Page:Fred Arthur McKenzie - British Railways and the War (1917).djvu/33

 Carnarvon on February 3, 1917, the Prime Minister dealt with this matter:—

"The Germans discovered early in the war that the railways are a great military machine. As usual, we come a little later.

When I was Secretary of State for War one of my first duties was to appoint a great railway manager to take over the question of railway transport. The Commander-in-Chief in France not merely welcomed his appointment, but instantly appointed him as chief railway representative behind the lines. He is one of the ablest railway men in the world, and the railway system there has been taken in hand. But you needed locomotives, you needed wagons, you needed drivers, you needed steel rails, and even if these had been times of peace you could not have had them without taking no end of time manufacturing for a great demand of that kind. The President of the Board of Trade had to take the matter in hand. He thought it was common knowledge that there was infinitely more travelling on the part of the general public in this country than in any fighting country in the world—non-essential travelling—and he advised these restrictions in order to cut down unnecessary travelling.

"What has been the result? He has already saved hundreds of locomotives—I could tell you how many—for the Army in France, and their drivers are volunteering to go there. The Union of Railway Servants has been extremely helpful to us in engaging them. He saved tens of thousands of wagons; he saved scores of