The Prime Minister next turned to the question of the Ministry of Supply. He commented on a number of rival proposals before the public but declared that all of them. had suffered from the disadvantage that they would dislocate the present machinery which was working well.
He described in detail the functioning of the principal supply officers committee, which was a sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence.
This committee, which was practically in continuous session, on which all the Government departments concerned were represented. and which acted through sub-committees pre sided over by leading men drawn from industry itself, had assessed what would be the probable demand for any particular commodity in war time. It had inspected hundreds of factories all over the country and had now allocated the capacity for each of those commodities and. where the capacity did not fully xist, it had taken, or was taking. steps to supply the deficiency. N bandied all questions of priority as between one department and another, both regarding materials and labour
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.