MUNITION FACTORIES AND THE POPULATION
SIR,—The recent announcement by the Minister of Supply that 37 new munition factories are to be built immediately in Britain raises questions of real importance regarding the recent report of the Royal Commission on the Distribution of the Industrial Population.
Obviously no indication can be given as to where these new factories will be built, but precedents exist which make one fear that they will be put up either in open country or in areas which are already humming with industry. In either locality labour will now be hard to get, for, as timber and other scarce materials would presumably be required for the new factory construction, housing accommodation in such areas would be non-existent or grossly inadequate.
Is it too late to hope that, before deciding on the con- struction of new factories the Minister will have a survey made of those towns where unemployment was greatest before the war, or where it still exists, and that he should consider the possibilities of modernising and using factories now stand- ing idle? Civic and other services already exist, workers would be ready and eager for employment within their own cities, and the materials which would otherwise be used for new factories (which will eventually be redundant) could be diverted to providing better housing in those unhappy old
KAM.
Many millions of pounds would be saved by such an approach to war industrial problems, for the utilisation of present resources of men and materials, would be combined with an anticipation of the claims which post-war Britain will make for existing industrial areas to be regenerated.—Yours
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