OWEN GUN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 October 1942, Page 4

OWEN GUN

ASSURANCE OF EXPEDITED PRODUCTION GIVEN BY AUSTRALIAN ARMY MINISTER. PAYMENT TO B'E MADE AT ONCE TO INVENTOR. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.5 p.m.) CANBERRA, This Day. An immediate advance payment, on account of royalty, is to be made to Mr Evelyn Owen, the inventor of the Owen sub-machine-gun, the Minister for the Army, Mr F. M. Forde, has announced. The Government’s decision follows a complaint by Mr V. A. Wardell, manager of the factory where the guns are made, that although the guns were being produced in quantity, insufficient advantage was being taken of them by the Army, and also a statement by Mi- Owen that up to date he had received no payment for his invention. Everything possible was being done to expedite tne manufacture of the Owen guns and their delivery to the Army, said Mr Forde, who declared that the Army’s sole concern was to place the best available weapons in the hands of the troops. Operational requirements and the relative merits of particular weapons, in view of circumstances at specified places and the training troops had received with various weapons, were all factors governing decisions as to the weapons to be used.