In any case, the figures, gathered a month ago from those directly
concerned, as to the general extension of the national effort here, could
hardly be more striking. In normal times, the district, which is given up
to Admiralty work, makes ships and guns, but has never made shells. The
huge shell factories springing up all over it are a wholly new creation.
As usual, they are filled with women, working under skilled male
direction, and everywhere one found among managers and superintendents the
same enthusiasm for the women's work. "It's their honour they work on,"
said one forewoman. "That's why they stand it so well." The average
working week is fifty-four hours, but overtime may seriously lengthen the
tale. Wages are high; canteens and rest-rooms are being everywhere
provided; and the housing question is being tackled. The rapidity of the
women's piece-work is astonishing, and the mingling of classes--girls of
education and refinement working quite happily with those of a much
humbler type--runs without friction under the influence of a common
spirit. This common spirit was well expressed by a girl who before she
came to the factory was working a knitting-machine. "I like this
better--_because there's a purpose in it_." A sweet-faced woman who was
turning copper bands for shell, said to me: "I never worked a machine
before the war. I have done 912 in ten hours, but that tired me very much.
I can do 500 or 600 quite easily."

On the same premises, after leaving the shell shops, we passed rapidly
through gun shops, where I saw again processes which had become almost
familiar. "The production of howitzers," said my guide, "is the question
of the day. We are making them with great rapidity--but the trouble is to
get enough machines." The next shop, devoted to 18-pounder field-guns, was
"green fields fifteen months ago," and the one adjoining it, a fine shed
about 400 feet square, for howitzer work, was started in August last, on a