1934-05-12 — Page 9

PICTORIAL SUPPLEMENT

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1934.

AMERICA'S PREPAREDNESS

SKELETONISED SYSTEM READY

FOR EMERGENCIES

New York, Apr. 6. There are other unfavourable as- Seventeen years ago to-day, when pects of the comparative picture. this country entered the World At the time of our declaration of War, our Allies took one look at war tho total strength of our army reports of our undersized and was 190,000-less by 00,000 than equipped offensive forces and als- the peace time armies of Italy or consolately agreed that about all Japan, and about one-fourth the size they could expect from America of the British, French or German was money, food and raw materials armies before they began fighting. for war manufactures,

the United States has To-day maximum military strength of 430,- 800. more than half reserver. France and Italy each have fifteen times that number, counting trains ed reserves, and Japan five times as many. Even Germany, with fronty army of 100,000 has an ad-

But if another auch emergency should arise to-day the situation would be much more encouraging, In spite of the fact that we nos have a slightly smaller navy and regular army than on April 6, 1917. The Important difference is that,

a

on paper, the United States in in-ditional trained reserve of 1,000,- finitely better projared for war. 000.

authori

If 3,000,000 men now were to Our 430,000 still may soorn like. Er wol arms overnight, aut

would know exactly what to do a lot soldiers, but the figure is with them, where and how to train less inpressive when whittled down them, and could assign them at once regular army numbers 11,000 of- to available uniformied troops. Our to companies, tattalions, regiments which already exist in skeleton are stationed in the territories. Io Ocors and 117,000 meti, but many form. There was no Ruch ganization scheme prior to the Na-the continental United States, aside tional Defence Act of 1920 and the CCC camps and the like, there are

from soldiers

assigned to schools, Four-Army Plan of 1983.

only 2,500 omeers and 40,000 men ecattered about the country in nine MORE MEN.

More than 180,000 officers and skeleton infantry and three skele- men of the National Guard, wellton cavalry divisions. "Skeleton" trained. Bufformed and fairly well Is the right word, too; General equipped, would be immediately Douglas MacArthur, Chlef of Staff, available for action, in 1917 most has declared that in many of the National Guard was not sub there is but one officer on duty with ject to the call of the President, and an entire battalion. its organizations were braken up by the drafting of its individuals,

A mobilization would bring some from elvil

·80,000 reserve officers life to take up military duties which they have trained and studied to perform. There was no Organized Reserve in 1917, and no plan, as a present, for training civilians for reserve commissions.

In 1917 we had neither combat airplanes nor plats. Today we are third in the world is mimber

савез

As for ordnance and other mute- rial, General MacArthur has sald; That most of the army's present motor equipment was bulli during the World War and is obsolete as well as largely worn out. That ex- cent for about half a dozen ma- chines, every tank in the army is of World War manufacture, In- adequate in number, obsolete in de sign, and useless for modern war- fare. That the United States has spent about $2,000,000 since 1920

RIFLES IMPORTED.

of war planes. However, according for experimental and development to Major C. J. H. MacKenzie-Ken- work in mechanization, while with- British plonecr in aviation in four England appropriat development, we are sixth in hunted $20,000,000 for army mechaniza ber of factories making fighting tion projects. planes and motors. And the ma chines we have, he culculated, are se low and incfficient that American 80

On April 6, 1917, the United air forces theoretically coull be de- States had about 600,000 Spring- feated oven by the tiny Belgian field rifles, model of 1903, for its armada, or by 30 per cent of the fighters.. Government arsenals British, 40

per cent of the French could produce only 700 a day, and or 50 per cent of the Italian, Rus-actually had no specifications and which were being made for the Bri- sion or Japanese air forces. Of blueprinta which could be turned tish. course there are many American ex-over to private manufacturers. So We also had to depend on the perts who disagree.

we had to depend on Enfield rifles Allies for machine

PAGE THREE

FOR THE "NEXT WAR" The Ideal Wife

AMERICA OF 1934 PARADES HER MIGHT.

guns the

By MAURICE LANE-NORCOTT.

