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THE MEANS OF VICTORY 
 
 A SPEECH 
 
 delivered by 
 
 The Rt. Hon. Edwin Montagu, M.P., 
 
 MINISTER OF MUNITIONS, 
 
 on the 
 
 15th AUGUST, 1916. 
 
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 I, ADELPHI TERRACE, LONDON. 
 

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THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 A Speech delivered by 
 
 THE RT. HON. EDWIN MONTAGU, M.P., 
 
 MINISTER OF MUNITIONS. 
 
 I HAVE a very long, and if I could only express 
 it adequately, a very interesting story to tell 
 the House. I think there has been no Debate 
 on the Ministry of Munitions since December 
 last, when my right hon. Friend, who is now 
 Secretary of State for War, gave the House an 
 account of the marvellous work which has been 
 accomplished and outlined the work that still 
 remained to be done, and warned us that if the 
 nation did not throw itself heart and soul into 
 the struggle they might find themselves too late. 
 I should like to take the story up where he left 
 it, and I feel sure that I shall have the sympathy 
 of the House when I remind them that I have 
 only been in the office for a month, and that I 
 cannot pretend to know very much about it 
 myself. Even if I knew everything that was to 
 be known it would be impossible to describe the 
 whole Ministry and all its activities in one 
 
 (6536.) 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 speech, however long, and therefore I propose 
 to take one or two features of our work and try 
 and describe them. 
 
 THE OUTPUT OF AMMUNITION. 
 
 I will take, first, the question of output, 
 for it is by this first and foremost that the 
 House and the nation will ultimately judge 
 the Ministry of Munitions. I will begin with 
 shells. Figures have been given for some 
 other countries showing the increase in 
 the output of empty shell as a percentage of the 
 output at the beginning of the War. But our 
 output, which was only expected to supply an 
 Army of 200,000 men, was so negligible that 
 percentages on such a basis give quite fantastic 
 results. For example, the empty shell output 
 from home sources has increased since September, 
 1914, 170 times in the case of 18-pounder shells, 
 and 2,650 times in heavy natures. 
 
 I prefer to take as my basis of comparison the 
 average weekly production of complete rounds 
 up to the end of June, 1915, a year before the 
 Ministry of Munitions came into existence. 
 Compared with that, the rate of production of 
 18-pounder ammunition during the year 1915-16 
 was six and a half times that during the pre- 
 ceding year, and for the week ended 1st July, 
 
 4 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 1916, it was seventeen and a half times as great 
 as the average rate in 1914-15. The weekly 
 average production of ammunition for field 
 howitzers in 1915-16 was eight times that for 
 1914-15 and is now twenty-seven times as great. 
 The production of ammunition for medium 
 artillery increased seven and a half times in 
 1915-16, and is now more than thirty-four times 
 as great as the average weekly production up to 
 the end of June, 1915. The greatest increase of 
 all has been in the class of ammunition where 
 increase was most difficult. The average weekly 
 production of heavy shell was in 1915-16 twenty- 
 two times as great and is now ninety-four times 
 as great as it was in 1914-15. These figures can 
 be put in another way, and even, I think, more 
 graphically. The output which, in 1914-15, it 
 took twelve whole months to produce can now 
 be attained from home sources in the following 
 periods : 
 
 For 18-pounder ammunition in three weeks ; 
 For field howitzer ammunition in two weeks ; 
 For medium-sized shell in eleven days ; and 
 For heavy shell in four days. 
 
 That is to say, we are now producing every four 
 days as much heavy howitzer ammunition as it 
 took us a whole year to produce at the rate of 
 
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THE MEANS OF VICTORY, 
 
 output of 1914-15. If we lump all natures of gun 
 and howitzer ammunition together, we are now 
 manufacturing and issuing to France every week 
 about as much as the whole pre-war stock of 
 land service ammunition in the country. 
 
 OUR BIG GUNS. 
 
 I come next to artillery, which is one of the 
 greatest features of development. Fifteen 
 months ago the Navy absorbed by far the 
 greater part of the factories suitable for manu- 
 facturing big guns. The armament firms of the 
 country had very little machinery or plant 
 capable of undertaking more than a mere 
 fraction of the Army gun programme, and it was 
 necessary to provide very large extensions of 
 buildings and to equip them with new machinery. 
 I am told that the area occupied by the new 
 buildings amounts to 1,000,000 square feet, and 
 it has been necessary to provide new machine 
 tools to the number of over 2,500 to cope with 
 the work. In addition to the armament firms, 
 hundreds of other engineering concerns all over 
 the country have been engaged in carrying out 
 the work of the programme, building gun 
 carriages, ammunition wagons, and all the 
 various accessories and spare parts required for 
 artillery. The result of these efforts is very 
 
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THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 marked. We are now turning out in a month 
 nearly twice as many big guns as were in 
 existence for land service when the Ministry of 
 Munitions started. The monthly output of 
 heavy guns increased more than sixfold between 
 June, 1915, and June, 1916, and the present rate 
 of output will eventually be nearly doubled. By 
 June, 1916, the monthly output of the 4.5-in. 
 howitzers had become three times as great as in 
 June, 1915. For every 100 18-pounders turned 
 out between the outbreak of War and the 31st 
 of May, 1915, about 500 were turned out in the 
 following year. As the equipment of 18-pounders 
 is now practically complete, manufacturing 
 capacity, except such as is required for repairs 
 and renewals, has been transferred to other uses. 
 I would remind the House that all this has been 
 done when, I think, something like half the 
 engineering capacity of this country is still 
 hypothecated to the Navy. 
 
 MACHINE GUNS AND RIFLES. 
 
 I turn to machine guns. The number of 
 machine guns accepted from the outbreak of 
 War to the end of May, 1915, was only one- 
 eighteenth of the number accepted in the next 
 twelve months, the weekly output having 
 increased, since the Ministry of Munitions was 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 founded, fourteenfold, and it is still increasing. 
 The total stock existing when the Ministry was 
 formed could be replaced in from three to four 
 weeks at the present rate of output. The wastage 
 of machine guns during periods of active opera- 
 tion is very heavy, and the demands of the War 
 Office are continually increasing both for ground 
 and aircraft work. But, notwithstanding great 
 increases, we shall very shortly have satisfied all 
 the requirements of the British Army. [An 
 Hon. Member asked a question which was 
 inaudible.] I said, although the requirements 
 are continually increasing, even the latest 
 increases we shall have satisfied in a verv short 
 time, and I hope we will be able to turn our 
 manufactures to the benefit of our Allies. 
 Rifles are more difficult to increase than any 
 other munition of war. Nearly three times as 
 many new rifles of home manufacture were 
 accepted after inspection in the first year of the 
 Ministry's activities as were accepted from the 
 outbreak of War to the constitution of the 
 Ministry. In addition, many hundreds of 
 thousands of rifles have been repaired and 
 resighted. I understand rifles have always been 
 the chief factor limiting the number of men who 
 can be put in the field, and the best evidence 
 therefore of the progress of rifle output is the 
 
 8 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 size of the Armv that we are now able to arm 
 and maintain overseas. It is a matter for con- 
 gratulation that the equipment of our whole 
 Army, both in machine guns and rifles, has been 
 accomplished from home sources alone. [An 
 Hon. Member : " America ! "] What I said is 
 true. The arming of our Army now overseas, as 
 regards machine guns and rifles, has been 
 wholly done from home sources. 
 
