London, Oct, 11, Within five weeks of the outbreak of wat, Britain had. transported. to France" 158,000 men, This was among interesting revelations made in the House of Commons today by Mr, Leslie Here-Belisha, the Secre~ lary of State for War, when he fold for the frst. time of the part now being played by the British Army in the war.
"We have fulfled—and more than fulllled—our undertaking recently given to France to dispatch to that country" in event of war a British Expeditionary Force "of specified dimension within a specific time, he. declared, "Nor are the con-fingents at' present across the Channel the last that will arrive.
"During this period," he added, "we have also created our base, lines of communication and organiza: lon. so as to ensure a regular flow of supplies and munitions of every kind, and to receive further con-fingents as, and when we may decide to send them. The major operation is thus over.
He compared the task of today with that of 1914 and said "In, those days, there were only 000 mechanic fed vehicles in all, and it was a rare Toad that exceeded a couple of tons, We have already, on this occasion, transported to France more than 25,000 vehicles, including tanks, some of them of enormous dimen= sions and weighing 18 tons apiece or more,'—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.