WAR PRODUCTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 July 1942, Page 4

WAR PRODUCTION

BIG OUTPUT OF EXPLOSIVES IN CANADA. RAPID EXPANSION ACHIEVED. OTTAWA. Canada is now producing more explosives every six months than her total for the first Great War, according to a statement made by the Munitions and Supply Department. In this connection it will be recalled that at the commencement of the last war practically no plant in the Dominion was equipped for the manufacture of shells, and that when plants finally adapted themselves to war work, their efforts were at the outset confined to the manufacture of shell cases, the filling being supplied and the fuses attached in Great Britain. Under the Canadian Shell Committee, organised by the late General Sir Sam Hughes, these efforts rapidly expanded until finally Canada was turning out the entire shell, including the explosive contents and fuses all complete. The Canadian Shell Committee was later amalgamated into the Imperial Munitions Board under the chairmanship of Joseph Flavelle. It was therefore natural that when World War No. 2 broke out, many corporations were ready at very short notice to convert their plants into the manufacture of war materials. The output of explosives this year comes from plants employing 45,000 persons, about one-third of them women. Twenty or more types of chemicals and a wide range of explosives are being produced by these plants which represent an expenditure of nearly 1.25,000,000 dollars. A large proportion of the Canadian explosives production, says the report, has been used in filling the many millions of complete rounds, cartridge cases, shells and bombs which are moving overseas. These plants also provide the propellant for millions of rounds of small arms ammunition which are produced each week in other Canadian plants. ,