He then proceeded to quote figures to illustrate the extent of the devastation. Twenty-one thousand factories had, he said, been destroyed in France. The mines in the north of France had been destroyed; 1,650 communes and townships had been wiped out 2,363 partly destroyed, and 630.000 houses completely or partially destroyed. Eight thousand kilometres of railways, 52,000 kilometres of roads, and 3,800,000 hectares of soil must be restored. The coal production of France had been reduced by 50 per cent.
An incredible amount of this damage had, he said, been done deliberately, with a view to destroying essential means of production in both France and Belgium.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.