VARIOUS DUTIES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20860, 12 August 1942, Page 3

VARIOUS DUTIES

ARMY ORDNANCE CORPS DISTRIBUTING SUPPLIES ALL THEATRES OF WAR (British Official Wireless.) (Noon) RUGBY, Aug. 11. In four days Russia was supplied with 3,000,000 yards of greatcoat cloth, enough to stretch from the White to the Black Sea, said General Sir Walter Venning, Quarter-master-General, who is retiring after 3i years of office, in describing some of the multifarious activities of .the Quartermaster-General’s department. The general added that these activities involved precision in the storage and distribution of every commodity which .the army required except medical stores in order that the army could live and fight. The military personnel of the Ordnance Corps had expanded by 3000 per cent since 1939. Close liaison between .the army and the Ministry of Food and leading scientists enabled the army to follow scientific development. The arm investigated dehydrated foods and boneless meat before the war and these were now in supply.,to-day. During air raids, army .vehicles delivered drinking water and- essential foodstuffs in huge areas like London, Birmingham, and-Gdventry. Besides -jjpdd arid rail services in Britain, the department also undertook rail construction abroad, including Libya, where 26 miles of .track was laid in one week. It also built new deep-water docks in more than one part of the world capable of taking large ocean-going ships. General Venning is being succeeded by Lieutenant General Riddell-Web-ster, who has had much experience in India and the Middle East.