Feb. 3.
The announcement of another Anglo-French conference in Paris this week on the question of accolorating the output of war munitions and greater cooperation in production, is significant. Since September there has been disposition to regard the problem of supplying the enormous quantities of munitions demanded by our armies with complacency: various statements of Ministers and reports by the Press Bureau have led Britons to believe that the manufacture of shells, small arm ammunition and equipment had developed, or was rapidly developing, so rapidly that there need be no further misgivings upon this point, and this in spite of repeated hints by Mr. Lloyd George that he was not satisfied. The holding of the conference in Paris indicates plainly that the allied war departments are calling for new efforts, in other words that the supplies shall arrive at the front in such quantities as to permit of the most prodigal expenditure in bat. tering the enemy's defence works to pieces and vanquishing hin with the least possible loss of life. One of the greatest obstacles to the achievement of this end has been, and apparently still is, the difference of opinion between the Government and certain sections of Labour with respect to the introduction of larger numbers of unskilled workers in the factories. In his historic speech in the House of Commons on December 21 the Minister of Munitions addressed a direct and, one would have thought, irresistible appeal to the employers of skilled labour in Great Britain and to trade unions, on the ground that skilled labour continued to be uneconomically employed. This part of Mr. Lloyd George's speech led to what has been described as by far the finest debate heard in Parliament during the war.
Mr. Lloyd George's speech, it must be admitted, unfolded' an encouraging record of national energy in the workshops, and, in this aspect of it, was of a buoyant character, although no one can say that he attempted to please the House by adopting a tone of optimism. The text on which his speech was based was: "What we stint in material we squander in life,"' and he touched
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.