Amsterdam, Dec, 8, Four German steamers which took refuge at Emmhaven, Java, were seized by the bailiff yesterday for not having paid for coal supplies, presumably because of the lack of Siegfried Line System Incorporated Into Big French Defence Works Paris, Dec. 7.
Following three months of uninterrupted work by the French General Staff and Army, the Maginot Line has been improved and strengthened to such an extent as to combine the solidness of its fortifications with the flexibility of the Siegfried Line, which is the German West Wall's outstanding characteristic, according to military quarters here.
In three months of stubborn labour, the main body of the French army, exchanging their rifles for shovels and pick-axes and moving thousands of tons of earth and concrete, have built a new group of fortifications which make the whole French frontier, from Geneva to Dunkirk, an immense fortified camp.
This camp will be able to resist successfully the hardest aerial or land bombardments, infantry attacks or tank offensives, Military circles point out that while before the war broke out the security of France was assured by an uninterrupted line of forts buried deeply in the earth and defending the frontier between Basle and Longwy, this line has now been strengthened by a most powerful system of lighter defences established both behind and in front of the Maginot Line, and also on its two wings. It is a powerful and permanent combination of concrete works will probably be taken against them,—Havas,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.