WAR MUNITIONS.
[To Tan EarToa Or Tan " SP.-rent:] Sin,—T am the managing director of a West of England metal-working firm that in ante-bellum dap employed some few hundreds of skilled workmen; of these more than one. half have since joined the colours or entered munition factories. Owing to our somewhat isolated geographical location preventing our co-operating with other firms (as is being done in big centres), and to the lack of certain necessary machinery and plant, we have been unable to obtain orders for war munitions, although we have offered to engage in nuch work if given a little initial assistance by the authorition. Our constitution is such that we cannot close our factory
during the war period without incurring serious loss, or possibly absolute ruin; consequently we are kept going by private orders, of which, fortunately, we can obtain sufficient for the employment of our depleted staff.
It is obvious to those who have studied the question that the Government's desire is not to organize and equip factories hitherto inexperienced in the production of war material, but to extend the equipment of, and attract labour to, the selected factories they have previously employed, and as the nation's interest is paramount I am of opinion that they are adopting the best course. It follows, however, that if workpeople are drawn from our employ we cannot execute those orders which, failing Government contracts, our private enterprise has secured, and the closing of our works (and the works of the many similarly placed firms) is the logical sequence. Of course the ruin of a few (or a few thousand) minor firms must not weigh against the nation's urgent needs, and if the successful conduct of the war necessitates our immolation we must accept same as the fortune of war ; but I think that more than the ruin of individual manufacturers is involved, and that the country's whole commercial future is jeopardized. The temporary cessation of production for home consumption can be accepted with resignation, but the cutting off of over. sea orders is another matter. If we refuse orders through lacking means (i.e., labour) to execute them, neutral com- petitors step in, and it will be difficult to dislodge them when peace returns ; and it is to be remembered that after the war a large army of workers will want employment, and in some trades at any rate our own country may be too impoverished fully to supply it.
In a recent speech Mr. Lloyd George promised to bring back from military service those members of the engineering and allied trades who could be more usefully employed in the making of munitions. I urge him to permit a liberal interpretation of this intention. That such men are available is evidenced by the success of recruiting in the Birmingham and Sheffield districts, where almost the whole of the labour of normal times is in connexion with some branch of mechanics or hardware. The men in question are not at the front, but, as members of the new armies, are still located in this country, and, whether they be either temporarily or per- manently released, their military training of the past few months constitutes a great national asset.
Assuming that the output of munition factories necessi- tates the paralysis of ordinary and export trade, I venture to draw attention to the question of compensating manufacturers for trade losses, my excuse being that the Minister of Muni- tions has himself suggested and admitted the principle of such compensation. Speaking in South Wales, he promised that firms making war material shall not suffer pecuniary loss thereby, forgetting that it is not the few hundreds of firms favoured with munition contracts that should be com- pensated, but the thousands of firms to whom such contracts are not given, and who by reason of their workpeople being drawn away to the favoured factories are deprived of the means of carrying on their ordinary trade operations. It is questionable whether the country can afford to adopt a general scheme of compensation for losses caused by the war, and the suggestion especially to favour any particular section of the manufacturing community is to be deprecated; but q compensation he given, let it be to the actual sufferers.—
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