London, Apr. 20.
Creation of a British Ministry of Supply is a step towards the compulsory service that would be enforced in Britain if the internationa' situation were to grow worse, politicians asserted tonight.
The Government, they said, decided that the first job to be done was to produce the armaments that would be necessary in case of eventual conscription. Present production is sufficient to cover equipment needs of the volunteers who are daily enlisting, but compulsory military service would necessitate a great deal more equipment.
Mr. Edward Leslie-Burgin, new Minister of Supply, would be called on to intensify immediately the production of rifles, light guns, antiaircraft guns and heavy artillery, commentators declared.
British automobile factories are large enough to meet all production needs and output of armaments for the Navy and Air Force now even exceeds programme quotas.
Some quarters asserted this evening that Mr. Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister contemplated including Mr. Winston Churchill and Mr. Anthony Eden in the Cabinet but is still reluctant to take this decisive step because neither of these men "believes it is yet possible to separat> Mussolini from Hitler."—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.