Many other things had to be attended to. There was, for
instance, the matter of supply of steel from the foundries, and then,
equally important, the question of transport by the railways. It would
require a full book to tell of all the directions in which Lloyd
George's efforts were expended in the ensuing weeks.

He went around the various big centers in the country and called
together meetings of the prominent business men, particularly
manufacturers, and suggested to them that they should form local
committees which would schedule the locality for facilities in
engineering work, and then outlined several ways in which they might
act. They might first organize all the factories engaged in ordinary
engineering work which could produce shells, or parts of shells, they
might develop a big central factory in the district where central work
could be done, and where finishing operations on partly made shells
might be carried out. Everywhere he met cordial co-operation. Within
a few weeks workshops previously used for making tramway metals,
cranes, refrigerating apparatus, automobiles, overhead wires,
agricultural implements, and many other kinds of material, were
beginning to turn themselves into shell-factories under the direction
of the local committees. Even watchmakers' shops were brought into use
for some sections of work.

Meanwhile, Lloyd George initiated in every town and village of the
country a census of metal-working lathes, so that no tool of this kind
should be employed on needless work. Coincident with these operations,
huge national shell-factories were planned for erection in various
parts of the country. To co-operate the work of the local committees
with headquarters in London a department of the Ministry of Munitions
was set up in each big manufacturing center, and through this
department Lloyd George kept in touch with all local operations.

Steps were taken to stimulate production by the recognized armament
firms. It was six months after Lloyd George had taken control that I
visited the Birmingham district, where I saw a new establishment for
shell-work, a huge structure on the outskirts of the city planted where
green grass was growing six months before, and under its one roof four
thousand young women engaged in long lines at automatic lathes
shell-making. This, as I said, was but one sample establishment.
Hundreds of thousands of women were subsequently at the same work in
various part