The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 1917. THE IRON CLAWS OF THE GERMAN BEAST

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3173, 25 August 1917, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 1917. THE IRON CLAWS OF THE GERMAN BEAST

The sofI?, velvety paws of savago beasts like lions and tigers have hidden in them strong, eurved, sharp claws controlled by powerful flexor nujscles, and they form a very terrible weapon of offcnce. Tho removal of theso claws front a 'wild beast goes a long way to'end its power for destruction. In modern warfare iron counts for very much. A blockaded nation may grow food, but it cannot grow iron, ancl without iron a blockaded nation at war must collapsc. A nation that has been, like Germany, tho peace'breaker of the world ean havo its power for mischief destroyed by takaway its iron mines. Germany is able to fight to-day because sho'has well in her territory colossal iron mines which she stole from other nations. She has slain in this war tens of thousands of the sons of Franco with iron she has stolen from France. This is one of the most painful and distressing facts in this war. In tho Atlantic Monthly for May a French officer who had been a prisoner with the Germans, in an articlo entitled "At the Enemy's Mercy." writes as follows:—

"It was painful for Frenchmen to see every day trainload after traililoiuj of French iron ore working its way towards the industrial districts of Westphalia. Tho ore came direct from Briey and Longwy mines, which had been conquered by the Germans as early as 1914, and which were now working at full pressure with the help of Itussian- prisoners to provide all the arsenals with the necessary quantities of iron and steel. "We know that Germany would liavo beßn short of iron if she were not in possession of the French lodes; and we stood there powerless,- motionless, sometimes with tears in our eyes, while the riches of France wero migrating eastward to be turned into guns and shells which would kill the sons of France. . . . The sight was defeat made visible to tho eye, defeat made audible to the car, defeat hammering at our hearts."

When defeat overtakes Germany, one way to bind her to a lasting peaco is to extract her iron claws— to take from her her iron mines, so that it will ho 110 longer within her power to carry on her inhuman method of government and expansion—Uurch hlui mid risen.

A righteous peace can only come on the linos of restitution and reparation on the part of Germany, and along these lines Germany must lose her iron mines, which have ma.de her the menace of the world. Germany will suffer no martyrdom in doing so; she will only return the goods she stole—a very elementary _ act of justico; a simple act of restitution. She acquired the most of her iron mines in JS7I. They are situated in Lorraine. Their possession marked an epoch in this increase of German power, though Europe did not realiso it at tlie time. In the preliminary settlement of 1871 the "green line" drawn on the map by Moltkb left Franco hor mineral wealth in iron and other metals. Bismarck, however, got a flint that llicy were losing a prize, and with his usual cunning ho suggested an alteration in the frontier fine, in whioc be offered cantons

with 27,000 inhabitants for rommuncs with only 7000. In those communea with tho 7000 wore the iron mines, and Bismarck gained his point,—not, however, without a protest by General Chaiuieton, who said:—"lf on<y reflects that by ths disastrous treaties, of 1815 Prussia deprived us of the magnificent coal miijes of Sarrebruck, and that to- ! day, after having taken StiringWendel, Ottange, Hayange, and Moye-uvre, she also wishes to lay her hands on the rich mineral area of which Autmetz is the ccntrc, it is not difficult to foresee that with all these means at her disposal Germany will immediately be in a position to compete even with England in all the European markets, and to ruin, in spite of any prohibitions and tariffs which the French Government may set up, the entire metallurgical industry of a country which has hitherto been advantageously situated." Charreton's prophecy has been more than fulfilled. Through the coal and iron she stole from Prance, Germany bounded forward to "a leading place in the world's commerce, and this coal and iron alone saves her from instant and hopeless defejvSrln the presenc war. As far i>ack as May, 1915, Bethmaxs-Hslmveg admitted that were for French iron they "would then be as good as defeated. 11l a confidential memorandum addressed to six large industrial associations he said

"We have acquired during the last few months -1000 tons of iron per day. If our production of iron'and steel had not been doubled since August last it would have been impossible to continue the war. As raw material for the manufacture of these immense quantities of iron and steel, the minelic (i.e., the ore; of the lorraine _ mines) takes a plnco 'of continually increasing importance; for this is tho only ore which wc can get out of our mines in continually increasing quantities. I'roni 60 to SO per cent, Øog our iron and 6teel is, at present/ being made from tho minelte. If the production of the minelte were interrupted, the war would be as good as lost."

The luisers swaggering boast at tho beginning of the war that he and his soldiers would soon be in Paris was do cloubb based on Govmany's overwhelming superiority in iron; and one of his first sueecsses increased thiTt superiority. In the north-east of France, almost contiguous to Luxemburg and Belgium, is the basin of tho Briey, and in that basin were, at the outbreajfof the war, the most of the iron mines Franco possessed. ( These at onco fell into tho hands of Germany. Before the war, France had 127 blast furnaces in operation; when the mines in the. basin of the Briey were captured by the Germans she only had 32; she had lost by one fell blow seventy-five per cent, of her iron mines. The victory of the Marne flung back the German hordes and saved Paris, but Franco did not recover the iron mines she had lost. This colossal superiority in iron on the part of Germany would in the course of events have led to tho defeat of Franco in six m6nths. But tho British Navy ma'do the seas free to Franco. Iron from Britain and elsewhere pourel into !France. She developed a hundredfold the output of the iron mi lies'she had, and the tables aro now turnedj and Germany, in spite of her colossal booty in iron, is now tno inferior in tho output of guns and shells. The superiority of Britain and her Allies in iron is seen in Flanders, at Verdun, and on the Isonzo'. This superiority makes defeat visible to the eyes of the German war-makers, audiblo to their ears,' and it makes defeat to hairw mer at their, hearts. t But this superiority drawn from over the sea cannot bo maintained for over. In 1913 Germany produced 29,000,000 tons of iron ore, and Franco 22,000,000; but Germany got 21,000,000 of_ her 29,000,000 from Lorraine, which she wrenched from France in 1871, ahd her total output apart from Lorraino was only 8,000,000. To-day, as the result of her captures of mines in the basin of the Briey, Germany is producing 40,000,000 ions of iron ore, and France only. J,000,000 tons. Peace on tho lines of Restitution and Reparation would change all this. Let the mines in Lorraine, stoleu from Franco in 1871, and tho mines in the basin of the Briey, stolen in 19M, bo restored-to France, and tho whole aspect of things would change. France would then have an output of 43,000,000't0n5, and Germany only 8,000,000. This adjustment would mean only Bestitution without Reparation. But Reparation in this region might be made by making Germany surrender some of her coal miues on her frontier adjoining France. In this way the iron claws of the German beast would be extracted, and her power, for mischief in war destroyed for all time. As long as Germany retains her plunder in iron she will be a possible menace to tho world's peacc and freedom.