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FRANCE TODAY France is bled white Tliis is the phrase which has been almost dinned iuto our ears during the last few months It is therefore well that a hiRh and trustworthy authority should tell the world the facts as they are at this critical hour in the history of France M Stciihano Lauzanne editor of The Paris Matin and member of the French War Mission to the United States has given in his new book Fighting France some remarkable facts and figures which show beyond question the utter falsity of the familiar words quoted above aboveFrance France has suffered terribly of course and is still suffering the loss of the flower of her manhood and the destruction of sonic of her fairest terri ¬ tories IJut it is not true that she is worn out If bloody she is still unbowed France has an army numerically and materially stronger that it was at the beginning of the war There is hardly anything more extraordinary than the effort of France in regard to the munitions industry In 1914 it was at best only small today it is equal to the German industry and is being drawn on by the Allies in their common cause The official figures are almost incredible and yet the facts are un ¬ doubted doubtedA A wornout nation will also suffer financially through an empty treasury and ruined citizens And yet trance herself has provided most of the money she needed for the war and has also made loans to her allies In suite of everything France has raised three huge national loans which represent three times the amount of the war indemnity she liaid to Prussia in 1871 1871Even Even reconstruction has already commenced and the commission which have been appointed have paid advances amounting to a large sum More than 140000000 of francs have up to the present been expended for the reconstruction of the liberated regions And it need only be mentioned in passing that the French colonial empire remains intact while the German colonies have disappeared disappearedHut Hut the supreme proof of the vitality of France is seen in the magnificent morale of her soldiers and the ardent patriotism of her citizens At the pres ¬ ent moment the way in which the French soldiers arc meeting the onslaught of the Germans is calling out the enthusiastic admiration of the world while the nobility of her womanhood in the face of awful losses is the respectful wonder of us all allTwo Two episodes will suilicc to show the unconquera ¬ ble spirit of France to day When Madame Castel nau wife of General Casteluau was told of the third death among her sons the fourth and last be ¬ ing a prisoner in Germany the already stricken mother said to the priest who came with the news I know what you are going to tell me Gods will be done 15ut the mothers of France would be wrong in weeping for me Let them envy me meTo To the same effect are the words of an old and andpoor poor woman whom the gendarmes found one night nightj j crouched on a grave that was still fresh It was wasnear near Verdun Let M Lauzanne himself tell what whathappened happened and what she said to the gendarmes I come from La Hochelle Five of my sous have already fallen in the war I have come here to see where the sixth is buried the sixth my last sou Moved by the tragic grandeur of the sight the gendarmes rendered her military honors and presented arms The mother rose and uttered the words her dead and her heart inspired Even so Vive la France t tThis This is not being bled white It is the white ¬ ness of the purest sublimcst patriotism Such a people can never die Toronto Globe
