THE FRENCH MOTOR TRANSPORT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2825, 17 July 1916, Page 3

THE FRENCH MOTOR TRANSPORT

ONE DEPARTMENT OF A STERN BUSINESS. (From Mr. H. Warner Allen, ilie representative of the British Press with the Fronch Army.) illutor transport is essentially an emergency service. It renders, of course, invaluable services in the daily round of trench warfare, but it is only when Iho emergency comes that its ennrnmis imliortance cau be fully realised. What it can do in such circumstances has been shown "at Verdun. As soon as an additional .strain is placed on any of the transport services, it is to tho' automobiles that the High Command turns immediately, <ind the supplementary assistance given to the railways may i\:ive incalculable 'elTects on the issue of the battle. It is no smalljjusiness to keep in order the motor-cars of an army. This department needs some six thousand men, and it is organised iu such a way as to bo as self-supporting as possible. Thus the motor rejxiir depots havit their own clothing departments and postal arrangements. They have their own ••obblers and their o\v nspeeial transport !o bring up material. The principle on which they are worked is that of a large commercial establishment. To direct them Fno French have chosen men who are accustomed to con (Tolling and managing important firms, and everything is organised on a strictly commercial Uisis. The chauffeurs attached to the Army are carefully tested, and if they appear in any way unequal to their task they are promptly seat to go through a course in a driving school attached to the pare dV.utomobile. Here they are thoroughly taught their business, and if they continue to show insufficient aptitude , are sent away to perform other military, duties. The automobile :repair depots behind the firing line are as a'rule more or less permanent installations. They have repair outfit cars attached to them, which can be sent out to any point, but as a rule it has been found better,to do' all the work jipssiblo well in the rear, where there are plenty of machine tools at the workman's disposal and where the possiliriity of a sudden move has not always to be considered.