Of all the official statistics published in France none are more closely scrutinized than those affecting the birth and death rates, and the figures for the first six.months of last year, while they are regarded as satisfactory for the present, are not reassuring for the future. There were over 421,000 births, against 348,000 deaths. The apparent progress is explained by the diminution in the number of deaths and not by an increase in the number of births, which have slightly decreased.
After the war there was a boom in marriages, but this has given place to a serious slump, for while there were over 333,000 marriages in the first six months of 1920 for the same period last year the number was reduced to 238,000. The spectre of depopulation is, therefore, ever present and it is now admitted that war has not changed the national mentality, - notwithstanding the serious efforts made by organizations all over the country to encourage the birth rate. The denattments in which depopulation is shown number 19, and there are always the same. They are all in the south. The north and the east keep up the honourable birth-rate_ records, amd the west, which with the exception of Brit-tony was showing signs of diminish. it] ing population. is now giving proof For the first. time for a long veried the department of Normandy is in deficit
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.