RAILWAYS OF ALSACE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2034, 27 September 1919, Page 2

RAILWAYS OF ALSACE.

THE financial correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, dealing with the return of Ahum and Lorraine to France, said recently that just before the war 40,000 railwaymen worked on the railways of the region, and the traffic was estimated at 2,800,000 tons of merchandise and 48,000,000 passengers. However valuable this acquisition may be, he said, this railway system cannot be allowed to remain in the condition in which it was delivered to the French by the.. Germans. It is arranged in such a manner as to 'multiplycommunications between Alsace and Germany to the serious disadvantage of those existing between Alsace and' France. The first are assured by 17 lines, of which 11 are double-tracked, . whereas the

second, thill is-; with. France,. have to bo alislied' with throe main lines, three secondary lines, and a tramway. The contrast, is significant, and shows that the whole economic activity of the annexed provinces ,under German domination was compelled by the law of the conquerors to turn toward Germany, Now the three departments; of Alsace and Lorrajne look to the we-t. A" soon as. possible new lines must.die opened, which will admit of a'transformation in economic activity. It will be necessary now to establish easy means of communication between the iron and steel basin of Briey and the coalfields of La Saar. By the union of these two important mining regions a matchless metallurgical' centre should.,be developed which would place France in ’the front rank of great nations producing iron and steel.