CLEMENCEAU

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 58, 3 December 1918, Page 5

CLEMENCEAU

THE STRONG MAN OF FRANCE AN APPRECIATION (From the "Morning Post") . To say of M. Clcmenceau that he is today the incarnation of France .is not merely to enunciate a symbolical truth. Whether it ba.at.tlie front or behind it there is not one corner of nil the land of France where his name is not coupled witli the worship of the Hag. Nor is there anything noisy about this extraordinary popularity, which rather has in it something silent, something secretly ardent, one might almost say something ■ filial. And this popularity did not wait to show itself till the happy revanche of July 18. To measure its depth one had to sec how in the dark days the whole body of spectators would riso when, his portrait appeared in the kinemas of the Paris faubourg. ' Returning a ievt weeks since from his constituency at the. extreme' end of France, one of the deputies put this attitude very simply into words when he said: "If we were to turn Clemenceau out we should all be shot by our electors." . What is the secret of this power of his? Can it be due to a mere passing infatuation ? According to Vauvenargiics, great thoughts come from the heart. The friends of Gambotta and Ferry would have been considerably surprised had one told them thirty years ago that this formula would ever be applied to Clemenceau. At that time his great talents were admitted—incisive speech, a pen to be feared, a courage that was proverbial t •but, when ho was seen to attack with a sort of ferocity each and all of his opponents, even" when, like Ferry, they wore loyal Republicans and distinguished servants of the State, many impartial observers accused him of scheming and of harshness. "I predict for Clomonceau," writes one—and not the least considerable—of them in hie privato diary, "a sorry place in the history of the third Republic." And this unfavourable side of his reputation had not entirely disappeared even just before the outbreak of war. His Ministry of 1906l<lo9, brilliant as it was, had been marked by one or two rude shocks. Ho was accused of having an unpleasant character, nf not being proof against his impulses. Some people were fond of recalling how in 1909 lie upset his own Ministry. In the opinion of many he was a sort of enfant terrible to the Republic, a destructive force, dangerous alike to himself and to his country.

The Tiger's Restraint. , No judgment-was ever more wrong, as J we know well to-day. The truth is, years | and the war have cured him of a good i many of his old defects. Of this he is j conscious himself. Speaking in the Chamber last November he said: "I have been too much a party, man." And. , lie added; "I'm a man wlio has been made prudent and watchful through his country's peril." All this is true. Clem- , enceau to-day is still the Tiger he was, ■; but he has learnt to control his lnipul-., siveness. He can keep his claws ,in. One ; saw that in the Chamber during the eitling at Ihe beginning of June, when ! the most violent attacks by the to- j treme Left failed to draw from him as-, much as a sign of impatience. But it is not enough to say that ex- j perieuce has,cured him• of■ certain eccentricities. There still burns within him i a flame so deep that his contemporaries ; were unable to perceive it. Wo are dis- ■; covering it to-day. In the light of what , he has accomplished during his past : none months of power all his earlier life acquires a new significance. It' always contained, an 'element of the great- , ness to which its force and its unity J were due.. • , ' ■ This element of greatness is precisely the contrary of the cynicism with which , his opponents used to reproach him; it represents' a passionate love of his cmintrv in comparison with which tho leeliiil's of many other men of politics seem., lukewarm and artificial. Clenienceaus whole career is contained in the protest against.-the cession of Alsace-Lor-raine, which , he signed in 1871. mVcom- , mon with the Republican members ofI the National Assembly, of whom he .is ~ now the sole survivor, l< rom that-, dale : forth his whole activity had been dominated by one thought alone-, to prepare for the day when the wrongs of- 18(1 shall at last be repaired. However fierce . his Radicalism may have grown, lie , never for a single moment ceased to be, obsessed by this, the ideal of he vouth. Herein lies the explanation of ii errors of judgment. Ho strove with ■ all his might against. Ferry's colonial - : Mliep, because he ' thought wrongly, , (hat this policy would weaken Prance , u Europe. On' the other hand, as by a , ort of divination, he perceived from . 660 bmrnrde that the rapprochement of , France and England was the sole means, j wherebv ■ the oqm hbruiin should tome • >e'restored, and, given the oppor- ; unity, Prussia be thrust back Not all : "internal political crises; not ail .the campaign" of calumny launched against .; him i ersonallv have ever caused him ; to swerve ?om that line) It is-beyond , doubt that he did not desire war; it ! ins first Ministry tot the'.; Franco-German agreement ot iJiw »n* ■ rilnl But the thought of 1871 burned j w<thin him unceasingly, ready, to de- : land of him acts of total « .abnega- , tion, even, should need be, to the earn- ; tice of his life. :_ ' : The Secret of Power. j That, indeed,-is. what all France has i felt since that November day in 1917 : when he resumed power and that is what explains his popularity. After thiee Tears of. struggle the country was, above all things, hungry after sincerity. It toigedingW for'a chief bf State who , should look lite war straight in the eyes, somewhat , after the manner of the : poilu, calmly,'resolutely, ami with a-j scornful disregard for personal, coiisidera- ! tions. This old man gave one the im- ; pression of having but one ambition left, ; and that, victory. His actions soon prov- j ed that he was resolved, if need bo;-to j risk his own skin. Some have thought } ho exposed himself too deliberately dur- ( in" the visits he made to tho trendies. j t y e "t greater caution would not have sen- ■ j ed him so well among the troops. in n sector full of activity, they saw him . •appear smiling under his while Mongol- | inn moustache, the soldiers, who as a \ rule take little heed of tho perambuhit- ; in" politician, would luir.ry to we him j pass. 'Ynothor eleiuont of strength with : him was Iris" refusal to make speeches, j "Fed up" with political eloquence, every- , one, whether at the front and behind )t, j felt an inexpressible delight at having a. i chief who spoke but seldom, and then j quite siinnly, though a past-master of | oratory. He who speaks little generally ■ thinks what he speaks. . j But thoroiißhly to grasp the secret of ; the ascendency exercised by M. Clemen- j ceau one must have .been with him on j some of the astonishing excursions he ; luis chosen to undertake several limes a I week, in defiance of his great age. But ! lately, while passint through a village ! not far from the front, he was at, once, i wirronnded by the old country folk, men j and women and refugees, too. He mndfl I no speech, but when lie had finished ! talking to : them in his curt, homely, j rather soldierly, and at the same timo ! fatherly, way, all his hearers were in ; tears. i The Soul of France. i Michelet relates somewhere- how Dan- j tou once found himself nirrounded in \ much the same way by a number rf j women whoso Husbands or sons had gone ■ (o joint the Airmy; ho.v, seeing them in , <he (hroes of a wild grief, ho got on ji ; milestone- and talked:to them. ' "His \ great heart," writes Michelet, "come omt j of his mouth'." Tho future historian ' will perhaps say the same thing of ; Clemenceau. Nor is (hi« the only char- j aeteristic.be Inis in common with tho j great -Coiiventionnel. Like Danlon, he ; hn.s the faculty of being always most j completely master of his jiervos on occu- ; sions of great moment. Thus we saw \ him, on the morrow of March 21 and | May 27, freely :xpendin;r; an energy' wliich rcsloroil confidence among oven the most vacillating. But his truegreaj- I nes.s. like Danton's, resides less in his ! personal courage than in the depth of bis j passion that one can feel vibrating be- : hind his words and his actions, even when, to all seeming, they nre least emo- • tioual. ' J