 In obtaining these results the chief credit 
 should be given to the Royal Small Arms 
 Factory at Enfield, which has done very good 
 work and turned out more rifles than was 
 thought possible, and has assisted and co- 
 ordinated the other factories. Without its help 
 I do not think the increase in British output 
 would have been anything like what it has been. 
 The home production of small-arms ammunition 
 is now three times as much per week as a year 
 ago. The output of small-arms ammunition has 
 necessitated the co-ordination of the brass and 
 cupro-nickel strip manufacture, and the results 
 have been so satisfactory that there has been 
 no shortage in supply. W r e have been able to 
 meet all demands for ammunition made by the 
 War Office and yet at the same time build up a 
 stock which should remove any anxiety for the 
 future. Additional supplies have been arranged 
 
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THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 in order further to assist our Allies, and this con- 
 tribution will reach very important proportions 
 in the near future. 
 
 THE OUTPUT OF EXPLOSIVES. 
 
 As to explosives, the production of high 
 explosives is sixty-six times as large as 
 it was at the beginning of 1915, by far 
 the most of it being produced in Government 
 factories. The House may guess what work has 
 been needed to reach the present production of 
 high explosives when I say that the weekly con- 
 sumption of high explosives in ammunition of 
 all kinds is now between 11,000 and 12,000 times 
 the amount required for the land-service ammu- 
 nition manufactured in September, 1914. In 
 regard to trench warfare, in addition to the great 
 increase in the supply of guns and gun ammuni- 
 tion, special attention has been directed to 
 mortars and ammunition for trench warfare. 
 Heavy and light mortars are now coming forward 
 in large quantities with corresponding supplies 
 of ammunition. The output of bombs increased 
 thirty-three-fold between May, 1915, and May, 
 1916. If we compare the weight of contained 
 explosive, we find that 150 times the amount of 
 explosive was required to fill the bombs at the 
 later than at the earlier date. Before I leave the 
 
 10 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 subject of output, these figures, striking as they 
 are, do not by any means represent the whole of 
 our material contribution to the common needs of 
 the Allied cause. I say nothing of the assistance 
 we are giving in supplies of food and other ma- 
 terials not intended for the destruction of human 
 life, or the incalculable services of the Navy and 
 the merchant service, I am dealing only with the 
 services rendered by the Ministry of Munitions. 
 
 HELPING OUR ALLIES. 
 
 A substantial quantity of finished munitions 
 is being manufactured for the Allies in our 
 national factories and by private firms. They 
 include shells, field howitzers, heavy guns, 
 grenades, machine guns, and small -arms am- 
 munition. We are sending to France one-third 
 of the whole British production of shell steel. 
 This is one of our most important contributions 
 to the Allied cause. Steel is the basis of modern 
 war, and the loss of the Northern provinces of 
 France has robbed our Ally of nearly three- 
 quarters of her steel-producing capacity. There 
 are numerous other metals which, through a 
 system of common purchase which was estab- 
 lished some time ago and is now being developed, 
 this country is supplying to our various Allies. 
 These are metals either made in this country or 
 
 11 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 purchased in the Empire or in neutral countries. 
 They include copper, antimony, lead, tin, 
 spelter, tungsten, mercury, high-speed steel and 
 other less important substances. I can give 
 the House the best idea of the magnitude of 
 these metal transactions when I say that the 
 monthly value of those supplied to the Allies is 
 £6,000,000 sterling, while the method of pur- 
 chase adopted has already, under that limitation 
 of prices, secured a saving of over £41,000,000, 
 a benefit which is shared with the Allies. [An 
 Hon. Member : " Per annum ? "] That is what 
 has already been saved. We are also sending 
 the Allies the constituents of explosives in very 
 large quantities, manufactured at our national 
 factories mainly, or with the new plant which 
 the enterprise and initiative of Lord Moulton's 
 Department has established in many gasworks 
 throughout the country. We are supplying 
 them with millions of tons of coal and coke 
 per month, and with large quantities of 
 machinery. Machine tools, as my right hon. 
 Friend explained to the House last December, 
 are one of the most essential factors in the 
 manufacture of munitions, and 20 per cent, of 
 the present machine-tool production of this 
 country is destined for the Allies. After that, 
 I think the munition workers of this country 
 
 12 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 may flatter themselves that they have borne 
 some part in the glorious victories of Russia, 
 Italy and France. That is all I have to say of 
 quantities. I pass now to quality. 
 
 IMPROVEMENT IN QUALITY. 
 
 The principle we go upon is that of endeavour- 
 ing to supply both our Allies and ourselves, 
 distributing to the best advantage the goods 
 that we obtain either from this countrv or from 
 abroad. I think it will be satisfactory to the 
 House to learn that, so far as one can judge, con- 
 currently with, I might almost say in spite of, this 
 remarkable increase in quantity, there has been a 
 substantial and satisfactory improvement in the 
 quality of the material which we are supplying. 
 
 THE WORK OF THE DESIGNERS. 
 
 I do not envy the responsibility of those 
 whose business it is to provide the design 
 of weapons and of ammunition. Eight months 
 ago the responsibility for design was trans- 
 ferred from the War Office to the Ministry 
 of Munitions, because in the belief of those 
 who were responsible for the Ministry at the 
 time you cannot divorce the responsibility for 
 design from the responsibility for supply. 
 
 This transfer has greatlv contributed to 
 
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THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 efficient and smooth working collaboration be- 
 tween officers responsible for the design and 
 quality of munitions, and those responsible for 
 supply. The former have worked untiringly at 
 their special task, and are to be congratulated 
 on the results of their labour. The problems 
 they have to deal with can only be referred to 
 in very general terms, but as regards the artillery 
 itself no secret is divulged in saying that our 
 new artillery material has acquitted itself during 
 the recent fighting to the entire satisfaction of 
 the British Army. I received yesterday a 
 special message from my great colleague in 
 France, M. Thomas, telling me that General 
 Gossot, the head of the technical departments 
 of the French Ministry of Munitions, reported 
 after a recent visit to the British front that he 
 had nothing but praise for our heavy guns and 
 howitzers. He had found them beautifully 
 made in every detail, most accurate and most 
 efficient. One of his colleagues, General Jacquot, 
 speaks equally highly of our new anti-aircraft 
 guns. Credit for this must be given where the 
 credit is due. Previous to the War we were not 
 a military nation, and it was only natural that 
 our designers of war material should pay greater 
 attention to naval than to military armaments. 
 It is a matter for congratulation that our 
 
 14 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 armament firms have produced types of heavy 
 land artillery at such short notice, which have 
 now stood the test of prolonged action. I want 
 to add — I must add — that the types of heavy 
 howitzers now being manufactured in such 
 large numbers were settled before the Ministry 
 of Munitions became responsible for design. 
 The War Office, and particularly the Depart- 
 ment of the Master-General of Ordnance, is, 
 therefore, entitled to share the credit with ihe 
 designers and manufacturers for this satisfac- 
 tory state of affairs. 
 
