G. H. Q.

C. Rags, Bones and Swill-Agriculture's good work and hard luck-T

re, once the after-the-war phase of reckless extravagance has passed away. When the cumulative effect of the unlimited submarine war made itself felt in 1918 it did not stop operations, though it may claim some of the responsibility

policy would, of course, have been ruthless; but it could have been made effective without violation of sea law and without outrages on neutrals. After August, 1914, Germany sought vainly to repair her initial lack of sound naval sense by the submarine naval war, in which every canon of sea law and every sentiment of justice and humanity were violated. The more the submarine war showed signs of failing the more atrocious and reckless it became, until in

its, and tinned fruits in the canteens. On the credit side we had those fine economy organisations, Salvage, Agriculture and Forestry

self very clearly in i

Salvage an important Administrative Service. Without a well-organised and thorough Sa

executive Salvage work, the arrangements for the disposal of Salvage material, the investigation of methods for recovering bye-prod

y supply department to recover for repair and re-issue its own articles and its own empties. It is intended to supplement that ef

f unserviceable or derelict material, and, in the second, for its disposal so tha

MY PO

its work, used to issue statements to the soldiers sho

locally. If beyond repair, sent

t to the Uni

aned and sharpened. If irrep

s in lining removed and utilised for lining serviceable helmets. Ch

Paris for classification and repair. If

in caustic soda, reblocked, resoldered if necessary, a

ecorked. Old felt sent to the United Kingdom. Water-bottles not fit for re-iss

ed on motor-driven brushes, darned and repaired. If irreparable, sent to the

in lukewarm water, dried in a drying cupboard at 100 deg. F., treated with fish-oil and repaired. If

baths. The uppers of irreparable boots as far as possibl

humourist to devise new salvage dodges, one of which I recall as holding the record for sheer asininity. It drew attention to the fac

ich made them devote a passionate interest to the recovery of solder from old tins, to collecting waste paper, old boots, nails, horseshoes, rags and buttons. "There is nothing of

ncs; cotton waste, 14,000 francs; tin-plate (won by unrolling old biscuit tins, etc.), 61,000 francs; old lead, 10,000 francs; various bye-products 7,000,000 francs. The old

nculcate in soldiers a spirit of waste. But in the final phase of this campaign every soldier had brought home to him most urgently the wisdom of saving and the re

to grow food. Major-General Ellison and Dr. Keeble came over to G.H.Q. from the War Office, and a scheme was drawn up to cultivate 50,000 acres of land. In January, 1918, an Agriculture Directorate was formed under Brigadier-General the Earl of Radnor, and search was made for a suitable area for a big farm. The quest was not a simple one. We could not poach on land that the French might want. We wished to avoid selecting an area which might be needed for a man?uvre ground for our troops in the carrying out of th

AL THE EAR

Agricultura

the agricultural tractors came in useful as aids to the heavy artillery in the retreat. Others, charging f

in army areas, some of it actually within the zone of fire. Since every ear of wheat was precious, Agriculture organised to save this part of the French harvest, and actually reaped the product of 18,133 acres. It was gallant work, done mostly by fighting men in the intervals between their turns in the trenches. Sometimes the area to be reaped was under the fire and the observation of the enemy, and the crop was cut at night. The enemy

ry clearing (which was done by Prisoners of War) was the hardest part of its preparation for agriculture. But when ploughing began with tractors other unexpected difficulties cropped up. The big armour-piercing shell with delay-action fuse, when it missed the emplacement for which it was d

, passed over to it. So the Agriculture Directorate never got in a big crop of its own sowing. But

to prejudice the prospects of bringing in timber from Scandinavia. It was Scandinavia which felt the earliest effects from the sub

racted great attention at the time. Pointing out that for the week ending October 9th not one Norwegian vessel was sunk by German submarines, the Tidens Tegn commented that this was the first time for a year that such a thing could be said. It gave then in detail th

rests for the benefit of the Allied Armies. The magnitude of the operations can be gauged from the fact that the Forestry Directorate grew to 425 officers and 11,000 of other ranks, and employed in addition about 6,000 prisoners of war. But perhaps the public, with Whitehall departments in its mind's eye, may object that employment figures are no sound indication of work accomplished. But the production figures ad

. Q., THE KIN

the teaching of economy in forest exploitation. If the lessons it inculc

nise as clearly as we were made to do at G.H.Q. in 1918 the extent to which the world is short of everything! Of course it is difficult for those who are not accustomed to give close attention to the problems of production to appreciate how deeply a world war of four years' duration affects every industry; and especially so when on one side the war was waged on the principle of destroying

that progress was slow. For years a great deal of the world had the rifle in one hand and the gas mask in the other, figurat

an body deprived of proper nourishment, it began to suffer from debility. Every neglect to replace machinery, to repair roads or to open up necessary new roads, every draft, too, made on the administrative staff, is just as much a weakening of an industry as the direct loss of hand workers. A healthy industry should be able to withstand for some time these losses, just as a healthy human body should be able to withstand some period of privation and even of actual starvation. But there is a limit to the power of endurance in

o war. Perhaps as the returned soldier makes his influence felt more strongly he will have his value in bringing the nation to a sense of the duty