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Show II Pershing Issued Orders Upon Signing of Armis- ! ice to Cat Supply. I FACED BIG PROBLEM Necessary for !L S. to Purchase Millions of I I Tons' of Food, III PARIS, Nov. 25. General Pershing lijjf Issued orders after the signing of the njf armistice with Germany, for the aj prompt reduction of the extensive sys-hI! sys-hI! tern for purchasing supplies for the wnR United States army in Europe and for lww, the speedy transition to a peace basis, wilw Acting on this order, military author-Wfcfa author-Wfcfa itiese have given no'ticc of cancella-Wjfl cancella-Wjfl tion of contrapts so far as possible igfjlj "with a view to diminishing rapidly the mwU inflowing stock of supplies required I h for an army of 2,000,000 men. An of-W of-W gS f icer who has had much to do with fflftj this brand? of the service sums up SlU the situation as follows: (3 IS Serious Problem at First. Hi "The American expeditionary force ufllft on Tvcmbor 11 was traveling at full jfjjra speed ahead and was at the height of tsHgj its supply activity. To reverse this I tremendous business machine is the task upon which it is now engaged and the efficiency of its business or-' ganization Is being manifested In Its quick accommodation to entirely changed circumstances. "When the American forces first began be-gan coming to France thero was a great scarcity of ocean tonnage. It was impossible for many months to ship more than 300,000 or -100,000 tons of supplies to the forces, notwithstanding notwithstand-ing the great necessity for engineering engineer-ing and general construction equipment equip-ment Search for material in Europe, therefore, had to be conducted with the greatest possible energy over a wide field. Purchased Supplies "Over There." "The American army established agencies in all Allied and neutral countries under a general 'purchasing agent. "More than ten million tons of material ma-terial for the expeditionary forces was secured on this side of the ocean. To have transported this material from America woudl have taken 300 ships of 5,000 tons capacity about 480 days or sixteen months. "Apart from food supplies theamiy lias secured the bulk of its material from Europe. Notwithstanding the ' great emergency under which it oper- , ated the American army endeavored to subject itself to all the checks and ! balances of a normal business organi- zation which were possible under the circumstances." |