 Though I say that matters are satisfactory 
 in this respect, it should not be inferred that 
 the Ministry of Munitions is without its problems 
 on the subject of guns. Even when manu- 
 factured to the best design and of the best 
 material, guns wear out, and are damaged or 
 knocked out by the enemy's fire. The British 
 Army have suffered remarkably few losses from 
 capture by the enemy. The provision that 
 has to be made for repair, both in the field and 
 at home, is an increasing source of anxiety. 
 During the present offensive the difficulties 
 have been quite satisfactorily surmounted. We 
 are working in close touch with the Ordnance 
 Department of our Army in France, and there 
 is reason for expressing confidence that our 
 
 15 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 means will prove adequate for this great task, 
 but we shall have to mobilise for renewal and 
 repair increasingly as our ammunition increases. 
 Then, again, the conditions of the present 
 warfare continue to emphasise the value of 
 long range for modern artillery. Our unpre- 
 paredness for war has, at least, had one com- 
 pensation in this respect. Our weapons are all 
 of modern type with good range, when compared 
 with similar weapons in the hands of the enemy. 
 Still, the demand is ever for increasing range as 
 the value of long-range fire becomes more 
 apparent when combined with good aerial 
 observation. All I can say is that the Ministry 
 of Munitions has not been unmindful of this 
 tendency in the past and that it is keeping 
 moving with the times. 
 
 SHELLS. 
 
 Now as to ammunition. It is within the 
 recollection of all listening to me to-day that 
 little more than a year ago the character of 
 our artillery ammunition was the subject of 
 much criticism. It is, perhaps, not too much 
 to say that the Ministry of Munitions owes its 
 existence to the urgent demand for an increased 
 supply of high-explosive ammunition that re- 
 sulted from the operations of the spring of 1915. 
 
 16 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 Two problems were involved — to increase the 
 quantity and to improve the quality. To a 
 great extent these are conflicting considerations, 
 as all changes in design, however trifling, react 
 on output. This task has been faced. It was 
 difficult for the following reason : We had little 
 experience of high explosives. Our experience 
 was practically limited to one explosive, lyddite. 
 We knew little about a substance which has 
 become famous and is spoken of as T.N.T. 
 But it was quite impossible to fulfil the pro- 
 gramme on these two explosives, and the dilu- 
 tion of the latter with other ingredients was a 
 first necessity of the problem. So before we 
 could achieve a solid increase with high-explo- 
 sive ammunition a whole series of problems 
 involving much research and experimental work 
 had to be solved. These problems have been 
 successfully solved by the Ordnance Committee, 
 and by Lord Moulton's Department, assisted by 
 the staff of scientific chemists who work at 
 Woolwich under the Superintendent of Research. 
 The proportion of high-explosive shells to 
 shrapnel asked for by the Army is now being 
 provided, and although it must be remembered 
 that when you have an improvement in design 
 it is some months before it can be put into the 
 manufactured supply, and before it replaces the 
 
 17 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 stock of the old design, the results in this 
 country and the reports received from abroad 
 show that during the last few months there has 
 been a steady improvement in the quality of 
 this ammunition. 
 
 There is another difficulty that has to be 
 faced. Changes that improve the detonation 
 of high explosives are apt to introduce additional 
 risk. In fact, the artillerist who has to work 
 at this problem is always between two dangers. 
 He has to avoid premature explosions. We 
 have lost some guns through premature explo- 
 sion. I fear it is very possible that we shall 
 lose more. But in spite of our initial want of 
 knowledge of this subject, in spite of the very 
 rapid rise of output, in spite of the fact that 
 manufacturers without any previous experience 
 have been impressed into this difficult and 
 responsible service, our losses in guns and in 
 personnel from this cause have never been a 
 really serious consideration, and what I think 
 is eminently satisfactory is that the factor 
 of safety has continued to rise with the 
 improvement in detonation and the rapidly 
 increasing output. There may have been some, 
 there certainly were, who, when the Ministry 
 of Munitions was first formed, were doubtful of 
 the wisdom of entrusting such great responsi- 
 
 18 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 bilities to a body of civilian amateurs. They 
 feared disaster, and in certain cases openly 
 expressed their fears. Those fears may now be 
 allayed. There is room for further improvement 
 — that I am bound to acknowledge. Many hon. 
 Members no doubt still hear from their friends 
 at the front of " duds," and, according to their 
 temperaments or their actual experiences, their 
 friends tell them that our ammunition is better 
 or worse than the German ammunition. It is 
 not possible at the present moment to say 
 whether our ammunition is better or worse 
 than the German. We know that the enemv 
 has his failures just as we do. What the 
 Ministry of Munitions claims is a very distinct 
 measure of success in dealing with a very 
 difficult question and a justifiable confidence of 
 continued improvement in the future. 
 
 TRENCH WARFARE MATERIAL. 
 
 Far more so than in the case of artillery, it 
 has been necessary to improvise our trench 
 warfare material. In spite of very considerable 
 difficulties, success in this department has been 
 achieved. Types are becoming settled, and 
 output is very satisfactory. As regards trench 
 mortars, our light and medium types are stated 
 to have done admirable work during the present 
 
 19 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 offensive. A heavy type has been suggested 
 which has done well, but there is probably 
 more scope for the designer in this class of 
 weapon at present than in any other. I am glad 
 to be able to tell the House that the helmet 
 which is now being supplied in adequate quanti- 
 ties is very satisfactory, and is probably the best 
 in the field. The Ministry has carried out 
 much experimental work with body shields, 
 and we have now some results which are being 
 tested on a large scale in the field. A good deal 
 has recently been said on the subject of lights. 
 Comparative trials have been carried out with 
 our own and captured German lights, and there 
 is absolutely no justification for saying that our 
 own compare unfavourably. 
 
 Entrusted as I am with the responsibility 
 for one of the most important branches of 
 the conduct of this war, I do not want to give 
 the impression from what I have said as to 
 improvement of quality that the Ministry is 
 inspired by a snug complacency on the subject. 
 Against such an enemy as Germany we can 
 never afford to stand still, even for an instant. 
 There must be continued progress, or we shall 
 get left behind. My right hon. Friend and 
 predecessor established in the Ministry a separate 
 Department of Inventions, the principal object 
 
 20 
 
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THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 of which was to encourage invention and 
 initiative. The aim of the Ministry ought to be 
 to carry on its research and experimental 
 work with such energy that whenever the 
 opportunity offers there is always a new and 
 improved design waiting to be introduced. 
 
 I have now told the House that the quantity 
 of munitions has increased and the quality 
 improved. I think we have all constantly 
 present before us a conspicuous proof of the 
 justice of my claim in the present offensive 
 on the AVestern front in France. 
 
 HOW THE MUNITIONS ARE USED. 
 
 I want, if the House will permit me, to indulge 
 in a short digression. I have tried to understand 
 for myself, in approaching this new problem for 
 the first time, the purpose and the mode of 
 accomplishing the purpose of this vast 
 expenditure of ammunition in a modern battle. 
 I want to give the House the result of my 
 inquiries, in the hope that it will help laymen 
 to understand what is going on, and in the 
 humble hope that it will not arouse the contempt 
 of soldiers. 
 
