A Commotion "Over the Pond"

Friday 12th January 1917

Readers will recall that we reported that between 1st and 9th January the Regiment had received 414 reinforcements. Today 2nd Battalion received another 56 of them.

There is some talk of the former colonies in the army today. News reached us early this morning of a great explosion at a munitions factory in the state of New Jersey. The United States of America is, of course, neutral in this war, but its munitions industry has grown greatly since the outbreak of hostilities and the insatiable need of the allied armies for ammunition from bullets to shells of the largest calibre.

This explosion, we understand, is rumoured to have been caused by a German agent. Whether this is true or not, it shows that the people of America have a distrust of the Germans and their allies which might, in time, drive them into the alliance against the Central Powers(1)

Source: X550/3/WD

(1) The Kingsland Commission, reporting in 1931, concluded that no German agent was implicated in the explosion and fire which destroyed the whole factory but, mercifully, took no lives.