1,500,000 U.S. TROOPS FOR FRANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 April 1918, Page 8

1,500,000 U.S. TROOPS FOR FRANCE.

(PROVISION OF AEHLLEEY. Washington, Jan. 28. Mr. Baker, Secretary of War, in a statement to the Senate, said that the United States will have 500,000 men in France early thin year, and 1,500,000m0re men ready to go in 1918. In reply to criticism/?that in equipping the American troops an undue burden was placed on Great Britain and France, the Secretary of War said that Mr. House's aides-de-camp had established that both Great Britain and France have a surplus of ordnance, ammunition, and manufacturing capacity. He also gave statistics regarding the manufacture of artillery in the United States, and disclosed the fact that the first Sin anti-aircraft gun was delivered this month. It is fair to say (he remarked) that the. American Army in France, large as it is, and the American Army to be sent there, large as that is, are and will be provided with artillery of the type they want as rapidly as they can use it. Our problem was to get over to, and at, the enemy. It was not for us to map out an, ideal plan. Our problem was to get into co-operation with Great Britain, ! France,, and our other friends in the moat i immediate and efficient way. The problem could not be decided here. It is so extraordinary and so vast that it must >be seen and studied on the ground before it can be comprehended at all.

Mr. Baker told of the coming of an Anglo-French Mission, which would include Marshal Joffre. He added that | General Perishing and othete now in lErance would be the eyes for the United