HUGE TASK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 November 1940, Page 2

HUGE TASK

CLOTHING THE ARMED FORCES. MINISTER GIVES SOME DETAILS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, November 7. “The clothing and personal equipment of our armed forces is a huge task. which has been tackled with great efficiency and success by New Zealand manufacturers,” the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr Sullivan, said addressing the Chambers of Commerce Conference this morning. “By the end of this year our factories will have produced thousands of pairs of boots for the Forces. The weekly production by woollen mills has increased as follows: —Blankets, pairsf, week ended January 27. 1450; week ended September 30, 4575; socks, pairs, 8400, 19247; greatcoating, yards, 1150, 6408; tunic cloth, yards, 6950, 17,704. Clothing factories since March. 1940, have produced 60,000 suits of battle dress. In addition, clothing factories since March have made 305,906 articles of clothing for the Army, including such items as greatcoats, tun-! ics, trousers and hats, and for the Air Force a further 83,000 articles have been made.

“There is a rigid system of inspection during manufacture, and that this has been successful is proved by the high quality of the articles which have been so favourably commented on by numerous overseas sources.

“Supply organisation covers a very wide field, administer by 11 controllers under my direction, whose activities are co-ordinated through the secretariat, which is in the Department of Industries and Commerce. One of the activities of the supply organisation was the accumulation of reserves of certain essential commodities before the outbreak of war. These have been, of tremendous value.”