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Otago Daily Times, Issue 17688, 28 July 1919, Page 6

Americans who believed that the United , States' Expeditionary Forces were the best ; equipped and best fed of all the befliger- ■ ents have been hearing eome plain state- ! ments from sunh authorities as Captain Archie Roosevelt, son of the late ex-Presi-dent, and Captain Edward Riehenbacker, America's " Ace of Aces," who has 26 aix victories to his orodit. Captain Roosevelt, ', in a magazine article, directs attention to what he calls the " roseate falsities" oir- ; culated by those who wished to show what ; their efforts accomplished, and in refutation ; of "deliberate lies" mentions the suppfies received by his division when in the trenches, nino months after the United States had declared war. The boots were ' mostly English and French, which did not fit and caused most of the mon'e foot troubles. In the battlo of Cantigny the men in tho captain's own company wore boots supplied by ex-President Roosevelt and Mrs Archie Roosevelt. A great many of the uniforms worn by tho men in his division were British, actually equipped with buttons stamped with the Royal insignia, and whilo some men naturally resented tho wearing of foreign coats, most of them wore only too glad to do so, as they were far superior to the thin, shoddy American uniforms. Their caps were Frencli *nd those later arriving from .the United States were so ridiculous that even tho General Staff made no effort to enforce their use. Tho artillery u»?d was French, drawn by condemned French horses, and the signal equipment French, with instructions written in French. Tho rifles were American, but some companies entered' tho war zone armed with what Captain Roosevelt believes to be condemned militia pieces. In most oases, he says, officers evinced an inoradicablo purpose to the Germane on Indian war principles, and the staff work was execrable, causing blrmders that worked havoc with the moral and cost many lives. — A new British gun which has recently been approved, after many experiments is said to bo tho best of its kind in the world Tho advantages of tho new gun are thai it will fire tho heavy ISJIb shell used in our ordinary quick-firer a farther distance and with greater rapidity than has ever been attained with a field grm before. In fnct, tho now gun increases the rango of tho normal field weapon by at least* 3000 yards, and it is expected that further de yelopments will extend the rulnerable point by another 1000 yards. —An electric means of keening the feet warm for a halfpenny a day is tho basis of a new apparatus recently devised bv a New York inventor. This foot-warmor equipment comprises an in-solo having the general appearance of tho commonly used slip m-sole, except for the two nluga projecting about one-eighth inch "from tho bottom. Tho two small plugs fit in two sockets, which are sunk about one-eighth inch m the heel. These sockets are tho terminals of two small insulated wiros which are joined to tho terminals near the top of the shoe, and connect with the source of electric current at the waist A glass of WOLFS'S SCHN£3?J*? 9eß meals is an unfailing apjarJisise, "