SUPPLIES OF WAR MATERIAL

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14253, 2 January 1920, Page 7

SUPPLIES OF WAR MATERIAL

WELL TAKE YEARS TO SELL IT. Surplus Army material is lying in many. .parts of Great Britain, France, Belgium, Egypt, ' Salonika, Palestine, and Mesopotamia (says the Daily Mail.) Surplus Navy material is filling ports and harbours. The total realisable value of this material was estimated by a Disposals Board official at somewhat about £300,000,000. Public feeling is shown in angry letters to the newspapers, members of Parliament, the responsible head of Disposals, Lord Invert'orth, and the active head, Mr P. G. Kellaway. The result of this criticism is being felt. It has already led in places to the dismissal of a few minor persons who have not been doing their, duty, a Disposals official stated. This official offered two reasons for the slow rate at which the material is being sold to people who can make use of it: A desire to get the best possible price for the public. I A fear lest certain trades should be ruined by a flood of Army material. He acknowledged that at the present rato of disposal it would take years to ' realise the stocks. There is, for ex- . ample, one.- set of buildings in London . covering several acres which contains, I in one section thousands of magnetoes. ■ The new English magneto industry would be ruined, it is suggested, if these were sold by auction and the I space given up to the people who own t"<? building. 1 As for moving the magnetoes and the "hundreds of thousands of pounds worth" of other stores, that would take ' from seven to eight months and require i endless transport. But while the mag- ! no toes arc in store they are eating up i money in the form of rent and pay- . merit of clerks and storekeepers.

L'o it is everywhere; and in many place's the stocks are not housed in warehouses, but left in the open to rust and rot. Travellers on the Great Western Railway crane out of the windows open-eyed at the sight of stacks upon stacks of barrows, shovels, picks, and other material extending for miles. Going north a similar sight of acres Of open ground closely packed with light carts can be seen at Chilwell, near Notiingham. 11l France and Belgium such sights axe common wherever the British Army has established depots. In one spot near Mons there are hundreds of motor transport lorries. France and Belgium have both made offers for the best of the British salvage, and the latter country has bought barges and railway material at fair prices; but the Americans spoiled the market by practically giving away immense stores and the War Office, is j sticking to its price and shipping everything for which that price cannot be obtained. The total result appears to be that while Great Britain is already loaded up with unrealizable stores, more stores are pouring in by way of the Eiehborough train-ferries, and buildings are being crowded which ought to be cleared and sftld. In estimating the realisable stores at C'i'oo,ooo,ooo, tho Disposals Board makes the proviso that the'actual total cannot be arrived at until the Government has determined what the aftcr-the-war strength of the Army, Navy, and Air Force shall be. Vigorous reduction of those war services will throw upon this overloaded market still more stores.