"We have lost two million and a half men; some are dead, some maimed,
some have returned sick and incapacitated from German prisons. Whether
they be lost altogether, or whether their working capacity be
permanently reduced, they will not participate in this reconstruction.
The fifteenth part of our people is missing at the very time we need all
our material and moral forces in order to build up our life again. The
younger part, yea, the stronger part of our nation, the flower of
France, has died away on the battle-fields. Our country has been bereft
of its most precious resources.
"Our war expenses, on the other side, 120,000,000,000 francs, are
weighing heavily on our shoulders. To payoff this debt there are at hand
only such limited resources as invasion has left us. The territories
which have been under German occupation for four years were the
wealthiest part of France. Their area did not exceed six per cent of the
whole country. They paid, however, twenty-five per cent of the sum total
of our taxes.
"These territories which have been, for the last three months, occupied
again by us at the cost of our own blood and of the blood of our allies,
are now in a state of ruin even worse than we had anticipated. Of the
cities and villages nothing remains but ruins; 350,000 homes have been
destroyed.
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