Refugee Contribution to British War Production is Praised in England

The extent to which Jewish refugee artisans and manufacturers are contributing to Britain’s war production, was revealed here today in a report issued by Ernest G. Cove, secretary of the Refugee Industries Committee.

Refugee industries, many of them supervised and staffed by men who fled from Germany and Austria, have introduced new methods and materials that ordinarily would be a monopoly of the enemy, Cove pointed out. Production of uniforms for men in the armed forces has been greatly increased as the result of mass production of high grade buttons made from a cheap byproduct of coal, by a group of refugees from Czechoslovakia, he said. Before the outbreak of the war about forty-four million gross of buttons were imported annually from Germany alone.

Experts from Austria who had been previously producing gloves for export are now manufacturing tens of thousands of military gauntlets, using new methods and new materials. As a side line this same firm is packing nuts and bolts for use in constructing indoor bomb shelters. A workshop which was formerly producing fasteners is now engaged in turning out special tools required for the manufacture of automatic rifles.

A few months ago, Cove discloses, the Government Control Board communicated with this last firm stressing the great importance of increased production and inquiring into delays which had been incurred. The management replied that the delays in producing the necessary products were due to the fact that eight key workers were interned in Canada. As a result four of these internees have since returned and were publicly welcomed back by hundreds of British workers. The other four will leave Canada as soon as shipping facilities are available.