The Daily News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 1919. THE WAR'S EFFECT ON FRANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 August 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 1919. THE WAR'S EFFECT ON FRANCE.

Although it is early as yet to have anything like a statement of facts disclosing the full extent to which France suffered in the late war, there are two main outstanding features of her losses that will take much time to readjust before a return to normal is reached, namely, population and production. When Germany invaded France, the French Government was compelled to mobilise almost the whole of the active manhood of the nation. The effect of this mobilisation, as well as of the occupation of a good portion of the country by the enemy, brought about a contraction of 'French cereal production of about forty per cent. Beyo»d this, the curtailment in the French production of potatoes and beet root was also nearly forty per cent. The shrinkage in the cereal production was some two hundred and eight millions, and in cereals, potatoes and beet root four hundred and seventy three million of bushels. Thus, on the one hand, supplies from Russi* and Roumania were cut off, and on the other hand, the home supplies dwindled down alarmingly. By the institution of the submarine campaign it was Germany's plan to starve the French and British people into subjection, and by ruthless and wanton devastation on French soil the Germans hoped to make the French dependent on German supplies for an indefinite period. Not content with killing and maiming a large proportion of French manhood and devastating the soil, the Germans did their utmost to permanently destroy French industries, which during the war were languishing from lack of manpower. It is therefore, evident that the situation in France at the close of the war was one that must severely tax the skill and ingenuity of the authorities to face and overcome in the process of reconstruction that must be vigorously undertaken. In 1913 the French revenue amounted to over 189$ millions, the expenditure being a trifle less, but in 1917 the revenue was just under 222J millions, while the expenditure had mounted to £1,613,739,574. In the trading returns it is seen that in 1913 the exports amounted in value to £275,012,000, but in 1915 they had fallen to £102,892,000, while the imports rose from £340,335,000 to £606,376,480 in 1916, and the total French debt in 1917 was £3,611,388,140, an amount that largely increased in the following year. It is obvious that to make up this leeway will require prodigious efforts, but France outers on the task under very severe handicaps, the chief of which is population. For many years past the birthrate there has been very low, mainly due to the law regulating the division of a man's property at his death equally among all his sons, so that as the estates of the peasantry are generally small there is a low birth rate. This factor is accentuated at the present time by the great losses caused by the war. If France is to recover from the . bleeding process in men and treasure the situation will have to be overhauled and greatly improved by legisla<| tion which will make for increased production and the building up of population. The indemnity to be received from Germany will assist in rehabilitating most of the industries, and the regaining of Alsace-Lorraine will also be an important factor, but it will be some years, before the soil of Northern France, can.yield anything approaching its pre-war capacity, or that the country will experience the full benefit of demobilisation. No one doubts her recuperative power, for she gave ample proof of that after her defeat by Prussia, but no country has ever experienced such colossal losses as those which France has been called upon to endure a i the hands of the Germans. It has become essential for her future welfare that France should build up her streajjtii in ovd.«p t0

regain her former position, and this can only be effected by u radical alteration of the birth rate, a matter that is to be taken in hand by a congress at Nancy. The victory of the Allies over the Germans emancipated France, but at a frightful cost. She cannot afford to ignore the imperative needs of the future. Having lost over a million men in the war, her population having declined by four millions since 1914, her country laid waste, and her industries almost ruined, she must bend to the task of rehabilitation, systematically and thoroughly, and now that she can breathe freely there is every inducement to efface war wastage as speedily as possible, confident in her security and on the help of her Allies.