The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-04-15
FRANCE ENDS PENSIONS TO
 REFUGEES

| Paris, April 15.-Nearly 60, 900 peo- sons, mostly helpless old people. wo- | men and children. will be thrown practically upon their own resources when the French Government early next month ceases to pay war refu- geo. allowances, instituted at the be- ginning of hostilities in the summer of 1914.
 They are the last of a great army of more than a. million who were driven from their homes by the ad- vancing German armies. Steps are being taken to obtain aid from the Government in some other way and to enlist the support of private char tiles
 When the first refugee fled from the battle zone in 1914 the Govern ment arranged a system of monthly allowances. The payments were very small, but at that time homeless women and children from the in vaded districts had little trouble in finding cheap lodgings elsewhere in France and the cost of living was so low that they managed to keep alive.
 The number of refugees reached its maximum at about the time of the armistice, when nearly 1,3OO,000 were receiving allowances from the Minis trv of Finance This did not take into account thousands Of others who had resources of their own or who made their homes with relatives.
 Early in 1919 the homeward move ment began Thousands of refugees from districts which had not suffered heavily under the German occupation returned to their firesides and by the end of the year the Government was paying allowances to only 67,300.
 During 1920 the reconstruction of homes in the devastated area. pro- gressed so rapidly that there were only 15O.O0O refugees still on the Gov ernment'S hands. This number has diminished gradually but it is now possible to ascertain that at least 1OO,- 900 will become permanent charges, dependent either on public or on pri- vate charity.
 Signposts All That Remain.
 Thousands of these have made vain pilgrimage to the sites of their for mer villages only to find them plotted out by shellfire. For i~stance some of the little hamlets along the Somme and Verdun battlefieldfs can no longer be found, except by the aid of maps. The location of a number has been marked by signpoSts but they will never be restored. The economic reasons that led to their growth many decades ago have d1Sappeared and they will go down in Frances his tory as Host towns" Thus the shop keeper who returns to rebuild his crossr roads store finds no indications of life and the plot of ground where he once carried on his business and earned him livelihood IS of pract1- cally no value-
 Nearly all these 100000 want to go back to the communities where they have spent practically all their lives. But there is no room for them and no work to occupy them when they do return. In many of the devastated towns now under process of recon struction former residents are living in wooden barracks and the authori ties are discouraging the return of everyone incapable of doing a hard days work.
 The Government IS suppresslng the allowances as a means of econo> my. Since the outbreak of the war three billion dollars has been paid out of the national treasury in al- lowances to dependents of soldiers at the front and to civilian refugees.