THE FRENCH ARMY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 24 June 1937, Page 8

THE FRENCH ARMY

VAST FLANS THIS YEAR

Included in the French rearmament plans of the immediate future (wrote the Paris correspondent of the “New York Times'’ recently) are completion of border fortifications from Switzerland to the Flanders lowlands, creation of two more mechanised divisions, the manufacture of tanks, the addition of some 500 first-lino planes to the airforce, and the construction of two more 35,000-ton battleships, two carriers, two cruisers, and a number of submarines.

Only a part of this programme is provided for in France’s 20,000,000,000-franc defence Budget for 1937, but since French Budgets have a habit of elasticity :t would surprise no one if the estimated costs of the 1937 programme were greatly exceeded. In any case, France will spend almost £6 per capita for armaments during 1937. Later, when her programme lias been speeded up, she will spend much more.

it was partially to finance her great armaments scheme that France successfully floated tlie first parts of the defence ioan, which eventually will add 10,500,000 francs to the national debt, already totalling about 56G,000,000;000 francs. How these borrowings and the unusually heavy war Budgets that are expected to recur annually in the next five years will affect the national economy is not known. The French army to day consists of approximately 708,00 officers and men,, including the Gendarmerie, the Mobile Guards, and all the troops in North Africa and the colonies.

France’s total active and organised reserves number more than 6,000,000, and her total mobilable man-power, including that of the colonies, is more than 8,000,000.

She possesses about 2000 tanks, a great many of them old, which, however, are rapidly being replaced by the model 1935 Renault light tank—fast and well protected—and by a new tank described as a 37-ton monster mounting one 75 and one 47 millimetre gun and several machineguns.

France has already organised one machine division, consisting of tanks, combat cars, reconnaissance vehicles, “dragohspoi’ts,” and other machines, to transport tier infantry, and is in the process of forming another such division. Her artillery is still the best in the world. She possesses more than 7000 75iiiillimetre field guns and 155-millimetre howitzers on hand and in repair.

France if definitely committed to a defensive military policy. The army does not know where the enemy will strike, and therefore must guard all possible routes of invasion with equal care. Hence the Maginot Line is being extended to the Flanders,lowlands, which can be flooded, and much attention is being paid to the vicinity of Basle and the entire Swiss border as far south as Geneva, which is understood to have some defensive works, some old and not of the same type as those of the Maginot Line.