ALSACE

Hokitika Guardian, 20 February 1917, Page 4

ALSACE

Under the French.

Liberated People Sure of Allies’ Victory.

(From H- Warner Allen.)

French Alsace, Dec 26

For the third time reconquered Al* sacs h&8 celebr&tod Christmas Dey ia fresdom ami'in wt*r, Since last year 1 notice a great change in the attitude of mind of those A’s v f itin3 who are best informed as to the probable ooorsa of events.

Last year every Alsatian was convinced that the Allies had a long uphill fight before them, and felt it a duty to warn those who had no personal experience of German strength and cunnirig against excessive confidence in the immediate termination of the war. It was not that they had any donbt as to final victory, but gimpiy tbat they knew the fall power of Germany. This year I find far less emphasis laid on the remaining difficulties of onr task than on the very serious straits in which Germany finds herself. GERMANY AND WEAK PEOPLES. For 45 years Alsace and Lorraine have had practical experience of the desire of the German Empire “ to make the rights and privileges of weak peoples and small States secure,” and those Alsatians whose rights and privileges are now assured as future citizen of the French Republic have only one' wish; that is, nover again to be subject to that desire. It is not only for themselves that they make this demand that no chivalrous nation can ignore, but also for all their brothers who are still groaning under the German yoke.

Many an Alsatian goes up from time to time to one of the Vosges summits, from which perhaps he may see Colmar, or more easily Mulhouse. In those towns of the plain that were once rich and prosperons and where the factory chimneys still smoke, though, now, alas ! only to the profit of the hated German, he knows that there are brother Alsatians who are to-day suffering from the tortures of foreign domination infinitely more even than ha himself suffered before he was set free. Men who have this knowledge can never be beguiled by talk of a peace that would be no peace, nor by professions of good-will that can only be a snare and a delusion. CHILDREN QUICKLY LEARN FRENCH It is in this spirit, with the fall confidence that Germany must soon admit defeat, that the Alsatians of reconquered Alsace have celebrated the Christmas of 1916. '‘German shells are preferable to German rule," is a remark that I have often heard in Alsaoe. Since last year there has been no change in the “Administrateura” of reconquered Alsace, those captains who administer wisely, geatly, and paternally the districts wrested from the oppressor. They still observe the letter of German law, but they interpret it in the spirit of equity and Frenoh liberty. Yesterday I was present at a priz:giving and Christmas-tree entertainment at an Alsatian school. Eighteen months ago those children could scarcely speak a word of Fienoh. Thoy were taught their lessons in German and patois, but a ; l of them were inspired with the same ambition, that of learning French. The Bonnes had forbidden the teaching of French in the State schools, so that it was only possible for the well-to-do to have their children taught Frenoh. The result was that a knowledge of French came to be regarded by the ordinary Alsatian as a mark of superior standing and education, and as soon as the French came back the children vied with one another in profiting by the privilege now extended to all of learning French. ACTING IN THE OLD TONGUE. Yesterday they had got bo far that they were able in the preeence of all the authorities of the district including a general, a perfect, a bishop, and their Administratenr to perform a

little play in French verse. Encouraged by the Administratenr’s paternal smile, they acted with an ease and spirit that is not always possessed by professional actors and they spoke their parts as if French spokea with an agreeable hint of an Alsatian accent had been the only language they had ever known. They sang the ii Marseillaise ” with a martial ardour that befitted children who had been brought np from babyhood in the expectation of a war that would bring back liberty, An Alsatian told me that he had always kept his small sen in order by telling him that if he was naughty he would never be prepared for the war that was coming. When, in 1914, war was inevitable, the father went out to join the Frenoh Army, and el! (hat the boy, then aged nine, could say to express his regret at his father a dap irture was: “To think that this war 1 have always heard about should come when I am too young lo go ! Father, you are lncky to ba old enough.” _____