GREAT DEVELOPMENT IN WAR INDUSTRIES

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23965, 4 June 1943, Page 4

GREAT DEVELOPMENT IN WAR INDUSTRIES

CANADA

(By the Toronto Correi

The wheels of war industry are whirring at full speed throughout Ontario, although their roar does not wholly silence the political hum which runs as an insistent theme through the tune of Canadian affairs. Intense’ .activities in shipyards, factories, and commercial houses reflect the determination of Ontarians to aid the war effort even though Provincial and Federal policies are pursued with that lively enthusiasm which derives from party politics. The business of politics stirs the minds of Toronto men with warmer enthusiasm than elsewhere in the Dominion. To the Indian tribes of former years Toronto meant "a place of meeting”; it remains so to-day. Its hotels are great caravanserais where men of many views foregather. While industry, commerce, and finance appear to dominate the place, its alert businessmen express distinctive political opinions which have strong repercussions throughout the country. More conscious than most Canadians of the persisting British tradition, some citizens of Toronto are inclined to regard the Dominion as a constitutional preserve of the British Empire rather than as a north American country in which conflicting racial elements, endeavouring to consolidate themselves, are an independent but component part of the British Commonwealth. The Political Question These Torontians are apprehensive of specific political policies which they believe may result in political domination of the country by Quebea, the neighbouring province whose characteristics are primarily and fundamentally French. Such men regret recent and current federal tendencies, regarding them as being designed to appease the French-speaking community, whose attitude to the war and to politics is felt to differ from their own. Concerning the war, they insist on “equality of service”—a phrase which carries the implication that Quebec is not assuming her full obligations, particularly in the field of military service. This alleged defection is placed at the door of the Federal Government, which is accused of pursuing a policy of expediency and opportunism towards Quebec in the hope that such a policy will make for Canadian unity. The more extreme of the exponents of these views occasionally ttnt that Canada may be tempted to ffid her political salvation in closer afflßations with the United States. But political union wSh the United States Is not seriously regarded as this country’s inevitable destiny, and in Toronto, as elsewhere, there is a strong determination to develop the Dominion within the Commonwealth scheme of things. The opinion that Canada is “simply a very friendly and intimate neighbour of the United States, not a candidate for absorption,” reflects the general view. That view recognises that the Dominion and the Mother Country now stand beside each other as equals, with the Dominion free to share her political future in the trying field of international co-operation. While geographic and economic influences will undoubtedly bring about ever closer relations with the United States, Canadian sentiment towards Great Britain and the other Dominions is so warm and constant that it implies acceptance of specific responsibilities in their favour. The Commonwealth connexion has given Canadians an international outlook; this found expression in the country’s independent declaration of war—a declaration which brought Canada into the war more than two years any other country on the American continent. If political feeling runs deep in Toronto it derives much of ’its inspiration from a desire to exert the fullest war effort. Political developments in Ottawa-are closely watched in Toronto and: among local Conservatives there is a growing conviction that new political alignments are emerging in the federal field. The former Conservative Party is being remoulded by its new leader, Mr John Bracken, who is moving about the country educating his followers in the new creed of the Progressive Conservatives. Many Conservatives would like to see him taking his seat in the Commons at Ottawa, a view that is endorsed by the Liberal press. But much more is said in favour of his decision to remain temporarily aloof from Parliament until he has impressed his personality and policy upon those he now leads. Some who regard themselves as the backbone of Canadian Conservatism are believed to be hesitant in their allegiance to the new party, but its future is generally regarded in Toronto as promising.

sspondent of “The Times”)

Toronto observers also discern signl. ftcant readjustments among small groups of French Canadians now breaking away from the Liberal Party in the Federal Parliament. They not* that these dissenters are preaching an extravagant isolationism by concen. ' trating on affairs of French Canada alone, presumably in (he hope that at the next General Election English. 1 speaking Canadians will be so divided as to permit an independent Frenchspeaking group to obtain the balance of power. Both the principal partial tend to overlook changes in tempera. - ment and outlook which are now per-:, ' meating Labour centres. The Co-opera-uv tive Commonwealth Federation is ma^x) ! ing inroads into industrial areas anA*// some astute observers believe this So*si ” cialist organisation will register muchprogress at the next General Election. Pooling Resources There are few signs of politics but-' many signs of war consciousness in th| industrial areas. The enormous expand sion of Canada’s munitions industry has been a remarkable feat of enteNprise, perseverance, and organisation.’ Production has been co-ordinated with' that of the United States, and the raw materials of the North American continent have been pooled and distributed under an integrated scheme designed to enable the United Nations, particu- ; larly Britain, to obtain all the war sup. plies they need. Under the aegis of the Department of Munitions and Supply a comprehensive scheme of organ-, isation has been effected. With Gov. eminent funds, both British and . Canadian, huge new plants have been ; established and old ones expanded,; while private interests have brought about their own developments under Government supervision. Factories originally financed by Great Britain are now required by the Dominion. ■ Plants established by the Government - remain the property of the Crown, although in many cases they are oper. ated by private concerns with the Gov-' eminent obtaining their output at cost . prices. In some instances method* of joint managerial control by tb* Government and private interests havf . been worked out. At no single point of this vast cotwv try can any real assessment be mad# of the extent of Canadian war production. The individual cannot see the hundreds of factories, many in remote ‘ places, which now dot the country- * side; at best he can only glimpse the drama of war production in specific industries. To visit a few of these factories is to see Canada at war, and - each is typical of what is going forward in the industrial belts between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Field- ' Marshal Sir John Dill recently visited • in the Commonwealth one of the big- , £ gest automatic weapon factories in the v world. It employs about 16,000 work-;, ers, 60 per cent, of them women: From ' this factory Canadian Bren guns at* V being shipped to 50 destination points ' in all parte of the world, and th* r; plant’s output last year doubled the 1 ' output of the year before. Elsewhere 1 in the locality the de‘ Havilland Air- 1 ' craft of Canada, in a greatly en-'L larged plant, are now engaged in the 1 production of Mosquito bombers. With its Packard-built Rolls-Royce engine ; this machine has proved itself in ,ic-, tual combat to be. less vulnerable to., gunfire than metal aircraft. Preparations now advanced in the factory indicate that a continuous stream of. these aircraft will soon be, flowing from)* it to be tested on an adjoining air-.-* field where the latest flying facilities' are available. Special Equipment Many factories in Canada draw ,on,, special supplies provided by Research Enterprises, Limited, a Government-' owned and Goverriment-operated.com*,;, pany established to provide for the,.';.: manufacture of specialised war equipment. This new 7,000,000-doUarrplant. produces various types of fire-contrhl,. instruments, range-finders, dial, sights, 1 telescopes, periscopes, and rgdio equip-, ./ ment. It took only eight months to * < build the factory, staff it, equip it.\ and complete the first batch of optical glass needed for the wide range of instruments produced. The field in which the company is working il highly technical and it started with no background of Canadian experience; but already its production is far in excess of the maximum output orig- \ inally planned. These specific Indus* tries by no means exhaust the rang* of war production effort in Ontario; ' they represent only a fraction of * vast organisation now functioning across the continent In the interest# - of the United Nations.