FEEDING AN ARMY.

Taihape Daily Times, 1 July 1919, Page 6

FEEDING AN ARMY.

A reference to the work‘ "of women during the War is made by Sir Douglas I-laig in his final despatch, As our organisation arrived at a greatel‘ state of completivcn and its working became smooth. he said, so it began to be possible to withdraw considerable nuinbcrs of fit men from the rearward services. In many cases it was possible, where replacement was necessary, to 1171 the places of the fit men so withdrawn by Women or unfit men. In this way, when the man—poewr situation became acute a considerable saving was effected. "During the great British attacks Of 1918, of a total male feeding strength of a little over 2,250,000 about 1,500,000 were in front of railhead. Even so as has been found to be the case in the armies of all other belligerents, so in our army the number of_fiT; men employed in the rearward services has at all times been large, and necessarily so. It is hardly too much to assort that, however, seemingly "extravagant in men and money, no system of supply except the most perfect should ever be contemplated. To give a single example, unless our supply services had been fully cflicient the great service carried out byour armies during the autumn of last year could not have ‘been achieVed_ Wars may be Won or lost by the standard of health and morale of the opposing forces. Morale depends to a very large extent ‘rqinn the feeding and general well-being of the troops. Badly supplied troops will invariably be low in morale, and an army ravaged by disease ceases to be a fighting force. The feeding and health of the fighting forces are dependent upon rearward services, andso it may be argued that with the rearward services rests victory -or defeat. In our case we dim justly say that our supply system has been developed into one of the most perfect in the world. A