THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 19O8. IS FRANCE READY FOR WAR?

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 2992, 16 September 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1908. IS FRANCE READY FOR WAR?

* ■ i That France is much more prepared for war than she was in 1870 is the contention of Mr Charles Malo, the military editor of the "Journal d<s Debats," in which paper he declares that it was not through her numerical inferiority, 270,000 men against 400,000, that Fiance was beaten in the campaign which ended at Sedan. Her defeat was attributable to conditions which have since been remedied. To quote his words: "We possess to-day just what we lacked in 1870. We have so complete an organisation that we could desire nothing better. . . . Wb have muni tions of war and an armament as perfect and complete as any in Europe. We have also those mean 3 of trans port, the lack of which put us at so great a disadvantage." He concludes by declaring that if France only have confidence in herself she is safe. "France, who at no period has been so desirous of peace as she is at pre sent, has never had less, reason to

fear the coming of war." In another most important journal of Paris, the monarchical "Gaulois," General Zurlinden, ex-Minister for War, optimistically remarks.—"The excessive alarm which is felt throughout France at the prospect of war is not shared by those who are acquainted with the great efforts in the way of military progress that have been made by both the nation and the army since 1870. . . . The wellinformed know that in spite of the meddling interference of politicians in military affairs, and in questions pertaining to the army, we are a hundred times better prepared, a hundred times better organised than in 1870, both in respect to the commanding and officering of our troops and in everything else. At present, a war with France would be tor any nation an adventure of the most serious risk, ot the most multiplex difficulty and danger, even if we were isolated. Any nation would be likely to shrink from such a perilous undertaking at least so long as our great ally stands firm and England loyally extends her hani to us."