country exhausted by four years of a war to which all its energies had been devoted. Rapid transport was necessary, but impos- sible to expect from a railway system and a rolling stock worn out by war service. Added to these difficulties there were the crises of exchange and credit, and the financial strain due to the cost of war and lower yield of taxation. Also the French mer- chant marine had been reduced by a third. The following statistical information will show the intensity of effort made.
The population of those districts which were directly affected by the war, which in 1914 was 4676,398, on Nov. I 1918 was 1,944,- ooo, rose to 3,524.600 on Nov. I 1919, and to 4,066,397 on Dec. 31 1920. (It has to be borne in mind, in considering these figures, that there were large tracts of country which, although invaded by the Germans, either did not remain long in their occupation or did not suffer greatly from war or deliberate destruction.) By the end of
1920 municipal life had been resumed in 3,216 out of 3,256 com- munes. Of 6,690 schools open before the war, with 580,467 attend- ants, 6,613 had reopened, with an attendance of 397,978 children. Shells had been removed from 3,415,239 of the 3,800,000 hectares to be put in order; 218,934,793 cubic metres of trench had been filled in; 249,014,302 sq. metres of barbed wire had been removed. The first furrows had been traced on 2,000,000 hectares. Of the 42,100,000 cubic metres of ruin, 26,172,495 had been cleared. By the end of 1920 280,825 of the 600,000 houses destroyed or damaged had been rendered more or less habitable, although endless difficulties with labour and material had prevented solid recon- struction of the necessary housing. The Government had en- deavoured to meet the housing difficulty by building temporary cottages and huts; 41,128 wooden huts, 60,605 temporary wooden cottages, and 29,860 temporary houses, made of debris, had been provided, thus giving housing to 1,685,883 people.
By 1921 26,000 km. of roads had been rendered practicable, and 8 ooo km. had been repaired Nearly 4,000,000 tons of material, had been used on metalled roads; 1,980 bridges, mainly temporary, had been built; and all the main railway lines had been got to work; 1,220 out of the 1,503 br'clges and railway viaducts on those lines having been repaired. Of the 2,385 km. of local lines which had been damaged, 1,805 had been partly repaired, and 675 were again in working order, with 191 temporary and 183 permanent bridges built. Destruction of the waterways had almost been made good.
Very great results had been obtained by the Government in restoring the agricultural wealth of the liberated regions. Of the 1,757.0 hectares of arable land to be restored to cu'tivation, by
1921 1,700,000 had been levelled and 1,400,000 broken up. In the autumn of 1919 and the spring of 1920 a total area of 961,578 hec- tares had been sown as follows: wheat, 304,924 hectares; barley, 37,579: rye, 39,444; ats, 334,495= beets, 57,709; potatoes, 46,432; other crops, 140,995. The results of the effort towards agricultural reconstitution exceeded all expectation. The ten liberated depart- ments in 1921 were self-supporting, from the point of view of cereals, and it was possible to foresee in the near future that the rest of the country would be able to benefit from their surplus supplies. While this fine result was no doubt mainly due to the tireless energy of the peasant population in the north and east, the Government itself deserves some of the credit for what was done. A special depart- ment (Service de la Motoculture) broke up 275,670 hectares; harrowed 16,883 hectares; harvested 31,796; restored to cultivation 66,985; and carried out threshing representing 2,280 working days. More- over, the Ministry of Liberated Regions furnished farmers with 462 tractors; 15,400 ploughs; 28,733 harrows; 14,935 mowers; 1 1, 680 reapers and binders; 11,353 cream separators and churns; 25,150 carts; 56,638 sets of harness; and 185,865 other machines.
At the same time the work of re-forming the live stock of the country was carried on, and these regions were given 125,360 cattle ; J 33>455 sheep and goats; 197,326 horses, donkeys and mules. It should be noted that Germany did not do her part in reconstituting French live stock, and only delivered 65,560 cattle, 110,455 sheep and goats, and 31,926 horses, donkeys and mules; whereas her theft amounted respectively to 523,000, 469,000 and 367,000.
