Note Back to Main Text — Chapter I

"On the 1st September the Director-General of Ordnance again asked for authority. On the 5th September, in putting forward a schedule of requirements, he pointed out that this service would take ten weeks, and said the sanction of those items should be given at once, on account of the time required to manufacture and obtain them, and that if put off till the force is ordered to mobilise it would be impossible to guarantee their being ready in time."[20]