The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-31
PARTS AN IMPREGNABLE CITY.
Its FOrtificatiOns Considerably Inn
proved since German War.

It's FOrtificatiOns Considerably Inn
proved Since German War.
From the Boston Herald
The action of the French Parliament in
deciding to tear down some of the forth
fications near Paris and sell for ordinary
uses the land now occupied by these de-
fensive works must not be taken as an
indication that in the opinion of the
French people, We are soon to enter upon
an era of peace. The Notifications, the
demolition of which Is contemplated by
the order passed, are those which are
quite close to Paris and which played a
prominent part in the defense of the city
at the time 1t was besleged by the Ger
man army twenty-seven years ago. But
the French have been taught wisdom by
past experience and as a result have plan
ned and few years ago finished a sys-
TEN of Notifications around Paris which
are probably unequaled for the purposes
for which they are intended by any SINH
lar Notifications i'm the world.
A well informed military writer a
member of the general staff of the Ger
man army, has given it as his opinion
that successful siege of Paris would be-
under present conditions, an impossible
undertaking. The new fortifcations that
surround the French capital are some fir
teen of twenty miles from the city and
are connected with Paris and with each
other by q railway system which would
enable the French commander to quickly
mass at one point very large body Of
men, while the general of the besieging
army, if he wished to prevent the city
from obtaining supplies and
thus shut i'm the people and the
army that was defending It, would have to
occupy a line extending over 100 miles and
hence could not by any possibility collect
a large number of his force at any one
point to resist an attack of the enemy 1t
required German army of, approximate
ly, 100000 men to lay siege to Paris from
Sept. 10, 1870, to Jan. 30, 1871, but the au-
thority we refer to is of the opinion that
to repeat the same operation a German be-
sieging army would have TO number more
than 100000 men, and the work Of MAIN
tanning such force and properly handling
it's parts would be something which few
governments would care to undertake. and
few military commanders would be able to
efficiently perform.
Besides, these great outlying fortified
tions would give to the people of Paris
if their city was again besieged, an op-
portunity to obtain many of the smaller
supplies of life from the suburban district.
since as the system of Fertilization has
been built it would be as though the line
of defense for Boston took circuit which
extended from Marshfield through Brock
ton, Walpole, birmingham, Concord, And
over and reached the water again at Glou-
cester. II the tide of war was kept thus far
back from our city it is easy to see that
we should not suffer as intensely as If it
were carried on almost within our munic-
ipal area. The French have spent upon
these new fortihcations an amount va
riously estimated at from $4,000 600 to $50
000 600 and hence can well afford to sell the
land occupied by some of the now obso-
lete Notifications of a generation ago.