September 1, 1919.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



German Ravages in the Rubber Factories of Northern France. 



special Correspondence. 

 Just as soon as the armistice v-xis sii;ncd a special correspondent of The India Rubber World icas dispatched to the por- 

 tions of the occupied territory in Nortliern France which were once rubber centers of importance. After much difficulty, owing to 

 lack of transportation and housing, the story was secured and photographs taken. The record is of intense interest, not only 

 historically but as bringing home to rubber manufacturers everywhere the losses suffered by a once prosperous portion of their 

 o~cn industry. 



HOWEVER SYSTEMATIC AND IMPORTANT THE RAVAGES Committed 

 by the German armies in the rubber factories of Walloon 

 and Flanders, they are nevertheless in no way to be com- 

 pared with what the establishments situated in the north and 



northeast of France had to suffer— territories where the fightin? 



was going on for nearly fi\e years 

 The ten departments in 



vaded, where the firing 



line underwent ceaseless 



fluctuations during this 



long period, were those 



where the rubber industry 



was reaching an intense 



development, responding 



to the general need of the 



country as well as to the 



local demands of this dis 



trict, the greatest indus 



trial center in France. 

 In the departments m 



vaded as early as August 



1914, and not evacuated 



until November, 1918, the 



Germans, anxious to de 



stroy future competition 



from the first day of oc 



cupation, proceeded in the 



systematic destruction of 



the factories according to 



an elaborate plan laid out 



in advance, and of which 



the following are the de 



tails : 



In February, 1916, the 



German General Staff m 



stituted a thorough study 



of the French and Belgian 



industries in the occupied 



districts. It was a detailed 



inventory of more than 



5,000 factories, for which 



200 experts were spe- 

 cially recalled from the 



front. This report, which 



fell into French hands 



after the German defeat, covers the most important industrial 

 branches, from a technical as well as from an economic point of 

 view. It describes the conditions under which the various in- 

 dustries exist; it exposes their relations with Germany and with 

 the markets of the world ; it gives, furthermore, a summary of 

 the repercussions that will probably result for Germany from the 

 destruction of certain branches of these industries. 



Rubber goods manufacture, like all other branches of industry, 

 was examined from the following triple point of view : 

 1 — Its position at the time of the invasion. 

 2 — Its position resulting from the damages sustained, at the 

 time of the investigation. 



3 — The profit that the German industry could derive from its 

 disappearance and from the destruction of its factories. 



The damages found by the German experts are divided into 



■,^^--^^' 



Post-card Si 

 Factoi 



AT BorSSIERES 



iwo classes and are placed under the following headings : 

 1 — Damages caused directly by the operations of war. 

 2 — Damages resulting from the proceedings of the German 

 authorities. 



The report in reality constitutes an avowal of the thieves and 

 dc trover ihenisches that the German campaign was, in the 

 words of Premier Clemen- 

 eau a thorough and 

 w ell calculated conspiracy 

 Mth the view of extermi- 

 nting France industrially 

 id Lommercially as well 

 1 militarih " 



Hdw the Germans in- 

 il ted damages upon the 

 I tigian rubber industry 

 crregating one hundred 

 1 Ihon Irancs has al- 

 id\ been recounted in 

 I tail in The India Rub- 

 I I R \\ ORLD of June 1, 1919. 

 Eliminating the means 

 ul production by removing 

 the machinery from the 

 \arious tactories, of both 

 Belgium and Northern 

 France they assured 

 themsehes in case of com- 

 plete victory, of outlets 

 where no one could com- 

 pete against them. 



The shameless theft of 

 raw material from the fac- 

 tories enabled them to en- 

 large without expense, 

 their means of production. 

 The carrying away of raw- 

 materials of all kinds, 

 requisitioned or simply 



stolen, increased their 



stocks without any new 

 Soldiers to the Director of a Tire Duck expenditure and allowed 

 Showing Their Work of Destruction. t'if»" to decrease their cost 



prices. 



In the regions which the 

 front has successively occupied, and on the ever-changing line of 

 Halenburg the ravages have been still more important. In the 

 departments subjected to the caprices of the Kommandaturs, sup- 

 plies and crude materials Iiave disappeared, but, empty as they 

 may be, none the less the factory buildings remain standing, and 

 with energy can still be reequipped easily enough and set work- 

 ing, as was done in the case of the E'nglebert Works at Liege. 



On the firing line it was altogether different, because, not only 

 the supplies had disappeared, but also, as the accompanying photo- 

 graphs show, the buildings themselves, subjected to the attacks 

 of shells of every caliber, have disappeared. 



Of cities like Soissons, St. Quentin, Wailly, Lens, Ham, Al- 

 bert, nothing is left ; everything has been pulled down; and there 

 are accumulations of bricks and burnt stones, which merely indi- 

 cate the places where heretofore progressive cities and flourish- 



