Administration. It was only in this way that the country could hold its entire forces together. It was complete, and yet all this could have been achieved sooner and with more successful results had the organization existed 'in peace-time in the form of a mobilization scheme.
The Supreme Command not only assumed control over the economic management of the occupied provinces by means of the L. of C. authorities of armies and the general Governments (which set up their own administrative departments for this) but also provided through the War Office of the War Ministry for the necessary coordination between provisioning the army and the people and the military operations.
Austria-Hungary. In Austria-Hungary, a few weeks after war began, the Technical Artillery Inspector was entrusted with the entire munition production; and this corresponded to the later Wumba in Germany. He was directly subordinate to the War Minister, and was the organ of the Government in relation to both the State and the private munition industries, the adjustment of which to war production devolved on him. In order to secure uniformity in the conduct of transactions, the munition section of the Technical Military Committee was handed over to him. Already in 1914 this department combined under one head the functions of both the German Wumba and the German Inspection Department in all questions relating to the production of munitions and adaptations of design to available raw materials and to production. By this means the service was simplified. Provision by the State of raw materials for munitions was concerned at this time chiefly with explosives and their basic substances, which, like all other military require- ments, devolved on the appropriate departments of the joint War Ministry in Vienna, just as was the case in Germany. At the beginning of the war the Austro-Hungarian industry was in the same unsettled position as the German. Its interests were safeguarded by the existing Unions of Industry, Chambers of Commerce and such-like institutions. There was at first no new organization upon an elaborate scale.
With the recognition of the dangerous situation regarding raw materials a great extension of the central organization was made in the ministries themselves. The number of departments in the Austro-Hungarian Joint War Ministry were increased and their duties could thus be differentiated. Industry now created organizations similar to the German Kriegsgesellschaften in the form of Central Metal, Leather and other Societies.
The conditions in Austria-Hungary were not favourable for forming a close uniform organization which should embrace the whole country. The two separate Governments in Vienna and Budapest were theoretically independent of each other. The Joint Ministries in this case, the K. und K. Kriegsministe- rium in Vienna, could of course take measures affecting the whole kingdom, but they could only do so within certain defined limits. The Hungarian Government especially considered that it could not ensure any full subordination to the common interest. So every central organization of the administration that attempted to take over any functions formerly devolving on the separate Governments came to a deadlock half-way. The result was that the administration of certain important raw materials, especially coal and foodstuffs, was carried out for the two States separately by the two Governments. Later on, it is true, it became possible to form a central administration for iron, (non-ferrous) metals and explosives in the K. und K. Kriegsminisierium. The administration of coal and various other stuffs remained, however, in the respective departments.
To obtain closer cohesion of all the industrial departments directly connected with the production of munitions, the various sections of the War Ministry concerned here, in the beginning of 1917, united under the jurisdiction of the I. de T.A., and reorganized as a munition department of the War Ministry.
In addition to the production of munitions this department was, like Wumba, responsible for questions of machinery and supply of labour for the munition industry, and, like certain sections of the German Raw Materials of War Department, for the administration of (non-ferrous) metals and raw material
for the production of explosives, coal excluded. For the admin- istration of iron an Austrian and a Hungarian Commission were formed which possessed official authority. In January 1917 a special department in the War Ministry was created to which the Austrian Iron. Committee was united. This depart- ment undertook the allocation of iron for the Hungarian half of the empire through the Hungarian Iron Committee.
The administration of coal presented great difficulties on account of the extreme dearth from which Austria-Hungary, unlike Germany, suffered. The central distribution lay principal- ly in the hands of the civil ministries in Vienna and Budapest until the end of the war. For each half of the empire a National Coal Commission was set up, similar to the Iron Commission; these were under the respective civil ministries. In 1917 a special section was created in the K.. und K. Kriegsministerium to deal with the State and private works hitherto dependent upon various departments of the War Ministry. It could not, however, extend its operations over such a wide field as the Iron Commission. It was in this region that purely military interests most markedly clashed with those of the Hinterland. Thus the Austro-Hungarian organization in the various major branches of munitions production was by no means as uniform as the German. This made it all the more necessary for the Supreme Command, which was entrusted with the safeguarding of the joint war interests, to interfere if these seemed endangered, so that finally in 1918 all decisions relative to coal and iron lay de facto in the hands of the Supreme Command. The Austro-Hungarian Supreme Command, like the German, also controlled the industrial administration of the occupied ter- ritories by means of its own organs; for example, communica- tion with the East and with Rumania was directed by the Eastern section of the War Ministry.
The Adaptation of Industry to War Services. At the time of mobilization at the outbreak of war only those works actually supplying materials of war were given work. As it became clear after the first battles that the stocks of munitions could not last the specified time, and also that the existing armament industry could not satisfy the demand, all works which were in any way suitable for the production of munitions were brought in. Thus, the admission of cast-iron shells had as its only object the employment of the more simply equipped works. Later on the munitions industry included the metal and chemical industry. In Austria-Hungary, for instance, the number of works under the jurisdiction of the Munition Department had mounted to 500, in addition to which there were a large number of smaller businesses acting as sub-contractors to the large firms. The turnover from peace to war production was not achieved without friction. The difficulties in the allotment of labour and in the rational distribution and construction of machinery were only overcome with difficulty through the intervention of the War Ministry (Munition Department).
In spite of various measures, such as the production of the cast-iron shell, delays in output were inevitable.
Subsequently, however, the industry was only hindered in developing its full working capacity by the shortage of coal and certain raw materials, especially from the winter of 1917-8 onwards, when it was difficult to obtain sufficient food for the workers. The State administration on its side had, of course, in every direction possible, simplified munition design with a view to mass-production.
Legislation. Simultaneously with the last great increase in the demands made by the Army Commands upon the resources of the Central Powers (Hindenburg programme), the Auxiliary Service Law was enacted in Germany and the War Work Law in Austria-Hungary. These made it possible in 1916 to absorb the entire resources of human labour, and the production of munitions reached its maximum at this time. Already in 1914 both States had gone far in the employment of women. From 1916 on, the larger half of the personnel of the largest muni- tion factories consisted of women.
Raw Materials. The effects of the blockade had, in the nature of things, a great influence on the provision of raw
