PARIS DEFENCES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CI, Issue 15444, 5 September 1914, Page 10

PARIS DEFENCES.

triple line of forts. The city is surrounded by fortifications comprising three distinct lints of defence. The first consists of a, continuous lino of ramparts, forming a circuit of about 122 miles, ancl beyond these two - separate rings of detached forts on the surrounding heights, the outer ring extending for about To miles, and at about eight miles from the ramparts, the intermediary forts varying in distance from the outer from two* to five miles. The- inner line of fortifications confines Paris to something resembling a pear in shape-, •with the stalk to the west- - A circular railway runs around the city just within the ramparts. There are seven separate railways running into Paris, and for these the ramparts are pierced at nine points. Paris is 011 c of the greatest fortresses in the world, and an enormous army would bo required to invest it. Dur- j ing the Franco-German war of 1870 the investment of the city was completed by September 19. The Prussians made no attempt to storm it. preferring to starve it into surrender, knowing that it would be impossible- to maintain iV.od supplier for''2.ooo.ooo people for any great length of time. In Bismarck's words, the Parisians were left to "stew in their own juice,'' and sorties from the besieged city we're of frequent occurrence, but they were ineffective. The invaders to bombard Paris on December "20. and tins was continued uuiil January 10, 1871. An armistice was signed on January 28. and on March 1 peace was ratified by tlio Assembly. The fall of Paris practically eiuled the war of 1370. but on tlit-- present occasion the. capture of the French capital would, as an Italian newspaper remarks, ''only be an episode"' in the st i uggle.