REORGANISING METZ

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 104, 27 January 1920, Page 8

REORGANISING METZ

FREEING CITY OF ITS GERMAN ELEMENTS.

It has been said lately 'that discontent was rife in Lorraino on account of the dilatory methods of French administration, which hamper rather than help the development of industry and the resumption of commercial activity (writes the Paris correspondent of the "Christian Science Monitor"). Yet if one studies Hie question 'a little closely, one. can realise the great difficulties the much-criticised French officials have to cope with, and one can oven sympathise with them in thpir task

The'case of Metzis typical. After tho armistice, was signed, those who wished to return were confronted with many difficulties; Germans possessed nil the largo industrial, commercial, and finan-„ cial concerns. Tho metallurgical indus-. try, with one exception, had entirely passed into the hands of.tho Germans. All tiiese'concerns ore still at tho present moment under sequestration.

Lorraine was thus placed in a painfully critical situation. Lacking' both men and money, it is only now, by the immense effort of a few French officials, in. a fair wav of possessing both. Mr. Prevel, the Mayor, is slowly freeing the city from its German element. Some 20,000 Germans have already left Jtetst and its suburbs, whilst those Germans who present certnin guarantees of loyalty a're allowed to remain.

Slet7, has 'resumed the aspect of a French city; numerous shopkeepers of all kinds have returned, and there is not a shop to let. But from an economic point of view, the situation is not so satisfactory. All the activity of the city has been, for the last half rcntnry. turned eastward toward Germany, as the lnw of ISU2, with its prohibitive tariffs, made all commerce with_Fran.ee practically impossible. To-day it must be directed westward toward France, and how to do this ns promptly as possible is .the problem which solicits the attention of all who wish the welfare of Lorraine.

i Metz lias an incomparable economic I future awaiting it. Industrial))' itsprosnerity will be unequalled, as undoubtedly J it is' about to beoomo the great inetali lurgieal centre of Lorraine—one migrlit ! almost fay of France—thanks, to its ! proximity'to the Briey and the Soar | basins. I Its resources in iron are almost Ixwnd--1 le.-s, as the annual extraction amounts to i almost. 30,000.000 tons. This ore can bo j smelted in the 65 foundries of liberated Lorraine. In 1013 the production of i smelted iron ore for Che whole of Franco | only amounted to 5.200,000 tons, whilst j the pioduction t£ steel reached 4,550,000 I tons. Lorraine cm now produce 3,500,000 | tons of the former and 2,400,000 tons of • stool. j Tho remaining ore. some 10,000,000 tons, ■will be exported to Belgium and to BiibI land and also to Germany, which will i furnish coal from the Ruhr basin, as the | Soar coal is not sufficiently resistant to j support the weight of melted iron. But ■■ in order to import the 1200 or, more tons of coke necessary daily for 1 tho foundries of Lorraine, come 1200 wagons are noed- ' ed, whilst 3600 wagons arc indispensable to carry back the 30,000 tons of ore which ' will compensate Germany for her 13,000 ! tons of coal. In face of the ever acute j transportation situation, these statistics | assumo an almost alarming character. ! liivcr transport must be substituted for land transport, and the canalisation of tlio Moselle appears to be a necossilv. When this is done, barges bearing GOO tons or more will descend the Moselle to the Rhine, going ihus to Great Britain, from whence they will bring back coal . in exchange,