FEW BIRTHS IN FRANCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 June 1920, Page 4

FEW BIRTHS IN FRANCE.

PARIS, April 1. “ If depopulation continues in France at the present rate we shall be a dead race in 40 years,” was one of the striking statements made to me to-day by the head of the National Alliance for Increasing the French population. Serious facts and figures are contained in a report just issued by tide society. It is demonstrated that' throughout France the death-rate is higher than the birthrate, and in the majority of departments overwhelmingly so. The position in the south is worse. First, if one draws a line straight across from Bordeaux to Switzerland it emerges that in the area to the south of such a line there are nearly three deaths for every birth. In tlitfj Var, on the Riviera, for every 100 births there are no fewer that 335 deaths. The figures are for the period July, 1914-July, 1918, but they do not include war losses. They refer to the civilian population. It is emphasised that France Kas in the last five years lost 973,000 inhabitants, exclusive of the heavy civilian death rate in the occupied territories. In this region the situation is worse. In the Nord department in 1918 there were 8,000 births against 33,000 deaths, or T birth to every 4 deaths.