DISPOSAL OF WAR STORES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16448, 31 May 1919, Page 8

DISPOSAL OF WAR STORES.

LARGEST AUCTION SALES IN HISTORY. The largest auction sales in the history of the world have begun in England, and they will be continued for some months. The goods for sale (writes the London correspondent of the Melbourne Age) include the surplus stores of the army and navy, and their total value runs into many millions of pounds. There are goods of all kinds, but there is a market for them all. And, owing to the general shortage of manufactured goods and of raw materials, excellent, prices arc being realised. Among the things to bo sold are thousands of horses, mules, motor-lorries, hundreds of motor-cars and aeroplanes, aeroplane engines, scores of military “tanks,” ships, national shell factories, several shipbuilding yards, enormous quantities of barbed wire, petrol, millions of yards of linen, which was intended to bo used in the manufacture of aeroplanes, but can now be converted into sheets and shirts. In the national shell factories there is a vast equipment of machinery, including travelling cranes, weighbridges, electric trolleys, hydraulic presses, pneumatic air compressors, gas engines, dynamos, drilling machines, and lathes of all kinds. A varied assortment of furniture is for sale, including oak dressers, tcakwood sideboards, writing tables, chests of drawers, cupboards, bathroom fittings, and office furniture. There are also thousands of chamois leather gloves, which were made for munition workers, but are suitable for gardening; also overalls for men and women, oilskins, leather aprons, and Wellington boots. The Office of Works has opened a sale in Loudon of furniture and other minor goods for the convenience of the public, and here single articles can bo bought at fixed prices. Furniture inr tended for the War Office and other Government departments which hpd extensive ramifications during the war, is still being delivered under contract by tho manufacturers, and the Office of Works has to got rid of it. As there is a great shortage of furniture in England, and a great demand on the part of war brides who want to set up housekeeping now That the war is over, the sale rooms of the Office of Works arc daily thronged with purchasers. When the Government departments created during the war are abolished there will be a great sale of secondhand furniture. The total value of tho furniture to ho sold by tho Office of Works amounts to several million pounds. Immense quantities of material used in military works in Franco and in the military camps in England are now being salvaged and sorted for sale. The millions of yards of barbed wire will be Filled and sold to manufacturers, who will melt it. down and use it in manufacturing other goods. A use will be found for the varied debris of tho battlefields, for the old iron, steel and brass, for the shell splinters, the broken rifles, and the damaged guns. The millions of sandbags will be emptied, atid the bags will be converted into paper. Even tho old bottles, of which there are millions, are being collected, for there is a shortage oi bottles in England. The broken bottles are being collected to be ground down for use in glass paper. One thing for which it seems impossible to find a practical ns© in their existing form is the “tanks.” A number of the heavy tanks, which was the typo first used, are to be sold, but apart from their engines and certain mechanical parts, they will have- to be broken up by tho purchasers, so that the material may be used in another form. The heavy tank is'not suitable for traction purposes, because its great weight would damage the roads, and because its consumption of petrol in proportion to the ground it covers is very great. The French are using tanks as tractors for canal craft, but tho French tanks are lighter than tho lightest British tanks, and tho canal tow paths in Franco are broader than those in England.' The policy of the Government with regard to the sale of tho national, factories has Hot met with general approval. These factories were established during the war for the purpose of increasing the country’s output of shells, guns, and other equipment. In construction, in equipment with plant, and in tho lay out of the extensive grounds surrounding them, they are among the finest factories in the world. Some have been privately sold to manufacturers, and others are to be put up to auction. In some quarters it is contended that the State should retain possession of these magnificent factories and use them for turning out commercial goods.

Similar criticism has been applied to the sale of the standard ships constructed by the Government. It is contended that these ships should be employed in the shipping trade as State property. It has been announced that the Government has sold 137 standard ships which are under construction, the purchasers being two wealthy shipowners—Lord Inchcape and Sir Owen Phillips. The purchasers have undertaken to allot those ships among British shipowners on an equitable basis, according to the losses shipowners have sustained by enemy action-during the war. The purchase money paid for those 137 uncompleted ships is said to be about £20.000,000, but the two purchasers declare that it is not their intention to make any profit for themselves or their companies out of the resale of the ships to other shipowners. No announcement has been made regarding the 200 standard ships which are already built and in commission. It is said, however, that they are for sale. It is interesting to note the eagerness of shipowners to obtain standard ships, and to recall their condemnation of the decision of the Government to build such ships. The reason why standard ships were laid down during the war is that ships whoso hull and machinery are constructed to standard patterns can be more quickly built than ships which are specially designed.