THE ROADS OF WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 June 1917, Page 3

THE ROADS OF WAR.

CONSTANT TRAFFIC N'IGHT AND DAY. Among the nvar themes discussed in "'titles in the Windsor Magazine for April is a. description of "Road-Making in the War Zone,'* a subject of which the importance and necessarily farreaching scale of the work arc explained with many interesting details and striking illustrations from photographs. In the course of his article the writer, Mr. K. D. Ushaw. says:— "Country lanes that never saw a car must now support endless trains of W.D. wagons. There they go, bonnett to rear, like gigantic lchaki caterpillars, tearine the surface with Juggernaut tyres of war. "And everywhere are watchful breakdown gangs, ready to drive a magical loop lane round any blocked section till the lepairing mechanics have done their work, and the 'cripple' starts again. Or. if it 3)e a bad case, watch the feverish wires calling for the flying shop—a miniature Sheffield upon wheels, that comes racing from nowhere 'with its furnace and clattering gear. 'These rescuing shops travel like fire-engines, and themselves call for well-made roads to support their hurrying onslaught. "All night long the roads of war are crowded. The flame of gfuns, the glare of rockets and searchlights reveal a scene of endless traffic. Here the dis-patch-rider buzzes at forty miles an hour. 'Here the artillery lumbers clumsily. \ou catch the rumble of nonderous wagons and caissons, the hum of Staff cars, the hoofs of mounted men, the rattle of cable-carts laying out wires from local headquarters, whether of armv, army corps, division, or 'brigade. "It is titanic work l to keep in good repair these endless tree-lined roads. But what of now routes occasioned bv the shifting fortunes of war—by new plans, say, for a greater advance than wo ever made before; a surprise advance, or even Bome military sleight and auMe calculated to deceive enemy airmen and the German High Command? Our roads-makers are never still, but winter and early spring aro assuredly their busy seasons. Then it is you see 'Highlanders and Canadian woodmen hacking at caplins and trees in woods as yet untorn by shell fire. The trunks are used for 'corduroying 1 swamps and muddy 'bogs. Th rough timber is loaded upon lorries and deposited at (he roadside ready for the -

(Here and there you will see a great gun in trouble despite its team. Or the shell-wagon topples over whilst essaying a short cut to a battery which has urgently 'phoned for supplies."