FRENCH LOSSES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1600, 19 August 1916, Page 2

FRENCH LOSSES.

FUANCE tins been very reticent as |o I lie niltnlii'r of men she has lust in 1 he greal wnr, which (lermany, in her arrogance, forced upon (he world. J n n letter written by I ho London correspondent of the Sydney “Sun,” on .June Kith, some light i.-, however, thrown upon the number of Frenchmen who have given their lives in defence of their beloved country, 'flic .correspondent an Australian Pressman who was at, (lallipoli—says, inter alia —“The immediate question is not the breaking-point of all the Allies, but the breaking-point of France, hrance has withstood the Merman’s most liere.e and continuous onslaught. She has been holding the beast down in Western Europe whilst we have been getting ready to slay him. She has lost more than a million men in dead, and her oin- <■* million men in dead, and her incapacitated number more. I was assured on high authority when in Paris recently that France’s actual supply of .men is not in serious jeopardy, Vnu her resources in sound men of serviceable military age are very low. Those who have beep {Jutting the French case before inlluentuvl men in London —they put it

very well, being, like all Frenchmen, born diplomats—have doelaml that by September France would have been bled (o death. That, of course, is one of those over-statements of (he French case designed to spur Great Britain on to greater efforts on the West front. But no one denies lhat our great Ally is becoming restricted in her lighting resources.

. . . It is pathetic to notice how casting aside false shame, the French as a nation courageously face bare facts. One instance is seen in the Government notices, staring at yon from many walls, urging upon the people the supreme duty of ‘transmission of life/ These Government notices and the decision to pay high bounties for boy children show that the nation’s needs will lie regarded as a sacred dutv."