MAKING AMERICA'S ARMY

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 25, 29 January 1918, Page 7

MAKING AMERICA'S ARMY

INITIAL ERRORS QUICKLY RECTIFIED

NOT A MAN SENT AWAY UNTRAINED OR UNARMED

(AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received January 29, 9 a.m.)

WASHINGTON, 28th January. Mr. N. D. Baker (Secretary for War) made a statement to the Military Committee of the Senate, for the purpose of refuting charges that the War Department has broken down. Mr. Baker did not deny that mistakes and falsa starts had been made. It was impossible to conduct a great enterpri«e without shortcomings; but the errors had been quickly rectified. The War Department considered that it was better to send men to camp without rifles than to wait until the rifles were available. .. In" spite of the fact that the number of troops despatched to France- was many times greater than was expected, not a man went untrained or without a rifle France desired that American troops should be sent quickly, and'so had agreed to supply the biggest guns required. Every man in thirty-two camps was ready to be sent to France. The United States would have half a million troops in France early, in the year, and-more than a million and a-half ready to send.