"They are a war factor. His Britannic Majesty's Chinese Labor Corps now behind the battle line in France is almost as large as the total Chinese population in the United States. The French Republic has recruited a force of similar dimensions, bringing Chinese manpower overseas for non-combatant and industrial work. Even teeming Russia, before its tragic collapse, had drawn upon thousands of Chinese for work as far west as the Ural mines. In 1914 there were but 7,000 in this rich country, but a fourfold increase brought the total to 30,000. All told, 200,000 Chinese are 'carrying on' in the war zone, laboring behind the lines, in munition works and factories, manning ships.
"Though the pages of no White Book say it, the break between the Chinese Republic and Germany was precipitated largely by the Allied drafting of China's manpower. Even in its beginnings, the French and British mobilization of Chinese labor caused a diplomatic battle royal."
ECONOMIC VALUE OF AMERICAN ARMY TO FRENCH INDUSTRY
Permanent economic improvements were one result of the presence in France of the American Expeditionary Force. An industrial movement was created that will probably continue long after the war is over. In various French seaports, docks had to be constructed to handle the enormous tonnage of supplies needed for the American troops. A letter in the New York Journal of Commerce gives a picture of the transformation in the transport system in France made in order to handle with speed and certainty the various supplies on which the American Army depended:
"Our project comprises nearly 1,000 miles of railroad construction, but not continuous. France already controls on her lines such facilities that she has been able to support her great military burden and not break. Their local development in the way of sidings and so forth is chiefly in the big towns, and small engines and cars are used. To meet our larger needs, it is necessary to establish terminals outside the towns for the change of engines and for our great storage warehouses. Our great railway construction in France, apart from a few cut-off lines, is in the way of storage yards. We have practically the use of two trunk-line tracks. The French run over them, too, for there is a tremendous civil population to be supported. The French are necessarily supreme, and we simply have the right to run over their railroads subject to their rules.
"The French have an arrangement with their railroads by which a piece of track that is put in for military purposes is paid for by the French Government. If the civil requirements of the railroad grow up to the use of that particular piece of track, then the government is reimbursed by the railroad. We are in the same position toward these railroads as the French Government. At the end of the war the improvements which we make will be surveyed. If they are useful to the railroads our expenditures will be reimbursed. If not, we are at liberty to take up the stuff and clear the ground. Two days ago a semi-official statement was made to the Paris press, reading:
"'Americans, in full agreement with the French authorities, are making every effort to carry out, by their own means, the debarkation of their troops in ports, their provisioning as well as their transportation over our railroads. Sidings, large stations, and establishments of every kind are being constructed by the most modern and expeditious processes. One of the warehouses has an area of about 4,000 acres, and it has a cold-storage plant capable of holding several thousand tons of meat. Aviation training camps and repair shops, considerable in size and with the most improved machinery, are being erected on every side.'"
FRENCH INDUSTRIAL EXHAUSTION
A realistic picture of the industrial exhaustion of France at the close of the war was given by M. Tardieu, General Commissioner for Franco-American war affairs. The war expenses of 120,000,000,000 francs was only a fractional part of the whole loss. Another 50,000,000,000 would have to be raised to secure raw material destroyed during the war. M. Tardieu presented in detail the various items indicating to what extent France had suffered economic disability and paralysis:
"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, 25 per cent. of the sum total of our taxes. These territories are now in a state of ruin even worse than we had anticipated. Of cities and villages nothing remains but ruins; 350,000 homes have been destroyed. 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, 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.