To meet the shortage of supplies from America, due to lack of shipping, the representatives of the different supply departments were constantly in search of available material and supplies in Europe.  In order to coordinate these purchases and to prevent competition between our departments, a general purchasing agency was created early in our experience to coordinate our purchases and, if possible, induce our Allies to apply the principle among the Allied armies.  While there was no authority for the general use of appropriations, this was met by grouping the purchasing representatives of the different departments under one control, charged with the duty of consolidating requisitions and purchases.  Our efforts to extend the principle have been signally successful, and all purchases for the Allied armies are now on an equitable and cooperative basis.  Indeed, it may be said that the work of this bureau has been thoroughly efficient and businesslike.

Our entry into the war found us with few of the auxiliaries necessary for its conduct in the modern sense.  Among our most important deficiencies in material were artillery, aviation, and tanks.  In order to meet our requirements as rapidly as possible, we accepted the offer of the French Government to provide us with the necessary artillery equipment of seventy-fives, one fifty-five millimeter howitzers, and one fifty-five G P F guns from their own factories for thirty divisions.  The wisdom of this course is fully demonstrated by the fact that, although we soon began the manufacture of these classes of guns at home, there were no guns of the calibers mentioned manufactured in America on our front at the date the armistice was signed.  The only guns of these types produced at home thus far received in France are 109 seventy-five millimeter guns.

[Sidenote:  The first airplanes received from America.]

In aviation we were in the same situation, and here again the French Government came to our aid until our own aviation program should be under way.  We obtained from the French the necessary planes for training our personnel, and they have provided us with a total of 2,676 pursuit, observation, and bombing planes.  The first airplanes received from home arrived in May, and altogether we have received 1,379.  The first American squadron completely equipped by American production, including airplanes, crossed the German lines on August 7, 1918.  As to tanks, we were also compelled to rely upon the French.  Here, however, we were less fortunate, for the reason that the French production could barely meet the requirements of their own armies.

[Sidenote:  The attitude of the French Government liberal.]

It should be fully realized that the French Government has always taken a most liberal attitude and has been most anxious to give us every possible assistance in meeting our deficiencies in these as well as in other respects.  Our dependence upon France for artillery, aviation, and tanks was, of course, due to the fact that our industries had not been exclusively devoted to military production.  All credit is due our own manufacturers for their efforts to meet our requirements, as at the time the armistice was signed we were able to look forward to the early supply of practically all our necessities from our own factories.