INDIA'S MUNITION DRIVE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 263, 27 January 1941, Page 6

INDIA'S MUNITION DRIVE

20,000 ESSENTIALS PRODUCED Some -10,000 items are required in the equipment of a modern mechanised army. India is manufacturing over 20,000 of these. So rapid has been the expansion of her ordnance factories that "within nine months of the outbreak of war t'lve production of shells had been multiplied twelvefold; hex* peace time production of all lethal stores increased sevenfold. The achievements of the Indian Munitions Board in the peak period of output in 1918: were far outstripped. The output of small arms amjmunition increased 2Vo times, rifles one and a fourth times, complete one and a fourth times, complete respirators 7 times, respirator containers 22% times, signal cartridges 5y 2 and harness and saddlery ?>V 2 times. In the same period supplies sent overseas included 75,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, 200,000 shells of all categories, 6000 rifles, 2500 tents, 4,500.000 sandbags, 10,000 sets of webbing equipment, 600,000 blankets, 3,000,000 yards of khaki drill, 150,000 pairs of boots, 20,000 greatcoats, 73,000 groundsheets and 17,000 saddles. Masterly Planning. •

Behind this imposing record is a story of able planning directed towards the conversion of India's engineering resources to the production of war requirements and the training of personnel. Officers of the Ordnance Factories Directorate carried out capacity surveys of some 140 engineering and railways workshops, with the assistance of Industrial Planning Officers in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Lahore.

Initial orders were placed to the value of Rs. 8 lakhs (about £125,4 000) for shell forgings and machine shell bodies. Additionally a number of railway engineering shops embarked on the production of shell guages and hand grenade bodies. In the Calcutta area private enterprise undertook the production of tools for ordnance factories, and an experimental order was placed for copper driving bands for shells. In June the Government of India an-* j nounced a Rs. 7 crores (about £7,000,000) scheme for the expansion of ordnance factories. Orders were placed for Rs. 90 lakhs of additional plant for the manufacture of high explosives. Rs. 1 crore is being spent on the extension and modernisation of ordnance factories engaged on the production of high gradje steel of the latest types for 'field guns and barrels, anti-aircraft guns and non-ferrous alloys needed for the manufacture of ammunition, air bombs and small arms ammunition. Vast sums are also being spent in extending factories which produce field guns, rifles, light machine guns, shells, land mines and depth charges. The Workers. Within eight months staffs and labour forces in ordnance factories increased by ever 100 per cent. The response of Indian workmen has been magnificent, and warm tributes have been paid to the initiative and adaptability of industrialists. Difficulties that have arisen have been tackled with determination. The training of skilled workers for irfunitions factories is :i problem j not so easy of solution as the figures of expansion in the early \days of war indicate. Large batches of men were drafted from private enterprise into workshops engaged essentially on war production, and then arose the problem of finding men in adequate numbers and with the necessary technical qualifications to take their place in industry. Ordnance factories had their own expanded training increasing the establishment of prentices and boy artisans under training from about 388 to over 1050 and the civil authorities have embarked on a far-reaching scheme of technical education to prepare youths for. war production in factories and industry generally. For the ordnance factories, numbeis of young Indian chemists have been engaged and are undergoing training, while young Indian engineers arc receiving instruction in chemical plumbing and similar trades to enable them to take over the main* tenance of plant.