Word: maginot
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Belgian Cabinet's intentions, and obtained lukewarm assurances from Belgian Foreign Minister Spaak that existing Franco-Belgian staff consultations will not be disturbed. It appeared, however, that the French General Staff must thoroughly overhaul its plans and that possibly France may have to extend her $300,000,000 Maginot Line defenses (which now stretch from Switzerland to Luxemburg) clear across to the Straits of Dover...
...certainly "conciliatory." Could not Germany, Mr. Eden asked, promise at least not to fortify the Rhineland during the period of negotiation? Ambassador von Ribbentrop thought not. Anyway, he said, four months was obviously too short a time in which to match on the German side France's Maginot Line of steel and concrete that had taken five years to build. Mr. Eden pressed the point. Ambassador von Ribbentrop telephoned Berlin. The answer was No. The French understood why. As their spies discovered long ago, Germany already had field fortifications along the frontier...
...Belgium, dodging the expense for over a year, last week decided abruptly to continue across her own territory, right up to the North Sea, the "Maginot Wall" of steel and concrete pillboxes which guards France from the Swiss border to Luxembourg...
...Like all Frenchmen," said he, "Maginot was profoundly devoted to peace, but he considered that France unarmed was exposed to aggressions which would imperil not only France's existence but the stability of Europe...
Died. André Maginot, 54, French Minister of War; of typhoid fever; in Paris. His most famed phrase: "The strength of the French army is the best guarantee of the people of Europe...