France’s Forts

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 816, 9 November 1929, Page 32

France’s Forts

ARE BEING REBUILT FRONTIER DEFENCES That France Is steadily rebuilding that iron belt of fortresses along her eastern frontier, which she regards as indespensable to her safety, was revealed in an Interview in Paris recently with Paul Painleve, Minister of War. Lessons of the World War have been drawn upon in the new fortifications, with the result that deep caves, capable of protecting large bodies of troops from the heaviest shells, form an important feature of the new system. Verdun remains the key poi"t of frontier defence, says the Minister of War, with a long line of smaller fortresses supplementing that defence, each related in a strategic plan to the others, and with vantage points ready for the artillery in the rear. Painleve does not support the theory that a line of timber land is a valuable defence in modern war, insisting that the concealment It would afford the enemy would equal the advantages it would give the defenders. He concluded his interview with an appeal for the defence of French children as the best defence of the country. "Preaching about more children will not raise the birth rate,” he said. "We must concentrate all our efforts to reduce infant mortality to a minimum.”