Arizona republican., 1916-08-06
Republican A. r. Leased Wirel

LONDON, August 5.-When the Brit
ish forces in France began their great
offensive bombardment on June u and
for days hurled into the German lines
such an avalanche of steel and lead as
the world had never known before, even
the people of England expressed Won
der that it should have been possible
to assemble so vast store of NUM-
tons The story of how these supplies
were created constitutes one of the
most important chapters in the history
of British achievement during the war.
At the outbreak of hostllities two
years ago there We're only three i'm
portant government munitions fac
tories in the British Isles Today some
four thousand government controlled |
firms, employing more than 100000 |
workers. are turning out virtually all |
of the tremendous amount of war ma
terials which have gone to equip the |
five million British soldiers in the field. !,
a staff of 5000 people has been re-
CURED to supervise the work. At the !
head of this staff and responsible only !
to the minister of munitions. has been !
a man whose organizing ability has
been accorded wide spread recognition. |
He is DR.. Christopher Addison, inter- |
nationally known for his medical re-
search work For some years he has
devoted his attention to politics, and
besides holding a seat in the house Of
commons had been parliamentary sec
rotary to the board of education before ,
entering on his present duties as par
liamentary secretary to the ministry
of munitions. Every detail of the
munitions production is known to DR..
Addison, and during an interview with
4 representative of the Associated
Press, he told as much of the story of
the creation of this industry as could
be made public at this time.
At the outset he disposed of the
statement which has been made in
America to the effect that if ii were
not for the munitions furnished by the
United States Great Britain would
have to quit the war.
4 have heard that statement made"
said DR.. Addison, and ii is preposter-
Gus, of course. The United States has
furnished and is furnishing many raw
materials which we are anxious to get
for the manufacture of munitions, but
so far as the actual production of shells
| goes, America has provided us with
| only a very small percentage Of those
4 which we have used"
Turning to the manufacture Of mu-
nitions in this country, he continued:
AT the beginning OF the war there
were only three important munitions
factories in the United Kingdom. In
addition there were a number of large
/ private munitions and armament firms.
At the start reliance was placed mainly
| in these national factories and expert
enced firms, and at that time they
were fun of orders.
in the early stages OF the conflict
more attention was paid to field guns
and their equipment than to heavy
guns but as time went on the require
ments for heavy shells greatly in
| creased. In June, 1915, we made an
inventory OF all the available machinery
in the country and it was evident that
it was entirely Inadequate to meet the
demands. There were, however, a
/ great many private firms which could
be brought in to make munitions and
it was decided to mobilize them for
national service. In order to do this
we created an organization embracing
the entire country. The country was
divided into districts In each of which
a working board of management was
set up. By means of this scheme OF
local organization thousands of firms
have been brought in, many of which
had never seen a shell body. or a fuse
or a grenade, or a bomb. before, much
less than made them. Now munitior
/ ~
tended well night to every considerable
town-indeed to large numbers of vii
lagos.
Just as the output Of shells. shell
bodies, etc. had TO be augmented 81
We had similarly to provide explosive,
and filling factories As result 81
this. apart from the enormous exten.
sions Ct existing factories. ninetcer
special explosive works have beer
provided. This mas practically dou-
bled the whole previous output of tbs
country. Similarly there had to b,
built fourteen filling factories, eaci
Of which has been provided since las
August Altogether there are nov
ninety national factories which hav,
> been equipped with machinery and il
most cases built during the las
twelve months.
We can now produce in less thar
a month as many Of the lighter shell.
as could have been turned out in tn,
whole year Of 15l4-15. In less THAI
a fortnight we can make more heavy
shells than We could have made il
the year 19l4-15. We can now turn
out in week far more shells, filleC
and complete. than were used i'm th'
whole battle If Loos, which EXTENDED
lover Il fortnight, and they had beer
1aving ammunition for that battle fo
a month. We could have battle o
LoOs every week now ana 1t wouldn
touch the shell reserve stock.
The manufacture of guns. which
did not lend itself to the process o
subdivision like ammunition. has ha,
70 be concentrated largely in thu
hands of experienced firms. but nov
factories under the direction of thes
firms have been made for Single pur
pose work
Regarding our present capacity 70
gun production as compared with tn
capacity in June, 1914, before the wal
we are now making in the case of tn
lightest guns over ten times what W
were then. in the case of medium
weight guns over twenty times and il
the case Of heavy guns more thai
fifty times
The production of trench warfar
supplies has meant the creation of a
industry of which there was practic
ally no experience in this country
Now grenades are being made in bac
yards and in oil sorts Of small shops
as well as in the big factories, an
hundreds Of thousands are being pro
duced weekly In the early days G
The war the trench mortar was
weapon which had received little at
tention and undergone little develop
ment, and there was a mere hand
full Of these weapons in existence
They are now being produced in i'm
menSely improved types in hundred
whero they were practically in unit
And the output of their heavy ammu
MI I'D TO