FRANCE'S SACRIFICE.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1919, Page 4

FRANCE'S SACRIFICE.

It proportion to her population Franco (sifter Servia, who lost half lier total male population) has suffered, perhaps, more than any other belligerent. A recent cable places her dead and missing at the tragic total of 1,375,300. No mention is made of tho wounded, but these can safely be estimated at double the number oi' the dead. Thus we have the total, casualties of oyer four million — equal to one-fifth of her male population. Britain's losses total 3,049,991, of whom over 600,000 are dead. These figures show how great was the . sacrifice Franca was called upon to bear. She had to keep back the German hordes while Britain got ready, and she succeeded only at the cost of the prime of her manhood. But our brave allies never quailed; they realised from the beginning that it was a matter of life or death with them as a nation, and, even when the outlook was blackest, never lost heart or hope. I;! saving herself France saved civilisation. That fact is now perfectly clear, and we can never do her honor enough. Besides the terrible toll of life, France also had her countryside devastated, and experienced all the horrors of invasion. No reparation within the powers of the Allies to impose on Germany can ever compensate France for her material losses, nor give back to her the precious million and a third of brave lives, sacrificed to the greed and ambitions of the black scoundrels of Potsdam. The only compensation to France is the memory of the achievements of the noble army of her heroic dead. Greater Jove knoweth no man than the love of the soldier who lays down his life for the unborn generations of mankind. Proudly they gathered, rank on rank to

war, As w!io had heard God's message from afar; All they had hoped for, all tliey had, they gave To save mankind; themselves they scorned to save.