 As I understand it, when an attack is planned 
 against a securely entrenched enemy, with 
 barbed wire everywhere, with elaborate com- 
 
 21 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 munication trenches, and powerful long-range 
 supporting artillery, the first necessity is to 
 break down the wire and smash his first line 
 of trenches. This means a heavy expenditure 
 of field artillery, shrapnel, and trench mortar 
 bombs for wire cutting, and heavy howitzer 
 shells for trench destruction. If this task is 
 inadequately performed, if the wire checks the 
 Infantry, if machine-gun emplacements remain 
 intact, the attack fails, and fails with horrible 
 results. When the bombardment has disclosed 
 to the enemy an impending attack, the enemy 
 tries to stop it by curtain fire. During the 
 bombardment the enemy, from his observation 
 posts, is constantly watching for the Infantry 
 assault. He concentrates a converging fire 
 from hundreds of long-range guns upon the 
 trench area from which the Infantry must 
 debouch. That fire has got to be subdued, or 
 the attack takes place under a perfect tornado of 
 projectiles ; hence the necessity for counter- 
 battery work. An immense expenditure of 
 shells from long-range guns, controlled from 
 the air, whence alone the fire can be directed 
 at the enemy's guns, goes on whenever aerial 
 observation is possible. The guns are well 
 entrenched, and this runs away with an 
 enormous amount of heavy and medium 
 
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THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 ammunition. Next the attack takes place. 
 Its flanks have got to be protected, and while 
 the Infantry is engaged in facing the parapet 
 of the captured trenches the other way they 
 have got to be protected from counter-attack. 
 A counter-attack begins by the enemy's bombers 
 coming down the communication trenches and 
 bombing the captured trenches. They cannot 
 be seen — cannot be spotted from the Artillery 
 observation posts, The only means of dealing 
 with them is to direct a barrage fire which 
 sweeps every communication trench, leaving 
 nothing to chance. Later the enemy's more 
 formidable counter-attack comes along. It is 
 organised under cover of concentrated artillery 
 fire by means of massed Infantry from the 
 support trenches. The success of these attacks 
 has not only got to be prevented, but the 
 enemy must not be allowed to formulate them. 
 So the successful Infantry must be protected 
 on its flanks and front by barrage fire of shrapnel 
 and high explosive directed against the enemy's 
 support trenches, where the Infantry, unseen, 
 are organising for the counter-attack. 
 
 Finally, to be able to press on successfully 
 from one attack to the next, the resisting 
 power of the enemy must be worn down by 
 want of rest, of relief, of food. All day and 
 
 23 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 all night the approaches to his trenches must 
 be kept under fire to prevent relief coming to 
 his men, to prevent the replenishment of 
 ammunition supplies, and to prevent his 
 obtaining food and rest. If you add one more 
 detail, what I believe the French call tire de 
 demolition, which is directed by the very heaviest 
 howitzer guns against especially fortified nodes 
 which are dotted about the area of the German 
 lines, and consider all the operations which I 
 have described, wonder ceases that you want 
 so much ammunition. 
 
 OUR RESOURCES. 
 
 The only marvel that remains is that you can 
 ever produce enough to sustain the attack which 
 goes on week after week, day and night, with 
 varying, but always with sustained, intensity. 
 Writers in the German Press have endeavoured 
 to comfort the enemv bv the assurance that 
 our heavy bombardments in the last few weeks 
 have made irreparable inroads into our resources 
 of ammunition — the ammunition which has 
 been laboriously accumulated for months past. 
 It is true that the expenditure of heavy ammuni- 
 tion during the last month has been more than 
 double the amount that only eight months ago 
 was thought to be wanted at the time. The 
 
 24 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 preliminary bombardment in the week before 
 the attack consumed more light and medium 
 ammunition than the total amount manu- 
 factured at home during the first eleven months 
 of the war, while the total heavy ammunition 
 manufactured during the same period would 
 not have kept the bombardment going for a 
 single day. It is, however, a great satisfaction 
 to be able to state that in the larger natures 
 the output of the factories week by week covers 
 the expenditure. If workers and employers 
 continue to play their part nobly, as they 
 are doing to-day, there is now no fear that 
 the present offensive will be brought to a pre- 
 mature conclusion by shortage of ammunition. 
 
 THE xMINISTRY AND ITS GROWTH. 
 
 I have much more to say, even at the risk of 
 wearying the House. I have just said, as briefly 
 as I could, what has been accomplished, both 
 in amount and in quality. I should like to say 
 a little about the methods by which it has been 
 done. The Ministry of Munitions, although 
 it has only been in existence thirteen months, 
 already numbers on its Central staff over 5,000 
 persons, and it is growing till it bids fair to 
 become one of the largest Departments of the 
 State. I know there has been much criticism 
 
 25 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 and suspicion of this mushroom growth. 1 
 want, however, to ask the House to believe 
 that the growth has been inevitable in view 
 of the increasing variety, diversity, and 
 complexity of the work which we have been 
 compelled to undertake. It is not merely a 
 question of placing orders for a large quantity 
 of materials. My predecessor, when he addressed 
 the House in December last, referred to the 
 extensive organisation w r hich was necessary 
 for following up and expediting the completion 
 of contracts. The Ministry of Munitions is 
 sometimes compared — to its disadvantage— to 
 the corresponding French Department, because 
 the latter is much smaller. But it must be 
 remembered, for one thing, that we have to 
 do a great deal of administrative work here 
 which my colleague in France is spared. Thus, 
 the problem of labour organisation in France 
 is far simpler than it is in England. They 
 have no Munitions Act to administer. They 
 need no such system of leaving certificates or 
 of munitions tribunals as we have had to set 
 up. They have not to administer the limitation 
 of profits in some 4,000 controlled firms. They 
 are spared many of the complicated problems 
 created by the suspension of trade union 
 regulations and the introduction of the dilution 
 
 26 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 of labour. The release of soldiers from the 
 Colours for munitions work can be far more 
 simply performed in France than in England. 
 I would ask anyone who is disposed to criticise 
 the size of our administrative staff to remember 
 that we have to control an expenditure of 
 far more than £1,000,000 a day. If you compare 
 the cost of the central staff with the amount of 
 its expenditure, the cost of the central admini- 
 stration is low, and amounts to less than 
 one-sixth per cent. 
 
 A MORNING'S WORK. 
 
 I want to give the House a trivial illus- 
 tration, if I may, of the variety of matters 
 with which the Ministry deals. When I 
 was told that I had to make a statement 
 on the Munitions Department, I cast my 
 thoughts back over the matters with which 
 I had to deal on that particular day. I began 
 with a friendly controversy with a Government 
 Office about the transport from near the Arctic 
 Circle to a neutral country of a mineral the 
 name of which was unknown to me, but which 
 I was assured was the limiting factor in the 
 output of certain indispensable munitions. I 
 went on to discuss the question as to whether 
 we should press the India Office, in the interests 
 
 27 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 of the munitions supply, to construct a certain 
 railway line in a remote part of India. There 
 was a question of certain measures affecting 
 the output of gold in South Africa. There was 
 a discussion as to the allocation of a certain 
 chemical, very limited in quantity, to meet 
 the competing needs of the Army, the Navy, 
 and the Air Service. There was a deputation 
 from an important educational institution asking 
 to be allowed to continue certain building 
 operations. There was a discussion about the 
 men deported from the Clyde. There was a dis- 
 cussion on certain contracts in America valued 
 at over £10,000,000 sterling. In the course of 
 the morning the Munitions Inventions Depart- 
 ment brought to see me some walking specimens 
 of exceedingly ingenious artificial legs. There 
 was a conference on the allocation of several 
 highly skilled workmen of a particular class 
 amongst competing firms. There was a discussion 
 as to the quickest means of manufacturing 
 gun carriages. There were a hundred and one 
 topics which must confront any body of men 
 who spend their whole days watching 
 curves which ought always to go up and 
 figures which ought always to swell ; read- 
 ing reports from all parts of the world, 
 and confronted always with the cry : 
 
 28 
 
/ 
 - 1 
 
 - 
 
 < 
 
 
 U 
 
 _■ 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 1 More, more, more ! " and " Better, better, 
 better ! " 
 
