The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-07-26
GREAT ACTIVITY ON RIVER. CLY LYDE : GIVES STRANGER AN INSlCHTINT0
 RESOURCES OF BRITAIN'S EMPIRE

by the Ministry of Munitions, have
 now no fully learnt. From here the writer motored to see an example of
 still another war virtue, adaptability. 1 Here one saw thesbuildings of a firm, l famous in every quarter of the globe for its productions, which have their place in almost every household, wholly given over to the output pf munitions From the single depart rnent which concerns itself exclusively with six-inch shells over 37 tons of waste metal are taken away daily to be used again, of course. Another Building in process of completion was
 already at the time of the writer's
 visit turning out a fair total of fuses.
 Six weeks later 1t, would be fully ma
 chined and some 5000 women. would be engaged in making fuses. Already
 women drawn frmo many different
 strata of society were working side by side at great number of machines
 which, however, seemed like an oasis
 in the desert of this vast building.
 That this enormous building would
 confine itself exclusively to the mak-
 ing of fuses, and that this highly skill sed industry, comparable to watch
 making, would be in the hands of for
 mer housemaids, seantstresses, mill hands, college graduates and "ladies of high degree'' were illuminating sidelights on what the country. was doing on behalf of it's sons and broth CTS in the trenches.
 These facts show what adaptation of industries, to the making of munitions
 has meant to the army in France III ie, ,4+ co1o fod hut common. One department of this par ticular controlled establishment" is, however, at the moment, quite unique,
 for here women undertake every pro- cess of the manufacture of 15-inch shells. From the first stage to the last one sees the manufacture of. these enormous shells being carrieds through
 with smoothness and dispatch and one reflects with some amusement on the fact that three years ago there were l revolutionary. individuals who; thought that women. might possibly-just4 pos Isibly-be employed in some of the more simple repetition work in muni- ! tion factories in view of the urgent
 needs of the hour As one passse from l the 15-inch shell department to- the ' new fuse department one notes some distance away women loading c1inker on to trucks and pushing them toff along the rails. A visit to 8 munition
 factory of this type, in~short must be l a devastating experience to the anti suffragfst who in pre-war days spe-
 cialized on the physical force, objec-
 tions to women's emancipation.
 + If the munition' factories, the na- tional workshops and the controlled t establishments of Britain are the shaft I of her spear it's head is still the two
 srevices." the Army and the Navy. The writer hoped to visit. the battle | cruiser squadron at its base on the Il east coast, but if time and tide wait for no mans neither does the battle cruiser squadron wait for any visitor, I whatever appointments and arrange i,ments it may make, if Germans are
 signa1ed within possible reach. That
 morning the barrier of nets had drop ped down and the squadron had raced out to that sea from which it had been
 so repeatedly swept by. the German press. Whether the stunt, came to lanything or not the writer~does not know. but for that day at any rate he was not to see the ships which have borne the brunt of the hardest fight ing, at Heligoland at the Dogger Bank and at Jutland. One or two vessels
 remained in port. the Warspite, which \ has been sunk more than once in Ger
 man press reports and is anxious only
 for an opportunity to remove this mis-
 apprehension. in the most conclusive
 manner from the German mentality, but their presence only served to em-
 phasize the loneliness of the port
 II After visiting these vessels, however,
 noting particularly on the Warspite
 the strange evolutions which can be ', made and the destruction which can
 be caused by such a shell as the 12-
 inch sample which struck her in her . last fight whereas several broadsides i. Eon another occasion might have been less fortunate. the witer was able. tc
 manly built since. the war began, and f has added permanently to the maya | strength of Britain It's great incIoseG , basin. one would think, could accom-. , iodate the entife British Navy, and its al dry docks and graving docks are lead v ing examples of their specie. No doubr t it cost thetrate' payers of Britain 2 D pretty penny, but there are expert. q who declare tf1ot it paid for itself aftel a the Jutland battle alone, when bat e. tered ships like the warspite .wer. : able to put into dock at once and u s Etake to the water again in an almos :. inconceivably short space of time a! e full of fight as ever. Moreover tn, r l;stone used in building the long break : jgwater basin and dockss came nainl Il, V if not entirely. out of the ground ac q quired by the Admin atty. and this ii
 itself went a long way to paying fo f a first-class naval base.
 s The size of the work tackled b, Is llthis dock is signified clearly enoug] It by the huge crane, capable of liftin :. 240 tons, whichsone passes on the wa # to the dry docks. It is only fair say that the existence of the dock ii if full working order today is a mai h item of the indictment which the Ger - mans must have against MT. winsto if Churchill. The building Of the doc V had hung fire for a long time whe = the war broke up the peace of .Europ l. and the then First Lord of the Admin ', alty had to make the nomentous de I'd l;cision whether to: stop the work alto ts sgether and concentrate money and Ia = 'bor on other. and apparently mor y promising tasks, or go ahead inter Y sively with what many regarded as