CLOTHING THE ARMY

Evening Star, Issue 19711, 11 November 1927, Page 5

CLOTHING THE ARMY

From the beginning of the war until 1915 there were scarcely any uniforms for the recruits. The available supply of shirts, boots, and socks was not more than 1 per cent, of the requirements. Recruits might have been seen with foot coverings worn to the bare feet and shirts protruding through what should have been the seats of their trousers. A parade of these receipts, in the very early days, was an unforgettable sight. Sqmo > were dressed in old-time red militia jackets, but the majority wore many varieties, of civilian suits and hats. It was an army of strange contrasts, but never liner men. From August, 1914, until March, 1919, the Quartermaster-general provided 30,000,000 uniforms, 20,000,000 cardigans, 23,000,000 caps, 8,000,000 greatcoats, 57,000,000 shirts, 130,000,-000-pairs of socks, 47,000,000 pairs of boots, 3,000,000 gqat and other skins, and many million square feet of sheepskin leather to be used for jerkins. Altogether the expenditure on clothing amounted to £300,000,000. The Q.M.6. had to provide some astonishing things. Mesopotamia required mosquito netting and sun helmets, whih skis, .snow shoes, sledges, alpenstocks, ice creepers, and ice axes were required for Italy and the Murmans expedition. Then this much harassed, but never flurried, general 'had to find wireless apparatus, kites, balloons, anti-gas equipment, dogs, carrier pigeons, cinema film, photographic equipment, and many other surprising things. The flannelette for cleaning rifles alone was sufficient to stretch from London to Auckland and back again.. Four hundred railway waggons were loaded every day with goods for the fighting front. The salvage operations of the Q.M.G. were wonderful. The fat, that usually was regarded as waste-was redeemed and used for making nitro-glyccrine for

high explosives. In Hie Southern Command alone, where the New Zealand ! ocat f l i, 110 lcss than 140,484 18-ppunder shells were made in September, 1916, as a result of the waste fat that had been salvaged. In one year 18 million 18-pounder shells had been so provided. In former da vs damaged and blood-stained clothing was sent to the incinerator. During this war it was examined, and if possible reconditioned. A weekly sale of salvaged boots brought in £IO,OOO. Nearly a million pounds was received for cloth cuttings, and the amount received for rags totalled three million pounds. Half a million uniforms were reconditioned and reissued at a cost of 4d a garment. In two years the clothing reception depot received four million garments. Fifteen per cent, of these were reissued, and the remainder—7,ooo tons —were sold as rags. What a blessing the Army postal service was to the bovsl This again was under the control of Sir John Cowans. In 1914 it was 250 strong. By the end of 1917 it had reached a strength of between three and four thousand. The records show that in October, 1914, the weekly average of parcels was 60,000. In April, 1917, it bad risen _to 958,000. During'the four weeks prior to Christmas, 1916, the parcels sent to the troops in France amounted to 4,660,000. This proved to be the peak, because the establishment of canteens greatly reduced the demand on the postal service. Still, magnificent work was done by this department. In my own experience not one letter, paper, or parcel missed me, and _ everything I posted reached its destination. Many parcels and letters were poorly made up and inadequately addressed. If they went astray that was not the fault of the' Postal Corps.,