Recent events have again called attention to the enormous strategic and economic importance of the iron-fields of Lorraine; on these much of the commercial prosperity of Germany has been built up in the past, and on their possession her future as an industrial nation largely depends. For many years the output of iron-ore from tlie part of Lorraine under German control has been immense: in 1912, German Lorraine produced approximately 20,000,000 tons, while the output of Luxemburg, which, for all practical purposes, is German, was about 6,500,000 tons. In the same year the French portion of the Lorraine iron-field yielded 17,300,000 tons, making a grand total for this area of 43,800,000 tons of ore. During the War the whole of the French productive region has been occupied by the enemy, and there is no means of ascertaining what has actually happened there, but certain inferences can be drawn from published facts and on a basis of probability.