BRITAIN TRANSFORMED

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 95, 15 January 1918, Page 6

BRITAIN TRANSFORMED

A SKETCH OF WAR INDUSTRY MAKING THE MUNITIONS When Armageddon began, the- forces 'liberated were unmeasured. "No single brain," Mr. Churchill declared, "achieved a complete and rightly proportioned view of tho cataract of events." Stupendous masses of men, armed with the deadliest weapons, were precipitated against each other; fortresses dissolved like clouds of vapour, great battles were fought unnoticed. ' Neither belligerent nor neutral could visualise the dimensions ol the conflict; much less could they calculate the potentialities which loomed ahead or defino the duration of the struggle. . No one realised the sinister forces that had been loosed against civilisation—not even the. Governments of the countries attacked. That fact alone demolishes the plea of Germany that she was the victim of a "crushing out conspiracy formed by her neighbours, that she was engaged in a defensive war. It also explains why, :in the eve of war, Britain, like France and like Russia, was mobilised for peace. Did not a well-known American declare that Germany's readiness at tho outbreak of war would redound _ to her eternal dishonour, while Britain's unreadiness would be to her eternal honour? At the beginning of August, '914, tho British Armr was a mere unit in the world's fighting forces. It consisted of 200,000 men. Their ammunition needs were served by three Government factories, augmented by a few private armament firms. This establishment, be it noted, was in accordance with a fixed national ideal, fully appreciated by our Allies.. When Germany opened her attack- on Europe, no one had foreseen —or, indeed, could have foreseen—the number of heavy guns and tho quantities of high es- | plosives that operations would consume. The colossal demand was generated by the changed conditions of warfare. During the heroic defence of Verdun, France, it is asserted, fired on one occasion as many as 800,000 shells in twenty-four hours. On the front in Picardy, according to a British officer, British artillery hurled about 10,000,000 against the enemy's lines, "'without counting tho grenades, or the missiles of machine-guns and rifles." Germany was the first to require, and, therefore, the first to produce, such huge stores of war materials. For the expedition against Russia, for example, Mackensen was supplied with fifty batteries for each army corps and twenty-four machine-guns_for each regiment—a number since increased to forty-eight. The Nature of Britain's Task. Not until the fluctuating lines of the armies in the West congealed into entrenchments did Britain realise the measure of her task on land. She had to face then a blasting operation of such magnitude, demanding so many men and so many shells, requiring such a continuous supply of big guns, machine-guns, aircraft, and other engines of destruction, that only by tho complete mobilisation of the country's engineering and industrial resources could it be pursued. Only by transforming Britain could the attempt be made to restore the 'North of France and Belgium to their rightful owners._ Only by an herculean effort, by sacrificing all to the one paramount idea, could the invader be hurled hack, and tha causo for which Britain" entered the war ctpheld.

Many neutrals—especially those tar removed from the war ami unsusceptible to its penetrating realities —are. ignorant of what has actually Icen achieved. They know nothing of the silent revolution that has taken jiwee ii' the island country, of that marvellous metamorphosis which has affected every class, of life, every industry, every home, every man and woman in the realm. It is the purpose of this brief survey to enlighten them, to show them what Britain lias achieved in two fateful years, to prove the truth of the old proverb that will-power finds a way.

A Year's Work in Four Days. What lias Britain done? Instead of providing for an Army of 200,000, she lias provided for an Army of five millions, .lad; in addition, helped to equip the armies of her Allies/' Instead of three arsenals in the United Kingdom she has built or improvised 90, all working night and day. Instead of a few, private armament firms working for' the Government, there are now 4000 controlled firms engaged exclusively in the production of munitions. Ninetyfive per cent, of these firms had never produced a gun, shell, or cartridge before the war. Yet in ten months they supplied more shells than all the Government arsenals and armament shops existing at the outbreak of war. Even then there was an enormous balance of shells over. It would now be practicable—and, indeed, lias been practicable since the great Allied offensive began on July I—to have a Battle of Loos every week. The weekly output of .303 cartridges, for example, is now greater by millions than the annual output before the war. The output of guns and howitzers lias been increased by several hundreds per cent. A year's work in 18-pounder ammunition is now done in threo weeks, a year's work in howitzer ammunition in two weeks, a year's work in heavy shells in four days. Some Miracles in Munitions, i 'Before the:war the Navy, absorbed almost all that the national arsenals produced. There was no room in the workshops for an army gun programme, and even if there had been room there were no workmen—or, rather, the labour of Britain was engaged elsewhere. The now Ministry of Munitions had therefore a stupendous task Before it. Tt had not only to create guns r.nd shells, but heavy guns and heavy shel's; not. only io find tlio material, but to find tlio machinery and the human hands that could shape that material; not only to provide for the pressing present, but for tho still more pressing future; not only to meet the requirements of an army, twenty-five times the size of a "peace" army, but the requirements of other and even larger armies which were allied to it. And this colossal undertaking was achieved, thanks to the unity of the nation, in spite of the widespread upheaval of existing industries, in spite of trade union conventions, in spite of ttie fcet that the skilled manhood of the country had been heavily drawn upon for t\\" fighting services. Dr. Addison, Parliamentary Secretary tn the Ministry of Munitions, has explained thp genesis of this great mobilisation. "In June, 1015," he said in an interview, "wo made an inventory of all the availablo machinery in the country, and it was evident that it was entirely inadequate to meet the demands. There were, however, ft creat many prirate firms which could fcc brought in to make munitions, and it was deride! to mobilise Ihe'ii for national service. In ordor to do tins wo created an organisation embracing ilie entire country. The country was divided into districts, in each of which a working board of management wa», set up. By means of this scheme "f local organisation thousands of firms hnvn been brought in. many of which bad never seen a shell body, or a fust-., or a grenade, or a I'omb before, mtfli less made them. Now niunition-mai<-inp. in some form or nnntber. has cv tMulcrl to everv (■ousidnrabl" town—indeed, to a large number of village*. "An oarnest'desire to helo, an adaptability and eagerness to learn, have brought into munition-making tlio mosl, remarkable assortment imaginable of

shops aml factories. In ono area alono shsll'hoclies or tho components of shells are being made, not only in engineering works, but in conl'ectioneiy works, by a music-roll manufacturer, by an infants' food maker, by a candle, niakcr, by a (lourniiller, by a tobacco merchant", by an advertising agent, in several breweries, by some jobmasters, by a glazier, by syphon manufacturers, and so on. Shells, and good shells, have been turned out by machines and methods which would be horrifying to the apostles of orthodoxy. What all this amounts to in the aggregate you can form home conception of when I tell you that a calculation made 'ccently showed that there were being turned out weekly by firms who, a year ago. had not been engaged in munition work, sixteen times as many heavy shells as were being produced a year ago by all the national plants and private armament firms put together." "One of Britain's armament firms has a factory devoted entirely to the provision of'a particular rimi for the Trench Government. .Russia lias been supplied with great quantities of grenades, rifle cartridges, guns, and explosives. The Belgian and Serbian Armies have been re-equipped. Italy and Ttumania have been sunpltol with most important munitions.