A report states that about three years will be required to pump the water out of the coal mines of Lens, and that the output will not reach its pre-war level until 1926 or 1927. This, let it not be forgotten, is the result of the German Occupation of that unhappy French town for some four years, to some extent also of the fierce fighting which wrecked a once prosperous locality, but principally to the ruthless destruction carried out when the threat of being forced to eva-enate the district became acute. It may be remembered that Lens first came into the public eye in September, 1915, when during the Battle of Loos the ¢lan of the British troops carried them into the town. It was, however, untenable, and the Germans were allowed to resume possession of what subsequently proved a hideous graveyard for them. During the latter part of 1917 it was daily flooded with gas, and fierce fighting occurred round it, but not until the late summer of 1918 did the Germans finally leave it. When they did it was with the shafts of the mines destroyed, and, naturally, appalling accumulations of ris. So now for eight or ten years following the armistice, Franco hag to forgo the produce of these valuable mines, and that not altogether because of military necessity but rather of wanton rage on the part of the vanquished. Meantime.it is reported that as a small measure of atonement, the Germans have to supply the organization' necessary to undertake the reconstruction of the mines, and likewise to provide all the required cement.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.