4 JANUARY 1919, Page 3

The French Government disclosed last week the price paid by

the French armies for victory. France has to mourn 1,071,300 officers and men who are dead, and 314,000 who are missing and presumably dead, apart from 446,300 who were taken prisoners and are now being freed. The number of wounded is not given, but may be estimated, by analogy with the figures for the other belligerents, at twice the number of killed, missing, and prisoners. The total of French casualties would thus be about five and a half millions. Our casualties amounted to over three millions, the Italian casualties were a million and a half apart from prieonere, and the German casualties are said to member six and a half millions. Relatively to her population, as M. Poincerh has pointed out, France has thus suffered the heaviest losses in defending her territory against an unprovoked attack. It is natural that the French, who have endured eo tench, should be determined on a peace which will not expose them again at German hands to so terrible a calamity.