DEVASTATION IN FRANCE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16462, 14 June 1919, Page 3

DEVASTATION IN FRANCE.

PEACE DELEGATES’ TOUR. A party of about fifty Peace Conference delegates, including a number of British, American, and Japanese gentlemen, left Paris recently to inspect the devastated districts in Northern France. The party proceeded first to ruined Bethune, and thence to Lens, where they visited the flooded mines. They were' greatly impressed by the spectacle of devastation presented by this vast industrial region, where before the war 100,000 people had lived happily and where now a remnant of some 600 poor souls are cowering in cellars, because they can find no other shelter. It was explained that it vr-,. take two years to drain the water with which the mines are filled, five years to get the mines again into working ororder, and ten years to bring their yield up to their former output. It is intended to build 500 houses in the region this year, 1500 next yeaf, and thereafter 2500 yearly. At Arras the delegates saw the famous Vimy Ridge, which was retaken once by the French and later by the Canadians. The prefect who conducted them through the town pointed out that while the, fronts of the greater number of the houses remained standing, the interiors have completely collapsed. nendering them untenable. Notwithstanding this, 7000 of the in-, habitants, principally traders, have returned and reopened their shops. The party remained for some time in the Grande Place, where the houses, constructed in the Hispano-Flemish; style, used to form such an artistic picture, though the majority of them are now .destroyed. <