As  an  example  of  the  achievements  attained  in  light-railway  con-
struction, the  fact  might  be  mentioned  that  in  the  area  of  the  Fourth
Army  a  demohshed  timber  viaduct,  250  feet  long,  was  reconstructed
and  made  available  for  traffic  in  forty-eight  hours.
Military  Forwarding  Department.
The  Mihtary  Forwarding  Department  in  France  began  on  a  very
small  scale  and  developed  into  a  widespread  organisation  which  did  a


624        BRITISH  RAILWAYS  AND  THE  GREAT  WAR.
great  amount  of  work  in  many  different  directions,  all  contributing  either
to  the  advantage  of  traf&c-manipulation  or  to  the  personal  benefit  of  the
troops.
As  early  as  August  26th,  1914,  the  need  had  arisen  for  the  adoption
of  some  means  by  which  to  ensure  the  sending  from  Base  to  Front  of  (i)
private  parcels  exceeding  the  maximum  weight  allowed  by  the  Army
Postal  Service,  (2)  "comforts"  for  general  distribution  among  the
troops,  and  (3)  newspapers  forwarded  as  free  gifts.  An  Army  Service
Corps  officer,  who  had  a  staff  of  four  clerks  placed  at  his  disposal,  was,
at  the  outset,  delegated  to  open  a  parcels  depot  at  Havre  for  the  said
purposes,  and  the  first  consignment  of  comforts  left  Havre  for  railhead
on  September  3rd,  1914.  Meanwhile  the  War  Office  had  informed  the
Railway  Executive  Committee  of  their  intention  to  set  up  a  Mihtary
Forwarding  Office  in  France  and  had  asked  if  the  British  railway  com-
panies would  provide  from  their  staffs  the  personnel  to  form  the  nucleus
of  this  Office,  or  Establishment,  as  it  was  called  a  Httle  later.  The
Railway  Executive  Committee  undertook  that  this  should  be  done,  and,
on  their  recommendation,  Mr.  E.  C.  Simpson,  of  the  Lancashire  and
Yorkshire  Railway,  was  entrusted  by  the  War  Office  with  the  mission  of
creating  the  proposed  organisation.
