ALLIES' MUNITIONS CONFERENCE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 15 July 1916, Page 5

ALLIES' MUNITIONS CONFERENCE.

CHEERFUL STATEMENT BY LLOYD GEORGE. A STRIKING COMPARISON. Received July 14, 7.30 p.m. LONDON, July 13. .Air. Lloyd George, addressing the Munitions Conference, whereat France. Russia and Italy were represented, insisted that they had changed the complexion of events since the conference of 1915, when the Champagne offensive had just failed of its objective and the Russians had been pressed kick hundreds of miles. Now the Russians, by their overwhelming /ictories had struck terror to the ■leart of their foes. The immortal ,:]efence of Verdun, the brave resistance of the Italians and the combined offensive in the east and west ..ad wrenched the initiative I'rom the enemy's hands. Our prospects had improved because the equipment of the armies had been improved enormously. Then the Russians faced a hailstorm of iron with flesh and blood and the British were condemned to inactivity because their munitions were unequal to a sustained attack. The Navy had absorbed more than half the metal workers of the country,'occupying the energies of a million men. We had to create our army and arsenals out of nothing. We were now turning out hundreds of guns and howitzers monthly, r.nd twice as math ammunition in a single veek and threefold the number of heavy shells as were 'fired in the grand offensive in September, thougu that supply was the result of manj

weary weeks of accumulation. Our new factories and workshops had not yet attained a third of their full capacity, but the output was increasing with great rapidity. The.overwheln.--ing success of the French munition making was proved by the present of. tensive, which followed an appalling expenditure at Verdun. The lesson >f the present war was that more amumition means more victories and fewer casualties.