WHY FRANCE FELL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 30 June 1943, Page 1

WHY FRANCE FELL

WEAKNESS FROM LAST WAR i FIGHTING FRENCH BOOKLET The military collapse of France in 1940 is due largely to the losses she suffered during the first Great War, 1914-18, and to the deficiencies of the t Versailles Treaty, states a brochure . issued by the Fighting French De- ' legation in New Zealand. France, it adds, 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 21 per cent, of her total population. Dead or missing, 1,700,000 or 20 ' per cent, of men called-up. Men totally disabled. 1,500,000 or 18 per cent, of men called-up (out of 2,800,000 wounded). Thus 38 per cent, of her manhood called-up either made the supreme sacrifice 'or returned to civilian life totally disabled. These losses were much higher among the younger classes in the Forces and the result was that the flower of the nation was bled 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 casualties. 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 casualties (eg. the necessary fall in the marriage rate) one should not forget casualties of former wars: the 300,000 killed dur- ! ing the Franco-Prussian war and the one million who died during the Na- ; poleonic wars. In France thousands of families have lost two or even , three generations of their sons ir ’ these succesesive wars. DESTRUCTION In the occupied territory ten of her richest departements 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, her coal mines were either flooded 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, which amounted to many billions of francs, depreciated her currency to one tenth of ita pre-war value and upset her economic and monetary systems. VERSAILLES TREATY Such was France’s situation at the end of the Great War. She gained nothing from these huge sacrifices, apart from the return of her two provinces of Alsace-Lorraine. In vain she asked 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 together with her Allies. It is in the above facts and figures and in the deficiencies of the Versailles Treaty that one must look lor the initial causes of France's collapse in June, 1940, for she had not recovered then from her losses of 1914-18, the brochure claims. One may ask would things not have been vastly different if France had obtained the return of the left bank of the Rhine which, in spite of France’s historical right to that territory, was allotted to Prussia in 1815? In the North-East there is too great a gap between the main natural defence line in France, namely the basins of the Seine and of the Loir* and German territory. The Rhine, which nature meant the Gauls to have as their boundary and their protection, has hardly touched France before It leaves her and lays her open to attack. In the low-lying plains of Hainaut and Flanders, there is neither wall nor ditch upon which to base resistance: there are no lines of dominating heights no rivers running parallel to the’front Worse still, the lie of the land there appears specially designed to facilitate invasion by multiple penetrating routes, the valley of the Meuse, of the Sombre, of the Scheldt of the Scarpe and of the Lys, in which valleys, rivers, roads and railways seem eager to guide the enemy. As looking at a portrait suggests the impression of the subject’sdestmy to the observer, so the map of r ranee tells our own fortune. These geographical disadvantages are peculiar to France. The sea protect 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 Foch was so insistent in claiming that France's frontier is on the Rhine. Not only was this proved by the cruel logic of subsequent events, but 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, especiaUy in its hour of misfortune, for which it was not entirely responsible, overlooking merits and brave deeds, which, at least claim respect and gratitude, concludes the article.