RUINED FRENCH MINES

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14258, 8 January 1920, Page 3

RUINED FRENCH MINES

WORK FOR ABRMAN6. Work for all the unemployed in Germany for the next eight years will be provided in restoring the ruined mines of Northern France, says the Berlin paper, Vorwaerts. This opinion is based upon the report of the German Mining Commission sent to France recently to ascertain the extent of the damage, and which has just made public ita findings. “The task,” says the newspaper, “ii so great that it is sufficient to furnish work for every idle'man in Europe, and for everyone else engaged in superfluous labour. The report shows tke fallacy of the theory that emigration of 13,000,000 to 15,000,000 persons from Germany is an economic necessity." The commission, in its report, said that the work of reconstruction would have to be done from “the ground up," especially in the departments of Pas de Calais, Courriere, Lens, Lievin, Drocourt, Mourchin, Garvin, and Dourgcs, where the destruction was pronounced ‘terrible*." Most of the mines have been “drowned," it was said, and in rebuilding new shafts workers woula kare to be protected against the inward pressure of water. A Trench officer and a French mining official took the German envoys through the devastated regions. The Germans declared the work of restoration would not only be one of great difficulty, but that, in many cases, it was impossible to ascertain tke extent of the damage done to each mine. They also said it was not easy to fix responsibility for the destruction, because it was done by numerous groups of troops and the records showing where each military unit was located, and at what period were not complete or available.