"Grand place" of devastated Arras, section visited by peace conference delegates, France

"Grand place" of devastated Arras, section visited by peace conference delegates, France

Peace conference delegates visiting devastated Arras

18697

This picture shows part of the most interesting section of Arras (a’ras’). Arras before the recent war was a city of about twenty thousand inhabitants. It had two spacious squares known as the Grande Place and the Petite Place. The houses facing these squares were built in the Flemish style. They were lofty dwellings with projecting upper stories, supported on columns which formed arcades. We can see in the picture the remaining shells of these show places now torn by the ravages of war. Arras was a place of some importance under the rule of the Romans. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Arras was the seat of a flourishing tapestry industry. At the opening of the twentieth century it had prosperous oil-works, dye- works and breweries, factories for the making of hoisery, railings, and iron work. Now Arras lies in the new desert of Europe, a desert which one writer says is more lonely and more terrible than the Sahara, the border of France devastated by the ravages of the Hun. In the dozen or so departments into which the Germans came were found the larger part of France's industries. Germany determined to injure these industries as much as possible. Machinery is essential to manufacture. Most of the machines were taken from the French mills and shipped to Germany, where they were installed in German mills. What was left was deliberately injured. For such wantonness Germany must make reparation. Delegates from the Peace Conference visited the ruins and the cost of restoration is part of the indemnity which Germany must pay.

1 stereograph : b&w

1 gelatine silver print stereograph (8 x 15 cm) mounted on card (9 x 18 cm)

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World War through the stereoscope