Μια μεγάλη αλλαγή γνώριζε μετά το 1910 η βορειοανατολική πλευρά του δάσους του Βερμίου. Ο ήχος από τα τσεκούρια και τα πριόνια των υλοτόμων και ο καπνός από το ατμοκίνητο τρενάκι Ντεκοβίλ (Decauville), γαλλικής κατασκευής, άρχισαν να διακόπτουν την ηρεμία μιας περιοχής που δεν είχε υλοτομηθεί ποτέ «από κτίσεως κόσμου». Τα βαγονέτα της βρετανικής εταιρείας Millars Timber and Trading Company Ltd, η οποία αγόρασε το δάσος Κανέλλη από τους Τούρκους μπέηδες, μετέφεραν τους κορμούς της οξιάς σε ένα δίκτυο είκοσι χιλιομέτρων που έζωνε όλο το δάσος. Προορισμός τους ήταν το πριονιστήριο στο Γουρνόσοβο όπου η ξυλεία τεμαχιζόταν από τα νεροπρίονα για να ξεκινήσει το ταξίδι της με τον εναέριο, ένα είδος τελεφερίκ της εποχής που μετέφερε το φορτίο στα Λευκάδια, έξω από τη Νάουσα. Από εκεί, οι τεμαχισμένες οξιές μεταφέρονταν με το τρένο στο λιμάνι της Θεσσαλονίκης και έπειτα με καράβι ως τη Μέση Ανατολή και τη Σαουδική Αραβία. Μετά την κατάλληλη επεξεργασία και τον βρασμό των κορμών, ώστε να γίνουν ακόμη πιο ανθεκτικοί, αυτοί τοποθετούνταν στο έδαφος για να πατήσουν πάνω τους οι σιδηροτροχιές της γραμμής που άρχισε να κατασκευάζεται εκεί.
Πηγή : ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΒΕΡΜΙΟ ΣΤΗ ΜΕΣΗ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΗ: ΣΤΑ ΙΧΝΗ ΤΟΥ ΤΡΕΝΟΥ ΝΤΕΚΟΒΙΛ

Overseas Travel and the Greek Timber Mill at Naoussa (now Naousa)
During the First World War the British Government didn’t use up their own forests to supply the necessary timber for the war effort, but imported timber from other countries. One of those countries was Greece and because their methods there were obsolete, the British Government wrote to Millars’ in Perth, asking if they could supply a man skilled in the timber industry who could go to Greece and smarten up their industry. After the exchange of several letters, Big Harry was selected for the job. The British Government paid his fare and wages to spend two years in Greece, mainly in Salonika, to modernise the industry. We have some photos of some of these activities in the snow. He rebuilt their mill in Naousa about 100 kms west of Salonica and put a tiled roof on it. It appears tiles were more readily available than iron in Greece.[6]

When he left Greece, Harry asked the British Government to arrange for my father, George Charles Smith, who was a soldier in France, to be given leave to meet him in Paris. This was agreed. However my father George was wounded several days before and couldn’t keep the appointment. Father and son did however meet in the hospital in Stourbridge near Birmingham.

Big Harry was asked by Millars’, whose head office then was in London, to continue his trip to the U.S.A., Canada and the Philippines, to look at their timber industries. Before leaving Chicago he met his sister, Augusta, who had been living in San Francisco for some years. She journeyed by train and they began their return trip and stopped off at Postville in Iowa where they met his brother and all the other members of his family who had migrated to USA from Norway. Harry arrived there in May 1918 and had a good family reunion. Since then three of them have been to visit us and spent a week with us and we have visited them. Family members are spread over a fair bit of Iowa but Elgin is the central town. We met many family members and saw many cemeteries where members of the older generation are buried. This is how we have been able to acquire the Norwegian family tree and they were thrilled to fill in the blank space that existed in the Australian part of the tree. Incidentally, his sister from San Francisco came to stay with the Smiths in Mornington, sometime between the 1920s and ‘30s.

