SACRIFICES OF FRANCE.

Taihape Daily Times, 24 July 1919, Page 2

SACRIFICES OF FRANCE.

: DEMANDS DEFENADED. ‘ ‘ RESTORATION OR DEATH. ”_ In a liorceful anticlc in the Paris daily newspaper, La Victorie the position of Frantfi in regard to the Peace Ternis is defended by M. Andre <L*iclltenberger. >~“lE‘.rance,"’ he says, “simply sets up her dues and claims it in the name of right. If We add up to our (lead the deficit of births, we find that France was shorn of vthree million of her population. Our debt will reach 200 milliards of francs; ou daily expenditure is IS‘m'illiards. The destruction of our richest districts will, for years to come, tell heavily on our production. These statements are painful. Is it wise to utter them boldly‘? It is not only opportune, but truly indispensable, and for one simple reason, which is this: If the Peace Treaty does not grant us the compensations. We need, there remains but one thing for Victorious France «to do—die! - “Never at any time has a. -great nation borne Such a trial as that which we have just gone through. None has ever suffered such loss of life and such destruction. Well, those appalling losses, those sacrifices, we have borne, not for our sake -alone, but for the wo7rld’s salvation. The bodies of our soldiers at Verdun have blocked the road to London at the same time as that to Baris. It is because our plains of Flanders have, fior four years, served as a bulwark that America ‘had time -50 come and fight on our soil for her liberties and ours alike. Therefore, when we demand the return of our lost provinces, some economic and financial compensations, and a solid frontier, our claims sound little like that from a conqueror to a beggar. We only claim what’ strict justice demands, and what we need in order to live: our due.”

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