e steel and concrete refrigerating plant, which was to
have machinery for the production of its own ice and sufficient
meat-storage capacity to provide a million men for thirty days. The
water for the ice was being obtained from wells which had been already
sunk. There was only surface water there when the Americans first
struck camp.

As another clear-cut example of what America is accomplishing in
France, I will take an aviation-camp. This camp is one of several, yet
it alone will be turning out from 350 to 400 airmen a month. The area
which it covers runs into miles. The Americans have their own ideas
of aerial fighting tactics, which they will teach here on an intensive
course and try out on the Hun from time to time. Some of their experts
have had the advantage of familiarising themselves with Hun aerial
equipment and strategy; they were on his side of the line at the start
of the war as neutral military observers. I liked the officer at
the head of this camp; I was particularly pleased with some of his
phrases. He was one of the first experts to fly with a Liberty engine.
Without giving any details away, he assured me impressively that it
was "an honest-to-God engine" and that his planes were equipped with
"an honest-to-God machine-gun," and that he looked forward with cheery
anticipation to the first encounter his chaps would have with "the
festive Hun." He was one of the few Americans I had met who spoke with
something of our scornful affection for the enemy. It indicated to me
his absolute certainty that he could beat him at the flying game. On
his lips the Hun was never the German or the Boche, but always "the
festive Hun." You can afford to speak kindly, almost pityingly of some
one you are going to vanquish. Hatred often indicates fear. Jocularity
is a victorious sign.

When I was in America last October a great effort was being made to
produce an overwhelming quantity of aeroplanes. Factories, both large
and small, in every State were specializing on manufacturing certain
parts, the idea being that so time would be saved and efficiency
gained. These separate parts were to be collected and assembled at
various big government plants. The aim was to turn out planes as
rapidly as Ford Cars and to swamp the Hun with numbers. America is
unusually rich in the human as well as the mechanical material for
crushing the enemy in the air. In this service, as in all the others,
the only difficulty that prevents her fr