§ 5.0 P.M.
§ I have endeavoured to give some measure of the work done in the Department of the Controller, and I venture to think that its magnitude and ramification is largely news to most of my hearers. Incidentally I think much less than justice has been done them. Were the time not so portentous and the subject less vital and urgent. I would have 1035 treated it in a more contentious way. To so treat it now would be disgraceful, and I feel sure that I shall not be misunderstood in so leaving the matter. The Controller's Department is gradually overcoming the difficulties of the situation. The steel difficulty has been overcome. The men are beginning to flow into the yards in increasing numbers, and the yards are getting cleared out and allotted to work most suited to them. Not only in shipbuilding, but in ship repairing and in preparing the way for a. much greater output, the Controller's Department has done work of inestimable value. I believe that the problem is in a fair way to be solved. I believe that the organisation of the Controller is to-day solving it.