At a later stage Millars’ again sent him around the world to look at machines, saws, etc., to obtain new ideas. We believe that this time his trip included Japan.

I should have mentioned that one of the conditions necessary for his trip to Greece was that the person chosen had to have knowledge of European languages. He obviously knew the Scandinavian language. Grandma Smith was German and his seafaring days must have given him some knowledge of some of the others.

Morgan Smith, grandson.

The following letter was published in 1917 in the South Western Times: Letters from the Front.

The following is a copy of a letter Mr. W. Balston has received from Mr. Harry Smith, who, as our readers will recollect, was formerly manager for Millars’ Timber and Trading Co., Ltd., at Mornington: —

Naoussa Mills,

via Salonica,

Macedonia,

March 5th, 1917.

Your letter of the 22nd December reached me on the 25th February, so you will see that it takes a long time to reach one in this part of the world. It was very good of you to write and let me know how things are in W.A., and to wonder if I reached Salonica safely.

The “Morea” is a very good boat to travel by, and we had very fine weather right through, though a bit warm at Colombo and Aden. We heard at Aden of the “Arabia” disaster in the Mediterranean, which made us rather anxious for the rest of the voyage, and after leaving Port Said we had to have life belts at our side all the time until we got to Marseilles. I left the boat there and got the train to Boulogne, arriving in London on the 20th November.

I had five weeks in London, during which time our London office was trying to secure for me a passage to Salonica by transport of mail boat from Marseilles, but could do neither. I did not worry very much, as I thought there were plenty of worse places than London to spend Christmas in, despite the fact that it was in darkness at night, and sometimes all day as well, from the continuous fogs and smoke, which made it so dark that traffic had to be stopped for a day or two at a time. I think I saw London at the worst time of the year. The directors were very nice, and did all they could to give me a good time of it whilst in London, so I had a fairly good time, but as I had the worst part of the journey before me, I did not feel much inclined to go out.

Ultimately I left London on the 27th December, in company with a Mr. Campbell, who is the company’s agent in Salonica. We went to Paris in the hope of getting a French mail boat from Marseilles, but this could not be done; so we took the train for Rome and Naples, where we got an Italian steamer for Salonica. This was a very interesting trip through beautiful scenery, but it is no fun travelling in Europe at the present time, as one has to get their passports examined and filled in at every town one goes through. Luckily, Mr. Campbell could speak all the languages required as we went along, which was a great help. The Italian steamer was a small boat of about 1,000 tons, and it took six days from Naples to Salonica. We had three distinct warnings of submarines on the way, but luckily did not see any, and were glad when we got to Salonica, where we arrived on the 8th January.

The mills are 50 miles by rail and 12 miles by road from Salonica towards Monastir, and we reached them on the 13th.They are situated on the side of a great mountain, which overlooks the plains of the Vardar, and there is a great view. The forest is in the mountains back from the mills, and they are very steep, being as much as 9,000 to 10,000 feet high. They have been and still are the homes of the brigands. We have to keep five men with rifles guarding the mill night and day, these men being paid by the company. Some of these men have been brigands, but are now alright. There are also six Government police stationed at the mill. Most of the men working here live in the villages back from the mills, and when they go home once a month they have to have a police escort to their homes, as they have been frequently robbed, so you will see that this is not the best place in the world to live in.

The timber here is beech, and the trees are very small, the principal cutting being sleepers. Some of the logs are so small that they only make one sleeper. The logs are brought to the line by manual labor, there being no horses or bullocks for log hauling. The sawn timber is carried to the main line by an overhead ropeway on trestles, which works by gravitation. The timber is carried on small hangers taking four sleepers each, the load going down on one side and the empties returning on the other. As the mill is 4,500 feet above the railway, this works fairly well. We can hear the guns night and day, but must not refer to military matters. (South Western Times, 8 May 1917, p. 3)
Πηγή : Henry Smith – ‘Big Harry’ (1860 to 1937)