KEY TO VICTORY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 October 1941, Page 5

KEY TO VICTORY

MULTIPLYING THE MUNITIONS OUTPUT. “We in Britain may have taken a long time to learn it, but we . have learned now that our chances in the war depend on the success, and on the speed, with which we can multiply our output of munitions,” said Mr Douglas Jay in a recent broadcast talk. ‘We have learned more than that. We realise now that that output will not be good enough until the whole supply of labour and machinery and materials available to the Alied nations is being used to stoke the furnace of the war industries. So well does the public understand this at last, that it is not ready to tolerate any longer the spectacle of key commodities like petrol being wasted, or individuals failing to work all out, or bad industrial management jamming the gears of the machine. For these reasons I find myself cheered by the fact that a brisk controversy has flared .up in the last few weeks on such things as absenteeism and incompetent management in our war factories. It shows that the British people are thinking and talking about things that matter. Now let us take note of one thing. Measured by the percentage of the national production which is being devoted to war purposes, Great Britain’s war effort is roughly equivalent to Germany’s at about 50 per cent, and compares favourably with those of some other Allied countries. Examination of the detailed percentages suggests that, by and large, British working people need not be ashamed, of the share of the work they aie doing for the common liberation of mankind. That does not imply, however, that all is perfect. The Allies will not be out of danger until every allied country is making a bigger effort proportionately than Germany.”