manufacture of certain portions of textile machinery, sewing- machines (of which 3,633 tons came from Germany in the last year before the war) and typewriters. Some constructors of tanks have turned their attention to agricultural machinery. The practical results of these adaptations, and their capacity to withstand foreign competition, cannot of course be known until after the restoration of something like normal conditions. The conditions necessary for obtaining the best results from French industry after the war are thus set forth by M. Rateau in his report to the Consulting Committee on Arts and Manu- factures:
(1) The formation of manufacturers' syndicates should be de- veloped as much as possible, and manufacturers themselves should be asked to abandon their present individual policy. The question whether syndicates should not be made compulsory should be ex- amined and discussed.
(2) The State should be asked to give more active cooperation to industry and keep in closer and more permanent touch with it, while at the same time leaving full scope to private initiative.
(3) Factories and workshops should be specialized.
(4) The standardizing of machinery should be very thoroughly investigated.
(5) Manufactures should be concentrated in the smallest possible number of factories.
(6) There should be scientific control of manufactures.
(7) Special and general laboratories, which are indispensable to industry, should be created.
(8) Inventions should be protected by utilizing them better.
(9) Technical education of all kinds should be developed.
(10) A system of technical evening schools should be built up.
3 B
QA
a Landing gro> Airship harbour O Seaplane station Emergency landing ground
..... " " ' " (projected)
D Military
FRENCH AIR ROUTES
Aerial Route Map (see p.
COMMUNICATIONS
Railways, France has never been well provided with railway communication. When the war of 1870 broke out, the total length of her railway systems was only 9,658 miles. M. de Freycinet's development scheme was the cause of more rapid progress between 1875 an d 1890, after which date the rate of extension slackened. In 1912 the total length of main and branch lines was 31,600 miles. This gave France the third place among European countries as regards the length of her railway system, but in proportion to population and geographical area only the sixth and eighth places respectively.
This deficiency in the national equipment was a serious handicap during the greater part of the World War, not only as regards military operations but the conveyance of the vast quantities of supplies. The ports on the Channel and Atlantic immediately be- came congested, and one of the most urgent tasks of the French engineers was to lay many miles of sidings and create sorting stations. In all about 620 m. of new track were laid in France during the war
Some of the French railways accomplished something like miracles in the face of enormous difficulties. The Northern railway was suddenly called upon, in March 1918, to provide 172 troop trains a day after having for some time run only 18 of these trains a day. The military train mileage which was 621,000 in Feb. doubled in May, although Amiens was under the enemy's fire. On the Eastern line, the daily number of troop trains reached 198 on May 5. The effort was continued after the onrush of the enemy had been stopped and the forward movement of the Allied troops begun. On Aug. 28 1918, the Northern line was running 25,000 waggons of all kinds, chiefly over tracks which had been torn up by the enemy and hastily relaid. After the Armistice, the conveyance of troops and prisoners required the French railways to provide 206 trains, 10,156 vans and trucks, 550 passenger carriages and 750 engines. The damage done to the Northern railway alone comprised 500 bridges and culverts, 12 tunnels, nearly 2,000 m. of telegraph and telephone lines, 590 buildings, 150 water-tanks and 20,000 tons of metal work.
On Jan. I 1919, the rolling-stock on the French railways was: locomotives 14,574, goods trucks 368,683, passenger carriages and vans 43,956. The corresponding figures on Aug. I 1914 were: locomotives 13,800, goods trucks 376,000, passenger carriages and vans 49,320. On the other hand, 2,854 locomotives and 46,337 trucks and carriages were out of use on Jan. I 1919, as compared with 1,720 locomotives and 19,314 trucks and carriages on Aug. I 1914.
Under the terms of the Armistice, France obtained 2,600 locomo- tives and 70,000 trucks and carriages from Germany, so that she entered upon the peace period with apparently a large increase in her railway rolling-stock, but much of it was more or less useless, the scarcity of skilled labour during the war having prevented proper repairs.
France in 1913 had six engineering works producing railway locomotives. Four of the six were in districts subsequently occupied by the enemy. The total output was between 650 and 700 engines a year. The other rolling-stock manufactured in France was about 2,000 passenger carriages and 18,000 goods trucks a year. During the last few years preceding the war, from one-third to one-sixth of the new engines required by the French railways were imported from abroad, the exports being almost entirely confined to Belgium and the French colonies. Since the war, new workshops have been built, one of which at Nantes has a capacity of 200 locomotives a year. It was estimated that in a few years France would be in a position to meet all her own requirements in railway rolling-stock, and possibly to export it, on condition that the placing of orders by the companies was carried out with more regularity than in the past.
Improvement in railway communications with other countries is greatly needed. The only two routes between France and Italy, via Modane and Ventimiglia, are overcharged with traffic. The Modane line through the Alps is liable to interruption by floods. Some progress has, however, been made with a new line between Nice and Coni (Cuneo), which will serve the Milan district. Between France and Spain there are two lines, via Hendaye and Cerbere. Two others have been begun, from Ax-les-Thermes to Ripoll and from Oloron to Quera. Many other extensions are held up through financial and other causes. Public opinion appears to be strongly in favour of the Channel-tunnel scheme.
Little has been done in France towards the electrification of railways. With the exception of the Paris-Versailles line on the left bank of the Seine, and the Orleans line between Paris and Juvisy, the only French railway company to use electric traction is the Midi, which can obtain power comparatively cheaply from the Pyrenean waterfalls. This company has planned to electrify 170 m. of its system, but the work is not completed. Before the war, the State railway had made arrangements to electrify all its Paris subur- ban lines, and part of the work was carried out. It was resumed in 1920, and, it is estimated, will be finished in 1926.
One of the weakest points in the system of communications is to be found at Havre. This important port is not only imperfectly connected with other towns in its own region but only one railway line links it with the largest and most active centre it has to serve Paris. Rouen is better off than Havre in this respect, as it extends on both banks of the Seine and, for the conveyance of goods at any rate, can make use of river transport, but many of its industrial districts, and parts of its port, are badly served by rail in the direc- tion of Paris. The building of a new line from Havre, connecting with the Paris main line at Pont de L',Arche and thus relieving the pressure on the route through the Rouen bottle-neck, has been ad- vocated for many years, but up to the summer of 1921 its execution had not been undertaken. A petroleum pipe-line between Havre and Paris was, however, in course of construction.
Another project under consideration was designed to improve communications between Switzerland and the Atlantic coast, so as to attract traffic which would otherwise continue to follow the Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp routes. Before the war, Berne was 15 hours from Antwerp, 165 hours from Hamburg and 21 hours from Bordeaux. The problem from the French point of view is how best to reduce the time of transit between Berne and Bordeaux. The nature of the French lines (as they existed in 1921) does not permit of trains being run at greater speed. The central French mountain mass, which stands directly on the line between these two points,
