CORDUROY ROADS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17206, 28 June 1916, Page 5

CORDUROY ROADS.

(From H. WARNER ALLEN, representative of the British Press with the French Army.)

In preceding articles 1 have discussed at some length tho important part played by light railways in the military organisation behind the firing line. Iheso railways aro capablo of rendering invaluable services, and military experts consider that it is impossible to lay too much emphasis on the importance of laying down behind the trenches an absolutely complete system of railw aj s. However, railways are not by any means tho only problem which has to be solved by tho First Bureau of the General Staff. After building fresh lines of normal gaugo and constructing hundreds of miles of narrow gauge lines, this Bureau has to face the question of roads. In the Champagne Pouilleuso the question of roaclli is particularly difficult. Such roads as there were were had owing to the nature of the soil, and they were necessarily few and far between in so impoverished and so sparsely populated a district. Here again tho military engineers went to work on a rational plan. A general scheme was drawn up to provide the army with all tho highways necessary for its communications. Sinco the Champagne was capable of swallowing up tons of stones without any apparent effect, the new roads were laid on logs wherever the foundation was bad. JTliese corduroy roads, as they are called', since the logs aro laid aide by side, like tho ribs m corduroy, have performed inestimable services, and, thanks t° their existence, it has been passible to bring up heavy artillery across a perfect sea of mud. They aro kept as well as is possible in the circumstances. _ The tremendous strain upon them inevitably makes them far from ideal from the point of view of the motor-car, but they aro perfectly passable, both for automobile and horse-drawn vehicles. Mud is really a minor matter so long as the convoys can pass. , THE WATER SUPPLY.

Before the war drinking water was almost as scarce in the Champagne Pouilleuso as in tho desert, and tho military engineers have had' to boro hundreds of wells to supply the troops. Unfortunately water is only struck at a great depth. Tho matter, however, was taken seriously in hand by the High Command, and gangs of professional well-sinkers, drawn from the soldiers mobilised, were formed. The result is that the country is now covered with points d’eau (water provisions stations), which, though less romantic, are quite as precious as the oasis of tho desert. . . Endless difficulties had to be faced in the boring of tho wells. At certain seasons those that had not beon sunk deep enough ran dry, and all that could be drawn xrom them was a curiously obnoxious species of uiud. These weds were at once doubled, one shaft being used as far as possible, whilo the second shaft was driven down to a point at which fresh water would certainly be found. , Now the organisation is complete. At fixed points along the Decauville railways cisterns have been erected, and into them water is pumped by machine power. Pines are run on wooden supnorts in such a. way that the tanks' can fie filled with the least expense of time and labour. Drinking troughs, have been provided for tho hovses, which in the past had been watered with the greatest difficulty. In some cases, where there is reason to suspect, the purity.of the water—particularly in places where thero has been very heavy fighting—a general system of water distribution has been arranged. Pipes have been laid down from springs at a considerable distance, and a whole tract of desert country, inhabited for the moment by large bodies of troops, has been nrovided with a permanent water supply such as many towns would be glad to boast. In tho Champagne Pouilleuse there is a scarcity of wood, ■as of everything else, except mud. Before tho war there were a certain number of small pine woods, but the pino trees never grew big and did little more than exist in iis inhospitable soil. Since tho war these woods have been cut to pieces in the front lines by French and German shells, and in the rear by the axe of the engineers. Now such woods as aro left are urgently needed for cover, since experience has shown that in modern warfare woods possess a far greater' military vahio chan was ever supposed. For the organisation behind the lines endless supplies of wood are. needed. All the water installations, for instance, are built of wood. The soldiers’ cantonments and the ambulances require thousands of square feet of planks and tons of hewn logs aro needed for the corduroy roads. The wood has to he brought up from the rear. A good deal is provided by tho forest of the Mountain of Rheims, and as a general rule it is sawn up ints> tl,e planks required by the temporary sawmills established just in. the rear of the fighting zone. No little time and thought- have been given by the First Bureau to the establishment of these sawmills at points where they will be most useful and best, provided with means of communication.

Tlie principle on which the entire French organisation is based is that of assuring a mioimmn of waste. This principle is particularly well illustrated by the system of meat supply. As a general rule it may be said that tbe Army is provided with fresh meat, and frozen meat is only used to make no for n shonaco. which in tho eircumstances is inevitable. On the day

when I visited ono of the most important meat depots behind tho Champagne .line, 30,000 fresh meat rations had just been served out, and a deficit of 10,000 rations had been mad,c up by tho frozen meat brought from abroad.\ The system is as elastic as possible, thanks to the Paris motoromnibuses, which are used to convey to each depot just that amount of frozen meat that will make up tho deficit of fresh meat. Everything .Is done to prevent unnecessary carrying to and fro, as motor- buses aro a severe strain on the roads..

Tho military slaughter-houses, to which tho cattle are driven, aro extremely clean and well equipped, and tho commissariat officers take the greatest pride in tho fact that no part of the beast killed is wasted. One ol them remarked rather sadly that this statement was not absolutely correct, although they hoped it would soon ho so. They possessed an apparatus ior heating the blood and converting it into manure, but unhappily so far they had nob been able to find a buyer. However, they hoped that tho farmers of the interior would soon take off their lmncls the only hv-product of which they had been unable to dispose. THE SUCCULENT DELICACY.

Tho French soldier is particularly fond of tripe, which makes a welcome change in his rations, and the Army butchers now provide him with appetising dishes of that succulent delicacy. The troops arc also supplied with liome-mado sausages, which were boing "smoked” in savoury fashion over a fire of wood shavings and onion poel, tho latter intended to give a special flavour. Tho hides of tho slaughtered beasts are salted and dispatched, according to their size, to various tanneries in tho interior. Tho horns are also sold and represent a considerable economy to tho State. The poilus are all agreed that their food is both varied and excellent, and that its system of distribution is. as perfect as possible. Not the least of its advantages are the caro and skill with which .every description of wasto is obviated. No pains aro spared to ensure the State getting tho fullest value for its money, and continually ever sinco the beginning of trench warfaro the general organisation has been imoroved and developed until it has reached a pitch of perfection hitherto unknown.