River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1917-11-01

The problem of transportation which
Great Britain has had to solve during
the war is almost beyond conception
Not much has been said about it, be
cause it has been necessary for rea.
sons of caution to suppress informa.
ton. Only quite recently have any OF
the amazing statistics of the subject
become available.
Britain has been required not only
to build and equip it's armies since the
war began and to transport them to
the fighting areas in widely separated
parts of the world, but also to provide
ocean transportation for most of the
requirements of it's allies; for Italy
for France, for the army of the Orient
for the MesOpOtamian expedition, for
East and West Africa to bring troops
from the dominions and crown col
Onies to move supplies from all parts
of the world to the fighting areas
where they were needed, and to insure
that the people of the British Isles
and France should have food and the
other neceSsaries of life.
Such data as are now available rep
resent the highest authority on the
subject and may be taken as abso-
lutely accurate, bat they do not deal
with anything like the entire scope Of
transportation operations. The fig
ures, however, on the movement of Off
GERS, soldiers and strictly military sup
plies and equipment although they
represent only part of the. trans
pOrtatiOn task, are simply astonishing
Transported 2,686,o0O in Two Years
1t is learned, for example, that down
to the end of 1915, 100000 officers, g..
$4,000 men and $4,000 horses had
been transported overseas. This in
cludes traffic across the channel to
France and all the other movements Of
troops. including the Mediterranean
eXpeditiOnary force and the move
ments of Indian and colonial soldiers,
aggregating several hundreds of thou
sands and requiring very long voyages
During this same period the move
ment of supplies to feed and equip
these forces naturally required a much
greater tonnage. Thus the supplies
sent out to France only included 1885,
600 tons of food and $4,000 tons of
forage. Along with these went $4,000
tons of fuel and $4,000 tons of medical
stores. Likewise there were moved to
France 17,338,000 gallons of petrol and
4,911000 gallons of oil. Mails consti
tute one of the big items, no less than
491, 900 mail bags and $4,000 tons OF
parcels being moved.
Stores shipped out to the army in
Guided among the chief items $4,000
tons of engineering materials, 1000
tons of ordnance, $4,000 tons of cloth
ing, 10000 tons of sandbags, $4,000
tons Of entrenching and camp, equip
ment, $4,000 tons of barbed wire, r.
600 tons Of tents and as much more of
canteen stores; also immense Quanti-
ties Of saddlery and harness supplies
Traffic Is Now T1ipIed.
Let it be repeated that these figures
are for the first seventeen months of
the war, that is, down to the close Of
1915. Since that time the wars opera
tiOns have increased vastly, so that to-
day the average movement of military
necessaries, including soldiers, is prob
ably three times as much per diem as
it was during the period covered by
these figures. The task with which
naval transport is now required to
deal is the greater not only in proper
ton as the tonnage has increased, but
by reason of the constantly diminish
ing number of ships available.
In a recent period of four months
the tonnage landed at French ports for
the use of the British forces increased
by more than 70 per cent, all of which
required to be removed after it's ar
rival at the ports to depots or to the
forces at the front. Not only must all
this material be moved across the
Channel and then taken to the forces
or to depots, but is also required to be
gathered together from all parts of the
United Kingdom and, indeed, from all
parts of the world before it could be
started across the Channel.
Several hundred miles of railway
have been laid in the Sinai desert
under the direction of European engi-
neers with the help ST native Egyptian
labor. For the Mesopotamian and
East African railway construction
both supplies and labor have been pro-
cured chiefly from India. The average
tonnage moving weekly over the mill
tary railways in Mesopotamia alone
now reaches far into five figures. In
the last six months the traffic over the
Sinai line from Ell Kantari eastward
has been multiplied by three.
French Railways Equipped.
Nowhere have railways been so es.
sentiai as military auxiliaries as In
France. Stupendous stores of all
kinds of provisions have been kept in
France from the beginning. The pro.
vision of depots has been in charge OF
a stores branch, which is now in the
railroad and roads division of the wal
office. All Kinds of railroad material
rails, ties. bridge building materials