Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-11-09
AMERICA MUST AID STRICKEN
 FRENCH PEOPLE
 ANDRE TARDIEU 35O,O0O Homes Have Been Destroyed Declares
 Commissioner. TROOPS WILL BE
 NEEDED TO HELP Labor and Material Badly Needed In Stricken
 Republic.

New York, Nov. 8.-An appeal to America to assist France in her re- construction-with men, money. ma terials and ships-was made here to- night by Andre Tardieu, general com missioner for Franco American war affairs.
 Declaring that the war has reduced by one fifteenth the effective popula- tion of the republic, that 350,O00 homes have been destroyed; that agri- culture, commerce, and industry in the invaded regions virtually have been wiped out, that French shipping and foreign trade have been reduced al- most to non-existence, MT. Tardieu said that approximately 50,000, ,OO0, ,0OO francs ($10,o00,0O0,O00) will be re- quired to finance the process of re- storation. While France, ''for many months the main battlefield of Liber- ty and right" will draw upon her every resource and those of her colon ies to raise this vast sum, the com missioner stated, she confidently looks for assistance from the allies.
 From America, MT. Tardieu contin- ued, making public, as he said, rep resentations which he had presented to the administration at Washington France asks for a contribution of la Dor by American troops now on her soil; for credits to the exten of 50 percent of her reconstruction pur- chases in this country for raw ma terials, railroad rolling stock and agricultural and industrial tools, and for diversion of part of the emer- gency fleet to the uses of French commerce. In explaining these needs to American government the commissioner said, he was given a welcome "by which I was deeply mov- ed."
 While France extract restitution for German depredations, MT. Tardieu is imperative and America on ac- count of her immense capability for production, ought to give us the first help"
 The rFGench commissioners appeal to Americans was made in an address before the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents. introduced by Frank sDilnot of London, president of the organization, MT. Tardieu attri- buted the allied victory to "the work of our soldiers and civilian popula- tions" and to the "loyal, wise and skillfull policy by means of which President Wilson enabled the allies and America, in answer to the Ger man request to determine in full lib erty our conditions of armistice." He continued:
 France has lost 2,5OO,OO0 men Some are dead, some are maimed; some have returned sick and incapa- citated from German prisons. Wheth- CT they be lost altogether, or whether their working capacity be perman- ently reduced, they will not partici- pate in this reconstruction. "The fifteenth part of our people is our material and moral forces in or der to build our life again. "The younger, stronger part of our nation, the flower of France, has died on the 'battlefields Our country has been bereft of it's most precious resources.
 "Our war expenses, 12O, 1000, 10000, ,OOC francs, are weighing heavily on our | shoulders.
 "The industrial disaster is com. nlete. The districts occupied by the Germans and whose ministry has been methodically destroyed or taken away by the enemy, were, industrially speaking, the very heart of France They were the very backbone of oul production.
 Plants, machinery, mines-nothine <! is left. Everything has been carried away or destroyed by the enemy. Sc complete is the destruction, that, ir the case of our great coal mines 1T
 the north, two years of work will bt needed before single ton of coal car
 be extracted and ten years before the output is brought back to the fig
 ures of 1913.
 France will be equal to the eff
 fort, but resolute as she is to do by
 herself everything she herself can do
 France also deems it fair that aftel
 having been for so many months thu
 main battlefield of Liberty and righ
 she should now be helped in her eff fort, and she brides herself in trust ing fully the spirit of solidarity O
 those of her allies who have no
 been invaded.
 "To you Americans, let me say tha
 we want first immediate assistanc
 in the matter of labor. We hope that during the preparation and the carry ing out of the transportation of you
 troops back to America, your techni
 cal as well as other units with thei