Battle of Births

If the number of Frenchmen killed in battle should in the near future exceed the number of Germans killed by 37,500 a month (450,000 a year), the military consequences will be serious. From the military standpoint it is equally serious that France's man power has actually fallen behind German man power at the rate of 450,000 men a year. Last year, for example, 750,000 little Germans were born as against only 300,000 little Frenchmen.

The Nazis, intent on maintaining their advantage, proclaimed (TIME, Jan. 1) that: "Beyond the limits of bourgeois laws and customs, which ordinarily are probably necessary, it can become an exalted task even outside wedlock for German women and girls of good blood to become --not frivolously but imbued with deepest moral concern--mothers of children begotten by soldiers moving to the front without knowing whether they will return or die for the Fatherland."

As a further incentive, the Nazis have promised unmarried mothers who register the paternity of their children as "war father" the right to sign Fran (Mrs.) before their maiden names; and promised to support children born out of wedlock whose fathers are killed in the war. Fortnight ago these encouragements finally brought a rebuke from the German clergy. In a pastoral letter to his Archdiocese of Breslau, Adolf Cardinal Bertram declared that adultery is still a sin and that "opinions and suggestions are being spread which are incompatible with obligations to preserve oneself clean and immaculate in bachelorhood."

France's counterattack was a law put in effect Jan. 1, the Code de la Famille sponsored by Finance Minister Paul Reynaud. In line with democratic morality and approved by the church, it provided: 1) State payment of cash bonuses to married couples for each child born within two years after the wedding; 2) State loans for agricultural equipment and livestock to French farmers on a ten-year basis, with progressive cancellation of part of the debt for each child born within the decade--fifth birth cancels all; 3) taxation of bachelors and childless couples to pay costs of birth boosting; 4) doubling of the legal penalties for abortion.

Last week a new movement was afoot: special "paternity furloughs" for soldiers. President Fernand Boverat of the French League Against Depopulation warned recently that unless more furloughs are given, French children born in 1940 may number only some 450,000. Le Populaire asked: "Will the duration of this furlough be the same for all? A captain gets two or three rations, a colonel gets more. Will officers have a longer leave? If a soldier can accomplish his work in four days, will it be considered that his colonel must expend more effort?"

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.