AMERICAN WAR EFFORTS

Levin Daily Chronicle, 18 May 1918, Page 4

AMERICAN WAR EFFORTS

HINT AS TO SIZE OF AMERICAN FORCE. ARTHiIiEET ENOUGH FOB 20 DIVISIONS ASSURED. New York, Feb. 6. Announcment that France will be able before July 1 to manufacture enough artillery to supply twenty American divisions, or approximately 500,000 fighting troops, if the United States meanwhile adheres to an understanding by which France would receive the necessary raw material from America, was made here to-night by Andre Tardieu, French High Commissioner in this country. M. Tardieu made the statement also that there are in France today more American troops than comprised the American army at the time the United States enterel the war; at that time, he said, the American army contained about 212,000 officers and men. The French official spoke at a dinner which was part of the New York celebration of the Jour de I'Alliance Francaise, which was observed throughout the United States and Canada to-day, the anniversary of the treaty between France and the American colonies in 1778. Jules J. Jusserand, the French j Ambassador, wa3 also a guest of

honour. Asserting that "secrecy ought to be ! a thing of the past, because our democracies want to know in order to will,'' M. Tardieu said that "just appreciation of the results achieved" by America in its war preparations "is a stimulant for effort and nobody had the right to refuse to the American people this stimulant." HOW TRANCE HAS AIDED ALLIES. ' The commissioner , reviewed the naj tion's accomplishment's, and outlined ! what France had done in the way of | manufacturing ordnance,, both for the ' United States and for Trance's other i Allies. "We have in the line," he said, • "about 15,000 guns of every calibre, | and every day more than 300,000 shells are turned out by the factories. To get those guns, to produce those shells, i we created an industry which did not ; exist before th e war, and which has i enabled us not only to arm ourselves, j but to arm our Allies. "Without speaking of what we ' manufacture for you, and that is sevei ral hundred guns a month, we have during the past three years given to our Allies in Europe 1,350,000 rifles, ! 15,000 automatic rifles, 10,000 machineguns, 800,000,000 cartridges, 2500 guns ; and 4750 aeroplanes. I "The adoption without any modification of our various types of guns ' would certainly have saved some time to the benefit of American production, ' and some delays may be the conse- ; quence of the improvements you are looking for always, and rightly at that, aiming at better results." Mr Tardieu described America's miliI tary effort as "wonderful and splenj did," and asserting it had been "a I surprise to the enemy.'' ' "I have co-operated for nearly ten months, hour by liour, with every part of your war organisation," he said. "What you have done is magnificent, i worthy of your Allies, and worthy of yourselves." Alluding to the raising of the na- . tional army, M. Tardieu declared that 1 "No event of wider import has ever ; taken place since the beginning of the war.'' He continued. ( i '' Thus your Government, with a clear and courageoM view, has given you the strength o? numbers, the first con- : dition of military power. In April 1917 you had 9524 officers and 205,510 i men.' You have now 110,000 officers I anc j 1,500,000 men, and the number of j your men in Prance at the present I moment is notably in excess of the esj tablishment of your army nine months ' Wherever, on special points, " he added; alluding to his association with officials at Washington, "I believe hat mistakes have been made I say it frankly; the heads of the Cabinet or the heads of your departments know it from their own experience." The speaker recalled that America, in order to equip its army with guns and airplanes, called upon the Allies for its immediate needs, at the same time inaugurating a programme of American manufacturing. TIME VITAL PACTOB, "Some people, in Europe as well as here " he said, "have been wondering why' you should not, in that respect, have done everything by yourselves. This criticism shows that people ignore, firstly, what time means in war, and, secondly, tow infinitely complicated is th«- industrial war organisation, which from the very start fLs required by the Hun and it would be surprising if men extensive production of ordnance and

aviation. ~ "I hnvo drawn roughly the results of the military effort of the United States for a period of less tfa&n ten niont'i.;. Ido not b elieve that an 7 im ' partial rann should say that this effort is now completed, but I declare "nat any impartial man Bmst »dmit its ondorful extension and splendid -Movements.'' Money was the first aid needed by the • Allies, M. Tardieu went on, sayBut it was not sufficient. Indeed i .r lack of a general organisation of production the United States and the , Allies would liav« oowpeted with each other in every factory, sterility would have resulted from thjs anarchy. But in this respect I may state—«nd io one can be better informed than the representatives of ©b« of the Alied countries —that the centralised organisation realised for the Allies by the War Industries Board and the War Purchasing Commission is excellent in every way. "During the tttonth of December last the High Comtofssioner called the t't-nfion of the Shipping Board to a •risis affecting very seriously our supply in gasolene and oil for fthfi first two months of 1918. To-day the mas,,rr.g taken by the board allow me to 'ite that this imminent peril is abso-f-n-iuved for those two months. ' -«t T«imiary 17, when arriving in v -V T found thirtyseven ships ! fr-r France on account of • January 18 the restriction ord"r<! for coal were issued by the Fuel Administration and when I left New York on the 22nd all o;ir ships had eos,l.