MUNITIONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 June 1917, Page 3

MUNITIONS.

WONDERFUL PROGRESS

PLENTY OF MUNITIONS.

(Reuter’s Telegrams.)

LONDON, June 23.

In th e House of Commons Dr C. Addison, reviewing the work of the Ministry of Munitions, said that Britain’s capacity in th© production ui explosives in Alarch, 1917, Was 28 times tho capacity of Alarch, 1917.

In regard to gun ammunition we bad reached such a state ofproduction that we wore able t° divert some of th© factories t° assisting other branches. Great reserves of field gun ammunition had been provided and arrangements wero working so smoothly that despite the enormous expenditure at the front the stock of idled shells had decreased only seven per cent during tho first nin© weeks of the offensive.

The output "of machine-guns and rifles as fully equal to the demand. Dealing with the supply of railway material for the army, he said that railway lines wore pulled up in Britain arid India. . Australia and Canada ha<i arranged to send a full ship with 100 miles of lino. Over 2000 miles of track had already been supplied and improved tanks were coming forward freely. H© hinted at a further development in these machines.

.An Inter-Allied Bureau had beep established in London in order to pool the Allies’ munition requirements with America, so ns to avoid competitive buying. Negotiations were proceeding to enablo the United Stater, place her resources more readily and effectively at the Allies’ disposal. Britain’s output of steel before the war was 7.000,000 tons. It was now 10,000,000 tons and it was hoped that it would reaeh 12,000,000 t°ns by the end of 1918. The production of tungsten had enabled us to supply much to the Allies. Dr. Addison stated that there weiro 30,000 skilled munition volunteers, while 40,000 soldiers had been released from the colours and 30,000 Army Reservists were employed in munitions. The reduction in the cost of shell components compared with last year represented a saving of- £43,000,000. The Ministry was taking steps to provide traders with information regarding the almost infinite mineral resources of th© Empire.