1939-07-03 — Page 10

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SNAEMOM 2

HAVE YOU VISITED

od yd banim

203 01

sc.

SUMMER SALE

FOR THE BEST SELECTION OF SUMMER AND FALL SUITS

THEY ARE EVEN LOWER PRICED THAN EVER BEFORE

BY BUYING NOW YOU CAN SAVE. 30% FOR CASH PAYMENT.

THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 3, 1939.

The China Mait

Ninety-Fourth Year of Publication 3A Wyndham Street, Hong Kong. Telephone 20022 London Office:

7, Garrick Street, London, W.C.2

forced to disclose their costs. It is to have the duty of enforcing on contractors their obligation to take protective measures against air-raid damage. These powers- are independent of the particular Army supply duties with which. the Ministry is charged. They are to be "exercised in consulta- tion with other departments in so- Notice To Contributors!

far as their functions are not All communications intended for transferred to the Minister of publication should be addressed to Supply." And, further, the exer- the Editor, and be accompanied by cise of priority powers will in the Writer's Name and Address, general be subject to the control not necessarily for insertion but as a guarantee of good faith.

Subscription Rates.

3 Months

6 Months

One Year

H.K.$ 9.00 H.K.$18.00

H.K.$86.00

Postage Abroad Extra

Hong Kong, Monday, July 3, 1939.

of a Ministerial Priority Com- mittee to regulate the conflicting interests of the various depart- ments. The Ministry is thus to have a curiously lop-sided com- position. It is to be responsible for the very big job of creating the equipment and munitions for cur rapidly growing Army the branch in which the worst de-- ficiencies appear. It is at the same time to busy itself with the adjustment of priorities not only THE HALF-MINISTRY |for itself but also for the in--

dependent supply sections of the The Ministry of Supply Bill is Navy and Air services. When it a fairly adequate Bill-on paper. is added that the Minister of But it is one thing to have the Supply is a man of less authority Bill on the Statute-book and than the heads of the services- quite another to have a real whose claims he is to reconcile, Ministry of Supply. There is no and with whom he is in actual guarantee at present that we are competition, the small importance to have anything but a Ministry the Government attaches to the in name. Before there can be department becomes clear. This real satisfaction there must be is also evident from the inspired assurance that we shall have a gloss with which the Bill was ac- Minister who can get things companied. The Government was. done. (Mr. Burgin's record at at pains to point out that even the Ministry of Transport was such powers as the Ministry is singularly uninspiring). We shall given are really only held "in also have to be satisfied that the reserve"; there will be no need department will be well staffed to exercise them if the "volun-

that we shall not repeat the tary co-operation" of industry- absurdity of the first Minister continues as at present. for the Co-ordination of Defence

י

with (as the story goes) his has to show is why this half- The first thing the Government single clerk and typist. If we had Ministry is likely to be more suc- Minister of energy and force cessful in delivering the goods. there would be some hope that than the full Ministry of Supply more and more powers would

which all informed opinion devolve on him. At present we outside the Cabinet has been have a Minister with, according advocating for months. There to the Bill, enormous powers that it is not the intention to exercise. may be a strong case for allow- ing the Admiralty a great degree In theory he will control the of independence in its specialised whole field of supply. He may job but, after the experience of "buy or otherwise acquire, manu- the last war, there is little for facture or produce, store and divorcing the requirements of the transport any articles required for the public service," which Army and the Air Force, which are now competing heavily for covers not only the requirements labour and which both depend of any Government department for their expansion on tapping a but articles "essential for the

wider range of the country's en- needs of the community in the gineering resources. The Govern- event of war." The Minister ment gives the impression that it thus has under his potential con- has not envisaged its task, as trol not only the munitions in- inevitably it should, as compar dustries, proper but the essential able with that of the Ministry of civil: industries and reserve Munitions during the war in stocks and materials. These, of the mobilisation of as much of course, are war powers. What the resources of civil industry as the Minister can do in our pre- we can safely spare and in the sent state of "near war" is standardisation and mass produc- limited. A

tion of its requirements. If as

..

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His supply powers affecting the Government has argued, we Government departments are to shall certainly – need a unified be only such as are specifically Ministry of Supply in war-time, entrusted to him by order in why should we not have one Council, and, as we already know, now? It is sometimes said that he is (at the start at any rate) any transfer" now would, slow to deal only with problems of down production, but-

as Sir Army supply, certain War Office Arthur Salter has pointed dut, and civil defence stores, and the this need not follow if the new reserves of essential metals and Minister shows ordinary, prudence other raw materials required for and no departmental sabotage, is the defence programme. The allowed Current production and. "Admiralty and the Air

need not be inter-

e not to b touched.

other

existing fered

should get ew indus It would be

to bring feared that