The Austrian subsidy scheme is along the same lines as that in force in Germany, but favours a lorry of slightly lower carrying capacity, probably in view of the mountainous nature of many of the frontier roads. The total amount of subsidy payable is in the neighbourhood of £360 spread over a period of five years. The scheme was inaugurated some time after those of France and Germany, the first trials being held towards the end of 1911. Certain parts of Austria are well provided with roads, so that there is a fair field for the commercial use of motor transport. A large number of vehicles, not of subsidy type, but no doubt capable of being made useful for light work in time of war, are used for the carriage of mails in Hungary. In the Austrian Tyrol, there are numbers of motor services for the carriage of mails and passengers, but on the whole Austria is probably not very well provided with mechanical transport. Her manufacturing industry is limited, and she imports in fair numbers from her neighbour, Germany.
Italy can only find very small use for heavy motor vehicles in commercial service, and consequently it would be futile as yet for the Government to depend upon anything in the nature of a subsidy scheme. During the Tripoli campaign, a considerable number of rather lightly built lorries were obtained by direct purchase and proved very serviceable. Probably they are not of a type which would be by any means ideal in a European war, though they were doubtless the right thing for work over loose sandy tracks where heavier machines might well have become inoperative.
Russia also has no subsidy scheme on account of its comparatively poor industrial development, and also the very inadequate quantity and quality of its roads. For such vehicles as are used, the country is dependent upon import, while the army must depend solely on direct purchase from foreign manufacturers. It is rather interesting to note that out of about 2,000 industrial motor vehicles exported by Germany during the year 1913, no less than 25 per cent. went to Russia, practically the whole of these being known to represent Government orders. Russia has been buying motor lorries for military use from British firms for many years past. An engineer who accompanied one of the first vehicles supplied from this country, describes the roads over which the car had to work during its official trials as follows:
“The road was covered with fine sand, banked up a few feet above the level of the surrounding country, in which the wheels of peasants’ carts had cut ruts about 12 ins. to 14 ins. in depth. The gauge of these ruts being narrow, it was necessary to drive with one pair of wheels in the ruts, the other pair meanwhile cutting ruts of their own. At intervals planked bridges had to be crossed. These were old and unsafe; therefore, it became necessary to lay down a temporary track of boards to distribute the weight over as many planks as possible.”
At first sight it would appear that under such conditions the purchase of motor lorries by the Russian Government represents a waste of money, but the facts are explained by a credible story circulated within a few days of the outbreak of war to the effect that the Austrian military attaché a day or so before leaving Petrograd expressed surprise that so many motors were being mobilised. “Your roads are so bad,” he said. “Yes,” was the reply, “but yours are good.”
CHAPTER XII
Emergency Measures on the Outbreak of War
The Work of the Chief Motoring Organisations—The Requisitioning of Vehicles by the War Department—Arrangements for subsequent Supplies.
A noteworthy feature in connection with the mobilisation of the British Army on the outbreak of war was the energy with which the great motoring organisations took up the duties of rendering the private motorist, so far as might be possible, available for the service of the Government. The Royal Automobile Club sent out a circular letter to some sixty provincial Automobile Clubs affiliated to the parent body, asking that their members owning motor cars should be requested immediately to register them with the R.A.C. for the use of the War Office and Admiralty, in case they should be wanted. This scheme was simultaneously furthered by means of advertisements in the principal organs of the London and provincial press, and posters were placed in all the Club’s officially appointed hotels and garages throughout the Kingdom. Registration forms asking for particulars of cars, and an indication of the nature of the service for which they would be made available, were rapidly prepared and widely distributed with admirable results. These machines were placed at the disposal of the War Office and Admiralty both for home and for foreign service, and in many cases their owners made their own services available for facilitating or accelerating the urgent business of the country by providing officials with a ready means of rapid transit.