France always stands upright, her arm is still strong, her muscles
vigorous and her blood rich.
To destroy the lie that France is bled white, we must let figures,
facts, statistics and definite proofs speak. The public shall judge
for itself....
A nation that is worn out and bled white has no army to defend itself.
France not only still has an army, but she has an army that is
numerically and materially stronger than it was at the war's
beginning. In 1914, at the Marne, France had an army of 1,500,000 men;
today, after four years of war, France has on her battle front, in
the war zone, an army of 2,750,000 men.
But the value of fighting men today lies only in the artillery they
have to support them behind the lines. It lies in the shells the
artillery is able to fire, in all that material that makes up the
sinews of war of the present day. Here we find the most extraordinary
and marvelous effort that history records. France, invaded, occupied,
weakened; France that had no munitions industry prior to 1914--or a
small munitions industry at best--that France has built up a war
industry that is doubtless the best in the world, which is equal to
the German war industry and on which the Allies can draw in the common
cause.
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