Foreign News: Economic Factors

The economic factors underlying the Franco-Belgian action are to be found more in the domestic conditions of the countries concerned rather than in the occupied region. The Ruhr mines are yielding comparatively little coal, and both France and Belgium are forced to import supplies at an enormous cost.

France has been suffering from strikes in her most important coal fields, and it will be some time before she recovers from the effect. Belgium is threatened by a strike which may paralyze not only her coal supplies but her iron industry.

Both countries face a daily rising expenditure of about $100,000 for the direct cost of occupation. The Germans, too, are being forced to expend large credits on coal and food, but their hindering tactics are not so costly as the Franco-Belgian Ruhr administration.