Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-11-26
OFFICERS AND MEN NOW ON SEAS IN FIRST CONTIN
 GENT MORE THAN SEVEN THOUSAND.
WITH SUBMARINE MENACE GONE NOW POSSIBLE
 TO TRANSPORT SOLDIERS IN CARGO VESSELS
The Designation of Ships Upon Which Units Sailing Will! Enable Relatives o Kno When Their Soldier
 Boys Land n America

home as soon as transportation facili- 1 ties are available, General March said The aero sqnadrons to return are
 numbers 92, 40, l56, l67, IT, 1878. 210-11, 216, 219-20, 225-6, 22S-234. 2h4, 256, 259 l-62- 63, 265, 267-6S, 2S2. BOG, to BIO inclusive. 314 to 321 inclu- sive, 325 to 329 to 338 inclusive, $40, 40 356. 3G1. 37, 377-7S, 40 to 473 inelu- sive. 475 to 479 inclusive, SIP, S2324. S3l to S34 inclusive, S3G to S39 inclu-
 sive, S52 S6S, 906 and 107.
 The construction companies are
 numbers 3 to l9 inclusives. with the
 exception of company Mo- II and three other special units
 Before General March's announce ment, Secretary Baker discussed with
 newspaper correspondents the return of American troops from France. Their homeward movements, he said, is dependent almost entirely upon the i limitation of transportation facilities both at sea and in France
 Besides employing in this work, the German liners seized in this country, Dutch vessels taken over and all other available transports, NIT. Baker said some part of the British transport tonnage employed in carrying troops to France, will continue to be used in getting the men home. He pointed out
 however, that Great Britain will need many of her ships to carry home Cana i dian, Australian, New Zealand and ! other colonial forces which have been
 in France longer than the American armies.
 The secretary said the Great Britain
 liners Maurentania. Olympic and Aquitaniah have been in the Ameri- can transport service for year and that the Mauretania still is so engaged
 He could not say whether the other two had been withdrawn.
 German liners now in German ports, MT. Baker said, may offer a means of expediting the return of the American forces. Present plans are to use these vessels to carry food to Germany and the secretary said it might be found possible to make some arrangement under which some of General Per shing's men could be sent home on them. Before sailing for Europe to arrange for the return of the troops. Chairman Hurley of the Shipping Board, said it was the purpose to use ships now idle in German ports Mir. Baker however, did not indicate today that any definite steps to that end have yet been taken. .,
 With the removal of submarine menace the war secretary said it will
 be impossible to bring home many soldiers in cargo vessels. The shipping board is cot lnissioning many such vessels from day to day, and they will be added to the fleet available for the return of the army
 For the next several weeks MT. Baker expects returning ships to be laden entirely with sick and wounded men and those not immediately avail able for military service such as the men who have been discharged from hospitals in France. but who have not fully recovered their strength. They will be organized for purposes of transportation into provisional com panies of from 100 to 150 men with the requisite number of officers and will be sent to designated camps to be mustered out. It is assumed that efforts will be made in France to put into each, provisional company men from the same general locality in the United States, in order to ease the demobilization transportation problem on this side.
 Secretary Baker also revealed today that a general principle to govern tho payment to be made to Great Britain for services rendered by her trans port fleet or cargo craft in transport- ing or supplying American forces had been reached. He said that in con- ference with Lord Reading, the Brit ish ambassador, it had been agreed that payment to be made by either to the other for such ser vice would be made on the basis that no profit was to accrue to either Great Britain or the United States