A GREAT WAR ARTIST

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 220, 11 June 1919, Page 7

A GREAT WAR ARTIST

■ TRIBUTE TO RAEMAKERS. Representatives of art,, literature, ano. journalism were invited 'by the Lord; Mayor of London recently to meet M. Louis Raemakera, tho famous Dutch cartoonist, at luncheon at tho Mansion House. , . . The Lord Mayor (Sir H. B. Marshall) , said the work of M. Louis Raemakers stood before that of any other man in tho war, and it was remarkable not for its genius only, but for its wit and perception. What made it po valuable inBritish eyes was that in tho first stage of the war M.' Raemakers was very angry», with us because wo seemed to bo taking ■ our reverses too lightly. The Earl of Lytton proposed the-health of 'M. Ruemakors., He 6aid there were two reasons why thoy 4 were grateful for the opportunity of paying «. tribute to their guest. Tho first was that he was a great artist, of power and imagination. That distinguished, gathering was cvidenco of their desire to pay a very warm tribute to his genius as an artist. Tho second reason was that he was a loyal, consistent, and helpful friend. If-to-day tho ' world was sighing with relief at-the com- . plote overthrow of tho Prussian war-god, was it not true to say that in gratitude for the result the pen of M. Raemakers was entitled to share with the genius of Marshal Eoch and' tho incomparable bravery of tho Allied soldiers? He doubted whether the Germans feared any enemy more than -M. Raemakers. Wo •— must carry our minds back through four and a half years, although to-day wo knew tho result. But just because we wero now able to appreciate, as wo could not at the beginning, the great power and strength of tho enemy, whom wo had at last succeeded in overthrowing,—so we could appreciate the marvellous daring with which Belgium voluntarily placed herself in the path of the German monster, and the, almost foolhardy courage, and even "cheek," with 'which we sent our little Army. In 31. Raemakers's cartoons we hod the whole story of the war.. Ho realised, more than we did, the power ugainst us, but he also realised the meaning of the challengo to the civilised world.and how it would be taken up. (Cheers.) M. Louis Raemakers, who had a very cordial reception, said that when he came to this country, in 1915, ho offered hid services to the Government, end bo be- \ lieved that Government and the present Government wore the two greatest we had over had. Mr. Asquith's Government tried its hardest to prevent war, and he hoped that Mr. Asquith's. declaration at the outbreak of the' war would be found for over in the school books of English girls and boys as a monument of British policy. Ho had grout admiration for tho genius of the present Prime Minister, . whose Government had given the country tho greatest victory in history. Visits to tho front—he had made several—were the best cure possible for over-rating one's work. Ho took this war seriously ten years before it began, for he saw it coming. He lived among tho Germans for the first twenty years'of his life, and he knew that they wanted this war in July, 1914. and that they had decided to wage it with methodic cruelty and scientifio barbarism. (Cheers.)