ALSACE WAITS AND HOPES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3013, 26 February 1917, Page 8

ALSACE WAITS AND HOPES

FOR THE DAY OF LIBERATION j HATRED OF THE HUN (From H. Warner Allen.) Army of the Vosges, November 28. When a German crosses the ancient frontiers of his country into tho occupied territories either of France or Belgium, if all his better instincts havo not been killed by the lust of domination, his natural satisfaction in the success of his country's arms must surely be damped by the expression on the faces of every civilian and by that indefinable atmosphere of hatred and hostility that surrounds him perpetually. What German not utterly blinded by fate does not envy in his secret he#rt the spirit in which a Frenchman crosses the old frontier line into Alsace and tho reception that awaits him there?

For a Frenchman the moment of passing into liberated Alsace is sacred and full of deep religious emotion. He is entering the promised land, the land that has for forty years been praying for his return. Amid the horrors of war, even within tho range of the enemy's guns, he sees around him smiling faces and gestures of welcome. As tho military motor-car passes children in the streets salute and cry "Vive la Franco I" The peasants as they lead their horses to the fields take' off their hats to the French uniform, and women in the streets smile and bow.

It was my good fortune on this occasion to visit Alsace witli an Alsatian officor whose life has been devoted to the liberation of his beloved country. Said my officer friend: Our life before the war was a hard and anxious one. I was always travelling ta and fro in the interests of the good cfraso, lecturing .here, writing articles there, and consulting everywhere with my friends as to how. we could best prepare the way for France. Under French rule we could bo Alsatians, under German rule never. . Of course, the Germans knew what • we were doing, and we were always watched by their secret agents.. .When ,we returned home we never knew - what now vexation they had devisod against us, and we were always ready for arrest and imprisonment.

One of my friends was accused of having been seen in a French railway station at a time when he had no permission from the. authorities.' He was informed that biff safe conduct would be withdrawn, and that he would not be allowed to enter the annexed provinces for two years. As his home, his business, and all his' family were in Alsace, and as also the accusation was completely unfounded, he demanded that he should be confronted with the spy who olaimed to have seen him in France. But this request was refused, as the Germans were determined to keep the identity of their police spies secret. However, after he had protested again and again, it was agreed that ho should walk down ■ a corridor, in which the spy could see him without being seen. The man then admitted' that he had made a mistake, and that the Alsatian he had seen in France had no resemblance to my friend. Under such a regime of tyranny can you wonder that the war with its open dangers and hardships actually comes as a relief?.

Germanising Efforts. The perseverance with which the Germans enedeavoured to Germanise the annexed provinces was worthy of a better cause. When they abolished the old Alsatian foundation at Strasburg and set up a German seminarium, they hoped that they had uprooted once-and for all everything that was Alsatian in the religious observances of the country. At first even it seemed that they hadl been successful. The young priests who went from the German seminary to Alsatian, parishes made a point of iiot wearing the bands such as?- the French olergy generally wear, as though they were German priests. Then in the service they pronounced Latin in the German fashion, an accent which their congregations regarded as the abomination of desolation. It is typical of the strength of local tradition and patriotism in Alsace that after a time all these priests began to feel the force of the mute disapproval of their flocks. By degrees the old Alsatian spirit seized them again, andl after a year or two they donned the hands and returned to'the French pronunciation of Latin. It is this same spirit that makes the dialect ineradicable. Alsatians of the highest classes will admit that they are more at home in the dialect than they are in French. This loyalty to the patois is the more remarkable since there is practically no Alsatian literature, and, indeed, it can scarcely be regarded as a written language.

The Teuton Hoof. It is a strange experience -to stand with a man on an Alsatian hill, and ■with him to look at His native town, scarcely twelve milps away, where the Germans are still lording it as though thoy were the conquerors of Europe. On the other side of. those lines _of trenches there is a land of misery almost heyondl conception. From, the scarcity of food ill tho German Empire tho annexed provinces are those that suffer the most severely. Tho enslaved Alsatians have their produce torn from them and' sent across the Ehine to preserve their hated masters from starvation. The town of Mulhouse' had in time of peace an agreement'with the Swiss town of Basle that a certain quantity of milk should he sent to it every day. The arrangement still holds good, but of that milk only an infinitesimal portion remains in Mulhouse, and tlie rest goes over the Rhine. No wonder that over the happiness of liberated Alsace there rests the shadow of the sufferings of its brothers beyond tho dividing line of trenches. , Meantime, pending the final victory that will carry the French arms to Strasburg arid the Rhine, the French are administering the recovered terntoy with equity and justice. They are observing to the letter tho regulations of The Hague Conferences concerning occupied territory, and have made 110 attempt to replace German law hy French. French officers are to-day applying German law in Alsace, and until tho end of the war their administration will, continue to lie based on this foundation. Many Alsatians have implored to be allowed to resumo at once their real nationality and to become French citizens, but their request lias been refused on the ground ot The Hague Conventions, and until peace lias been declared tliey must remain against their will German citizens. It is hot only by outward politeness, by smiles and salutes, tliat_ the free Alsatian expresses his _ gratitude to those who have freed him from an intolerable slavery. There was abundance of French gold pieces, nearly all coined before 1870_, including even the 80 franc, piece, that lias long ago disappeared from circulation. After the defeat these coins were hidden away in readiness for the day of liberation, and .thoy only saw the light again when France appealed to Frenchmen for their gold. The various French loans' have called forth many artistic posters, but none is more charming than that of Hansi inviting to subscribe to the second French loan. It is a perfect presentment of the snivit of Alsace. In the foreground there is a youthful noilu, lieWted and blue-coated, in the back-ground a typical Alsatian village, with the tricolour floating from all its towers, and a village worthy hard at work painting up

the Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite of thel French Republic over its gate. On thd village green a one-legged soldier is telling stories of his adventures to three small, spell-bound Alsatian children, fair Alsacieunes and French officors are whispering;, sweet nothings infer one another's ears, and an Alsatian garde-shampetre, supported by his dog, is fiercely warning off the green a bearded, spectacled German totirist. "Subscribe," Tuns the legend, "help us win, and you will hasten on 1 the day of Victory and our return home."