In 1938 Continental Europe produced 55 per cent, of the world output of bauxite, against 30 per cent, in the Western Hemisphere. Since that year the output in Dutch Guiana has increased from 337,000 to 1,000,000 tons, and in British Guiana In the same way. Thus it can be safely assumed that the Allies are already outproducing the Axis in aluminium, and that their relative advantage will increase rapidly in line with their greater capacity for aircraft production. This is the economic foundation which guarantees that our formidable programme of aerial armament can indeed be realised. - ■-