BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1915, Page 6

BRITAIN.

MUNITIONS STATEMENT BY MR. LLOYD GEORGE DO NOT BE "TOO LATE," London, Dec, 21. Mi'. Lloyd George, in the House of Commons, made a statement on the production of munitions during the six months since Mr. Asquith invited him to take over the provision of munitions and instructed him to increase the supplies in order to lessen the losses in attacking perilous positions. Previously, what we had stinted in material we hail squandered in lives. The shortage of shells was known to our troops and to the enemy, hut neither knew how really short we were in 3ome very essential particulars. Military experts believed that the days of high explosives were numbered, except for siege guns, and considered that shrapnel was (lie only weapon for field warfare. The British, were reluctant converts to the conclusion that a very substantial proportion of high explosives was essential to success in trench warfare. Experts now believed that quite half the supply should he high explosive shells, but came to the conclusion too late to prevent the shortage of shells. At the beginning of the year the Ministry of Munitions erected buildings to supplement the works of private firms. The Ministry organised forty local ammunition committees in the most important engineering centres, and also put up national shell factories, which had been a conspicuous success ) not only in increasing the supply but in minimising labor difficulties and enabling the Government to check prices, The result had been that last week the factories turned out three times as much high explosive shells as all the arsenals of the United Kingdom in the month of May. The number of shells fired in the operations in September was enormous; the battle lasted weeks, yet there was 110 shortage. This ammunition was the result of four months' careful husbanding, the whole was replaced in a month, and soon they would be able to replace it in a single week. The position regarding medium guns and howitzers was thoroughly satisfactory. Up to midsummer of this year big guns had not been ordered on a large scale. Considerable reductions had been effected in the prices of raw materials and there had been an aggregate saving of about twenty millions by the department securing the control of the metal market.

Mr. Lloyd George told an astonished House that it was, not until Mr. Asquith visited the trenches in June that the overwhelming importance of machineguns was realised. One of the first things was multiplying the output of machineguns. A new factory to produce the smaller guns had been equipped and two new factories erected to turn out a new type of machine-gun. As a result the delivery had increased five-fold. Trench mortars were a new development, but the output of grenades had increased forty times. The cost of 18-pounder ammunition had been reduced forty per cent., and that of other shells in proportion. They wanted labor to man all the factories. Machines for making machineguns were idle for lack of men. If tliev could get skilled men where they were wanted the problem of the war would be solved. For the new factories they wanted 80,000 skilled and 300,000 unskilled men. He had heard talk of overordering and over-production. Nothing was more mischievous. They could talk of over-ordering when they had as much as the Germans. A good margin was a wise insurance; less than enough was foolish extravagance. What we spared in money we spilled in blood. In no war ever fought was the preponderance of machinery so completely established. The German successes were almost entirely due to mechanical preponderance achieved in the beginning of the war. We had appointed a number of hustlers to visit the factories to find out what was wrong and to set it right and press forward contracts. The net result was an increase in the deliveries of old orders by 60 per cent. Two emergency factories for filling were erected in six weeks—a fine piece of hustling.

Mr. Thomas went to America and reported that Mr. Morgan had saved Britain millions by preventing the inflation of prices. He had a remarkable photograph of the Loos battlefields showing barbed wire undcstroyed, but only one machine-gun emplacement was intact. Every soldier says there is only one method of doing it —enough ammunition to crush every enemy trench, every complete emplacement, shatter every machine-gun and rend every yard of entanglements. If the enemy wants to resist he must do it in the open. In conclusion, Mr. Lloyd George appealed to employers and workmen not to have "too late" inscribed on the portals of the workshops. The fatal words in this war were "too late"—moving here too late, arriving there too late, starting that enterprise too late, preparing too late. The footsteps of the Allies were (logged with the mocking spectre of too late, and unless they quickened their movements damnation would fall on the sacred cause. This was why so much gallant blood had flowed. Victory depended on the employers and workers. It was a question of whether they were going to drag the war to an end in a year victoriously or linger along a bloodstained path for years. The Daily Telegraph's Parliamentary correspondent, referring to the neglect to supply machine-guns, asks why it was not realised at the War Office until June. Why was it left to a civilian Prime Minister to press the truth upon the military authorities? Mr. Lloyd George disclosed that the German daily output of shells in May was a quarter of a million, and the British 2500 high explosive shells and 13,000 shrapnel shells. DOMINION REPRESENTATION IN CABINET. AN IMPRACTICABLE SUGGESTION. Received Dec. 22, 5.5 p.m. London, Dec. 21. In the House of Commons Mr. Asquith said that Sir lan Hamilton was not about to return to the command in the Near East. Hon. R, D. Denman asked, in view of the share of the Overseas Dominions in the war and the importance to the 'Dominions of the policy governing peace, whether representatives of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa could be included in the Cabinet, Mr. Asquith replied that the suggestion', jm impractteftMiii. ■