BRITISH WAR EFFORT

Southland Times, Issue 25533, 29 November 1944, Page 5

BRITISH WAR EFFORT

REVIEW OF PAST ; FIVE YEARS ’ WHITE PAPER ISSUED ; IN LONDON (Rec. 11.15 p.m.) f LONDON, November 28. • The first detailed statistical ? review of Britain’s war effort published since the war began is given in a voluminous White Paper covering the major aspects of the country’s war ac- > tivities since September 1939. The White Paper, which gives !• figures not released for publicaE tion before for security reasons, shows the extent to which Brit- , ain’s resources have been mobi- ’ lized for the war during the last , five years. 1 During this period Britain produced 1 more than 102,000 planes, 25,000 tanks, ■ more than 35,000 guns and 5700 ships. s The major naval vessels constructed numbered 72, mosquito craft 1386 and other naval vessels 3636. Aircraft production included: Heavy bombers, 10,018; medium bombers, light bomb,ers 17,782; fighters, 38,025; naval planes, • 6208; trainers, 25,346. Casualties were as follows:— Armed forces to September 9.—Killed, 176,081; missing, 38,275; wounded, 193,788; prisoners of war, 154,968. Merchant seamen to August 31.— Killed, 29,629; interned by the enemy, 4173. Civilians, including Civil Defence, to August 31.—Killed, 37,298 (including 7250 children and 23,757 women); injured 78,818. MANPOWER FIGURES Dealing with manpower between June 1939 and June 1944, the total number of men aged between 14 and 64 and women between 14 and 59 in the services or industry rose by 3,500,000 to 22,000,000, of whom 10,300,000 were, at June 1944, in the services or whole time civil defence, or employed in industries mainly concerned in the output of munitions. By June 1944, 4,500,000 men were in the armed forces, compared with 477,000 at the beginning of the war. - The total number of men ; who have served in other ways is more , than 5,500,000. Fifty-seven per cent, of j all men aged 18 to 40 were called to J the forces. By June 1944, of 16,000,000 women ' aged from 14 to 59, 7,100,000 were in an auxiliary service, whole time civil defence and industry, an increase of more than 2,250,000 since the beginning of the war and an additional 900,000 i women were in part time industry and [ 350,000 in part time civil defence. The . number of women employed on munii tions in June 1944 was 1,851,000 and i in other war industries 1,644,000. Fifty- > five per cent, of all women aged 18 to • 40 were called to the services or to > industry. I MUNITIONS WORKERS The total of men and women employed on munitions increased during . the war from 3,000,000 to 5,000,000, most of the increase being due to the employment of women. Industries such as building, textiles and clothing suffered the greatest reduction in labour ’ —a decrease of one-third since 1939. Britain, it is estimated, has produced . about 70 per cent, of the total supply of munitions for the Empire. Other Empire countries have produced about 10 per cent., the remainder came from the United States. Naval construction during the war increased fourfold. The White Paper, detailing the output of aircraft, disclosed that the production of heavy bombers rose from only 41 for the whole of 1940 to 2889 I in the first six months of 1944. Fighters | increased from 110 monthly in 1939 to 940 monthly in the first six months of 1944. Fighter production reached its peak of 10,717 in 1943. The output of aero engines rose from 24,074 in 1940 to 31,643 in the first six months of 1944. The average bomb load increased from 1.2 tons a bomber in 1939 to four tons in 1943. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION Detailing the increases in agricultural production, the White Paper states that the net output of human food is estimated to have increased by at least 70 per cent, and food imports reduced by half. The land under the plough increased from 8,813,000 acres in 1939 to 14,617,000 in 1944. British shipyards to the end of 1943 produced a total of 4,717,000 gross tonnage of merchant shipping additional to Canadian production and purchases and captures, but losses and an allowance for ships returnable to other flags has reduced the total of Britain’s ocean-going merchant fleet from 17,500,000 gross tons at the outbreak to 13,500,000 at the end of 1943. The The situation however, has improved since the beginning of 1944. The number of British merchantmen lost to the end of 1943 from all causes totalled 2921, of which 1937 were Allied vessels and 900 neutral, with a total gross tonnage of 22,161,000. Of 13,000,000 houses in the United Kingdom at the outbreak, 4,500,000 have been damaged by enemy action, 202,000 totally destroyed or irreparably damaged, while a substantial number of those seriously damaged are still uninhabitable. DROP IN EXPORTS The value of British exports fell from £471,000,000 in 1938 to £232,000,000 in 1944. The quantity of exports fell to only 29 per cent, when an al- ’ lowance is made for the rise in prices. Private incomes rose from £4,779,000,000 in 1938 to £7,708,000,000 in 1943. , Savings from personal incomes rose from 31 per cent, in 1938 to nearly 20 • per cent, in 1943, Income tax and ’ other direct taxes paid in the five years to 1943 totalled £3,975,000,000, and ■ personal savings in the same period totalled £4,812,000,000. Direct tax receipts rose from £494,000,000 in 1938 to , £1,781,000,000 in 1943, with £305,000,000 repayable to taxpayers to the end * of 1943 in postwar credits. Overseas : assets valued at £1,065,000,000 have ( been sold and liabilities incurred abroad during the war total more than £2,300,000,000. <