FRENCH FORESTS FOR OUR ARMY 



969 



France. Accordingly, General MacDougal, head of the 

 Canadian Forestry Corps, secured mill equipment and 

 forestry companies to handle the exploitations. The for- 

 ests were supplied free of charge by the French in return 

 for certain tonnage which France required for the trans- 

 port of raw materials. 



It was not until September, 1917, that the Comite 

 Franco-Brittannic de Bois de Guerre was organized by 

 Lieutenant Sebastien, to handle the acquisition of stand- 



THE FRENCH GAS MASK 



Wood workers were often so close to the fighting that they had to wear 

 gas masks for protection while gathering fuel wood or securing stakes for 

 barbed wire. 



ing timber and the purchase of manufactured lumber 

 from Switzerland and other countries for the British 

 Service. This Executive Committee worked under the 

 supervision of General Chevalier, Chief of the Inspec- 

 tion Generale des Bois, under the Ministry of Armement, 

 which controls all the wood centers of France. 



When Lieutenant-Colonel Graves, Chief of the United 

 States Forest Service, arrived in France to organize the 

 American Forestry Section, one of his first decisions was 

 to join this wood committee in order to avoid competi- 

 tion with other army services in France, and in order to 

 reap the benefits of an efficient existing organization. 

 Accordingly, in September, 1917, Colonel Graves was 

 appointed American Delegate to this committee, and the 



name of the committee was changed to Comite Interallie 

 des Bois de Guerre. The work of the larger organization 

 was transacted by an executive committee composed of 

 Lieutenant Sebastien for France; Colonel John Suther- 

 land for Great Britain; Lieutenant-Colonel John Lyall 

 for Canada, and Major T. S. Woolsey, Jr. (for standing 

 timber) and Major Barrington Moore (for lumber, etc.) 

 for the United States. 



This committee which met twice a week, purchased all 

 standing timber outside the army zone, for the British 

 and American armies, and later was joined by a Belgian 

 delegate, Major Parlongue. Timber purchase in the 

 war zone, which consisted chiefly of fuel, was conducted 

 by Lieutenant-Colonel Peck working through the French 

 Mission at Chaumont at which city General Pershing 

 established the American Expeditionary Force head- 

 quarters. Major Badrey, of the French Forestry Service, 



THE FRENCH CUT LOW 



With true French thrift applied to forest cutting the French forests left 

 stumps as low as cutting with axes or saws permitted. 



was attached to this mission for the express purpose of 

 facilitating these purchases. 



Under an agreement between France and England, 

 France supplied the standing timber, while England sup- 

 plied the equipment and personnel, for manufacture and 

 transport to the railways. When the Americans joined 

 the C. I. B. G. the British were established in the Landes, 

 Normandy, and in the Vosges-Jura. In addition there 



