BATTLEFIELD SALVAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16300, 5 August 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

BATTLEFIELD SALVAGE.

EVERYTHING RENOVATED. j " HOSPITAL" FOR OLD BOOTS. BRITISH MILITARY THRTFT. M. Nemtroyttch Daxchexko, the famous Russian war correspondent, who has recently contributed several articles describing his visit to the British front in France, gives a graphic account of the work done behind the line in salving the wreckage of the battlefield. Never. I think, has the practical genius of the English revealed itself so strongly as in this "war. We were taken to .«ee their activity in the rear of the army. It was one of the towns where the whole of the work for the nearest corps is concentrated. Here some thousands of French women whose fathers, husbands, and brothers have gone to the war earn a hand some living of which they could not dream in peace time. It is most marvellous to see the things I that 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 cast-offs near the Russian j trenches in Galicia and Poland, and indeed i of what use could be that leather torn in I pieces and as bard as wood? Here. lu>w- ! ever, things are different. We saw sheds ! full of, these old bouts, piles of rubbish, ! and I could not understand what they ' were going to do with it ail: but here we ; saw stage by stage this rubbish turned 1 again into splendid bouts soft and strong. ! First of all the old boot* were soaked in ; a mixture and then passed from hand tj ' hand until they became pliable. They are I then scrubbed and rubbed and carefully i patched. New soles are sewn on, and the I boots are then hob-nailed. All this is I done by machinery. his repairing shop I turns out about it/00 pairs of boots per day, and it is expected that it will short iv i be able to turn out about 5000. I The boots pass on to the department where the women are working, 'lhev give the boots a bath of boiling oil, and i straighten and shape them. .Alter underI going several other processes the boots are ! again immersed in an oil bath and finally J at the otheT end of the workshop you see I similar piles, not of hideous rubbish, but of comfortable, splendid boots with solid soles. I 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 por- | tions with sharp knives, as, for instance, j collar?, sleeves, cuffs, etc. Then the woj men, in long india-rubber gloves reaching | up to their elbows wash these rags in a I disinfectant. freshening and softening them. From here they are taken to the I workshops, where they are made up again I and returned to the army quite new and | ready for use. Those portions which are j quite useless are put m sacks and sent over to the mills in England, so that no- • thing is wasted. | Renewing the Guns. j A crashing, thunderous roar, blazing furj naces, showers of sparks the shrill cry of i iron under the cutting knife, a deafening ; roar of copper under a red-hot drill. This ■ is the hospital for wounded cannon, . | machine-guns, and rifles. Those which can- > | not be recast are sent to England, tie re- > mainder are rebored, patched up, refitted • with new mechanism to replace the dam--1 aged parts—and all this within a day's 1 journey from the corps so that the guns which are hors de combat to-day return

—— ~ r gain in five days to their positions ii a fit and proper state for battle. Broker rifles are collected, and just as the ton. boots, so are the leather slings treated. The butts and -wooden parts are repaired, the damaged metal parts are replaced by new ones, the rusty barrels are freshened lip, and in a day or two these heaps of old iron which seemed to be quite useless, return to the regiments and look like brand new. Repairing Motors and Bicycles.

Thousands of broken bicvcles are received here. The spare parts "are sent from England and sometimes, almost on the following day, the broken bicvcles return in a fit and proper condition to" their units. -Motor-cars and motor-cvcles receive similar treatment. There are whole sheds full of spare partsradiators, generators, gearboxes, tyres, cylinders, etc.—thousands of them. A motor-lorry s brought in to-dav in an absolutely dilapidated state: it i's ready in the evening, cleaned, and is tearing again at full speed back to its unit. Everything here is on an enormous scale. 'J he bakeries have turned out in the course of five months 40.000.0001 of broad. New clothes, boots, and tinned stuff fill sheds right up to the roof. "When we passed through the storehouse for waterproofs we could not believe our eves. Renovating Gas Masks. We passed through a number of buildings where old and abandoned gas masks are renovated. Here, again, the girls wear long india-rubber gloves they" disinfect the masks in a lukewarm chemical solution and carefully wash them, so that vou cannot, tell the masks from new- ones." I saw here for the first time gas masks for horses and carrier pigeons! The cages of the pigeons are covered ever with them and thus the birds are preserved from the asphyxiating gases. Used cartridges, spoilt cartridge cases parts of shrapnel—glass, diaphragms! broken boxes, small machine-gun on motorcycles— does not know where to look Fma lv you become dazed and walk about bewildered I repeat that all this complicated mechanism of a huge auxiliary department is within a few hours' journey from the firing line, and one ourrht to see how this work proceeds without any hitch without any hubbub or shouting" as " a beautiful machine where every <=crew is doing its little work in complete harmony with the rest.