FOOD CONVOYS

Shannon News, 23 July 1926, Page 4

FOOD CONVOYS

LONDON, May IS Armoured cars were used as escort for convoys of heavily.laden motor vehicles from the docks to Hyde Park. The convoys have mostly been bringingl up supplies of flour, and sugar for j distribution among bakers and retail- 1 ers. The first convoy caused immense interest on its passage through the j great thoroughfares from East to 1 West. It consisted of 158 motor vehicles, laden with flour to replenish J the bread supply of London. J Armoured cars provided an escort 1 at the head of the column, at the j rear, and on either flank; two or three } men of the Welsh Guards, steel-hel. ) meted and wearing their active service uniform and equipment, perched high on the bags in each lorry. The escort made an imposing force, but the authorities, reluctant as they were to use the services of the troops, haci no alternative if London was to. get the flour it needed. Ever since the first day of the strike the strikers concentrated their efforts upon preventing access to the docks. Officials and volunteer workers were intimidat. ed by a formidable array of pickets, the police themselves suffered many fierce attacks, and lorries had been stopped by obstinate crowds that stood across the roadway and made progress impossible. The result was that, although there was an ample supply of flour lying at tlie clocks, and any number of willing volunteers ready to move it, to all intents it was locked up so far as London was concherned. The Government found the key in the firm and yet judicious employment of troops. Pickets Outnumbered, From Hyde Park, the startingpoint, to the dock gates, the initial journey alt dawn was without incident. On its arrival at the dock gates the somnolent pickets manifestly surprised, but they did nothing - , being faced with a force too formidable to be The lorries were drawn up in parallel lines along the river fronjt, sections of three at a time backed in to the chutes at the mills, where an almost feverishly energetic crowd of volunteer workers saw that not a moment was wasted In loading. As a result, the convoy, got promptly off, and was back at Hyde Park soon after midday. The second convoy was even more smartly dealt with, for the volunteer workers had profited by the preliminary experience. In the immediate neighbourhood of the docks, detachments of troops, drawn from the Coldstream Guards and the Welsh Guards and a large force of mounted and root police, kept all the approaches clear. The winding roadway narrows as the gates are neared, and it took all the skill of the drivers to avoid congestion on the one hand, and gaps oeitwecn the sections bn the other. The Volunteers. Volunteer workers at the docks included University men, medical students, clerks, and costermongers, and there was a considerable sprinkling of strikers who had found their way back to work almost at the beginning of the strike. An onlooker says that a medical student in “plus fours’’ and a Rugby football jersey cou,d be seen giving a hand to a fellow-labourer in drab blue overalls. It was a greal achievement on the part of all concerned, and no one was more appreciative of the military escort than the men themselves. ■ Soldiers and volunteer workers fraternised in a tin hut, where coffee and sandwiches were served,by the Port of London Authority. The- feeding of the workers was itself a' large task, as more than 500 of them had been brought down the river in lighters to cope with the work of loading - ,'. With promptitude the convoy, two - miles in length, set out for Hyde Park and it was greeted with much enthifsiasm by .people who watched its progress. The arrangements for the two convoys were made by the Central Food Committee of\ the Board of Trade, working in eo-oporation with the War Office and the Ministry of Transport. It was stated officially that the successful result pf the scheme had definitely relieved, a situation that, had it continued much longer, might have proved distinctly'- embarrassing. Not only were bakers’! stocks in the metropolitan area replenished, but it was proved that the cpnvoy system could successfully again be employed at any time. )