Rebuilding Prance.

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 7, 1 March 1920, Page 740

Rebuilding Prance.

France could not rebuild herself in ten years. For more, rapid work she requires outside aid. The French are realising this, and are now.asking for American and English skilled and professional assistance. Not only material, but labour and money are lacking, we are told by a writer in "Modern Building," and America is now sending architects, contractors, and builders to Europe—not "to do the job," the writer warns us, but to collaborate. The plans for rebuilding Rheims are American, and the American frame-house is even looked upon with favour where temporary quarters are to be furnished. Meanwhile, homes and shops are being patched up with any sort of material handy. Tar-paper is pop-

before the war was only 1,500,000,000 francs. If she undertakes to rebuild without any outride help it would take her ten years to replace the homes and factories, alone. • ; ' “A year ago American offers of assistance along these lines was not looked upon very favourably by the French Government, for the reason that the Government wanted to protect French industry and enterprise. Now it is asking for American skilled and professional aid in addition to thousands of tons of American cement, • building hardware, steel, wood, and furniture, because the Government realises the work cannot be done without these things.

"Capt. R. J. Faure, of the American Red Gross, who has returned from eleven months' service in France, says that American ideas were used in, the

ular for roofs, while oil-paper in the windows keeps out the rain and wind even if it doesn't let in much light. Everything is being done to transform the ruins into shelters. Trenches have been filled, and the city is beginning to look as if it were inhabited again. We read on:-

"The French build their homes and shops of concrete, to last for ' generations, but concrete is so scarce now and so high that the people are forced to live in makeshift homes until they can afford to build new ones. The American type of wooden house with concrete foundation is being looked upon with considerable favour at present. ' . / v ~

"France lacks not only material, but labour and money as well. Take, for example, one village totally destroyed; there is only one architect or surveyor and one stonemason for the whole village.

,' "France has 105t10,500,000,000 francs worth of property, and her full capacity for new construction

plans for laying out the new city of Rheims. There will be no narrow, winding streets. That isn't American. j They must be broad ; and straight, but the buildings will follow the general type of French architecture. '

," German prisoner labour was used to clear away the debris in the Cathedral, which has bqen patched up so that services are held now at one of the side altars. '•■ - -, - '

"While this beautiful place of worship was absolutely gutted, most of the roof remains intact. This is attributed to the Smiling Angel, also the guardian angel of the Cathedral. She stands among the other angels and saints at the entrance, and although her head was carried off by a Hun shell the people believe that she saved the church from total ruin. /' - s V '■/■. V --. , : -'. -'A^-

"Every Red Cross worker there, and most of the A.E.F., wear tier picture on a medal suspended from

the identification tag.. These medals are sold to help rebuild the Cathedral. V ','.•' "~\

"When the Bed. Cross first opened a canteen hotel in Rheims, a short time after the armistice was signed, the people were* beginning to straggle back in groups of twos and threes to join those who lived in the wine-cellars during the last bombardment. By the end of last May more than 30,000 of the original population of 125,000 were home again.. This canteen hotel has a capacity of 500 beds.

• * "It isn't only in France that American ideas and American help are sought: the new Czecho-Slovak Republic has engaged an American to standardise architecture and engineering along American lines.

"American architects, contractors, and builders are not going to Europe to do the job, but to collaborate."