 SOME BRANCHES OF THE WORK : INSPECTION, 
 
 I can only choose, as I have said, one or two 
 aspects of the administration of which to tell 
 the House. The first one is the question of 
 inspection. Inspection grows, of course, and 
 the inspection department grows pro rata with 
 all classes of munitions. The whole programme 
 is dependent upon its work keeping pace with 
 the output. It is sometimes thought — until a 
 very short time ago I should have thought it, 
 if I had thought at all — that inspection means 
 taking one or two samples out of a number of 
 articles, looking at it, and telling by touch 
 or smell whether it ought to be passed or 
 rejected. As a matter of fact, inspection involves 
 the most careful testing and gauging of every 
 article that is passed, and that is a process in 
 production which involves a very large factory 
 staff. The average type of shell requires 
 30 gauges, a percussion- fuse 100 gauges, and 
 a time fuse 240 gauges. As these gauges must 
 fit to within less than a thousandth part of 
 an inch, and in most cases one-third of that 
 figure, to obtain uniform results, it will be 
 understood why the supply of gauges has been 
 
 OQ 
 
 «■ ;7 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 one of our greatest difficulties. An even greater 
 difficulty was the supply of adequate staff. 
 In France and other Continental countries a 
 large staff of officers, who had been trained in 
 the technical artillery schools, was in existence 
 at the beginning of the war, and was turned 
 to supervision of manufacture and to inspection. 
 The outside administrative staff of the Munitions 
 Department in France is, consequently, almost 
 entirely military. In England it is mainly 
 civilian, and it has been created during the last 
 eighteen months. 
 
 We owe a great debt of gratitude to the 
 small core of Artillery officers who alone, 
 at the outbreak of war, possessed the necessary 
 knowledge and experience for controlling inspec- 
 tion, and who have formed the nucleus round 
 whom the vast staff which has been formed has 
 grown up. A large body of engineers has been 
 specially trained in a school of instruction at 
 the Ordnance College at Woolwich, and these 
 men constitute the inspectors and assistant 
 inspectors throughout the country, and they 
 have a great deal of administrative as well as 
 technical work to perform. They supervise the 
 work of the examiners who handle the gauges 
 and carry out the actual operation of inspection. 
 The training of examiners for this inspection 
 
 80 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 work is also a matter of great importance, 
 and it is satisfactory to note that women are 
 now being largely and successfully employed 
 for this purpose. The staff employed by 
 the Department has grown during the past 
 three months from 19,000 to 30,000. Of the 
 total, 14,000 are women, 9,000 of whom have 
 been appointed in the last three months. The 
 Inspection Department have a great respon- 
 sibility in that guns, shells, fuses, and all other 
 munitions to be of value must not only be 
 dangerous to the enemy, but safe to the troops 
 using them, and to ensure this is by no means 
 an easy task, having regard to the immense 
 volume of all warlike stores now demanded 
 for operations in all theatres of war. Not only 
 have you got to preserve the morale of your 
 men by supplying them with munitions which 
 give neither " prematures," which kill them, 
 nor " blinds," which fail to kill the enemy, 
 but you have got to remember that 
 " prematures " very often destroy the guns, 
 and therefore safety of inspection is one of 
 the prime necessities of supply. I trust that 
 manufacturers will remember that when thev 
 are disposed to chafe at the tedious and 
 elaborate processes of inspection, which are, 
 of course, a check on output, but an 
 
 31 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 essential and, I hope, the only welcome check 
 on output. 
 
 COMPLETION AND TRANSPORT. 
 
 The next Department to which I wish to 
 draw the attention of the House is the Depart- 
 ment which deals with marshalling and 
 completion of ammunition. The manufacture of 
 constituent parts of ammunition may be carried 
 on all over the world. These components come 
 from everywhere in an increasing stream by 
 rail and by sea. The stream has got to be 
 regulated so as to avoid congestion and, at 
 the same time, bring an adequate supply of 
 finished components for the filling factories. 
 It is like a highly complicated chess problem 
 to keep everything moving on a colossal scale, 
 and it is made all the more complex by the 
 fact that our supplies of components come 
 from all over the world. You cannot control 
 the supply in country overseas. Railway 
 transport is not subject to our regulations, 
 and the arrival of shipments is necessarily 
 irregular. So we have had to set up a special 
 Department formed to deal with home transport, 
 and a second to deal with overseas transport. 
 The latter is now handling, in co-operation 
 with the Admiralty, 1,300,000 tons of freight 
 
 32 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 monthly, including materials from Spain, 
 Scandinavia, West Africa, the Far East, Chili, 
 the United States, and Canada, and the quick 
 discharge of ships to enable freight tonnage 
 to be used to the best advantage, the expeditious 
 clearance of railway wagons — all these are 
 practical steps of great utility, and everyone 
 who helps to shorten up any one of the stages 
 of transport or handling of material is helping 
 the country at the present time. When the 
 components have been marshalled and 
 assembled, they are dealt with by the filling 
 Department of the Ministry, the development 
 of which has been one of the chief features of 
 the last six months. This development reflects 
 the greatest credit not only on the head, but 
 on the military and civilian officers assisting. 
 While the tonnage of completed gun ammunition 
 issued from the filling factories has risen in 
 six months nearly four-fold, the administration 
 expenditure per ton has been halved. This 
 increase of tonnage takes no account of the 
 enormous quantities handled by the Explosives 
 and Trench Warfare Departments. 
 
 THE NEW FACTORIES AND THEIR SUPERVISION. 
 
 Then I turn to another part of the machine. 
 The supervision and control of the Government 
 
 S3 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 factories need a very large staff. Before the War 
 there were three national factories working for 
 the land service. Now there are ninety-five. 
 These factories include eighteen factories for 
 filling gun and trench-mortar ammunition, all 
 of which have been ordered, planned, and built 
 during the last twelve months, and all of which 
 are under the direct management of the officials 
 of the Ministry. One of them is filling nearly 
 twice as much as Woolwich, which, for the 
 first eighteen months of the War, carried 
 practically the whole of the burden of com- 
 pleting ammunition. There are thirty-two 
 national shell factories, which are managed 
 by local boards of management under the 
 supervision of the Ministry. I cannot mention 
 those factories without referring to the highly 
 efficient local area organisation of which they 
 form part, built up under the personal direction 
 of one of the captains of industry whom my 
 right hon. Friend roped into his net, with 
 the enthusiastic co-operation of the foremost 
 men in the engineering industry all over the 
 country. Some indication of the work accom- 
 plished by these Boards of Management in 
 organising new sources of supply is given by 
 the fact that between September, 1915. and 
 August, 1916, the factories for which they 
 
 34 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 were responsible, none of which had ever 
 handled a shell before, produced in certain 
 natures of shell four times the output of these 
 shells during the first ten months of the War. 
 Then there are twelve national projectile 
 factories in various stages of completion occupied 
 in making heavy shell under the management of 
 large engineering firms supervised by the 
 Ministry. These also are all in buildings which 
 have been ordered, planned, and built by the 
 Ministry of Munitions. They have just, to-day 
 as I speak, barely developed one- half of their 
 total capacity, but they are already sending 
 out 25 per cent, of the heavy shell produced 
 in this country. I have got some figures of a 
 form familiar to the House. I am told they 
 cover an area in buildings of seventy acres. 
 They consist of bays with an average breadth of 
 fourteen feet, and a total length o^ fifteen 
 miles. They contain 10,000 machine tools, 
 which are driven by seventeen miles of shafting 
 at an energy of 25,000 horse-power, and their 
 daily output would fill a train one mile long 
 composed of 400 trucks, and requiring eight 
 engines to pull it. They are very largely 
 operated by women's labour. The number of 
 women employed in them is already about 
 15,000, although a year ago we were told it 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 was impossible for women to manufacture heavy 
 shell. 
 
