THE FRENCH CLAIM.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Will you allow a few comments on the "plain truths" contained in a letter to the Spectator, as these "plain truths" seem to me to consist merely of opinions with very little proof. "Only the strip on which the Armies fought was injured " : that is certainly a truth, and an obvious one ; what would " Britannicus " say, however, if "that strip, that corner" had been, say, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and perhaps Durham ?
He then says that "France is to-day richer, and far more powerful, etc., than before the War." That may be so, or not ; the only proof given is 6,000,000 tons of pig-iron extra, from Alsace. We are then told that the French factories that were destroyed consisted of "dilapidated buildings with antiquated machinery" I Rather a cool assumption, with no word of proof. Finally, " Britannicus " suggests that France's real claim should be about g050 millions—i.e., one- tenth of the amount fixed by experts in 1921. I venture to point out to him that in 1871 Germany took /200,000,000 for a six-months' war, and in addition, Alsace'-Lorraine; the latter "tenfold value to anything Prance has lost" in the late War. And "England has spent over 400 millions on Unemployment Relief." Is this all a consequence of the War ? What about "the submerged tenth" before the War 7-
P.S.—I would remind " Britannicus" that France is claiming no war expenses, and that Germany's claim in 1871 consisted entirely of these. No! I think that France might well say with Clive, "I stand astonished at my own moderation."
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