We must not permit the true story of the finding
in Trafalgar Square of an otherwise blank cheque, duly but prematurely signed by responsible officials of the Ministry of Munitions, or the much more serious disclosures in the Auditor-General's Report of the recklessly negligent handling of cash by this Department, to distract us from recording its good work in replacing recent heavy losses. Mr. Churchill assured the House of Commons on Thursday week that, in spite of the recent destruction or compulsory abandonment of about one thousand guns, over four thousand machine-guns, many rifles, and about two weeks' supply of ammunition, we had already something in hand, after replacement, including a greater number of serviceable guns than there were immediately before the battle. He said that we were making aeroplanes faster than we could train airmen to use thorn. Our small-arm cartridge reserves had not been drawn upon. Since last May the Ministry had released one hundred thousand men for the Army ; and nine-tenths of our shells were the work of women who had never seen a lathe before the war. Sir Worthington Evans admitted the need of closer financial inspection in a Department which spends about £000,000 per day.
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