One of the first thoughts that must occur to a man who purchasce at the Ideal Home Exhibition In: Where can I find an ideal wife to put in it?"

Needless to say, this is a dis-' turbing question för s now house. holder to ask hiroself. :.

manufacturo Theso proved un- satisfactory anyway, so we bought the famous French 70's. We had ab solutely no medium or heavy mobile artillery no practical Instruments for indirect fro. We had some motor transport facilities, thanks to General Pershing's truck supply trains used while chasing Villa la Mexico. But we had no air service, Ideal Wife Section run in conjunc Personally, I think that a 'smill chemical warfare or tank corps,

tion with the main Exhibition THE PICTURE TO-DAY."-

Naturally the picture is quite would prove a great boon. Horo a different now. Technicians have an would be able to see all the developed armour-plorcing bullets, best types of English womanhood. better machine guns, semi-automa-actually living in the ideal homes, tie shoulder arms which, probably operating the electric sweepers will replace the old-style rifles, fast and washing-up machines, arrang alrpiance, speedy tanks,

ing the furniture, and showing in struments and anti-aircraft ar-

range-finding in a thousand little ways just what, the touch of a woman's hand can conceivably may

do. tillery which erned the threat of any Horious "Yes, that Is all very well in Ita offensive from the air. It Is way," I can hear you say. "Still, possible

only to speculate on before going any further, hadn't the new horrors our chemists you better tell us just what you have brewed against any future mean by the ideal wife?"

спету,

and

and

America's preparedness lies largely in His establishment of a huge skeletonized organization In- to which readily may be fitted millions of new men, and in its far-flung plan for the mobiliza- tion of industry. Some 1,700 leading manufacturing concerns have been surveyed to determine which war materials they best could make. Cash register fac torics can, and in on, emergency must, turn out shell fuses; arti ficial silk plants, explosive: steel milla, guns; auto plants, tanks and trucks, and so on. Minute speci- fications have been worked out for each product, and even the neces eary machine tools have been pro- vided. Another war would find American industry ready and able to melt ita ploughshares Into swords.

only ring us up at the office to re- mind us of things best forgotten.

This would make her much less Ident in no time.

Q. And suppose in a reatau- rant you were to say to her, "Will you have a cocktail?" and she were to reply, "No, thank you. I'll just have a sip of yours." What then?

4. Then she would be little less than a thoru in the flesh and quite unfitted to inhabit an ideal home.

Q. And where would you im- agine the ideal wife might be found?

4. Alas, I cannot suggest one

Chaub-chaut automatic rifles of the had no 87 mm. guns, Infantry French, the Lewis gun and the howitzers or trench mortars worth Browning machine gun, both the mentioning. For field artillery we latter inventions of Americans. We had a few 5-inch pieces of German place.

Well, I will do my best in the following frank questions and an awers.

Question: What colour should the ident wife be-blonde, brunette or platinum?

Answer: She should be blonde in the morning, brunette in the afternoon and platinum in the evening..

Q. Should she be tall and stately like Greta Garbo and Kay Francis or petite and chic liko Sylvia Sidney and Janet Gaynor?

A.: Sometimes she should be, and Kay Francis and at other tall and stately like Greta Garbo times she should be petite and chic like Sylvia Sidney and Janet Gay- though, or on the back carriers of nor. When sitting in baby care, motor-cycles she should be extreme- ly tiny and very agile like Mickey Mousc.

Q.

Should the ideal wife spand any part of her time in the ideal kitchen?

A.: That depends.

Q. What do you mean by "that dependa"?

A: Well, I mean she should be able to cook solo vin blanc and chocolate souffle in the ideal oven, but such crude foods as rico pud- ding, hashed mutton and ango should be beyond her powers.

Q. Should the ideal wife use the telephone?

A. Certainly not.

Q: What reason have you for saying that?

A. A very good reason. If she used the telephone she would 'Continued on previous column.}

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