FRENCH SHELLS FOR ITALY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1544, 29 April 1916, Page 4

FRENCH SHELLS FOR ITALY.

MINISTER FOR MUNITIONS QUOTES TELLING FIGURES. MILAN, Fob 9. M. AlbcrtThomas, tho French Minister for munitions has granted an interview to the Paris correspondent of the Soccolo. “The cause of the Allies,"’ he said, “would be compromised if each wont its own way and worked on its own account. “Franco now aims,” he added, “at establishing a similar intimate contact with Italy in the production and exchange of the means of warfare to that which, thanks to Mr Lloyd George, already exists between Franco and England. “In my last meeting with the British Minister for Munitions,” stated Mr Thomas, “we calculated together what, in virtue of a united effort and reciprocal assistance, out stocks of munitions would amount to in this coming spring. “The lato Anglo-French assaults in Artois and Champagne revealed, even more than the Battle of the Marne, the colossal and stupefying nature of the consumption, convincing us that no possible limit can be safely placed upon the fever of production so long as the war lasts. Seven hundred and fifty thousand employees, including 120,000 women, are actually working on war material at our French factories, and the English, who bad the advantage oyer us of being able tocount upon its untire immobilised industrial workers, me now striving to reach the highest possible output, which will double the amount of ours. FRANCO-ITALIAN ENTENTE.

“Tjie purpose of my journey to Italy is to create lietweeu Italy and France a like cordial entente. Italy has already at Paris, and we at. Rome, mili'tarv commissions lor »a,r material, Italy supplying France with motor transports, while France, having arrived at unity in calibre, is turnisbing Italv with projectiles, “\Vo Allies further need to increase our moral munitions, through a mutual exchange of faith and hope, so that the union of to-day in the struggle for independence against German military hegemony, may prepar© the way for to-morrow’s economic liberation.

“To-day, in France, the war has created great metallurgical and powerful chemical industries, in which we were formerly dependent upon Germany. Perhaps, when the war is over, instead of inveighing against the vanquished Emperor, France might roar him a monument with this inscription ; ‘To William, Restorer of French Industry.’ ”