Industrially, with the assistance of the Treasury, much was done to repair war losses in the 15 months which followed the Armistice. By the end of 1920 80 % of the industrial concerns were in full work- ing order, and 26% were partly at work. As was to be expected, it was the big establishments which first resumed their activities. It is in comparing the number of people employed industrially in 1914 and on Dec. 31 1920 that the best idea of the situation of industry in the devastated regions can be obtained. In 1914 there were 791,000 people employed in the works, and the corresponding figure for the end of 1920 was 365,450, of whom 77,451 were directly employed in the work of restoration. An immense amount of work was done in reconstituting the limits of communes and of private property, the deeds and plans of which had disappeared.
At the outset of any consideration of the financial effort which this work entailed, it should be recalled that on April 17 1919 a law was passed declaring the principle that the damage suffered by the invaded districts was a charge upon the whole country.
The legislature, interpreting the wishes of the country, consid- ered that it was the nation's duty to restore the martyred provinces and to accept all their responsibilities resulting from devastation, even before any indemnity had been received from the enemy. Considerable capital was therefore necessary. By March 31 1921 the sum of 15,818,820,812 francs 45 centimes had been advanced to the liberated regions. Taking into account relief, 1,078,994,000 francs, and sums expended on works and purchases, 4,734,492,155 francs, the various expenses and expend- itures of the departments for industrial and agricultural resto- ration, the moneys allotted to the rebuilding of devastated France amounted on March 31 1921 to 23,548,759,000 francs. In this figure the cost of railway reconstruction necessitated by acts of war has not been taken into account. It should be noted that the cost of administration had been low, not exceeding 2-17 per cent. (M. PA.)
FRENCH COLONIES
The colonial domain of France, including colonies, protec- torates, and countries for which France has a mandate, covers an area of 10,426,000 sq. km., an area nearly 20 times greater than that of France. The pop. numbers 55,000,000, nearly one and a half times that of France. The general trade of this colonial empire amounted in 1919 to over 7,000 million francs. In 1918 the figure was about 5,000 million francs. In 1913, the last normal year before war, it only amounted to 3,250 million francs. Exports and imports practically balanced each other. Although these figures appear small when compared with those of the British Empire, the French colonial empire is the second largest in the world, and its building-up is one of the best achieve- ments of the Third Republic. The chief characteristic of these possessions is their variety. It is true that these colonies lie almost entirely in temperate or hot countries. Islands as well as vast continental stretches go to form this empire, which includes one of the greatest deserts of the world, the Sahara, as well as some of the greatest rivers, the Congo, the Niger and the Mekong. There are towering mountains, immense forests, and extremely fertile plantations. The produce of these colonies is also varied. It includes rice, sugar, wood, cotton, phosphates, cereals in great abundance, coal (but only in Indo-China), and metals of every kind. From the ethnical point of view its races include such different types as the Arab and the Berber, the Annamite, and the Congolese and Sudanese negroes. Although dotted over four continents, Africa, Asia, America and Oceania, it consists mainly of two big groups, one in Asia and the other in Africa. It is this latter portion of French colonial possessions which is by far the most important and the most full of promise. The French African empire, leaving Madagascar out of account, stretches in one unbroken sweep from Algiers to Brazzaville, and from Dakar to Abesher. It is formed by three great geo- graphical unities: northern Africa, western and equatorial Africa, which encircles the Sahara and join at the central point of Lake Chad, with coast-line on the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. The great advantage of these possessions is their territorial continuity, and that some day a trans-Saharan rail- way will be able to run from Algiers to Brazzaville without leaving French territory. The gem of all the French .colonies is N. Africa Algiers, Tunis and Morocco. There three great advantages exist; the climate is temperate, the country is suit- able for colonization by the French and all the other Mediterra- nean peoples, who acclimatize themselves as if they were in their mother-country, and, above all, these colonies are close to France. This situation is unique, and renders the colonies ten times more valuable. Such are the general characteristics of the French colonial empire. It was only during the war that France realized how valuable it was to her. The colonies were drawn on for material resources, and in particular for troops. Soldiers came into field against Germany in hundreds of thou- sands from the French colonies. All that could be obtained from these dominions has not yet been so drawn. French colonial policy is open to many reproaches, especially from an economic point of view. The exploitation of these countries has not been
