WHAT GREAT BRITAIN IS DOING 



205 



have grappled with and solved pretty 

 nearly every one of the technical prob- 

 lems that the war has sprung upon us, 

 and how in doing so we have had to turn 

 all our industrial arrangements upside 

 down 'and to create what is nothing less 

 than a new industrial order — all this it 

 would need a volume, and a very fasci- 

 nating one, to describe. 



We were set what seemed a hopelessly 

 impossible task and we have accomplished 

 it; and our present independence of 

 America in the supply of munitions and 

 the fighting throughout the latter half of 

 1916 on the Sorame front are more elo- 

 quent than any statistics could be of the 

 magnitude of our effort. 



But I should just like to say a word or 

 two as to the services that in this way we 

 have been able to render the Allies. I 

 suppose that we must have placed at their 

 disposal not less than 500 British ships. 

 There are special factories in Great Brit- 

 ain solely devoted to meeting the arma- 

 ment needs of Russia, of France, and of 

 Belgium. Shells, field howitzers, heavy 

 guns, grenades, machine-guns, and small 

 arms leave British ports in immense 

 quantities day after day for the use of 

 our Allies. 



THESE WONDERFUL FEATS MADE POSSIBLE 

 BY WOMEN 



One-third of our total production of 

 shell steel goes to France. That fact 

 alone, to those who understand the char- 

 acter of this war, is an epitome of Great 

 Britain's industrial contributions to the 

 common cause. Three-fourths of the 

 steel-producing districts of France are 

 occupied by the enemy, and our ally ab- 

 solutely depends on us and on our com- 

 mand of the sea to procure the essential 

 basis of all modern warfare. 



It is the same with other metals — with 

 copper, for instance, antimony, lead, tin, 

 spelter, tungsten, mercury, high - speed 

 steel, and other less vital substances. All 

 these we are manufacturing in Great 

 Britain or in other parts of the Empire, 

 or purchasing in neutral lands and deliv- 

 ering to our Allies, under the protection 

 of the British navy, to the value of over 

 $30,000,000 a month. 



Millions of tons of coal and coke reach 



them from our shores every week; one- 

 fifth of our total production of machine 

 tools is set aside for them, and huge car- 

 goes of explosives and machinery are 

 daily dispatched to their address. 



It was with the products of British 

 workshops, rushed to the Mediterranean 

 in British ships and guarded by the Brit- 

 ish navy, that the Italians were able to 

 push back the Austrian offensive of last 

 May ; and the shells and guns which we 

 had manufactured for and transported to 

 Russia were the real starting point of 

 Brusiloff's triumphant sweep through 

 Galicia. 



The immensity of productive effort re- 

 quired to meet these demands could never 

 have been sustained had it not been for 

 the women. They have entered pretty 

 nearly every trade and occupation, how- 

 ever arduous and dangerous, in the in- 

 tensity of their desire to "do their bit," 

 and it is one of the compensations of the 

 war that it should have revealed to us 

 the full splendor of British womanhood. 



Nor could we have borne our unique 

 burden without organizing powers of the 

 highest efficiency. There is a legend 

 abroad, which we are much too busy and 

 also much too lazy to refute, that Great 

 Britain in this war is following her nor- 

 mal habit of "muddling through." As a 

 matter of fact, she owes her present pre- 

 dominance precisely to the efficiency 

 which the struggle has surprised out of 

 her. 



PROPHETIC MEASURES 



In almost all the big commercial and 

 administrative undertakings that are in- 

 separable from war, and without which 

 victory cannot be achieved, the British 

 Government has come off with flying 

 colors. Its statesmanship, for instance, 

 in the early days of the war saved the 

 fabric of international credit from what 

 might have been irreparable ruin. 



The measures by which it assumed 

 control of the railways and has since di- 

 rected them were so well thought out that 

 scarcely a life, or an hour of time, or a 

 ton of stores or equipment has been lost 

 in the whole tremendous business of 

 transporting and supplying our armies 

 overseas. 



