The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-09
TARD|EU ASKS FOR
 AMERICAN AID FOR
 FRANCE AFTER WAR
Says Ten Billions Will Be Required to Finance the Restoration of Country
 After War Is Over

New York, November 8. An appeal to America to assist France in her reconstruction, with men, money, materials and ships, was made here to- night by Andre Tardieu. gen eral commissioner for Franco American war affairs.
 Declaring that the war has reduced by one-fifteenth the effective population of the reptile, that 35o.o00 homes have been destroyed, that agriculture. com merce and industry in the invaded re- gions virtually have been wiped out, that French shipping and foreign trade have been reduced almost to nonexistence. Mir. Tardieu said that approximately 5o.- 0Oo GOO GOO francs, (s10 900 900 000) will be re- quired to finance the process of restora- ton. While France, flor many months the main battlefield of liberty and right" will draw upon her every resource and these of her colonies to mobilize this vast sum, the commissioner stated, she confi-
 ASKS FOR LABOR
 From America, MT. Tardieu continued, making public, as he said, representa- ticns which he had presented to the ad- mnistration at Washington, France asks for a contribution of labor by Ameri- can troops now on her soil; for credits to the extent CT fifty per cent of her reconstruction purchases in this country for raw materials, railroad rolling stock and agricultural and industrial tools, and for diversion of part of the emergency fleet to the uses of French commerce. In government, the commissioner said, he was given welcome by which I was deeply moved"
 While France will exact restitution for German depredations, MT. Tardhu asserted, speed in the reconstruction is imperative and "America on account of her immense capability for production, ought to give the first help
 The French commissioners appeal to Americans was made in an address before the Association of Foreign Press corres- pondents. Introduced by Frank Dilmot of London, president of the organization, MT Tardieu attributed the allied victory to "the work of our soldiers and civilian populatio and to the loyal, wise and skllful policy by means of which Presi- dent Wilson enabled the allies and Amer ica, in answer to the German request. to determine in full our conditions of armistice." He contnued
 HAS LOST 2,50O,0OO MEN
 France has lost 2,500,00O men. Some arc sick and incapacitated from German prisons Whether they be lost altogether. or whether their working capacity be permanently reduced, they will not parti- cipate in this reconstruction.
 "The fifteenth part of our people is missing at the very time we need all our material and moral forces in order to build up 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, 10000. .0o0.O 600 francs, are weighing heavily on our shoulders. To pap off this debt there are at hand only such limited resources as invasion has left us. The territories which have been under German occupation for four years were the wealthiest part of France. Their area did not exceed six per cent of the whole country. They paid, how ever, 25 per cent of the sum total of our taxes.
 The industrial disaster is complete The districts occupied by the Germans and whose machinery has been methodically destroyed or taken away by the enemy. were industrially speaking, the very heart of France. They were the very back bone of our production. Plants, ma chinery, engines-nothing left. Everything has been carried away or destroyed by the enemy. So complete is the destruction that, in the case of our great coal mines ir the north. two years of work will be needed before single ton of coal can be extracted and ten years before the out put is brought back to the figures of 19l3
 France will be equal to the effort But resolute as she Is to do by herself every thing she herself can do, France also deems it fair that after having been for so many months the main battlefield of liberty and right she should now be helped in her effort, and she brides her self in trusting fully the spirit of solid arity of those of her allies who have not been invaded.
 LABOR FIRST NEED !. ITO you, Americans. let me say that we want first assistance in the matter of Ia DOT. We nope tndl, uuIIH8 the pFepa- ration and the carrying out of the trans portation of your troops back to Ameri- ca. your technical as well as other units with their equipment will be able to CO., operate in that effort.
 We soon will have to carry out a colossal work of transportation in view of the supplying of the regions evacu- ated by the enemy. of the recovering Of the railroads in northern and eastern U--o ,,ca and in ce-T, ,orra
 Speaking ito sAmerica" MT. Tardieu said:
 For more than 100 years our liberties and yours have developed fraternally and today, we united, offer to the world the startling lesson of victory and democracy
 Today I have told you where we are standing; I have told you of our will to live again; have told you of our needs and of our wounds, I have told you of what we intend to do and what we will do. and need not wait for your answer. I know it because l know YOU,