 I think the nation is - under a great debt 
 of gratitude again to the men who have been 
 responsible for the establishment of those fac- 
 tories, and to the courage, faith, and persever- 
 ance of those responsible for the labour policy 
 which has rendered these factories effective. 
 
 Of the remaining national factories twenty-two 
 are concerned with the manufacture of explosives 
 and their raw materials, six with the manu- 
 facture of cartridges and cartridge cases, while 
 one makes nothing but gauges, and another 
 nothing but small tools. 
 
 OUR INCREASING INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 They serve two purposes : first of all, they 
 render us independent of supplies from abroad ; 
 and secondly, their administration affords us 
 invaluable experience for controlling the whole 
 volume of munitions. As regards the first point, 
 my right hon. Friend pointed out eight months 
 ago its importance, and the Ministry has been im- 
 proving it. At the time the Ministry of Munitions 
 was started, the percentage of American orders 
 was 70 per cent, of the total output of light 
 shell. We are now able to do altogether without 
 any American supply of light shell bodies, 
 
 36 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 and these orders are in process of being dis- 
 continued. As regards heavy shell, American 
 supplies have been invaluable during the 
 development of the new factories, and the 
 orders are still required; but if home and 
 Canadian output comes up to expectation, 
 we ought ultimately to be able to do without 
 American shell altogether. I do not like to 
 pass on without saying that the House of 
 Commons is aware that Messrs. Morgan are our 
 purchasing agents in America, and without 
 expressing our admiration of the way in which 
 they and the American contractors have 
 organised a proportion of their great industries 
 for the output of munitions. 
 
 FINANCE. 
 
 As to the second point, that of controlling by 
 means of national factories the output of muni- 
 tions, I want to say a word as to the finance 
 branch of the Ministry. The finance branch 
 of the Ministry of Munitions, which con- 
 trols an expenditure of, as I have said, 
 over £1,000,000 a day, has been given 
 deliberately far greater powers than, I un- 
 derstand, is the case with the finance branch 
 of other spending Departments. It retains a 
 supervision over the financial clauses of all 
 
 37 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 contracts during their negotiation. It has not 
 had to use at all largely the power of examining 
 the costs of manufacturers conferred by the 
 Munitions Acts and the Order in Council. We 
 have made alterations in costs with the con- 
 currence of manufacturers. 
 
 The key to the problem of financial control 
 has been provided by the cost accounting 
 svstem introduced into our own factories. The 
 knowledge so gained has enabled the Ministry 
 to put their finger on the weak spots in admini- 
 stration and extravagance in the factories 
 themselves, and has afforded a standard to 
 check contract prices. The cost of the factories, 
 which was high at the start, has fallen rapidly, 
 and is now much less than the 1915 contract 
 prices. The reduction in home contracts which 
 has ensued represents a saving in the case of 
 shell of £20,000,000 a year. American shell 
 contract prices have been reduced 15 per cent. ; 
 Canadian shell contract prices Vl\ per cent. 
 Fuse, Gaine, and T-tube prices have been 
 lowered from 20 to 25 per cent., and trench 
 warfare munitions from 40 to 50 per cent. 
 Similar reductions have been made in the 
 prices of explosives, ammunition boxes, and 
 small -arms ammunition. It is worth recording 
 that the cost of the large explosive and pro- 
 
 38 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 pellant factories erected, or being erected, 
 in this country will be completely covered in 
 from six to twelve months by the difference 
 in the cost of their output and the price of 
 these articles imported. 
 
 CONTROLLING TRADE. 
 
 Now I want to draw the attention of the 
 House to the extent and variety of our inter- 
 ference with the commercial and even with 
 the private life of the country involved in the 
 results which I have given. Germany, let us 
 never forget, was organised for war. Her 
 ceaseless and intelligent preparations had given 
 her the workshops, the arsenals, the machine- 
 tool factories, the chemical factories, the skilled 
 labour necessary to equip an Army of many 
 millions. We had no Army, at least com- 
 paratively none ; we had no intention of being 
 a military power ; and while our industries 
 were peace industries, Germany was able to 
 mobilise her second line of industrial defence 
 and to use her dye works and her fine chemical 
 works by turning them into explosive factories. 
 We followed her example after the War, but 
 we had to begin from the beginning, and the 
 demand for munitions of war has entailed 
 a most comprehensive disturbance of the 
 
 39 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 chemical and engineering trades of this country 
 and of their allied and dependent industries. 
 The State has had to step in and control them 
 to an extent which no one a- few years ago would 
 have expected the country to tolerate for a 
 moment. For this purpose we have had to 
 establish an elaborate system for instructing 
 Government contractors as to the order of 
 priority which they are to assign, not only to 
 Government, but also to all private work 
 which they are asked to undertake. Again, 
 we have had to fix maximum prices for steel, 
 iron, and coke. We have had to regulate iron-ore 
 freights from the Mediterranean and from 
 Spain. We have had to prohibit speculation in 
 certain metals and to place others under 
 regulations whereby dealings are prohibited 
 without licences. Then there is the case of 
 the machine-tool department, which exercises 
 complete control over the whole of this section 
 of the country's trade. No machine tools 
 can be ordered from Government or private 
 works without the authority of the Department. 
 It controls the supply of machinery to all 
 Government contractors, as well as the Allies 
 and neutral countries and for private work. 
 It has exercised very freely the powers which 
 the Ministry possesses for removing existing 
 
 40 
 
2 
 
 w 
 
 o 
 z 
 
 MM 
 
 <! 
 - 
 
 DC 
 

THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 machinery and transferring it to places where 
 it is needed for the manufacture of munitions. 
 Again, our building programme necessitated 
 our stopping private building. We have 1,500 
 applications now under consideration which 
 we hope will lead to a large supply of available 
 building labour. 
 
 THE WORKERS. 
 
 I think it is on the side of labour that 
 we have interfered most with the rights 
 of the individual. If I say that we are to-day 
 far better off in regard to the supply of 
 labour than we expected to be a year ago, 
 I hope no one will think the problem has been 
 solved, and it cannot be solved as long as there 
 is an Army in the field. Our task has been 
 to take the strictly limited supply of labour 
 and spread it as thinly as was compatible with 
 efficiency over the whole demands of the nation. 
 This has only been done by what is called 
 " dilution," and it is only by dilution and 
 further dilution that we can carry out the 
 programme we have set ourselves. There are 
 other expedients which have been helpful — 
 something has been done by bringing back 
 men from the Colours to supply skilled labour. 
 Forty-five thousand soldiers have been released 
 
 41 D 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 from the Army and are now employed in 
 munition factories. They have come from 
 4,000 different units, and have been distributed 
 amongst 3,800 employers. These men have 
 greatly helped to make possible the large 
 increase in the number of persons employed in 
 munition trades. Then we have schools for 
 the education and training of skilled and semi- 
 skilled labour. Over 500 people have been 
 trained as tool-setters to work on one special 
 type of machine ; nearly 200 plumbers have 
 been trained as lead burners ; and 130 jewellers 
 have been trained as gauge makers. These are 
 examples of what can be done by our system 
 of training centres and university departments, 
 and I trust employers will avail themselves 
 more of the supply. Then there is the War 
 Munitions Volunteer scheme, which has yielded 
 13,500 skilled labourers who have actually been 
 transferred to war work. 
 
