WAR FACTORIES AFTER THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2907, 20 October 1916, Page 6

WAR FACTORIES AFTER THE WAR

FRANCE LOOKS AHEAD

A GOLDEN ASSET

(Empire Press Union.)

The following dispatch has been received from Mr. H. Warner Alien, tho Representative of the British Press with tho French Army:—

Much has been written concerning the terribly destructive effects of modern warfare, and comparatively little has been said a& to thatconstructivo side of it "which "will inevitably in time of peace produce important consequences. There aro many places in France, both 011 the French and the German side of tho trench line 'which divides Barbarism from Civilisation, that havo for years _ been clamouring for light railway facilities. The exigencies of modern war have provided them to-day with a profusion of railway communications beyond their wildest dreams, and when jieaco is declared, however much the rails may have been torn up by shell firo, the tracks, will still bo there for future use. Similarly all along the front roads havo been broadened and multiplied. 111 certain districts, where tho want of water was the main obstacle to progress, hundreds of wells have been bored, and it may bo that at tho end 1 of hostilities districts which were praotically ban-en and unpopulated will enjoy abundanco of water and consequently prosperity All over tho belligerent countries huge factories have sprung up, .with the purely destructive purpose of manufacturing powder and other explosives. In Franco the question .as to what service these factories will bo able to render when tho war is a tiling of tho past has been very seriously considered.

It is clear that the problem of diverting the energy of mobilised: labour into tho tracks of peaceful work would bo enormously facilitated if war factories could bo transformed, in accordance with tho requirements of ordinary industrial need, without excessive delay or oxpenso. Beforo tlio war tho French chemical industries, both thoso concerned with pharmaceutical products and colouring matters, had suffered severely from German competition, thanks to the perfected organisation of tho German trusts. Thoso trusts, tlio enemy announces, will be ono of its principal weapons in, the struggle that must continue when tlio war is ended. Fresh hopo has been given to tho French manufacturers by tho multiplication of tho war factories, all of them provided' with oxperimontal laboratories. All

the factories which havo been constructed for tho preparation of acids, tar products, powder, and explosives, all required for warlike purposes, can, as soon as peace is certain, bo easily transformed into works'that will make artificial perfumes, photographic ma-

terials, pharmaceutical products, and both organio and inorganic chemical dyes. Tho samo engineers and the samo workmen who aro at present mak-

ing smokeless powder, melinite, and trinitrotoluol will, bo ablo to produce in the samo works and with the same machines artificial silk, nitro-bonzine, or aniline. With a view to paving the way towards this important transformation, a number, of powerful associations havo been formed, of which ono of tho most important is tho "Syndicat National des Matiqres Colorantes," which is a combination of coal and metallurgical companies, papermakcrs, dyers, textile manufacturers, etc. Thanks to this movement, which is steadily extending, tho French war factories, instead of lying idle as soon as peaco is signed, will be ablo to continue their production, and even to increaso it. In the words of M. Herriot, the Mayor of Lyons, "hundreds of thousands of workmen will continue to

earn Ciieir wages, and the works which are to-day mobilised for .destruction' will to-morrow, when peace is declared, mako Franco moro powerful than .ever."