The Basic Problem

The French Government gasped with alarm at the latest report on the nation's diminishing birth rate. If the trend continued, by the century's end 40,000,000 Frenchmen would dwindle to 25.000,000 Frenchmen. How long could the Big Fourth even pretend to be a Big Fourth?

Solemnly Charles de Gaulle appointed an "interministerial commission" of eight, headed by himself, to survey the problem, promote childbearing measures (goal 12,000,000 fine babies in ten years), "artificial repopulation by controlled and directed immigration," and the repopulation of rural areas by migration from the cities.

But the facts of life were that no important repopulation was possible until the 2,500,000 Frenchmen held captive by the Germans came home to the bosoms of their families.