To build them up again--I am referring to the building
proper, without the furnishings--600 million days' of work will be
necessary, involving, together with building material, an outlay of
10,000,000,000 francs. As regards personal property of every description
either destroyed by battle, or stolen by the Germans, there stands an
additional loss of at least 4,000,000,000 francs.
"This valuation of lost personal property does not include--as definite
figures are lacking as yet--the countless war contributions and fines by
the enemy, amounting also to billions. I need hardly say that, in those
wealthy lands, practically no agricultural resources are left.
"The losses in horses and in cattle, bovine and ovine species, hogs,
goats, amount to 1,510,000 head--in agricultural equipment to 454,000
machines or carts--the two items worth together 6,000,000,000 francs.
"Now as regards industries, the disaster is even more complete. These
districts occupied by the Germans and whose machinery has been
methodically destroyed or taken away by the enemy, were, industrially
speaking, the very heart of France. They were the very backbone of our
production, as shown in the following startling figures:
"In 1913 the wool output of our invaded regions amounted to 94 per cent
of the total. French production and corresponding figures were: For flax
from the spinning mills, 90 per cent; iron ore, 90 per cent; pig iron,
83 per cent; steel, 70 per cent; sugar, 70 per cent; cotton, 60 per
cent; coal 55 per cent; electric power, 45 per cent.
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