Evening star., 1933-04-11
FRANCE CONTINUES
DEFENSIVE STEPS
Military Force Maintained as
Talk of War Is Heard
in Europe.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
PARIS, April I1.-France Is confront
ing talk of war in Europe by keeping
her highly-e efficient military forces un-
weakened.
She is continuing, likewise, to forge
an iron defense chain along the German
] frontier
| Premier Edouard Daladier has given
public assurance that his government is
| following with an extreme vigilance
the evolution of international politics. y
/ This includes the rise to power OF the
Hltlerites in Germany and their demand
| for German equality of rights" entail
| ing a revision of the World War trea-
ties, in which they have the sympathy
of Frances transalpine neighbor, Italy
France, since the war, has reduced
compulsory military service to one year.
The French military budget this year,
owing to the economic crisis, Is about
one-seventh below the 1882 expenditures
OF approximately half billion dollars.
Man Power Not Sacrificed.
But new Notifications are designed to
offset the shorter army service. ana
Premier Daladier, who also Is minister
of war, has assured the nation that the
budgetary saving will be in the cost OF
materials and increased efficiency
through reorganization, without sacr1-
fcing man power.
The army has 362,167 effectives in
France, besides auxiliary forces such as
the gendarmerie totaling 42,685. There
is colonial army of 246,333-a grand
total of 651 ,185 men.
France estimates that Germany, in
addition to her army OF 100000, has
auxiliary forces such as the militarized
police to the number Of 100000 and
much greater strength of 100000 men
in Hitler's storm troops, the steel heb
meters and similar organizationS-an
estimated total of 100000.
Italy, on the other hand, Is credited
by the French with an army OF 464, ,481
men, q semi-military formation (the
Fascist militia) of $4,000 and colo
NAL force of 26,137-a total Of $40, ,618.
The French figures for militiamen
and auxiliaries greatly exceed those OF
the League Of Nations.
The military air force OF European
nations, incidentally, as figured by the
French, include: France, 2,212 planes;
Italy, 1,507; Great Britain, 1,434; Jugo-
mania, $50; Poland, 400. Germany is
barred by the treaty of Versailles from
having military airplanes.
In event the forces Of Hitler and
!! Mussolini were to be combined against
her, therefore, France figures that her
own troops would be outnumbered more
| than two to one. Hence her desire to
maintain the closest alliance with Po-
land, whose total military force Is esti-
mated at 330,25 men, and the little
entente-Rumania, Jugoslavia and
Czechoslovakia - whose com b n d
strength Is computed at 626,724.
Workers in the Metz and Lauter re-
gions have been forging defense chain
on a 125-mile front for the past three
years This trench-and-cascmate sys-
tenn. based on Frances World War ex-
periences, is being built along the east
ern frontier between the Rhine and
Luxembourg as an offset to reduction
Of the terms Of regular military service.
Birth Rate Declining.
The trenches link a series of case
mates-shell-proof vaults with embra-
sures through which artillery and ma
chine guns may be flred-from ! to
16 miles apart. From this chain, which
includes an elaborate system of sub
terranean barracks connected by tun-
nels, army officers believe a continuous
barrage could be laid down along the
| frontier.
The defense system is so constructed
that the troops would be hidden from
enemy view and well protected by the
| Notifications against bombardment.
In all this armed set-up for security,
there is one source of possible worry
for the French general staff-the coun-
try's declining birth rate. 1t has been
estimated that the low postwar birth
rate will reduce the army's conscription
by almost half by 1887.
Some 250, 900 young men are annually
called to the colors, but in 1887 only
about half as many will be eligible, ac-
cording to the reckoning of foreign
military observers here.