Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-09-19
oAuloouRY FOUND
FRANCE EMERGING
FROM WARS RUINS
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France, Belgium. Holland and Switxcr-
lAnd and had just one puncture.
had had tho same chauffeur three
ycars before and Va probably travelled
quite that far through the devaltated
regions down TO tho Rhine and a great
deal In Germany and that ycar wc had
no puncturca. That French chauffeur
n certainly tho real thing In the way
cf chau6eurs. Just M we were re-
turning to Paris from Switzerland he
had the puncturc and told him he
had lost his reputation because no
ono was 4 good chauffeur who had
punctures on an average OF only one
In two years.
In going over portions of the de-
vastAted regions wherc I had been
three years before. I was delighted 10
md that the French were doing al
most tho impossible In the restoratio
Of these districts. They are doing II
themselves without outside assistance
and without having received any con-
tribution from Germany for this pur-
pose. think l will tell YOU OF Lens.
Three years ago l passed through
u twice. This In the great coal mining
district OF France. Lens itself had be-
tween forty and Mty thousand peo-
Pile before the war. There wasn't q
wall standing of any house big enough
foe a man to hide behind. The whole
city was Just a pile OF rubbish and
the Few people there We're living ir
celiars. This time when 1 went
through, It looked like western
boom town. Blocks OF houses wer,
built and temporary railroads &c
transport construction nfterial wer,
down many streets. It looked like @
real city and two other cities In tbs
same valley which we could see yer,
clearly from vimy Ridge had beer
restored and high emokestacks wer,
rising hcre and there through tn,
plane. My French chauffeur pointet
with pride to several OF them out o
which smoke WAS issuing. showing
the extent OF tho rcstora tion. Othel
places like Albert and Nerdun were
almost unbearebly noisy from th'
Oound OF hammers and restoration
work going on. | remember one Sun
day morning before 6 o'clock we wer,
awakened In Neriun by workmen en-
gagged In restoration. They were work
fns Sundays. as well as weekdays, nj
though occastonally n religious feas
:nterfercs as the Feast OF the AS
sumption. which occurred Just at tina
time. feel that the work Of the restora
ton In France nae been almost mar
relous. Where such desnlation existe,
three years ago one could not believ
that even the land could be restore,
10 cultivation for n long period O
years. ! found fine crops growing an.
nature has done n great deal to de
etroy the scafe OF war In view of tn
antenee energy necessarily displaye
for a man TO hind behind. The Who'll
by the French. their failure 10 obtai
paymente on account Of thees repara
tione which have cost them billion
OF francs has excited their feeling
asainst England because of the sup
lsWed support given Germany in re
fusing to make these payments.
Says POincare Is Right
An ir1erchange of diplomatic note
h'om time TO time and the failure c
the conferences at Genoa and tn
liaxue and finally at London. the tw
last OF which occurred during my stay
intensified this feeling and my BELIEF !
thai Po&ncare, the French Prime Nnn
later. adopted exactly the rfeht cours