FALL OF FRANCE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 220, 28 June 1943, Page 4

FALL OF FRANCE

EFFECT OF THE LAST WAR. WEAKENED STATE OF COUNTRY. .DEFICIENCIES* IN TREATY. “The military collapse ol Franco in 1.940 is ilue largely to the losses she suffered during the first Great War, 1914-ltS, and to the deiiciences of the Versailles Treaty,’’ says a statement issued by M. do Ja Trchouillc, Delegate in New Zealand ol the 1 ighting French. “France suffered by far the highest loss of human life of all the belligerent countries during the Great "War, as is revealed by the following statistics:— Called-up to the Colours, 8,400,000 or 2i per cent, of her total population. Dead or missing. },700,000 or 20 per cent of men called-up. Men totally disabled (out of 2,800.000 wounded). 1,500,000, or IS per cent, of men called-up. “Thus 38 per cent, of her manhood called-up either made the supreme sacrifice or returned to civilian lito totally disabled. These losses were much higher among the younger classes in the Forces and the ii'esult was that the flower of the nation was hied white. To these figures one should add the sick, those who suffered from poison gas, shell shock and tuberculosis as well as thousands of civilian casulties.

“The most recent statistics disclose that France thus lost practically one fourth of the industrial and military potential of her male population. “When considering the'repercussions of these casulties (e.g., the necessary fall in the marriage rate) one should not forget casualties of former wars: the 300,000 killed during the FraneoPrusian war and the one million who died during the Napoleonic wars. In France thousands of families have lost two or even three generations of their sous in these successive wars. Great Destruction Wrought. '■“ln the occupied territory ten of her richest departments or counties, where 65 per cent, of France’s coal, steel and textile industries are located were ruined, 7,000,000 houses were destroyed., 8,000 factories demolished, hexcoal mines were either Hooded or blown up, 32,500 miles of her roads and more 'than 4,000 miles of her railway lines were destroyed, 8,700,000 acres of cultivated land were devastated and left unfit for cultivation for many years, 1,000,000 acres of forest were wiped | out. , ... “Finally the war expenses, winch amounted to many billions of francs, depreciated her currency to one tenth of its pre-war value and upset hexeconomic and monetary systems. “S'ucli was France’s situation) at the end of the Great War. She gained nothing from these huge sacrifices, apart from the- return of lier two provinces posjsu oi[s urn auj ■oniGXi,o r [-oons[y jo for the security of the frontier on the Rhine. Yet she had saved Europe, and perhaps the whole world, when she held the German hordes on the Marne and drove them back to ultimate defeat togethei" with her Allies. “It is in the above facts and figures and in the deficiencies of the Versailles Treaty that one must look for the initial causes of France’s collapse in June, 1940, for She had not recovered then from her losses of 1914-18'.

“One may ask would things not have been vastly different if France had obtained the return of the left hank of the Rhine which, ini spite of France's historical right toi that territory, was allotted to Ptussiai in 1815?

“No Natural Defences.” “In the North-East there is too groat a gap between the main natural defence line in France, namely the basils of the Seine and of the Loire and German territory. The Rhine, which nature meant the Gauls to have as their houndai-y and their protection, has hardly touched! France before it loaves her and lays her open .to attack In the low-lying plains of Haina-ut and Flanders, there is neither wall nor ditch upon which to base resistance: there are no lines ol dominating heights, no n-ivers running parallel to the front. Worse still, the lie of the land there appears especially designed to facilitate invasion by multiple penetrating route,s the valley of the Meuse, of the Sambre, of the Scheldt, of the Scarpe and of the Lys, in which vallys, rivers, roads and railways seem eager to guide the enemy. “As looking at a portrait suggests the impression of the subject’s destiny to the obesi-yer, so the map of France tells our own fortune. These geographical disadvantages are peculiar to France. The sea protects, England, America and Japan. The immense arc of the Alps prevents access to Italy on all. sides. Distance makes Russia impregnable. The [Pyrenees defend Spain. No one has ever been able to cross the Rhine and invade German territory, where the land itself fights against the invader, with all its accidental features. “That is why, on both, political and military grounds, Marshal I*och was so insistant in claiming that France’s frontier is on the Rhine. Not only was this proved by the cruel logic of subsequent events, hut his wise and mature judgment was confirmed when . a few years later Prime Minister Baldwin claimed that Great Britain’s frontier, too, was on the Rhine.

“People should hesitate before passing hard judgment upon a whole country, especially in its hour of misfortune, for which it was not entirely responsible, overlooking merits and brave deeds, which, at least, claim respect gratitude.”