Since the first day of hostilities, France's war ministry began a staggering juggling act: Feeding their own troops, the troops of her allies, and all of France's colonial troops, relying only on a network of foreign suppliers, limited local production, and sketchy at best colonial tithes arriving in smaller supply than the hungry troops dispatched to the conflict from the colonies. http://17thdivision.tripod.com/rationsoftheageofempire/id16.html
