BATTLEFIELD SALVAGE

North Otago Times, Volume CIII, Issue 13651, 19 August 1916, Page 3

BATTLEFIELD SALVAGE

.. EVERYTHING RENOVATED. •'HOSPITAL" IX)li OLD BOOTS. /'BRITISH MILITARY Till! I FT, . ll Neiniroyileh Danchenko, (he J'aonous Russian war correspondent,, who ,ha,s.recently contributed several articles., (describing his visit lo the British front in France, gives, a'graphic account of the wort; done behind the line in salving the wreckage on the battlefield. JVever, I think, has ,1 he. practical genius of. the English revealed itself. so : Strongly as in this war. We were taken 10. see their activity in Hie rear of the army., II was one of Ihe (owns whei'e, the whole of tin? work for the nearest .corps 'is, cojiccnlrated. Here some thouI sands of French women whose fathers, hu'sbands v awl brothers have gone. to. the war,earn a .handsome living of.,' which they could not dream in peace, time. ... It is most marvellous lo see the things Diat are done here, Take, for, instance, boots. Our boots when they are worn out ;are thrown away by the soldiers, We saw heaps of these castoffs near the Russian trenches in Galicia awl Poland, and indeed of what use could, be that leather torn in pieces and as hard as wood,? Here, however, things are different. We saw sheds full ofilhese old boots, piles of rubbish, and. I conld not understand what they were gb|ng\ ; to,\ilp. v wifh it all; luit here .we. saw stage, by. si age this rubbish turned •agftin into splendid boots, soft and strong. First, .of; all. the ;) old.boots were soaked in a mixture .and then, passed from hand to hand until .they, became pliable, They are then scrubbed'and rubbed and carefully patched, New soles are sewn'on, and the boots arc then hobnailed. All this is done by •machinery.' This repairing shop turns out about a thousand pairs of boots per, day, .and it is expected that it. will shortly, be able, to turn out about live thousand. The boots pass, on .to the department where the women are working. They gi\'e tjie boots a bath of boiling oil; and straighten and shape them. After undergoing several other processes tho boots are again immersed in an oil bath and'finally at the other end of the workshop you see similar piles, not of hideous rubbish,, but of comfortable, splendid boots with solid .soles, ! Nothing Wasted, The same. thing is done with the khaki, and linen. First' the beastly looking things are passed through steam of the' highest temperature. The rags are then handed to.the women, who rip off the sound portions with sharp knives, as, for instance, collars, sleeves, cuffs, etc. Then the women, in long' indiarubber gloves reaching up to their'elbows, wash these rags in a disinfectant, freshening and softening them. From here they are taken .to the workshops, whore they are made up again awl returned to the army quite new and ready for use. Those portions which are quite useless are put into sacks and .sent over to the mills in England, so that nothing is wasted. ' ■. . Renewing;' tho Guns, A crashing, thunderous roar, blazing furnaces, showers of sparks, the shrill .cry of, 'iron "under jh.e qui ting knife, a fdeafcuing roar of copper under a ml ■■hot" drill. This is the .'hospital for .punde'd cairnou,,..machine-guns. and rifles. Those which cannot be recast arc .sent .to England,..the remainder are .rebprejl, .'patched ..iipy refitted with .new mechanism to replace the damaged parts—'aiid, all this wilhin a day's journey; 'from |,he corps .so.'that .the guns ■which' arc liors. de .combat to-day- return again in live days to llieir'positiftijs.'i'n'a lit'.a'ud proper state.for "battle, ilb'oW, rifles' are ,cd!Jecled, : ,nwj .just as '' , ' le i t f!)!l;J*'9^:-.'?i l L : . ! l l ' |l '.' ,u ' l ieiil.lier.'sliiigs ;tre.dtejl, l !'Tlia''pu.iJs ami.' wooden parts •are (repaired. Ihe damaged metal purls areircpjaced'. by. ,new ones, the ru.sly .barrels arp 'freshened, up, and in.a.day. or two these heaps of old iron which seemed to be quite useless, .return to the ; ,reg.iments awl look Jike brand new, ■•: • 'Repairing Motors and Bicycles. Thousands of broken bicycles arc re-, ecived, here., The.spare,parts' are sent from England-; and., sometimes, almost on the : following"day, the broken bicycles, return in a lit awl proper condition' to ( ': their' units/' ■ Motor-ears and motor-cycles receive .similar treatment. There are-whole sheds full of spare parts—radiators, generators, gear-boxes, tyre's, . cylinders, etc—thousands of them. A'niotor-lorry is brought in today in an, absolutely dilapidated stale; it. is, ready in the evening, cleaned, and is tearing again at full speed back to] its \init. ' i , Everything here is on an enormous, scale. The bakcHes. have turned out in the cotirje of fiye months 40,000,0001b of bread. Newclothes, boots, and tinned stuff fill sheds right up to the roof." When we passed through the store-, house for waterproofs we could not be-, lievtj our eyes... '. . i We passed through a number of building's where old ,aml abandoned gas masks are renovated. Here, again, the, girls wear long india-rubber gloves;" they disinfect the masks in a hike-warm' chemical solution.,.and carefully wash them, so that you cannot tell the masks from new ones? T saw here for the first time gas masks for horses and carrier, pigeons!, .The cages,'of .the pigeons arc covered over with them, and thus the birds are preserved from the asphyxiating gases! " .", ,' n -,...' .. 'Used carl ridges, spoilt cartridge cases, parts, of shrapnel-glass, diaphragms, Ivr.oken boxes, small machine-guns on •motorcycles—one does, not. know where to look, Finally you.become dazed and walk" about bewildered, T repeal (hat all this complicated mechanism of a huge auxiliary department is within a few hours' journey from the firing line, and one ought to see how this work pro--ccods' without any hitch, without any hubbub or shouting, as a beautiful machine where every screw is*, doing its little" work in complete harmony with the rest,