OCR Text |
Show TAF1DIEU REVIEWS RESULTS PIED French High Commis-! Commis-! sioner Describes Amer-j Amer-j ica's Military Effort as i "Wonderful and Splendid," Splen-did," and Declares That What Has Been Ac-j Ac-j complished Is "Magnif- ' icent." j j FRANCE TO SUPPLY j GUNS FOR 500,000 j More U. S. Troops in Europe Than Comprised Com-prised the Army a Year Ago; Aviation Develop- ments Beyond Expectation; Expecta-tion; French Hold Three-fourths of Line. NEW YOr.K. Fev Announcement that France will a hie before July 1 to manufacture er.onph artillery to supply twenty American divisions, or approximately approxi-mately oC-O.vO troop?, if the United States me 3 n while adheres to an und-rhUndini: by whi'h France would rece.c the necessary nec-essary raw n a to rials from America, wa male here tonight by Andre Tardieu. I French l;:ch commissioner to this country. coun-try. Mr. Tardieu made the Ftatement aU- that there are in France today more Amerh an t roops t han comprised t he American army at the time the United States entered the war. At ttiat time, he Faid. the American army contained about "li-.0r0 officers and men. The French official spoke at a dinner Thich was part of Now York's celebration of the Jour de 1 Alliance Francalse. hich was observed throughout the United States and Canada today, the anniversary of the treaty btwen France and the American colonies In 177?. Julep J. Juf-srHtid. tji(! 1-Yench a mba ?ador. aLo v.'ae a guet of honor. Things Accomplished. Asserting that "secrecy ouglu to be a tiling of the past, because our democracies democ-racies want to know In order to will," M. Tardieu Fald that "Just appreciation of the results achieved'' by America In Us war preparations "Is a stimulant fnr effort, and nobody has the right to refuse to tho American people this stimulant." The commissioner reviewed the nation's accomplishments and outlined what France had done in the way of manu-faciurinc manu-faciurinc ordnance, both for the United Stages and for France's other allies. ""We have in line." he added, "about l-V'O uns of eery caliber, and every day more than -imiimo shells a re turned out l'v our factories. To .cet those, guns, to produce those shells, we created an imiustt y whir h did not exist before the war and which has enabled us not only to arm ourselves, but also to arm our allies. Supplies for Allies. "Without specking of what we manufacture manu-facture for you, and that is several hundred hun-dred guns a month, we have during the past lhre years given to our allies in Europe l.SO.Ooo ri:"ies, lo.O'jij automatic rifles, IP.OOo machine guns, S(i,0l.i.iiV cartridges, j.Vh.i guns and 4750 aero-plane?. aero-plane?. "But. as we have agreed. It is understood under-stood that von should supply and transport trans-port to France the neoessa ry raw materials. ma-terials. We wKI, under such conditions, be able in France to deliver to you before July 1 enough guns to thoroughly erjulp twenty of your divisions. The situation, therefore, is completely safe in that respect." re-spect." Tribute to America's Effort. Mr. Tardieu described America's military mili-tary efforts as "wonderful and splendid," and asserted it had been "a surprise to the enemy." "T have co-operated for nearly tn months, hour by hour, with every part of your war organization." he 1 said. "What you have done is masnifi-( masnifi-( rent, worthy of your allies, worthy of i veurse'ves." I Alluding to the raising of the national (Continued on Page Two.) T1IEU 'REVIEWS RESULTS ATTIED (Continued from Page One.) army, Mr. Tardieu declared that "no event of wider import has ever taken place since the beginning of the war" He continued: "Thus your government, with a clear and courageous view, has given you the strength of numbers, the first condition of military power. In April, 1917, you had officers and L'02.510 men. You have now 110,000 officers and 1.500,000 men, and the number of your rpen France at the present moment is notably in excess of the establishment of your army nine months ago." Every Measure Taken. France, be said, has taken "every necessary nec-essary measure" so that America can complete, in France, the training begun here. Regarding aviation. American developments de-velopments had been "beyond all expectation." expec-tation." he declared. He outlined how America had helped the entente also financially and with shipping, food and fuel aid which he described as "immense and conclusive." "Wherever, on special points," he added, add-ed, alluding to his association . with officials offi-cials at Washington. "I believe that mistakes mis-takes have been made. I say it frankly: the heads of the cabinet or the heads of your departments know it from their own experience."' "I have the optimism of the satisfied," Mr. Tardieu said, discussing the situation situa-tion generally, "and as long as I shall be here as the representative of my country, I will ask from you, every' day, a still greater effort. After forty-three months of war our needs are huge indeed in-deed and in order to supply them enormous enor-mous sacrifices are required of you." What Critics Ignore. The speaker recalled that America, in order to equip its army with guns and airplanes, called upon the allies for its immediate needs, at tho same time in-augu in-augu tat tng a programme of American manufacturing. "Some people in Europe, as well as here," he said, "have been wondering why you should not, in that respect, have done everything by yourselves. This criticism crit-icism shows that those people ignore, firstly, what time means in war, and. secondly, how infinitely complicated is the industrial war organization, which from the very start its required by the extensive production of ordnance and aviation. "I have drawn roughlv the results of the military effort of the United States for a period of less than ten months. I do not believe that any impartial man should say that this effort is now completed, com-pleted, but I declare that any Impartial man must admit its wonderful extension and splendid achievements." War Industries Board. Monev was the first aid needed by the allies, Mr. Tardieu went on, saying: "But it was not sufficient. Indeed, for lack of a general organization of production the United States and the allies would have competed with each other in every factory, and sterility would have resulted from this anarchy. But in this respect 1 mav tate--and no one run be better informed than the representative or one of the allied countries that the centralized cen-tralized organization realized for the allies al-lies by the war industries board and the war purchasing commission is excellent in every way. "During the month of December last, the high commission called the attention of the shipping board to a crisis affecting verv seriously our supply in gasoline and oil for the first two months of 191S: Today To-day the measures taken by the board allow al-low me to state that this imminent peril is absolutely confined to those two months. Coal Quickly Furnished. "Last January 17, when arriving in New York, I found thirty-seven ships unable un-able to sail for France on account of lack of coal; on January IS the restriction orders or-ders for coal were issued by the fuel administration ad-ministration and when I left New York on the 22nd ail our ships had coal. "More recently I have found myself obliged, together with my allied colleagues, col-leagues, to draw the attention of Mr. McAdoo and Mr. Hoover to the insufficient insuffi-cient arrival of cereals in the American ports. I am convinced that the measures which were immediately studied and de cided upon, unanimously, will bring for the next month a decisive improvement. Their execution ha? already begun." Mr. Tardieu reviewed what France 1b doing today. "Officers and soldiers mobilized mob-ilized on January 1, 191$, not including the native troops from the colonies and the. workmen ia thft factories," lie said, "amount to 4,725.000 men, of whom nearly 3,000,000 are in the army zone. "The extent of the western front is Too kilometers. EelKians hold twenty-five, English 165, French 565. We hold therefore, there-fore, three-quarters of it. We have in front of us eighty German divisions, that means two-thirds of the German first-line first-line troops, and more than half of the German reserve divisions. The Germans do not entrust to any one-of their divisions divi-sions a front larger than six kilometers; ours often hold nine kilometers each." |