• * * The Placing of Arms Contracts The announcement
that a new acro-engine factory is to be built at Coventry has aroused many doubts whether the Government is being wise or fair in the allotment of rearmament contracts: The new factory is to cost 1600,1)00 and employ 1,000 Men ; one similar factory has already been built at Coventry, and the erection. of two More is expected. No doubt there are many advantages to be found in Coventry—experience, skilled workmanship, equipment—and these must count heavily with a Govern- ment in a hurry for new armaments. But there are also disadvantages. The demand for skilled labour is already equal to supply at Coventry, and, strategically, the town is certain to be one of the first enemy objectives in any war. The Government, which is pledged to use all its efforts to stimulate industry in the depressed areas, might well consider that South Wales, for instance, admirably placed strategically, has a strong claim to such contracts. The unemployment problem is no longer acute outside the depressed areas, whose condition, by comparison, becomes the more intolerable ; and the Government does not seem to be using the opportunities which are now arising to alleviate their distress.
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