 By utilising these various resources the follow- 
 ing results have been achieved : When the 
 Ministry of Munitions was started the number 
 of persons employed was 1,635,000. By June 
 of this year this number had increased to over 
 2,250,000. Of these about 400,000 are women, 
 which is nearly double the number employed a 
 year ago. The proportion of women is increas- 
 
 42 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTOR ) 
 
 ing rapidly. In 1914-15 it rose from 9 to 11 per 
 cent., and in the last year it has increased from 
 11 to 17 per cent. But in spite of all these 
 advantages, I have to say once again, not- 
 withstanding that men have been brought 
 from the Colours and that men have been 
 specially trained, the only real way of meeting 
 the difficulty is by an increased application 
 of dilution, 
 
 OUR DEBT TO LABOUR. 
 
 Now I have shown how we have increased our 
 output, improved its quality, how we have done 
 it and disturbed trade to do it, and I want to 
 complete the picture by expressing our debt to 
 those people in particular to whom, I think, we 
 owe it. We could never have secured this de- 
 velopment unless the whole heart of the people 
 was in the cause. Wherever we have asked for 
 help we have got it. Wherever we have de- 
 manded services men and women have laid aside 
 their own interests in order to serve the cause. 
 I need not enlarge upon the services of the staff 
 who have been working without intermission 
 at the highest pressure in the offices at the centre 
 and in the district areas into which the country 
 is divided. But I want the House to consider 
 for one moment the debt we owe to labour, 
 
 43 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 skilled and unskilled. For forty years organised 
 labour has been endeavouring, through the trade 
 union movement, to win recognition for certain 
 principles which are held to be necessary to 
 secure a proper recompense and an equitable 
 share in the control of industry. When the War 
 broke out there were disputes in progress, and 
 many grave industrial questions seemed likely 
 to arise in the near future. The declaration of 
 war required that a truce should be declared, 
 and from that moment the time which might 
 have been used as a period of preparation for a 
 contest between capital and labour was conse- 
 crated to the services of the whole nation against 
 the common enemy. 
 
 But the cessation of disputes and the postpone- 
 ment of the reforms which slowly emerge from 
 the clash of conflicting interests do not exhaust 
 the full measure of the sacrifices which organised 
 labour has made. The trade unions placed on 
 one side the whole armour of trade union regu- 
 lations upon which they had hitherto relied. 
 For all the weapons slowly forged during long 
 years of struggle — rules and customs relating 
 to hours of labour, overtime, the right of entrance 
 to trades, demarcation of industry, the regu- 
 lation of boy labour, and the exclusion of women 
 from certain classes of occupation — all these 
 
 44 
 

 
   
 
 a 
 o 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 directly or indirectly might have tended to reduce 
 the output during the War. The Government 
 asked Labour to put all these on one side. It was 
 a great deal to ask. I doubt if any community 
 has ever been asked for greater sacrifices, but 
 with a loyalty and statesmanship which cannot 
 be overestimated, the request was readily 
 granted. The trade unions required, and they 
 were right to require, a scrupulous record and 
 recognition of what they were conceding. It 
 was promised to them as a right, but they will 
 receive more, not only the restoration of the 
 system they temporarily abandoned, but the 
 gratitude of the Army and of the nation, and 
 they will, I trust, place the nation still further 
 in their debt by playing an important part in 
 devising some system which will reconcile in the 
 future conflicting industrial interests. 
 
 THE WOMEN'S PART. 
 
 Now I want to say a word about women. 
 Women of every station, with or without 
 previous experience of the difficulties, or of the 
 strain and monotony of munition work, have 
 proved themselves able to undertake work 
 which before the War was regarded as solelv 
 the province of men. and often of skilled men 
 alone. Indeed, it is not too much to sav that 
 
 45 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 our Armies have been saved and victory assured 
 largely by the women in the munition factories, 
 where they helped to produce aeroplanes, how- 
 itzer bombs, shrapnel bullets, shells, machine 
 tools, mines, and have taken part in shipbuilding 
 — there are, I believe, some 500 different munition 
 processes upon which women are now engaged, 
 two-thirds of which had never been performed 
 by a woman previous to twelve months ago. I 
 do not want to elaborate this point, because it is 
 well known to the House, but I ask the House 
 to consider this, together with the work done by 
 women in hospitals, in agriculture, in transport 
 trades, and in every type of clerical occupation, 
 and I would respectfully submit, when time and 
 occasion offer, it will be opportune to ask : 
 Where is the man, now, who would deny to 
 women the civil rights which she has earned by 
 hard work ? 
 
 A WILLING NATION. 
 
 We have also had to call on employers and 
 capitalists to make sacrifices. Those sacrifices 
 have been equally heavy and their patriotism 
 equally marked. It has not infrequently hap- 
 pened that employers and workpeople have had 
 the exceedingly galling experience of being 
 pulled up short when production was just getting 
 
 •46 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 into full swing. I can assure the country that 
 the Ministry does its utmost to prevent irregu- 
 larity in its demands, but war does not run 
 according to schedule. New phases of the War 
 create new necessities and demand changes, and 
 recognising, as I do, how unpleasant this ex- 
 perience is — particularly when the work has been 
 undertaken not from a sense of profit, but from 
 a sense of duty — I am certain workpeople and 
 employers alike will continue to put up with 
 the inevitable in the same cheerful spirit which 
 they have shown in the past. Our achievement 
 really is explained by the simple fact that the 
 nation was willing. You cannot govern an un- 
 willing nation, but there is nothing you cannot 
 do with a willing nation. The response to our 
 appeal for a postponement of Bank holiday is a 
 very good example, and it has been cheerfully 
 accepted on both occasions by the workpeople. 
 We have decided to inaugurate a period of rest 
 at the end of September for certain munition 
 works where relay holidays have been found to 
 be impossible. I trust that this will not be 
 transformed into a national holiday, because it 
 is only intended as a recognition of the fact 
 that machinery and men, and still less women, 
 cannot be worked for ever without a halt for 
 repairs. 
 
 47 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 THE CREATOR OF THE MINISTRY, 
 
 And now I want to pay one other tribute, 
 and perhaps it is the most important. When 
 the War began, the work which our staff of 
 5,000 people in London alone is now doing was 
 done by the War Office. A nation which had 
 enjoyed a century of security and was defended 
 by an incomparable Navy had always grudged 
 expenditure of money on military preparations, 
 and the soldier had to plough his lonely furrow 
 without the sympathy of the civilian. Is it to be 
 wondered at that it took some time for the War 
 Office to realise that in this War it was not a 
 soldier's or a civilian's war, but the whole nation's 
 war, and the whole nation for the first time were 
 eager and anxious to co-operate in producing all 
 that was necessary? But apart from this, it 
 must be remembered that the War developed 
 slowly, and that even the soldiers who were 
 responsible for the conduct of operations, and 
 upon whose advice the supply of munitions must 
 ultimately depend, could not be expected at once 
 to formulate their final requirements and to 
 anticipate the vast scale and the endless variety 
 of munition supplies which were to confute the 
 teachings of professors and exceed the vision of 
 prophets. The controversy between high ex- 
 
