As regards forging of shells, the cost of producing the various component parts, the labor involved in finishing and assembling these—the Committee were supplied with the cost of these various operations as carried on at the Dominion Arsenal, but the difficulty involved was that the work, having been done there by a class of machine not in general use in Canada, and with the comparatively small order in hand, manufacturers could not be found who would purchase and install plant for this work and turn out shells within a reasonable time and price. Manufacturers throughout the country were invited to visit the Dominion Arsenal at Quebec, where they would be shown the various operations involved, and given all information _re_ cost, methods employed, etc. Quite a number responded to this invitation. Some offered to undertake the work; others declined to undertake it on any basis whatever. Colonel Bertram volunteered that the John Bertram & Sons Co. would do a certain amount of machining and assembling, and Thos. Cantley, through his Company, the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Co., undertook to supply the steel and forgings, while Mr. Watt, of the Canadian General Electric Company, agreed to make some of the component parts. Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, on being appealed to by the Committee for assistance, instructed the Superintendent of the Angus Shops to take on some of the work, and generously promised that the Angus Shops would take up their share of the enterprise. With the start made by these firms to encourage them, a few other manufacturers were induced to take up a share of the work, and thus the supply of components parts and machining of same for the first 200,000 shells was finally placed, and this initial order was shipped complete and to the entire satisfaction of the War Office some considerable time before the contract date. So soon as the work involved in the first trial order had been accepted by the manufacturers referred to, the Committee took up the organization necessary for the co-ordinating of the work on a larger scale; and as large orders were received in rapid succession from the War Office, contracts were made with different manufacturers for component parts, which were bought outright by the Committee. A full set of component parts for each shell was supplied by the assembly contractors, by whom these were finished and returned as completed shells, they being paid a fixed price on the shells which were completed, and which passed all the tests demanded by the War Office, and were certified as such by the Government Inspection Bureau. The component parts before being accepted by the Committee and delivered to the finishing contractors were inspected and certified by the Committee’s inspectors. Any component parts spoiled by the assembly manufacturers had to be paid for by them at the actual cost of same.