SENDING TROOPS OVERSEAS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23745, 17 September 1942, Page 5

SENDING TROOPS OVERSEAS

AMOUNT OF SHIPPING REQUIRED C8.0.W.) RUGBY. Sept. 18. To send a fully-equipped infantryman overseas needs eight tons of shipping space, and 21 tons a man is required for armoured divisions and air forces, according to the estimate of Colonel Frank S. Ross, of the transportation branch of the United States Army. Speaking in London, Colonel Ross said that although between 4000 and 5000 men could be transported in a liner across the Atlantic, it took five or six freighters to bring their equipment. Unfortunately, one of those ships mignt be lost, and thus a time lag was created in equipping the troops. Not an inch of shipping space was wasted when troops were brought to the United Kingdom. The dispatch of United States troops to the European mainland wculd present a difficult problem, although he thought it could be done. A very special type of craft would be needed which combined high speed and range. Major-General Lewis B. Hershey, United States Selective Service Director, stated, according to a Washington message, that the size of the United States Army this year will exceed the 4,500,000 goal announced by General Marshall in June. He stated that while the new goal was not made public, it was no longer 4,500.000. Unemployment in Britain.—'The number of men and boys in Britain wholly unemployed at August 17 was 71.308. Compared with July 13, the numbers showed a decrease of 2CO among men, but an incre”o of 5452 among boys The corresponding figures for \v~r- rn and girls at A ugust 17 were rr.2 n '', a decrease of 2974 emorg wrnv’n compared with Ju’v 13, h nt pn Wer-«r“ of 3P50 among girls.—Rugby. Septeml: jl 15. M