MOTOR TRANSPORT IN WAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 96, 13 August 1914, Page 4

MOTOR TRANSPORT IN WAR.

The value of motor transportation will be tested to the utmost during the present European struggle. Motor cars, commercial and passengers, will be taken over in hundreds of thousands by the military authorities throughout England, France, Germany, Kussia, and the various countries embroiled in the present trouble. In Germany the military authorities have 120 automobile road trains, which will be of immense value for transport purposes, as they can each carry about 60 tons of merchandise, and average from six to ten miles an hour. In addition to that she has the call on some 850 subsidised motor lorries. In England and France the same provision has been made, thousands of commercial vehicles being subsidised by the respective governments for use in time of war. Needless to say, they will all now be requisitioned in .addition to hundreds of thousands of privately-owned passenger vehicles. It is interesting to note'that England has some 425,000 motors registered, including some 70 ; - 000 motor cycles, the percentage of motor cars to population being one to every 249 people in England. > France has some 100,000 cars, one to every 441, whilst Germany ;s\ a long way behind with o:ie to every 927 people. Should the European trouble extend, the Australian Commonwealth authorities will certainly take some action as regards calling on commercial houses and private car owners for the use of their, motor vehicles in case of emergency. In the event of a general war, a shortage in petrol may interfere with the usefulness of (motors, but this applies more particularly to Europe,