Arizona republican., 1918-01-14

and ordnance equipment in large quantities had been manufactured and held in readiness for eventual use. With the declaration of war; telegrams long held in readiness were put on the wire and the wheels were in motion-withOut a jar the ma chinery took up the load placed upon il. There has been no break down, no let-up. On the contrary, there has been increasing speed and greater momentum.
 Deliveries under war time contracts of guns, mounts, and accessories are now being received little or no delays have been experienced and the indust- rial capacity of the country has re- sponded in a most satisfactory man. ner.
 The navy's industrial ordnance plants have been and are being ex- banded as rapidly as practicable with out interfering with their production. The results of much of this expansion will be felt this spring in the in- creased deliveries of all types of ord nance material.
 Anticipating the needs of the nav al service and marine corps for addi- tional machine guns the bureau wise ly conducted a test of the Lewis ma chine gun early in April, 1917, with a view to definitely determining it's serv ice ability when using the United States small arms ammunition and as a result of this test placed an order for the manufacture of several thou sand of these guns. Recent reports from the war zone indicate that the gun is giving entire satisfaction.
 Depth Charges Are Many
 Depth charges, which the committee thinks may be properly termed the terror of the submarine have been pro duced in quantity and are in use by our destroyers and submarine chasers.
 Tt was specially gratifying to note that the skill, ingenuity and inventive resources of the bureau have been pro- ductive of new designs demanded by the present methods of modern war fare. Advantage has been taken of every suggestion irrespective of it's source. Intimate contact has been es- tablshed and maintained with the ord nance bureaus and fleets of the allied nations, the greatest freedom of inter- change of information and material be- ing the order of the day. The relation ship with army ordnance, signal serV- ice, aircraft production board and the shipping board has been most intimate and cordial.
 "The committee was gratified at the executive ability shown by naval of ficers placed in charge of industrial work.
 The committee made special inquiry as to the damage done to torpedoes at the Bliss works. It ascertained that no torpedoes or damaged parts had found their way into service; that spare parts for torpedoes, such as gyrC wheels, had been tempered with but this was promptly detected by the nav al inspector of ordnance and close watch was maintained upon these art icles, with the result that the perpe- trator of the damage, one Paul Charles Henning, a native of Leipsig, Germany who had been in this country since 190S has been arrested and is now awaiting trial.
 The committee was supplied witt full information of how many attack. of submarines upon armed merchant men had been warded off by the shiJ gun crews using the battery with bravery and skill, and was given tho details of certain engagements O special interest
 The record of attacks on our armed merchantmen shows d comparativelN small percentage were successful an( that the chances of escape when a sub marine is sighted before she has tim' to fire d torpedo are very high, du, to the efficiency of the navy person mel. The unseen torpedo is responsibl for eighty per cent of the sinkings.