The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-03-27
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

saw funny thing not long ago
 which recalled the fact that before
 1870 committee of the House of Con-
 mons. Investigating some question of
 high finance, asked Lord Overstone
 what would happen if London were oc-
 cupier by a hostile army, to which he
 blandly replied, London must not be
 occupied by a hostile army"
 For awhile after the great German drive had made its ruthless way
 through Belgium in the beginning Of
 the war it looked like the small Eng
 fish army and the gallant French one
 would be pierced and Paris once more occupied by the Huns, but they were halted Then once more a terrific smash was launched when it seemed as if the line could not hold and the 1 gay capital was doomed-but again disappointment reigned at Wilhelm strasse.
 | Nows in 1870 the government of the national defense of France shared the l optimistic views of the English lord l who looked on a foreign army in Lon | don as an impossibility while the Ger | man army staff at Berlin had set date to make a triumphal entry under 1 the Arc de Triomphe in Paris but then l as later the day was not fixed to see l any uhlans marching down the Champs E1ysee.
 The Franco -Prussian war was ] short one. but not so brief as the one waged against Austria. It is true that I in month and a half after the Ger | man advance began, on September 1, ! almost the whole of the French army had been captured or besieged; but | keep in mind that the investment of Paris was begun only after seven weeks. when Moltke surrounded Paris I with 15O.o00 men.
 To understand the predicament of France and what the siege of Paris | meant don't forget that in 1870 France stood alone, for the diplomatic end be- | fore the war began had been shrewdly | arranged by that past master, Bismarck, who knew that the nation upon whom I he had forced fight was accepting the gauge of battle to bolster up totter l ing dynasty, an empire seeking in desperate foreign adventure some re- | lief from the distracting dangers of il- ternal peace One student of German policy with acumen points out that when Bismarck wanted to tear Schleswig- -Holstetn Dap orly ho da firSt hn Austria would join him and the rest of Europe stand aside. When Austria was to be crushed, the neutrality of France and Russia was secured. When it was the turn of France, he chose , time which found Austria hors de com- , bat; he played for English sympathy and bribed Russia into neutrality. This was the diplomatic ring which 1 the man of blood and from tied l around France before Moltke began 10 weld the military chains which were to lead her captive. Bismarck besieg 1 ed the capitals of Europe before th l great German general started the siege l of Paris, and this is why when Thers | began his journey for help he sought | 1t in vain, and returned to his native | land almost heartbroken.
  Gambetta's scheme of forming be- | hind screen of armed pesanthy, franc | tireurs and national guards regular 1 army was the astonishment of Europe 1 until even Moltke said "The warlike l energy of this remarkable man had i hi fhn 4f y11o ooi,, soldiers and 14O0 guns in the field in | the course of few weeks" "If I stamp | my foot on the ground legions will l spring up, might well have been the l boast of Gambetta.
 This army for five months after the | surrender of Sedan had stood against | the Prussian military machine, much l to the chagrin of Moltke, who did not | relish the idea that untrained soldiers | should give his veterans so much trou- | ble. The siege of Paris is to be dated | from September 19, 1870, but we have | to reckon the bombardment from Jan uary 5. 1871. Though the German shells | were chiefly directed against the forts | and the ramparts an attempt was | made to terrorize the city.
 Now, the Qualifications, though in l Moltke's opinion effectively protect ed the city from being taken by storm" had not been designed to cope with the artillery of the period. They were l constructed under Louis Philippe, | whose reign had ended more than 20 l years before 1870, and no attempt had | been made to improve them, but the 1 range of guns had been doubled or | trebled, making it easy for the city to be reached by the fire of the heavy batteries.
 The French forts around Paris, which were attacked were Issy, Vanves, Montrogue and Mont valerien. The | French had the advantage in the num- Der of guns, but the Germans were su- perior rapidity of fire, and they had | 100 guns of the heaviest caliber known 1 to 1870 in position to open fire on the | southern Qualifications. It was to be a fierce duel, for upon it's outcome hung the fate of both nations.
 
 Germany had not then come out fully for ruthless war upon the scale which l she practiced in her last fury, but she did not then hesitate to direct har firs.