AMERICA'S AID.

Observer, Volume XXXV, Issue 45, 17 July 1915, Page 15

AMERICA'S AID.

In "Stead's Review" (Melbourne) the editor summarises the great aid the United States has rendered! the Allies in the European War. After pointing out that the Colonies are putting 150,000 men or more in the field, he asks, "Who is doing most to end the war—we or America?" The "we" is, of course, the Colonies. And continues:—The following list of a few of the main articles which the factories of the United States are turning out for the Allies tells its own tale:—

1,100,000 rifles. 300,000,000 cartridges. 15,000,000 lbs. of explosives. 50,000 revolvers. 1,500 machine gun®. 200 armoured motor care. 900 six-inch guns. 40 nine-inch guns. 4,000,000 steel arrows. 50,000,000 feet of lumber for railroads. 6,000,000 kegs of horse shoes. 5,000,000 pairs of socks. 60,000 tons of steel for shrapnel shells. 5,000,000 yards of cloth for uniforms. 1,000,000 aluminium canteens. 6,500 motor waggons. 8,000 kitchen waggons. 1,000,000 blankets. 2,000,000 pairs of wollen gloves. 3,000,000 pairs of boots. In addition, great quantities of overcoats 1 , trousers, underwear, barbed wire, steel, knapsacks, cotton duck for tents and stretchers, and, in fact, huge supplies of everything an army needs. Georgia is practically denuded of its famous mules, and more than 155,000 horses have been secured. To help feed the gigantic armies the Allies now have in the field the exportable surplus of the greatest wheat crop in record has been poured across the Atlantic. At the end of last year it is estimated that at least £60,000,000 worth of munitions of war and material for the armies had been manufactured, or was in process of making, in the United States. By this time it is safe to say that that amount has been increased to £100,000,000 ! And _ the magnificent work of the American Commission has saved the people of Belgium from starvation.

5.0.5.:—1 have for many years borrowed' a copy of Auckland "Weekly News," and have luxuriated in its pictures. Until the last issue I was not aware that it was a comic publication. In old days a public entertainment called "The Marionettes" was a feature of social life, and the large picture of the landing of the colonial troops at Gallipoli strongly reminds me of those marionettes. It was evidently a kind of vaudeville show this Gallipoli business done by opera bouffe soldiers made of wood and holding plaster positions. I observe a wooden soldier tossing a laughing Turk over his head on the point of a bayonet, greatly to the amusement of the onlookers, and many other humorists pasted' on the scenery with good comic adhesive glue. It is a splendid example of the pictures that have never been published by any papers up to the present. The decision of the Auckland "Weekly News" to enliven the serious business of war with marionette exhibitions, and to cause roars of laughter in relatives of the comic soldiers who .have died is of special interest to you, sir. You do not seem to have grasped the laughable possibilities of spilt blood. May I recommend that you also revive the marionette entertainment.