DEVASTATED FRANCE

Hokitika Guardian, 30 May 1921, Page 3

DEVASTATED FRANCE

FACTS AND FIGURES OF WAR HAVOC.

PROPOSAL TO UTILISE GERMAN

LABOUR

In a recent article, the Paris correspondent of the London “Times” supplied some additional particulars of the havoc wrough by the Germans in tlie invaded districts of France, and the measures of restoration under discussion. The appalling nature of the devastation, the correspondent observed, is well known, and long lists of the facts and figures of the ruin caused have already been published, but at a meeting of tlie French Society of Civil Engineers, over which the President of the Republic (M. Millerand) presided, further light was thrown upon the immensity of the problem of restoration. “Most interesting was the report ol M. Albert Montier, engineer in charge of the technical services of the Compagnie du Nord. on tlie means of communication. Tlie total destructions on the railways were, he said, on the Northern system 106 miles of main lines and many thousand miles of branch lines; 811 bridges; eight big viaducts; 580 miles of principal lines were destroyed, together with 202 stone bridges, 17 of which were from 80 to 140 yards long, over the Meuse, the Aisne, the Avre, the Marne, and the Ourcq,; 162 metal bridges, and 10 tunnels.

“The sum of all the damage inflicted on the railways had been assessed at about 4,000,000,0001’. (£80,000,000), leaving aside the loss which could not he assessed and was due to the long years in which the regions had been systematically ruined. Passing to roads he said that 38,000 miles had been destroyed, representing more than 100,000,000 paying stones at a cost of L'27.000,000. Reconstruction had, however, been begun with a will, and already 6000 miles of roads were entirely restored, while 18,000 miles had been considerably improved. Six hundred and forty-five miles of canals had been destroyed, and by January 1 last 600 miles had been restored, while in tlie Same way most of the bridges, locks, etc., had also been set to rights again. M. Moutier showed a plan of tlie town, of Dunkirk, showing some 7000 small black dots, each of which represented the damage done by bombs or long-range guns.

“At the same time, the General Confederation of Labour, which lflis for some months past been conducting a systematic inquiry into the means of restoring the devastated areas, has begun a public discussion of the conclusions reached by its Economic Council of Labour (C.E.T.). The C.E.T. finds, of course, that the first necessity for restoration is money, but it does not recommend waiting until the money has come in before putting into practice its schemes, ft considers that a general organisation should be 1 rained and a. programme elaborated which will give confidence. Then the money will he gin to come in. This organisation, it. is mainained, must lie mainly composed of inhabitants of the devastated regions, whose co-operation is at the root of the whole problem. “To secure labour, raw material and credits the C.E.T. declares —something on the lilies elaborated by M. Jean Mennossy in the Chamber recently—that the only practical method is to go to Germany and ask Germany in labour and in stores for the equivalent of what she has destroyed. It is not a question of transforming the devastated regions into German colonies nor of handing them over to engineers and manufacturers from across the Rhine. Brit it is necessary to profit by the lowness of the German exchange, instead of turning to the Allied countries, where the exchange is against. France. Trained German workmen and technical experts should be placed under the direction of the cooperative associations of inhabitants of the devastated regions in order to execute the French schemes of restoration. The C.E.T. points out that the calling in of Germans to redress the damage they caused would have considerable value as a moral lesson.”