AT WOOLWICH

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1917, Page 8

AT WOOLWICH

FEEDING 50,000 PEOPLE DAILY. "Very wonderful and very melancholy" might ho the first reflection of a philosopher who was admitted behind the scenes of Woohvich arsenal. Very wonderful, indeed, that Great Britain'," central munition works should have been expanded to, a degree which even two years ago seemed impossible. Melancholy, surely, that all this vast amount of material, this boundless expenditure of energy and craftsmanship and ingenuity. should end in smoke and slaughter and destruction. A truer conception is that every man, woman, and child who labors at Woolwich or elsewhere—and Woolwich is now only a comparatively small part of the immense national effort —is strengthening the arm of our soldiers and sailors, and is bringing nearer that "peace with honor" without which civilisation will have 110 meaning. That, at any rate, is the spirit in which they arc working, and it explains many things which one sees in a visit to the great war town on the banks of the Thames. It is now a time of 00.000 workers; there will be 100,000 before the. end of the year. Like all nourishing towns there are always buildings going on in it. Every hole and corner of the great site' is being occupied, and when one is told that full rations for 50,000 people with remarkably healthy appetities have to be supplied every day, it is obvious that the space is not entirely occupied by workshops and foundries.