THE AISNE COUNTRY.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 March 1919, Page 1

THE AISNE COUNTRY.

HEAVY DAMAGE OF WAR

FACTORIES RUINED AND MACHINES SMASHED. Owing to the fact that the Department of Aisne has been the scene of some of the most severe fighting of the war, extensive damage has been inflicted upon its cities. It was not until the Germans had reached the extreme southern end of the department that the .allied troops slopped their advance, and in driving the enemy back fighting took place over a considerable portion of its length. The historic names of Chateau Thierry, Senlis, Soissons, the Marne, the Aisne, St Quentin, Laon, and the famous Chemin des Dames are all found in the Department ol Aisne, and each of the places or rivers to which they belong bears the marks of destruction that will require many years of patient work to restore.

According to S.iillens’s ‘ hacts About France,’ the population of the department in 1908 was 534,495 inhabitants, the agricultural population being 405,000. The average density of the population is exactly that of France— namely, 73 inhabitants per square kilometre. The capital is Laon, with 15,288 inhabitants.

Of the department’s total area, the larger portion is agricultural land, the chief products being cereals, and the department exports 270.000 quarters of wheat yearly. Cotton and wool tissues are the staple industries of St Quentin, Boliain, and Nouvion, while Fres-uoy-le-Grand manufactures silk shawls silk gauze, and thread. St

Gobain turns out 5,500,000 square feet of plate glass, which is about one third of the total European production. The works of St Gobain, Chaunv, and Cirey employed more than 1,000 persons before the war.

Another industry of importance is the cast-iron works at Guise, which turns out 4,000,000 francs’ worth of heating apparatus and other articles in cast-iron. Guise and several other places produce steel, copper-plate, files, and agricultural implements. Eighty sugar factories in the department produce 90,000 tons of sugar, and other products are paper, candles, boots, and chemicals.

Of the 45,000 horse-power utilised in the Department ot Aisne, fourfifths are estimated to have been employed in factories in that portion which was in German occupation. The sugar refineries, of which there were over So, employing nearly 15,000 people, have been severely damaged, and their restoration will be a serious problem. A French sugar refiner who visited Laon states that the sugar refineries were given up, generally speaking, to complete destruction. All sugar mills in the district of Laon have been stripped ot their equipment. At Crepyen-Laonnais, which is still intact, the installation in the sugar refinery has been carried off. The structures had been mined, but orders were given by the Germans before their departure not to blow them up. Doubtless this was because of the allied warning to them.

St Quentin was an important industrial centre, not only of the Department of Aisne, but of France as well. The textile industry included numerous mills for combing and carding wool, for spinning cotton, and for the manufacture of embroideries.

In each factory the spectacle is the same. Either the destruction is complete, or else the walls remaiu standing, but with the looms smashed to pieces. Outside are piles of scrap-iron, ready to be carried off into Germany. Besides this destruction of industrial plants, hundreds of villages are in rums ; railways, roads and canals are badly damaged. The amount of material needed to restore the economic life of the Department of Aisne can hardly be estimated. The textile industry of the invaded regions is co-operating with the Comptoir Central d’Achats Industries pour les Regions Euvaliies in the matter of joint purchase and distribution of materials for reconstruction. This is an association formed with the support of the French Government.