MOTOR CYCLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 114, 17 May 1938, Page 16

MOTOR CYCLE.

VALUE IN WARTIME.

EXAMPLE IN GERMANY.

FOR QUICK MOVEMENT

The value of the motor cycle for speedy military movement in the ease of national emergency wa<s demonstrated on the occasion of the recent rush of troop*, tallies and mechanise;] unite from (iorniiiiiy into Austria. While triifhV ainii;' the highways to the frontier was re|ieate<ll y held up ill traHie blocks through t-licei , weight of numbers thoil-t-ands of motor cyclists, taking up little --pace mi Ihe roads, were able to speed on their fst~t machines pa*:t the heavier mechanised units, armoured ears, tanks, etc.

In Europe the outstanding mobility of motor cvilc military corps is appreciated fully. Germany alone has over 1.."527,000 registered motor cyclists, providing a great Held from which to draw young men well versed in the mechanism of motoiv for their military mobile units. France Ins over "00,000 motor cyclist*!, Great Britain 402.439, Italy 180,000, Belgium 64.736; Austria had 03,941, Holla ml 55.784 and Czechoslovakia 49,031.

Australia, with over 80.000 motor cyclists, so far appears to have done little towards enlisting the interest* of this wonderful potential for mobile military work, say* the Dunlop "Bulletin." Given encouragement, voliinteeer motor cycle corps could be established in each of the Slates, units which, after proper training, would provide the nation with a mobile force unsurpassed for ability to speedily get places where cars, trucks and mechanised units would have difricultv iu reaching. The Hon. 1). 11. Drnmmond, M.L.A. (New South Wuliw Minister for Education), made an interesting statement on this subject at the Australian Automotive Engineering Convention last month. lie stated that, after a six month*' \ it-it to Europe, lie came back to Australia with a sense of disquiet, not only because of what he had eeen in aviation 011 the other side, but because of what he ha.l seen of mechanised transport in practically every department of life.

"I recall." said Mr. Drnmmond, "one morning after leaving the capital of one of the great central parts of Europe that a soldier in rtill kit raced up alongside our car on a motor bike and waved us to one side of the road, and for something like 35 or 45 minutes I saw a continuous mechanised column of men on motor bicycles rolling by four abreast, in full war kit, only broken occasionally by a section of motor transport, armoured cars, which followed them and broke the continuity of the movement, not as regards its speed, but as regards its formation.

"They passed me by at something like 25 or 30 m.p.h., and if you could calculate the stream of men that flowed by us you could understand my feelinge when I stood at the parade ground in Centennial Park, Sydney, a few months later and I saw our gallant little Australian army, well spaced out to make a good show, go, by at something like a walking pace for something like two hours and a half, and someone said to me, 'Isn't it a wonderful sight?' My mind went back to what I had seen on the other side of the world and I said, 'It is.'"