200,000 SHELLS DAILY.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 May 1917, Page 6

200,000 SHELLS DAILY.

ACTIVITY IN KRUPP'S WORKS. Someone who hag just spoilt four months in the Krupp foundries gives his impressions to the Paris Matin. He states in particular: — " Three hundred thousand workers, jf whom about 00,000 era women, marshalled in gangs on <.la!y and night shifts, sweat blood and water in order that til? Emperor shall not lack projectiles. All tiiese people, with the exception of tin' women, have been impressed by the military authority. The ages of tiie men are from eighteen to forty-six years, antl they are all told off for the manufacture of. munitions. It is the same with thespecialists above the ages cf forty-six and up to fifty. "The salaries paid them for working thus from siv o'clock in the morning to six at evening for the day shift, and from six in the evening to six in the morning for the night shift, vary between eight and fifteen marks a day. The women, however, never get more than five marks. This daily salary, which in the- eves of some may appear a big one, has only the' real and ma::imi'.m value of five French francs, so much .ias the cost of living gone up.

'"The discipline is in every way like that- of the strictest Pomeranian regiments, auAsthe least delay is severely punished. Any lapse o ; duty entails Icing sent back to the front. "At Eessn there is a Special War Council for the Krupp workers. What oarui-ularly struck me was that side by side with the phenomenally intensive pi-eduction of shells generally U3ed in W.rfarc- in the open country, such as the H, IQS. 120, 150, and 210 millimetres, ihsy were, above all. speeding up the manufacture of guns and projectiles of 420 millimetres.

"In the month of May, 1910, Krupp was constructing" simultaneously seven howitzers and 420 millimetres. As it takes on the average from six to eight, months to is.\fcc this kind of gun, these should l.v about ready in this present month rf February. In the opinion of the' head of the workshop, Krupp alone now turns out 200.000 shells of every calibre a day, without counting the manufacture of artillery cannon."