MAKING READY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 47, 19 November 1917, Page 5

MAKING READY

AMERICAN TROOPS IN FRANCE

i A GREAT TASK,

With tho. announcement of the arrival of tho American 'troops in France came the brief 'statement that Major-General William L.,Sibertwas in command of the military training camp behind tho French front. Up to that time no oneoutsido of the War Department knew that Sibert was in France with Pershing, who was a "yearling" at West Point when Sibert was an honour man of the first cliutS of 18SA. Since then the two men have been fast friends. General Siberl is the man who built the Gatun Dam, solved the food problem of East China, and constructed the Manila railways. The task of camping tho American forces at the front is no small problem, but that Sibert is the ni»n for the job no army man doubts. The New' York "Times" says of him: He was born in the little city 'of Gadsden, Ala.,' October 12, 1860, which means that ho still has inoro than seven years of active service ahead of him before he reaotes the age >limit set for our army, officers by Congress. In 1892, eight years after his graduation' from West Point, the army records show that Sibert, then a first lieutenant of engineers, was one of the executivo , engineers in charge of thfc great Sault Ste. Marie Canal improvements, and when the Spanish War broke out in 1898, Si- • , bert, who had gained the rank of captain, was named by President M'Kinley .is Chief Engineer of the Eighth Army Corps, a position he retained for only a few months, when ho was transferred to the Philippines and made Chief EnI gincer of tho Manila and Dagupan rail- ' way, as well'as the general manager of the system.' Old Philippine veterans still tell the story of ■ how modernised that little jerkwater line in the Far East. Returning to the : United , States in 1900, Sibert, still a captain, was assigned to various river improvements,, and within a few yearß came to be recognised as the most effioient river and harbour engineer in the country. There is hardly a navigable river east of the Bookies w'th the development of which in one way or another he has not been identified. i *• . It was not until 1907 that his countrymen began to hear of him. President Roosevelt had startled the country by his appointment of a then unknown Major of W. .Goethals —as Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal and. President of tho Isthmian Canal Commission. Shortly afterward he named thrca engineers as Goothals's chief assistants, Sibert, Gaillard, and Harry F. Hodges. To Gaillard was given the great task of solving the problem of Culebra Cut, which cost him his life. _To Sibert was assigned the job of building the Gatnn locks and dam, tho successful accomplishment of which is now numbered among the engineering marvels of the Ege. " ' • A story is told of General Goethals wliioh credite him with this remark in taking over the Panama Canal commission! "I recognise but two enemies, one of them Culebra Cut and the other the locks and dams of Gatun.". Goethals'mado the Gatun part of the canal a military department and placed / ' Sibert in oommand. Quietly, modestly, without fnss or feathers, Sibert went to work. He was a gTeat saver of men and money, and he soon found a way to make ' one'dollar go where it took two dollars to go before. President Wilson on March 4, 1916, named Sibert a of the • line as an expression of the nation's : gratitude to him for the work he had done at Panama. General Sibert was tH.cn ordered to the,Pacifio Coast as commander of the coast defences. He immediately started in to bring thosq defences up-to-date, and the present effioient con-' dition of the Pacific fortifications is another of his achievements. He , also planned the first officers' training camp at the Presidio of Monterey. In 1914, the American Bed Cross decided to finance a 20,000,000 dollars project to reolaim East China from the flood peril. It was Sibert who was selected to go to China as the ohief engineer. Tho work now going on is the; result or his plans. •'•■■■;. >. ■ , ' On June 8 last, President Wilson sent the name of Sibert to the Senate as a ' major-general. * Somo 'idea of the magnitude of tne task that confronted General Sibert upon his arrival in Franco may be gained from the following facts in regard to the Army and its requirements when it Teaches full strength, as printed' in "The Times": Each million men must have a 1000-ton refrigeration plant, tho steel and iron for which must be brought from America. The' refrigerators . must bo located not only at the base but close behind the fighting-line. Storage tanks with a capacity of a million gallons will bo needed at the bases, with depots for transferring gasoline to.obviate the necessity of using trains. ' Plans already far advanced include tne construction of so-called ealvago depots for the repair of' Worn-out olothing ana shoes.- A pair of shoes lasts a. soldier in the trenches only three weeks on the average; The magnitude of euth depots is shown by those used the French, which employ 7000 men each. Eaoh million men will'probably, consume 1,000,000 pounds of meat daily.