"PASS ALONG PLEASE"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 53, 26 November 1917, Page 6

"PASS ALONG PLEASE"

TRAFFIC CONTROL IN THE WAR ZONE

A SCIENTIFIC BUSINESS

[Authorised by' tho War Offico for publication, per medium of tbo Royal Colonial Institute.]

When you liavo thousands of men and thousands of vehicles of various kinds to deal with behind tho lines of a battlo front, there must bo sonio very effective organisation. That is why, behind the British line in Franco, overything is thought out and arranged, so far as the traffic is concerned, as though London itself .was being regulated. The roads will not take more than a certain amount of traffic, they do not all lead to Rome, and so maps have to bo carefully scanned snd studied, and the best routes up and back have to be laid down.

When you look—if you ■ get tho chance—at a map used by <he Traffic Control people in France you sco a number of big black arrows, somo pointing in one direction, others in another. These aro to mark the up and down routes, routes that have to bo followed by everyone, excepting tho lorries working on road repairs, and, naturally, the French people themselves. For the latter everything is done to study their convenience; they aro in their own country, and they have, of course, the first'call. Say, for instance, that troops are moving up or back. Thoy havo to keep to the route laid down, and they have to bo past certain points at certain times. Jho time-table is worked out ts carefully as though it were trains, and not foot, horse, and motor transport, tnax have to be considered. If this wore not done there would bo trouble all the way round. But if a _ local farmer comes 'along it is recdgnised that he Vislics to get from somewhere to somewhere, and he is given every assist-

"Come on," the Tommy on point duty will say to him, "as quick as you can, please, and don't keep the circus.waling. Alloy! Vitel Comprev?" Daddy "compreys" all right, he whips up.his horse, waves a greeting to the bo s in the road and gets on his my with a smile and a nod to all and sundiy. He may not he able to speak a word of English, hut he knows *verybody isonlesamcjob-totin?theHun-and he is quite ready to do his hit by hurrying up for a few minutes when it is necessary.

The Control Posts. Traffic control posts have been established at all the busy points behind the British front Soldiers are.told off to take charge ofthese and they ar* on duty for a stated time, just as though they were mounting e,uard in England. They are provided with. armWand small flags they have very definite orders, and they carry.them out. It makes no difference who the the rules laid down. If a motor-car is not allowed to pass, over a certain oad in a certain direction it, makes^ lo difference who may be m it. I have i officers of very liifh rank halted •md told they must go another way, S the? have gone. The motor err; driver will «B,»* l {7j all He, too, knows what it is tor, and ho pulls round in the direction pointed out to him. 1 At some of the principal ■ points, where a traffic control post has to be kept .in being for some time, an attempt,, and a successful attempt » made to make things comfortable. Tins Tommy will build himself a sma I [house, and lay out v small garden when he is off duty. "Enjoy life while you may, vou'll be dead a long time That s his motto, and he lives up to it I daresay there are .plenty of peope at HomerW convincing armchair strategists, too, some of them T who would tell you that it is,a very simpe and insignificant matter, anyhow, this control of the roads; and not a thing of any military importance. lney are accustomed to the apparently automatic smoothness of traffic working, sav in London, and have never bothered to think of the system required even there to back up: ' "The policeman with uplifted hand, "Conducting the orchestral strand.

The Road That Saved France. Well it would open .their eyes to stieud 'a week-or an hour, for that mutter-immediately behind the lines in France; especially m he neighhourhood of a big push. _ That would be a bit of a revelation for any home-staying mortal. The fate ot ivholo armies, if not of nations, has depended to a large extent on efficient road control at certain stages oi this war No man who has once seen the thing at work will ever forget it. Ihe most famous example, of course, is the road from Bar le Duo to Verdun— the Voie Sacree-of which the poilu will tell you, with a gleam in ins eye, that is'the road "that saved France. There was no railway' there in the earlv days of the Bosche onslaught upon Verdun, and what the oie Saoree had to carry in the spring ot 1916 was an endless chaui ot heavy traffic, day and night, with never » bicak, such as" no other road probably has ever had to carry in the time. And the fate of Verdun, perhaps of France, was in the balance. • . Another thing that comes within the duties of the Traffic Control is to see that proper caro is taken of horses. They must walk, not gallop or trot, except when there are shells knocking about, Then, of course, it s hell for leather and the devil catch the hindmost." More than once I have seen the driver of a horsed transport pulled up and informed that, although it may be down hill and ho is travelling empty, he has to think of Ks horses or his mules, and to keep them in a walk. Once in particular I was struck with the great Iconimaud ot language possessed by a colonel who discovered a man trotting after he had cot out of sicht of a Control. That man slowed down to a walk without the slightest loss of time. , Traffic, too, has to bo controlled at the watering places, the horses have to be brought in im one road m batches, and after drinking their fill, taken out on another. The water-carts bein" filled from the stand pipes at the "side of tho road have to bo marshalled, and "kept-in their proper order All this falls to the lot of the Tommy with the little flag. And yet he keeps on smiling all the while.