MAN-POWER IN FRANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 April 1919, Page 5

MAN-POWER IN FRANCE.

"For the first time since the war the French are publishing the statistics oi births and deaths from natural causes," says the Manchester Guardian. "Those relating to the seventy-seven departments which were not the scene of military operations, show that in 1913 there were 804,811 births and 587,445 deaths, as against 343,310 births and 013,318 deaths in 1917.

"It will be seen that the births fell by 200,000 and the deaths rose by 26,000. In the -years 1914-17 the deaths among civilians in this area exceeded the births by 881,000. Add 1,400,000 killed in the war and make an allowance for the eleven invaded departments. Now these figures are not curiosities; they are important political facts. The population of France is already less than that of Italy, and the Italian is growing. How can France maintain the balance of power!

"The better minds of France see that the League of Nations can give her, situated as she is, a security with which the balance of power can only mock her. They Bee that no country has more to gain from a League of Nations than France."

Statistics are published of the members of the French teaching profession who ( have given their lives for their country during the war. The numbers include 259 professors of literature, science, medicine, and law at Paris or the provincial universities, 480 teachers or inspectors in the secondary schools (lycees and colleges), 5500 schoolmasters and pupil-teachers of the Ecoles Normales, and eight professors of the great schools of higher education, such as the ficole Normale Superieure and the Institute Catholique. It further includes 035 students from the University of Paris, but figures for the provincial universities are not available. There are also 612 pupils or former pupils of the Eoole Normale Superieure, 330 of the School of Fine Arts, 260 of the School of Higher Commercial Studies, 230 of the School of Political Science, find 1411 of other institutes of higher education. The list also mentions 300 writers, journalists, and men of letters who have fallen.