The First Lord of the Admiralty, in the House of
Commons on
Thursday week, appealed for more labour for the shipyards. He (raid that the combined output of war vessels and merchantmen built this year would probably equal the combined output of 2,280,000 tons in 1913—the largest yet recorded. The rate of pro- duction was now 18 per cent. greater than in that year, and a most extensive shipbuilding programme was being carried out. Private yards had been authorized to provide forty-five new berths. The three national shipyards would have thirty-four berths, costing in all £3,887,030. Two of them would be used only as erecting yards for material manufactured in bridgeyards elsewhere. The first keel would be laid down in these national yards early next year. These yards would be devoted to the construction of a more highly standardized ship than had yet been undertaken. The labour of prisoners and unskilled men would be used. The submarine menace had not yet been Mastered, but the losses showed a downward trend, and the numbers of U '-boats destroyed and of the new ships built showed an upward trend. More ships were wanted. The steel was now available, and the yards only required more men and women to increase their output.
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