In European countries, the comparative shortage of industrial motor vehicles rendered necessary a more wholesale programme of requisitioning. Thus, for example, Paris was promptly denuded of the whole of its fleet of motor omnibuses, about 1,100 in number. A few years ago, the old double-deck type of motor omnibus, at one time used in Paris, was discarded in favour of a long-bodied single-decker, capable of carrying up to about forty passengers. These machines are so designed to the requirement of the Government as to be capable of being transformed rapidly into waggons for the carriage of meat. The windows are replaced by wire-gauze screens, the seats removed and the handrails fitted with hooks. Alternatively, the ’buses can be equally easily adapted for the carriage of wounded, by simple fittings from which stretchers or hammocks can be slung. [Illustration: _“The Autocar” photograph._ A LARGE NUMBER OF DAIMLER LORRIES HAVE BEEN TAKEN OVER BY THE MILITARY AUTHORITIES. THE EXAMPLE SHOWN IS FITTED WITH A SHIELD CONTAINING A SHEET OF TRIPLEX GLASS WHICH WILL STOP A RIFLE BULLED AT 100 YARDS.] During mobilisation, numbers of motor vehicles were employed in France to transport troops, and, moreover, those of the Paris ’bus type are of undoubted utility for this purpose whenever it may become necessary to transfer moderately large bodies of men rapidly from one point to another, where convenient railway communication does not exist. All the Continental countries involved in the war made strict provision against the export of motor vehicles of any kind, while even in Great Britain an order was, for a period, in force, prohibiting the export of heavy industrial vehicles. It was, in fact, realised in advance in all quarters that a war of such magnitude and involving the employment of such huge numbers of men, could not conceivably be fought along the lines anticipated and subsequently realised, unless full dependence were placed upon motor transport in the first case for the provision of food supplies, and as a corollary for a similar service of warlike stores, for the carriage of wounded, for scouting, and for enabling commanders and staff officers to travel with sufficient rapidity and freedom to make it possible for them to realise with sufficient accuracy the essential facts with which they were called upon to deal. _Wyman & Sons Ltd., Printers, London and Reading._ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: Text in italics is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. Archaic spelling that may have been in use at the time of publication has been retained. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Motor Transports in War, by Horace Wyatt