Norwich bulletin., 1919-12-13
GERMAN OBJECTION IN PLAN FOR WORLD SUPREMACY


 How the Gernlafis iii their sweep
 through northern France and Belgium
 timed at the conquest of the Br-ey
 iron ore deposits and the coal fields of
 Belgium is described by George s.
 Rice, chief mining engineers, Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior,
 Washington, D. c.
 ,'sThe Germans in planning a cam paign for world supremacy had as one of their first objective the seizing of the important Briey iron ore deposits of France and the coad fields, of Bel giurn and northern Fraflce." MT. Rice declared.
 Large resources of coal and iron led to the commercial greatness of the countries possessing them as ex- emplihed by the great development, | first in England. then in the United States and in Germany, when the mi llette high phosphorous iron ores be- came useful through the invention of the Thomas and Gilchrist dephosphor- | izing process in 1878. However, this | development was anticipated by the German scientific advisers in 1871. and l led to the then known deposit of mi-- nette ore in Lorraine being taken 1 from France to Germany.
 When these ores became available. Germany made such tremendous tstrides it's own n1inette ore develop i ments were not sufficient and it had | to import ore. Meantime France by drilling had established the exten- l sion of the minette ore field into | French. Lorraine. Then it was dis 1 covered that France had greater re- sources, while the German resources were being rapidly depleted.
 | aAlfb1noTs Earrnonv in, Waot. phalian basin possessed the most ifn- portant coal field on the continent, and which cotained the largest re- sources in coking coal outside of Great Britain it's coal was distant from the seacoast so it could not be an important factor in the export bus mess No doubt this fact caused the German ir11periaLsts to look forward to securing the coal basin of Belgium
 and northern France for future ocean
 trade.
 it was a striking feature in the
 German conduct of the war that al
 though the steel and iron plants oi
 Belgium and France and other indus
 regions of Belgium and France were
 utterly destroyed, the iron mines if
 French Lorraine were not destroyed ) nor materially damaged by the Ger
 mans in their retreat, while the de structien of France continued unti ]; the day of the arniistice.\ The othel , striking fact is that the coal mines o Belgium were not destroyed. It car only be conjectured whether this wal due to Presidnt Wilson's threat O ! retribution, which did not stay thei , hard hand in,France or was due to thu . fact that they did not consider Bel 1 tri1Y was evident they wished to crippl : France .industrially when they eoull not hold these northern provinces. , .The provinces invaded by tn : Germans while representing only per cent. of the area of France, Wer
 kmost important industrially to tha : Icountry. as 30 per cent of the in f dustFial output came from the invade' ] provinces prior to the war.
 s "The coal in the Pas de Calais Nor t field latterly known as the Len t basin. is the best coal in France an f the basin contains Its largest re sources. The production of this fiel s was 2s,000,o00 tons out of tota French production of 1000, 900 ton; ? The consumption in that year. 191; y was s2,000,000 tons, SC that Franc e bad to import 22 009,0oo tons, chief r from En@land, but some from Bel :; aiqin and Germaav. The coke mad r th the Pas ae Calais-7Eord field Iva | Important to the welfare of the fro j land steel industry of France. ! e i9l3 287s d5D tons were produced i et that field, and largely used in Loi : rhine. The largest steel plants n France were located in the Briey ire
 district and adjacent districts of Lol :. rliae, and theke are the plants d, F stroyed by tie Germans.
 n "ThreeAfodrths Of the coal field he V been occupied by tho Germans ar Y1 miiies dcsttoyed which produced F 1918 Ro.10a;B00 tons (nletrie). Prol if ably not 6Fer-one1hfth of this d .e strdction could ha .atttibuted to batt ii aT military necessities
 6 "Srenild surface structure, gel .y erally built of steel, iron and concre