The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-17
THE CENTRAL POINT.
III Paris Should Fail BourSes will Become the
Sulwnrk of France.
The Opinion Nationale of Paris says

The Opinion Nationale of Paris says:-
It is not sufficient to have fortified Paris. France
must be put into condition to give eficacious aid
to her besieged capital and to repulse the invasion
In Paris should succumb, for nation Of thirty
death for the fate Of their metropolis TO provide
against that double necessity 1t has been proposed
to create in the heart of the country great central
fortified place, where, after first disaster, the
tional forces could be reorgapzed so as to assume
the offensive in advantageous conditions. There in
fact would be assembled an army which, free in its
movements, well supplied with provisions, and
reinforced from the departments OF the centre,
f WIVES eId ia ese @n of upon
retiring TO the central place. This idea is not new.
It had pissed through the mind OF Louis XIV In
, patroniZed it in 1885, Napoleon regretted at ST.
Helena not to have carried it out, because it might
have saved France in 1914 and 1915; under the Re-
stOraton it was very seriously thought OF, and Gene
raj Duviver brought it prominently forward 10 1926
III his Essai sur la Defense des EtatS par les Forti
cations" In this last project the central place was
/ not to be city, as had been hitherto proposed,
4 but an immense intrenched camp OF 250 miles
square, which would have to be formed in the delta
made by the Loire and the Alliere. This grand pro-
ect had the defect of circumscrbing upon one sole
point all the means OF defense, and It's execution
would have entailed enormous expense. 1t was
therefore abandoned but the idea OF great central
point was persisted in, and competent men desig
mated, some Tours and others Bourges. This latter
town carried OFF the palm after long and learned dis
eussons 1t was considered. ever since the time OF
Caesar, as the buwark OF Gaul; it was from it that
Charles VII saved France everywhere invaded; and
there, after the disasters of 1915, were established
Marshal Soults short tenure of the Ministry OF War
under the Restoration he thought OF founding there
great central military establishments Louis Philippe,
in 1887, stationed there regiment OF artillery, to
i make a beginning of the realization of a more eX
tended plan, and the law Of the goth June 1S45, de-
cded that the guns for the fortidcatons OF Paris
should be deposited at Bourges. A deputy, M. Dup
\ Ian, published, in 1897, pamphlet recommending
the execution OF the plan; gave second edition OF
the work in 1861, and third in 1862 "Bourges is
not only he said, 'the central town par eecelLence
but its strategical position is exceptionally adyan
tageous. 1t is covered and protected from all
sides within radius of 120 to 100 kilometres by
series OF natural obstacles, which give to defen-
sive army the possibility of arresting the enemy
coming from one or several points OF the invaded
circumference" Z he expense would, it was thought,
amount TO Is, 900 francs. After a long exam
nation Bourges, by its position in the heart of
the country, appeared the most suitable locality
receive such great establishment. The Council
General OF the Cher and the municipality OF Bourges
voted, on their side sum of million and half of
francs, but the work has only as yet been, so to
speak, sketched out, and the time is at hand to COM
plete 1t; for II we do not dismember Prussia in the
existing war; II we do not deliver the civilized world
from the house Of Hohenzollern, which in Europe is
the incarnation OF evil the Prussian government
will not fail to come some day and take its revenge
after having woven together new coalition by its
ruses and traditional pertdy In the present stua
ton BOugee could be of great service to the French
by the creation OF powerful army OF reserve, and
we do not hesitate 10 renew the advice which we
|. have already given the government, to establish
there the seat Of tie War Department in the event
OF Paris being besieged.