Dealing with what had been done since the war started, Colonel Llewellin said that the State, through the Ministry of Supply, had become a trader in a large way. They were the owners of practically all the supplies of aluminium, copper, and other non-ferrous metals, wool and flax, and most of the raw materials of fertilizers and molasses, "But," said Colonel Llewellin "let no one think that we buy things for no reason or buy them extravagantly." He referred to a recent Criticism of a running contract for a year for 2,000,- 000 yards of linoleum. He supposed that it must have been thought that the linoleum was for the floors of some of the buildings which had been taken over. The facts were that, as there was an acute shortage of timber, they had had to cut down its use not only for civil purposes but for Service uses as well. New huts for the Army and for ordnance factories would have concrete floors instead of wooden ones, and they would have linoleum covering.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.