The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-07 00:00:00

ME WAR.

THE PROVISIONING OF PARIS•

OFFICIAL STATEMENT.
The Journal Officiel gives the following account of the
state of provisions in Paris :—" The Government has
announced that it will give irrefutable proof that Paris has
pressed its resistance to the furthest limits possible.
Still, even yesterday, it would have given rise to grave
inconvenience to publish information of that kind. To-
day, when the Armistice Convention has been signed,
the Government can fulfil its promise. First of

all must be remembered, what many persons
seem to have forgotten, that at the commencement of the
investment the most sanguine did not dare to believe
that the siege would last more than six or seven
weeks. When, on the Bth of September, the Journal Wl-
clef, repeating a declaration which 13,0 been placarded by
M. Magnin, the Minister of Commerce, in which it was
asserted that `the provisions -of food, liquids, and
alimentary substances. of every kind will be quite- suffi-
cient for the alimentation of a population of two millions
for two months,' the assertion was generally received
with a smile of incredulity. Now four months and
eight days have passed away since the Bth of September.
In the midst of the severest privations, which became
during the last weeks cruel suffering, Paris has resisted
as long as she could reasonably hope for aid from the
armies outside, as long as a morsel of bread remained
to feed the inhabitants and the defenders. She did
not give in until the news from the provinces deprived her
of all hope, and at the same time, the condition of her
means of subsistence shewed that famine was imminent
and inevitable. On the 27th of January, that is to say,
eight days after the last battle fought under our walls,
and almost at the same moment when we learnt the bad
success of Chanzy and Faidherbe, there were in store
42,000 quintals of corn, barley, rye, rice, and oats,
which, reduced .to flour, represented, in consequence of
the short yield of the oats, only 35,000 quintals of flour
that could be made into bread. That quantity com-
prised 11,000 quintals of corn and 6,000 quintals of rice,
which had been given up by the War Administration,
which did not possess more than provisions for the
troops for ten days, if they were to be fed as the troops
in the field, that is, 12,000 quintals of rice, corn, and
and 20,000 quintals of oats. That was the state of our
cereal provisions at the time of the opening of the nego-
tiations. In ordinary times Paris requires for its sub-
sistence 8,000 quintals of flour daily, 2,000,000 pounds
of bread, but from the 2nd of January the consumption
has been reduced to a mean quantity of 6,360 quintals of
flour daily, and since the 18th of January,—that is, since
the flour was rationed—this consumption has been reduced
to 5,300 quintals, that is, about one-sixth of the usual
quantity which we may say is necessary. Thus placing the
figure at 5,300 quintals, the total quantity of our provisions
represented a'space of seven days. To those seven days
one of alimentation furnished by the flour actually distri-
buted by the bakers three or four days more, which would
be provided for by quantities of corn got from private
holders by every means possible, and it will thus be ac-
knowledged that we had bread for eight days at least, 12
days at the most. It may not be useless to state that for
three weeks we had no provision of flour. Our mills only
furnished each day the flour necessary for the day follow-
ing. A few shells falling on the Cail works would have
sufficed at once to endanger the feeding of the whole
city. As far as regards meat the situation may be
characterised in one word. Since the exhaustion of our
reserve of butchers' meat we have lived by eating horses.
There were 100,000 horses in Paris, now only 33,000 re-
Main, including in that number. the horses for military
purposes. Those 33,000 horses could not, however, be
slaughtered without great inconvenience. Many services
of vital importance would have had to be suspended—
such as ambulances, the transports of grain, flour, and
combustibles ; the services of lighting and cleansing
the town,
_funerals, &c. We shall, on the other
hand, require many horses for cartage as soon as
the revictualling commences. In fact, once these
various necessities are satisfied, the number -of
animals. disposable for slaughter would not exceed 22,000.
At this time we consume, including the army,
650 horses daily—say 25 grammes to 30 grammes per in-
habitant. After deducting the amount required by the
hospitals and the ambulances, 25. grammes of horseflesh
and 300 grammes of bread are the amount of food with
which Paris is content at the present time. In ten days,
when we have no more bread, we shall have consumed
6,500 horses more, and only 26,500 will remain. We can,
it ia trne, add to that 3,000 cows reserved for the
last moment, because they have furnished nutriment for
the sick and new-born infants. Bat, then, how shall we
replace the bread ? The ration of meat will have to
be quadrupled, and we shall be obliged to kill 3,000
horses daily. Thus we could live for about a -week..
But we shall not come to that extremity, precisely
because the Government of the National Defence has
decided to negotiate. It may be said, ' But why so
late ? Why not have sooner revealed these terrible
truths ? ' To this question the answer is that it was
a duty to prolong resistance to its greatest extent, and
that the revelation of such details would have been the
end of all resistance. But the re-victualling will proceed
so quickly that we shall not be a single day without
bread. All the measures which prudence could suggest
have been taken, and provided that each one does his duty,
and that no internal agitation shall disturb the resumption
of industrial and commercial activity, the fresh provisions
will arrive just at the time when we shall have exhausted
those we have still left. We have a firm hope ;we are
certain that two millions of men, women, old men, and
children will not have to suffer famine. The sacred duty
of prolonging resistance as far as human powers can carry
it has compelled us to hold on until we had come to an end
of cur bread. We have yielded, not at almost the last
hour, but at the last,"