ARMY SUPPLIES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 72, Issue 6239, 7 June 1946, Page 5

ARMY SUPPLIES

BIG JOB DURING WAR MEALS BY THE MILLION The total cost of foodstuffs sent overseas from the beginning of the war up to December 31st last was £1,557,481,” said Mr Percy Salmon, who, in a luncheon address to the Auckland junior chamber of commerce reviewed the activities of the Army supplies and transport system in New Zealand during the war and the operations of the New Zealand A-S.C. Mr Salmon was for five and a half years staff officer to the Director of S. and T. and for a time commander of the A.S.C. ’Dealing with overseas activities, the speaker said that his branch had to provision and maintain the three echelons with seven days’ reserve rations and a day’s landing rations during the first three years of the war, as wiell as supply canteen goods, Later, only landing rations were supplied, and on the formation of the Canteen Board in 1941 it arranged its own supplies. Shipping companies provisioned the troops going overseas and the Imperial Government rationed them in Europe at the cost of the New Zealand Government. At one stage there were 37 different units serviced overseas, said Mr Salmon, and of this number 33 were wholly supplied from New Zealand. Many were in posts in the Pacific and some consisted of two P. and T. men and a soldier companion, who were given supplies hermetically sealed in small containers. In order to provide fresh vegetables a hydroponic installation by which vegetables could be grown without soil, was made on Fanning Island, and this scheme was showing results when duties there were taken over by U.S. forces.

Quite a large sum was expended on experiments in connection with the preparation of a battle ration. While this did not go into production it was highly commended by Army leaders in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

The S. and T. branch purchased supplies to the value of £607,937 and assembled and dispatched them to the New Zealand Forces Clubs in the Middle Bast on behalf of the National Patriotic Fund Board as shipping became available, continued the speaker. These supplies were sold in the clubs at New Zealand wholesale prices, the costs, freights and charges being covered by the exchange rate. On this side the patriotic fund, board was able to show a profit of £60,000. Shipments to the clubs included at least 2,000,000 cigarettes and 6800 lbs. of tobacco each month-

The free gift of foodstuffs made by the New Zealand Government to Greece contained £62,641 worth of Army supplies in 36,000 cases. The Moscow mission was equipped with foodstuffs for one year. The S. and T. branch also provisioned a secret naval expedition with foodstuffs.

Some idea of the task of feeding and transporting troops in New Zealand can be realised when you are told that at the peak period from July to September, 1942, there were 85,080 in the Army, with approximately 110,000 in the Home Guard, 60,000 in the Navy and Air Force, and 100,000 enrolled in the E.P.S., a grand total of 355,080, said Mr Salmon. At the same period we had 2,426 in the Middle East and United Kingdom and 4262 serving in the Pacific, making an overall of nearly 400,000 connected with the forces.” Mr Salmon said that the number of rations issued by the Army in New Zealand from September, 1939, to December 31st, 1945, totalled 54,879,896, representing 164,639,688 meals. The average cost of these meals was 7-52 d. The quantity of food eaten could be gauged from the fact among other items were 34,657,787 pounds of bread, 57,224,954 pounds of fresh meat, 77,311,215 lbs. of potatoes and fresh vegetables, 7,740,180 lbs of butter and 7,077,315 gallons of milk. Besides New Zealand troops the Armyfbad also to feed the Japanese prisoners of war at Featherston. They were supplied with 2,380,500 meals at a cost of 5.035 d. a meal, which also covered five cigaretttes per man daily. As the Covenant pf the League of Nations operated, the SXviss Consul in New Zealand watched the welfare of the prisoners and a special scale of rations, cut to the bare minimum, was maintained. The Army also had the task of feeding the Polish children who were in the former internment camp in Pahiatua. They arrived in September 17th, 1944, and up to the end of December last had been issued with 1,113,183 meals, costing 7.088 d. per meal. In order to deal with undernourishment which the children had experienced before coming to New Zealand special vitaminised food was provided.

During the Japanese threat to the Dominion, huge quantities of reserve rations were built up and stored in strategical positions, said Mr Salmon. All of these were eventually withdrawn and either absorbed into current stocks or disposed of through other channels, with the result that at the end of December last the Army had no surplus stocks of foodstuffs. Other phases of activity by the S. and T. branch included the rationing and transporting of the U.S. forces on their first arrival in New Zealand, and the provision of food and transport for New Zealand servicemen who were employed on harvesting work. Indicating the expansion of the S. and T. branch from four Staff Corps officers and 18 men, most of whom went overseas early in the war, to 24 officers and 500 other ranks, Mr Salmon said that the additional men had to be drawn from civilian sources. Through the A.S.C. companies, which had also to be trained and controlled, the S. and T. branch was responsible for food, forage for animals, petrol, oil and lubricants for vehicles, fuel and light, disinfectants, and the provision of reserve rations for emergency purposes. It had also a great deal of transport work to carry out during the war years.