THE BATTLE OF FRANCE
specialists have made very valuable advances in
metallurgy: we were immediately furnished with
every detail of the new methods. We ourselves have
made some noteworthy mechanical improvements
and they were at once placed at the disposal of
French industry.
'Sometimes things are more complicated. M.
Dautry may say: "I want to speed up the production
of such and such a gun and I'm short of barrels."
c "But you're equipped to calibrate them?"
' "Yes."
' "All right then, we will let you have the rough
tubes and as compensation you will give us a certain
number of finished guns."
'Sometimes there is a clash either between the
requirements of the two countries, or, at home,
between those of the Admiralty, the Air Force, and
the Army. As arbiter, we have the ideal man for the
job, a colonel who is at the head of what is called the
Priorities Department. His awards are so equitable
and competent that they are usually accepted
unquestioningly by the services. But in case of
doubt, appeal may be made in Great Britain to a
Council presided over by Lord Chatfield, and, as a
last resource, to the Inter-Allied Supreme Council,
which sits sometimes in France and sometimes in
England. So you can see that we have left no room
in our common task for discord. It is a great advance
on 1914*'
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