ARMY CLOTHING AND BOOTS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 293, 6 September 1919, Page 7

ARMY CLOTHING AND BOOTS

4 HUGE QUANTITIES PRODUCED • OFFICIAL FIGURES During the progress of the war many . buyers abroad of ilritisli-niade goods were ; uuablo to obtain from inanutiiclurers full supplies of the lines they were accustomed to purchase in the piping timea, ' of peace; Tho reason for this (says'lhe "Daily Mail") was obvious. in peace ' days mniiulacturers were'able to devote [ the whole of their attention lo what is ; now known as tho civilian trade, but , wliilo tho war was being wafted they had lo equip tho Army running into . several millions of men. And for about , four years the pressure of • the War Office for'clothing and 'arious oilier aitides became increasingly insistent. Possibly some members of the trade abroad, not fully acquainted with (lie huge quantity of goods called for by the War Office, came to tho conclusion, owing lu tho difficulty experienced in getting their orders accepted, that.British manufacturers were indifferent to the needs ot their overseas cuslortiers. It is, therefore, desirable to remove any mis--conceptions that may havo arisen, and wo aro jiblo to do so so .far as tlio Uritish clothing and boot'manufacturing, i industries are' concerned. ■'Wliilo hostilities' were-in progress it was permissible only to publish'estimates of the quantities of goods supplied by Jlritish manufacturers to-the War Office since August, 1914. And suck estimates wero largely in tho nature..of guesswork, though in many instances they wero surprisingly near the mark. Now, however, official details are available in respect to Army clothing and boots. Thty will doubtless be read with-interest. During tho.. war British wholesale clothiers were called upon by .tho War Office to supply ' 105,000.000 beavy . garments, consisting of greatcoats, jackets of various kinds,', trousers, and pantaloons.' .Jhp total, it should be added, did not. "'elude various other garments supplied' during tho war, but was strictly limited' to those usually known as "heavies." Here aro a few of tho' items: 3i,0(10,00(1 pairs of trousers and punlaloons. ■ 32,000,000 Service dress jackets. ■ 9,000,000 greatcoats. . ' 11,000,000 British ''warms." ' • _ Another , striking disclosure just made : is to the effort .Hint in. October Jasfc it was considered necessary by tho Army authorities to institute' a census of the production of .tho British clothing manufacturing industry.An .investigation .of the returns' received from tho various manufacturers' showed that m the month mentioned no jewer than i,500,000 garments of various f l "™ produced, of which nearly •>,000,000 were m respect to War Office TOnlracls, Of tho clothing required bv tho government, for the'J-'orcw it is nOvrKtiawn tiint London manufacturers were responsible for turning out' 52 per cent.of I ho whole quantity. Another indica•lion of tho position, occupied by tho uictronolis in connection with llii> clolhinir manufacturing industry is be found' in the fact that in October last Year London manutacturcw mado two-fifth's ofthei total output of British clothing. Ihe production of Army clothing was conducted under arrangements made wilh tho War Olhce by.a committee consisting ot expert members of the industry, and acting on whose adricc tho War" Office Was able to introduce many economieswhich in the aggregate resulted in the saving of many millions of pounds. 'J'he committee referred lo has now been in-' vited to investigate iho system under which contracts are placed for uniforms lor tlio many thousands of men in the' servico of the Post. Office, nrnl if. is confidently expected that in this Department also it will bo possible to recommend many economies. The officiil particulars regarding the number of pairs of boots supplied are as follow• „ . . Pairs. 1 British ankle boots 4.0,000,000 Hussion ankle boots : 5.125,071 Russian Cossack boots'...' •U!)!)';151 Italian Army boots 3.278,375 1 Serbian Army boots 00-U7l Rumanian Army boots ...' 483,091 The above figures, which refer to the quantity of boots supplied up to the end of last month, mako a. total of 53,600,102 pairs. Army , boots are slill being made in small quantifies by some British boot manufacturers, (hough there is good reason to believe that the production of ! such footwear will come lo an end by ; September next. In connection with (lie i official total given above, it is interesting . to record that unofficial estimates of the i number of pairs produced since tlio outm'oik of war put the figure at about , sixty million. The achievement is ono about which ! alj connected with the two industries are , entitled to be proud. The result has j »roved a triumph of skilful organisation, for at the outset of the war the number j of manufacturers of clothing and boots t possessing a knowledge of Army contract work was exceedingly small. In not a , few instances it. meant a. complete, rear- , rangement of clothing factories, while in | the case of boots many firms were called j upon 'to manufacture Army footwear | who had never previously ni.-ule a pair j of boots for men's us". ' Indeed, prior lo August, lillf, all the bouis required i for the British Army—at the most 301,- | 000 pairs per annum—were produced bv , a- dozen or so contractors in p few Nor- , tlmniptonehire villages. To-iby prob- i nblv SO tie-' cent, of the boot inanufnc- r turers of this country know linw •to make first-class Army boots. j