AMERICA AT WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 295, 2 September 1918, Page 6

AMERICA AT WAR

, THE UNITED STATES NAVY GREAT RECRUITING BOOM New York, July 2. The strength of the United Slates Navy, including marines and reserves, lias now passed the 450,000 mark. The latest recruiting figures received at the Department show that the strength ot the various branches of the service are as follow:— Enlisted Hen. Officers. Total. Regular navy 205,798 9,204 215,002 Naval reserves ... 148,505 14,701 103,209 Marine corps 48,505 1,364 49,809 National naval volunteers 15,000 785 15,785 Coast guard ' 6,000 228 6,228 , Total 423,808 26,285 150,093 ■Recruiting figures in Juno wcre.very high. The submarine 'raid on the United States Atlantic coast and the spectacular exploits of the marines in France were followed by a rush of enlistments, making June a record month for volunteers. The interior States continues to supply the greatest percentage of naval recruits. Since March 1, 1918. the naval reserre force has been practically doubled, rising from 77,314 to over 118,500 enlistments.

75,000 JEWS IN AMERICAN ARMY Of the three million Jews in the United States 75,000 are now in tho service of the Government. To caro for the wants of these men tho Jewish Welfare Board has been formed. It has affiliated with it fourteen of the larger Jewish societies. Tho organisation of tho board was brought about by reason of the call of the Government for some recognised agency to care for the Jewish soldiers and sailors in the service. Its work is similar to that done by the Knights of Columbus and tho Young Men's Christian Association. Tho organisation's budget for this year is one million dollars which includes the cost of 25 new buildings and the expenses ff 150 field workers, GREEKS CELEBRATEWAR ANNIVERSARY The first anniversary, of the entrance of Greece into the war was celebrated by several thousand New York Greeks. An enthusiastic mass "meeting heard addresses by George Roussos, Envoy of Greece to the United States,.and Dimitri Vorenikis }n charge of tho Hellenic Con-sulate-General at Now York. Mr. E. Cunliife-Owen, Governor of the American Hellenic Society, was chairman of tho meeting said:—"Greeco is in this.war for good against Germany 'and her allies—our savage and barbarous enemies. Wo want- everybody to know that Greece has several hundred thousand troops, seasoned veterans of tho earlier Balkan wars, ut the front in Macedonia, where they have within the last .month inflicted a defeat upon pur enemies, of which tho French Generalissimo of the Allied forces in that part of Europe, declared that it was a victory that should be a sourco of legitimate pride to every son of Greece. The presence of the Greek Army there has pormitted the Allies to withdraw half their forces in the Balkans for service in France. It has also prevented Bulgaria from responding to the frantic appeals of tho Kaiser for reinforcements on his Western front, and it has compelled Austria to weaken her defences on the Italian border by keeping | a largo body of troops in Serbia. This is what Greece has done for the Entente on yonder side of the Atlantic."

SOCIALIST JOURNALIST ON THE WAR What we are 'doing in ships we are doing in guns—and everything (writes Mr. Allan L. Benson, one of the bestknown journalists in the United States). Congress recently appropriated five billion dollars for artillery. AVo do not scatter money about in this way because wo do not know its value. Never before did we make such enormous appropriations. We do know the value of money—particularly in this war. ■ We know that money will free enough force to compel Germany to accept a just peace. Germany, of course, knows well enough what we are doing and what we intend to do. That is to say, the rulars of Germany know. Common peoples everywhere should also know. The people of tho United States are behind this war. They determined that it shall not end until the rulers of Germany have demonstrated and ndmittjd their inability to rule the world by force. No sword shall hang over our own head or over any nation s when we- '.heath, our own 6word. Wo demand the right for ourselves and for all others to live in peace. We say these things .'.ot because we are bloodthirsty. Wo say them because we are weary of the sight of blood. We regret the necessity r,f spilling more to enable the world to live in peace again, but we know of no other way of dealing with men who have no regard for the rights of others. What I have written here with regard to the attitude of the people of tho United States toward the war is true. The occasional person who believes otherwise represents a minority so insignificant that it need not be considered. The proof of cur solidarity lies in tho fact that no other President-not. even Washington-had quite <he kind of prestige that is freely accorded to Mr. Wilson. What he asks for he gets without quibble. What lie does is accepted as the best. We have not changed our national constitution nor our natures. We give the President his . unusual powers because we realise he is trying to do what wo want done, and is doing it with energy and intelligence. A divided nation would not do that, nor .would a nation that did not know its mind. [Mr. Allan L. Benson, the writer of the foregoing article, was the Socialist candidate for President of the United States in 191 G. Mr. Benson is one of the bestknown journalists in tho United States. In the "last dozen or so years he has been a most persistent chastiser of oppressive corporations and industries. He contributed articles to "Pearson's Magazine," to the "Appeal to EeasoiV'.and to specialist newspapers and periodicn's throughout the country. He is the author of half a dozen or more volumes defending the rights of the people against nredatory interests. His resignation from the Socialist Party .because of its failure to revoke officially l .he St. Louis resolution, which condemned the war, has created a sensation throughout the country.!

AMERICAN HOSPITAL TRAINS AT THE FRONT American hospital trains proved so valunblo during the recent heavy lighting in France that the British borrowed three of them. The United States forces were equipped with 1G trains. Each train consists of 1G largo cars, built according to specifications drawn by Colonel Percy Jones, of Georgia, U.S.A., Chief of tlio U.S. Ambulance Service. Each train has u maximum emergency capacity of fill wounded, or 340 if all are lying cases. The trains at tho outset of the German offensive rushed several thousand United States ambulance and •hospital workers to tho front from Paris and carried French and United States wounded back to Paris in from two to four hours' less time than the trip theretofore had required. There are only a few hundred United States wounded now in Paris hospitals. "The removal of seriously wounded to hospitals in Southern France or to points of embarkation for America was declared by the French to be the speediest and most successful handling and care of wounded on ' record," says a dispatch to the New York "Times."

An American military hospital which will accommodate 3000 is now beine built at Salisbury, six miles from Southampton, England. The central corridor of .the .hospital will be 1000 feet long, opening'on either side into wards, each of which will accommodate sixty to one hundred nafietits. The site is a county estate of 200 acres, purchased by the Bed Cross. Tt includes a woodland, from which American lumbermen (V'c now cutling material for construction, ''