 48 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 plosive and shrapnel was a controversy settled 
 after much discussion in the fields of France. 
 The knowledge of high explosives which was 
 wanted was not forthcoming until it was crystal- 
 lised by trench warfare in the Spring of 1915. 
 The great lesson of the early months of the War 
 was that munitions cannot be obtained merely 
 by ordering. You have got to see that the man 
 who takes your orders has the plant and the 
 labour ; you have got to follow up the work 
 process by process ; you have got to provide 
 from the beginning to the end everything that is 
 necessary. That is the cardinal principle of the 
 Munitions Department. That is the lesson 
 learned in the first months of the War, and it was 
 this main conception with which my right hon. 
 Friend left the Treasury to build out of nothing 
 the Munitions Department and the wonderful 
 output I have described. Everything I have 
 said of our success is a tribute to him. He chose 
 the great leaders of industry who formed the 
 pivots of our machine. He formulated the needs 
 of the moment to Labour, and persuaded them 
 to agree to meet our necessities. He realised 
 the scope which our operations should embrace 
 in all the essentials of the production of 
 munitions, and his tireless energy and vigorous 
 personality were the inspiration of the whole vast 
 
 49 
 
TEE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 fabric. He set himself to do more. He realised 
 how much of our prospective supply of big guns 
 was hypothecated to the Navy. He realised 
 how long it took to collect trie raw materials and 
 to train labour. It is no secret to say that he 
 ordered far more heavy guns than was then 
 thought by the War Office to be necessary. It is 
 no secret to say that before he left the Ministry 
 of Munitions he had the satisfaction of receiving 
 new requirements from the War Office, which 
 showed that he had not ordered too many, but 
 too few ; and yet, notwithstanding that, it is due 
 to his foresight that the surplus guns will be all 
 ready in or about early spring of next year. For 
 this one courageous feat alone and for the 
 Ministry as a whole — in saying this I do not for 
 a moment underrate the help which he has re- 
 ceived — the country owes him the greatest debt 
 of gratitude. 
 
 THE NEAR FUTURE. 
 
 When I say that, I hope the country will 
 not think that all has been accomplished, 
 that our task is complete, and that the end 
 is in sight. Much remains to be done. Our 
 home resources are not yet fully developed. 
 Our dependence on foreign supplies still exists. 
 We have got to keep the organisation up to 
 
 50 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 its mark. We have got to extend it. We have 
 got to overcome difficulties and shortcomings 
 which have been revealed. We have got to 
 anticipate and remedy new difficulties. We have 
 got to devise improvements and achieve a still 
 greater output. The success of our Army is 
 bound up with the supply of big guns, and, 
 though the figures which I have given show that 
 much has been already accomplished, our 
 programme of guns will not be fulfilled till 
 the Army's equipment of heavy Artillery is 
 raised to many times its present strength, and 
 our supply of ammunition must not cease to 
 grow till we are in a position to maintain 
 indefinitely along the whole of our front the 
 present expenditure of ammunition on the 
 Somme. The output of Germany is still 
 increasing, and the end will not be in sight 
 until we have established an Artillery superiority 
 everywhere. The resources of Russia and 
 Italy are insufficient to enable them to establish 
 this superiority for themselves, and I think 
 we must look forward with pride to the fact 
 that a considerable proportion of the further 
 munition-producing capacity next year will be 
 required for them. In war it is as great a 
 thing and as profitable a thing to arm and 
 equip our Allies as it is to arm and equip our- 
 
 51 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 selves. Thanks to our Navy, our resources are 
 unimpaired and our shores are inviolate. 
 Invaded France, despoiled Belgium, temporarily 
 occupied Serbia, gallant Russia — with its ports 
 of entry limited by ice, by distance, and by 
 the Dardanelles — all these must find part of 
 their supplies here, profit by our organisation, 
 and be assisted by our munition workers. And, 
 if I may say so, particularly for Russia, the 
 achievements of whose gallant soldiers are at 
 this moment filling every Allied country with 
 pride, particularly for Russia, whose wonderful 
 and self- sacrificing heroism did so much to 
 stem the invasion of the Germans into France 
 in the earlier months of the War, whose success 
 this year helped so much in the Italian victories 
 over the Austrians, and who is now engaged in 
 putting the finishing strokes to Austria-Hungarj^, 
 particularly for Russia ought we to redouble our 
 efforts and to prove not only our willingness, 
 for that is certain, but our capacity to help. 
 
 THE FURTHER FUTURE. 
 
 Then, is there nothing else ? I trust that 
 I shall not be accused of travelling beyond my 
 functions when I ask this question : Is that 
 all ? We have organised British industry for 
 the production of munitions. This organisation 
 
 52 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 covers the country and touches our daily life 
 at a thousand points. Scarcely any of the 
 articles which it is the object of this organisation 
 to produce are simple in construction. Some 
 are as complicated in their mechanism as the 
 finest watch and yet are put together only to 
 be blown out of the end of a gun. We have 
 learned in this process that where the enemy 
 had an advantage was first and foremost in the 
 application of thought to business results. 
 Old-fashioned machinery and slip-shod methods 
 are disappearing rapidly under the stress of 
 war, and, whatever there may have been of 
 contempt for science in this country, it does 
 not exist now. There is a new spirit in every 
 department of industry which I feel certain 
 is not destined to disappear when we are at 
 liberty to divert it from its present supreme 
 purpose of beating the Central Powers. When 
 that is done, can we not apply to peaceful uses 
 the form of organisation represented by the 
 Ministry of Munitions ? I am not thinking so 
 much of the great buildings which constitute 
 new centres of industry, planned with the 
 utmost ingenuity so as to economise effort 
 filled with machines of incredible efficiency 
 and exactitude. I wish rather to emphasise 
 the extent to which all concerned — and each 
 
 53 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 section is vital to our objects— are co-operating 
 to obtain the best results from the material 
 in our hands. We have the leaders of all the 
 essential industries now working for us or 
 co-operating with us in the Ministry. The 
 great unions render us constant assistance in 
 the discussion and solution of difficulties, 
 whether with our officers or within their own 
 body. On technical questions of the most 
 varied character we have the advantage of 
 the best expert advice in the country. 
 
 We have in being, now that British industry 
 is organised for war, the general staff of British 
 industry. I am sure that we should sacrifice 
 much if we did not avail ourselves of that staff 
 to consider how far all this moral and material 
 energy can be turned to peaceful account instead 
 of being dispersed in peace time. What are 
 we to do with our machines and our factories ? 
 How are we to demobilise our labour ? How 
 are we to carry out our undertakings to those 
 who have earned our recognition ? How, in a 
 word, are we not only to restore the conditions 
 of peace, but to make peace more real and 
 precious to all concerned ? In the solution of 
 these riddles, which we fail to solve at our 
 peril, we shall need the continued help of all 
 that intellect and experience which has rallied 
 
 54 
 
THE MEANS OF VICTORY. 
 
 to us for our country's sake. But we must not 
 take our eyes off our immediate purpose. If I lay 
 stress upon the Ministry of Munitions in its 
 achievements, no one will accuse me of claiming 
 any personal credit. More than that, I am 
 sure that my predecessor will agree with me 
 in saying that anyone with our responsibility 
 must feel that his duty lies, not in denying 
 that it is possible for his Department to make a 
 mistake, but in an unwearied endeavour to 
 eliminate a larger and larger proportion of the 
 errors which must arise so long as men and 
 materials are what they are. It is for us to 
 invite and accept criticism, to welcome sugges- 
 tions, and to encourage inventions until the 
 day when the finest and most flawless material 
 is unfailingly and amply supplied to the finest 
 Armies in the world, until the day when we 
 have rescued civilisation from the menace and 
 treachery of our enemies, when we have avenged 
 honour, punished barbarity, restored security, 
 and established peace by the final and lasting 
 defeat of those who have sought this war. 
 
 Printed in Great Britain by W. Speaight 62 Sons, London. 
 
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