Norwich bulletin., 1915-06-08
What Shortage of Ammunition Means.

NIidi SIlOILdSS VI HiCdIiSs
 The following speech by Captain Jersey De Knoop of the Cheshire Yeo- marry, emphasizing the thousands of casualties in the British forces caused directly by shortage of ammunition was published in the Manchester Guardian, but the Press Bureau cenSors refused permission to certain of the Lon don newspapers to reproduce 1t. Captain De Knoop is a wellknown provincial political leader and the probable candidate of the Unionist party for the next vacant seat in the House of Commons. He is at present two severe wounds. The speech was | delivered at the annual meeting of the NorthWich Unionist Association. We are just about approaching the crisis of the war, said Captain De Knoop, "and it depends upon the be- havior of the people of the country whether the war is to drag on into the years.
 Many things have conduced to the tone of opinion now prevalent among a large section. Before the war many believed there could be no such thing money on war munitions. This led people into comfortable frame of mind, and they can scarcely be blamed for not even yet realizing the state of affairs. But they must be told. T have arrived from the front on Monday. There was nothing in Lon don to suggest that I had just left, only sixty miles away, a ife-and- death struggle. Any number of un- married men were meandering about the streets and they certainly did not seem to be detained by business of vital importance. In the country dis tricts the only indication of war was the notice in the railway carriages to draw down the blinds, and this was generally disregarded.
 But the people must be made to realize the position, for every minutes s delay is jeopardizing thousand of lives.
 'I was sent on the wild-goose chase of trying to relieve Antwerp. Then my command joined up with the main army which hung on simply by the eyelids and kept the Germans from breaking through to Calais. Thous- ands were killed largely through lack of ammunition on our side. The men were kept in the trenches day after day, night after night, simply because there was nobody to relieve them. They hung on and fought as well as Britons ever fought since the world began. They fought and they died for want of forethought.
 eve in this country have got to see to it that no more are thus sacrificed.
 4h6n we were IOlu LudI was coming along and that all would be well. But we have seen in the pa pers how the brilliant infantry attack north of La Bassee was stopped and thousands of casualties incurred ow- ing to lack of ammunition.
 "On the day was hit we were re- lieving men in the trenches who were so dog tired that they could scarce ly move. At four o'clock in the morn ing the smelling by the Germans be- gan. I had seen certain amount of shellfng before that, but everybody agreed with me that there had never been anything like this in the history of warfare. Ten, twelve, fifteen shells at a time were bursting up and down the line. Our gunners could do prac- tically nothing. The reason of all this was that we had had to recruit in a hurry and had taken mechanics who ought to have remained behind to make shells. As long as we have the voluntary system we cannot really or ganize labor. Contrast our position with that of the French, who quickly realized the likelihood of a shortage