FRENCH IRON

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 78, 16 March 1923, Page 4

FRENCH IRON

AteaJ uuimmh uuAL. Among the sinister purposes that are attributed to I'rance m connection with the Ruhr occupation is that ol establishing nerseii in a dominating and menacing position in the non anu steel production of the Continent. An entirely different view is put forward by the Paris correspondent of the London “•Lconomist,” a journal which can scarcely be accused of taking a stand inimical to British interests in this great industry. Its correspondent points out that the occupation is really an effort to place the undertakings of French iron and steel industries on a moire satisfactory fpoting—a footing against which their German competitors have been fighting all along to prevent them obtaining. The crux of the French metallurgical problem lies in the fact that before the war Germany produced a suiplus of some 5,000,0CX) tons of steel for export purposes, which surplus ought, now that Alsace-Lorraine has returned to the mother country, to be available every year for the purpose of increasing the wealth of France. Owing to the destruction of the northern collieries during the war, France has pot only been prevented from reaping the fruits of this feature of her victory,, but has not even been able to bring back her normal metallurgical output to the level at which it stood before the conflict. She has been unable to extract from Germany even the reduced quantity of coal demanded by the reparation commission. The situation is aggravated by the facts that the consumption of coal in Germany, in spite of the reduction of her territory owing to the loss of the industrial area of Alsace Lorraine, has increased since the war by 101 per cent., and that between 7 and 8 out of every 10 German blast furnaces are even now working to capacity, while 50 per cent, of the French furnaces are compulsorily closed down owing to the destruction of the French northern coal pits and the failure of Germany to deliver compensating quantities of coal. Prewar (1913), the French output of iron and steel was 10,301,000 tons, and of Alsace Lorraine 6,155,000 tons, making a total of 16,456,000 tons for the two countries. Now Alsace Lorraine is included in France and the aggregate output for the ten months of 1922 was 8,050,000 tons. It will thus be seen that the output for the whole of 1922 of the new France would not be equal to that of the old France prewar, and that no advantage has yet been gained from the inclusion of Alsace Lorraine in French territory.