New-York tribune., 1919-04-20

was very little bit of quartermastering,'
but it showed the leavening of personal
sympathy and made hard tasks easy"
",T. c." had one infexible rule to which
there was no exception-the fighting
man was to be considered first and last
"In France he was quite willing that the
staff should labor to the extreme point Of
endurance to take any of the load off the
man in the trenches. He did not like
about him men, however clever, who had not
seen fighting. 1t was the first duty Of
the staff, he insisted, to enter with the
completest sympathy into the feelings and
the difficulties Of the fighting man. Bad
staff work mostly arises from not knowing
the difference between an Office and
TRENCH was one of his aphorisms
Toward the end of the war as we all
know, supplies of comforts and luxuries
distributed through the expeditionary
force canteens became slender. There was
trouble about distribution. The men at
the bases did better than the men at the
front line. IT. c. put the position right
with one order. The territory we were
holding was divided into two sections, one
army areas, the other base and lines Of
communication areas. Luxures in very
short supply, such as chocolate and ciga-
rettes, could 60 into the army areas only;
napoo for the back areas OF other lux
uries one-hfth of the total could 90 to back
areas, four-hfths to army areas. Always
before the back areas had had the best Of
it, But Sir Travers Clarke was for the man
in front"
His way OF disposing Of obstacles was
to cut short, shary lines through them.
"Once upon time it was decided that 1t
was impossible to keep up the supply Of
beer to the troops. The submarine menace
was Mt its worst and beer was bulky stuff
to carry across Channel. The War Cab
met regretted, but there it was
IT c. agreed. Beer was bulky, but
moro than nine-tenths Of 1t was water He
leased breweries from the French in army
areas, imported the malt and hops (Which
were not 80 very bulky, and the army
still had its beer and nne-tenths Of the
freight was saved"
When "T. c." took over the reins at
the end of 1917 the British army was
expecting II German attack in the spring.
One reads:
ut was a matter OF working against timc
and working with painful shortage Of
material, owing TO transport and other din
culties. Harbed wire. wood, animals, for.
age, foodntufH, nll wero short. Very carly
in tho spring tho attack came with fierce
ness and n strength that wes momentarily
daconcerting. The position was saved
with very little TO spare. One Of the great
elements in it's saving was a reserve stock
OF motors that Sir Travers Clarke had built
up. They were needed, bitterly needed.
for the' railways, which had been put un-
der 'civilian expert control, could not suit
the exigencies of n great military emcr-
gency.
"That crisis over, the O. NJ G., France.
had to grapplo with the big series of prob
lens arising from the spatchcockinr Of
french armies into the midst Of ours and
oil the British armies into the midst of
French; and, in addition, the eouippinr of
our rentorcements and Of the American
army, which was rushed over to be eouipped
(to a great extent) by the British forces.
"Then the final glorious work had to be
done of providing transport and material
Tor our victorious advance This was the
hardest task of all, and magnihcently was
it carried through"