WAR INDUSTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 June 1940, Page 6

WAR INDUSTRY

GREAT OUTPUT INCREASES IN BRITAIN MR HERBERT MORRISON'S SURVEY. SOME IMPRESSIVE FIGURES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.33 a.m.) RUGBY, June 27. The Minister of Supply (Mr Herbert Morrison) in the House of Commons, said the supply situation was coming nearer the point of satisfaction daily. He gave percentages indicating increases in the monthly rate of production during June over April. The increase in the output of cruiser and infantry tanks in June, compared with April, was 115 per cent—more than double. The increase in carriers. in 64 per cent.

Coming to a wide range of guns, the increase varies from about fifty per cent for two items to as much as 228 per cent for another. Small arms show increases ranging between forty and 186 per cent. Ammunition of various kinds shows an increase in June, compared with April, ranging between 35 and 420 per cent. Giving another example of the spurt in production, the Minister said: “On June 19, only a week ago, I gave orders for very large quantities—millions —of a certain weapon. Already the output has reached nearly a quarter of a million weekly—between four and five times the previous production. That output will grow.” These results, Mr Morrison said, were due to the magnificent response of work people and managements to the Government’s appeals, but also to the news from France of Hitler’s successes. On the policy of his department he pointed out that in many cases, where in his judgment a fundamental reorganisation of production was necessary, it was not possible to undertake it without endangering the continuity of output. In two cases, however, fundamental reorganisation had been effected, namely for tanks and for machine-tools. He explained the principles of simplification of design and concentration of output on which, at the desire of Mr Eden (War Minister) and himself, the new Tank Board was working. Turning to the raw material situation, Mr Morrison said it could broadly be described as satisfactory. Big orders had recently been placed in America and elsewhere. He had given instructions that it was better to be on the safe side and have too much rather than too little, for they had to face the possibility of a siege.