GUNS AND SHELLS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2812, 1 July 1916, Page 9

GUNS AND SHELLS

. A GEEAT-EFFOET IN F'EANCE. (Fiom Mr. H. Warner Allen, Special Cor-' respondent of the British Press with the French Armies.) Paris, April, 13. Now that the Allies are able to state without fear of contradiction that at last they. are. at least on more than level terms with the common enemy as regards the supply of guns and ammunition, the remarkable effort, which'liasjbeen made by the French in this direction since tlio.beginning of the war is well worthy of being placed'on record.When the Germans in August, 1914, in- , paded her richest industrial provinces, France was deprived ..at a stroke of 7U per cent, uf her coal supply, 90 per cent, of her iron ore,. 85-' per' cent, of her output of cast-iron, ana .75 per cent, of her 6teel production. In addition to suffering" the honors of . invasion by the German hordes, France, therefore, found herseJf confronted at the : very outset of what to a less 1 brave nation might have appeared to be a hopeless struggle with the "necessity of creating absolutely new machinery to enable her to provide means of combating the-invader, and that in his very presence. When it is realised what stupendous energy and perseverance tho French have shown in not only successfully facing the tremendous problem, but. in organising the magnificent resistance which" merely begajt with the victory of the llarne, tliore can be no possible doubt js to the final result of the war..

Tlie extent of the work which has been done :n the workshops of the Eepublic—most of which. have necessarily been entirely created since the war began— cun. best be -judged from the following data -which .1 have beeu able to gather ■ from Unquestionable sources in regard to the French output of artillery. As it is, of course, not possible to givethe" exact.numbers, the progress which'has been made may be indicated by relative'figures. Taking the figure 1 as representing the normal output ou August 1, 1911, the,production of unloaded shells for tho French- 75's rose to 14 by the middle of May, 1915, then to 29 by the end of December, 1915, and to 30} by February 1 this year. That is to say, on February 1 more than 30} times as many, shells for the famous 75's were being made as at the beginning of tho war. The output of all kinds of larger shells increased to B}-by the middle of May, 1915, to 35 by the end of last Decembor, arid" to over 44 by February 1. In other words, six weeks ago- the total French output of heavy shell, was over 41 times as great, as. at the beginning of the war. Equally remarkable increaseshave'been mado in' the output of heavy guns, of which the French are now turning out 33 times as many as at the beginning of the war. As to field-guns, the number of 75's- is now" 23 times as great as when the' German rush on Paris commenced nearly twenty months ago.

The Government, powder factories, which ars capable, practically speaking, of no great extension, have doubled their former .output, .while the quantity turned out by other establishments in France had increased sevenfold by Hay 15, 1915, and is now over :23 times as much as it was in the first month of the war.