ONE VAST WORKSHOP.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 857, 8 November 1916, Page 13

ONE VAST WORKSHOP.

HOW ITALY MAKES WAR. ALL INDUSTRY MOBILISED. While the rare qualities of endurance and heroism displayed by Genleral Cadorna's armies throughout the campaign are now universally known and appreciated in Great Britain, the wonderful story of what Italy, within the last two years, has accomplished at home in the organisation and output of munitions of war has only just been written by the correspondent of a London journal. The pre-war industrial conditions of Italy were certainly not such as best fitted her for becoming the [gigantic workshop of which she can boast to-day, nor the Still hunger one I she is destined to become to-morrow. Iron and steel production was dis- | tressingly scarce, and mechanical j industry of every kind was but I poorly and unevenly developed. Truly skilled workmen were but a handful, and her arsenals could be counted upon one's fingers. In creating an organism adapted for new administrative functions : there first arose the Under Secretariate of Arms and Munitions, whereto j was confided the supreme direction land control of whatever appertained to the organisation and discipline I of industries coming within its 'special competence. Then began the inevitable and forceful read ion against the antiquated systems and principles of bureaucratic centralisation—a movement which in June 1915 was sealed with the Royal approval in the decree for a general mobilisation of national industry, whereby regional ; committees were founded throughout i the land with a large measure of local autonomy. Alongside these i latter were formed special commissions of technical and industrial experts charged with the task of superintending the various industrial establishments, testing their output, and intensifying lo the utmost their productive capacity. Latent Energies. Within a few months the latent lethargic energies of the nation were stirred lo vigorous activity. Vast regions of Southern, Continental, and insular Italy, where so.low had been the ebb of industrial life that it seemed visionary folly to hope for any substantial contribution to the supply of war material, were soon seen lo be competing with far more fortunate and progressive districts in Central and Northern Italy, as well in the number and spaciousness of their factories as in Ihe richness of Iheir up-to-date plant and the perfection of their yield. Hence it comes about that Italy today is dotted over with some two thousand factories dedicaied to the manufacture of munitions and divers dependent services. The far tougher problem—resolutely faced and now happily solved—was, as I have indicated, that of finding skilled hands in sufficient numbers to man the factories and

meet the ever-increasing demands for material.

The few schools of professional culture already existing were forthwith mobilised and transformed. Innumerable others were started for imparting accelerated yet essentially complete courses in technical science.

With a view lo subtracting the least possible number of men from the fighting ranks, most soldiers who had become unfit for battle and all conscripts rejected on physical grounds were relegated to the workshops. Despite also the deeply-rooted prejudice existing in Italy in the matte." of female manual labour, a goodly number of women responded to the country's call, with the result that women actually constitute fully ten per cent, of- the half million toilers engaged in munitions. Complete Transformation.

Under imperio.us necessity enormous progress is being realised in the metallurgical and allied industries. Be it remembered that before the war Italy imported from abroad, chiefly from Austro-Hungary sources, nearly all her iron ore and every single ton of raw material for the production of steel. Innumerable cascades and formerly wasted watercourses over the whole kingdom have been converted into electric energy for feeding munitions factories, chemical works, and electro-chemical laboratories engaged in the manufacture of explosives, so that, together with very notable quantities of electric furnace plant of recent introduction and in actual operation, a ,'il) per cent, increase is realised in steel production alone. Moreover, (be war factories themselves have been so constructed under expert advice as to facilitate the future conversion into so many hives of peaceful industry, which will render Italy Independent of Germany in chemicals, colouring material, and many other by-products. Respecting the output of primary material, General Dall 'Olio is well in the race with Mi - Lloyd George.

Enormous Increase of Output. ''Our arsenals," I was informed in a tone of justified contentment, "are now turning out as many heavy cannon in a single month as was formerly achieved during a whole year. Our output of projectiles of every type and calibre is 30 times greater, ami our production of rides and carbines 250 times greater than at the outset of hostilities with Austria-Hungary. As for the manufacture of machine guns, we have reached such a degree of intensity that we are rivalling England itself." In the light of the foregoing facts English people will be belter able to judge bow richly deserved was the tribute which the British Minister of War paid to the invaluable services rendered by Italy to her allies in the common cause, and also how it happened that General Gadorna, having sternly decreed "Thus far shall ye go and no farther," to the horde of Austrian invaders on the Trcntino Alps, found himself in a position to turn straightway without a pause lo-

wards the Isonzo, there to smite his foes hip and thigh among the Carso Hills and drive them forth with a dread sword of flame from the Gorizian paradise.