matra, Dec.
Christmas day saw a certain amount of military activity in the neighbourhood of the Spanish capital On the Jarama front, Republican artillery bombarded certain passes used by Insurgent forces to relieve the Pingarron garrison.
South of the River Tagus and Estramadura Province, Loyalist patrols invaded insurgent territory where they captured a number of prisoners.
On the front in the immediate vicinity of Madrid, Loyalist trenches on the Corogne road and around the University City were subject to enemy artillery fire, but did not suffer serious damage—Havas.
With the American declaration of war the calls from the Allies were insistent for hurried aid from that country. General Pershing was select-єt as commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Forces. There came into operation the selective service act, or draft law, under which more than 24,000,000 American between the ages of 18 and 45 were registered for military service. Of that number more than 2,800,000 were inducted into service, which, with enlistments in the regular army and 500,000 National Guardsmen, brought the army eventually up to 3,737,000. Approximately 2230000 American troops were transported overseas.
After the war, the process of dismantling the huge fighting machine presented problems almost as great as encountered in the building up of it. This work was begun almost immediately upon the signing ai the armistice, and within a year 3,226,000 American soldiers had been returned to civil life.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.