FRANCE’S LEADERS

Hokitika Guardian, 27 May 1921, Page 4

FRANCE’S LEADERS

STRIKING TRIBUTE BY MR LLOYD GEORGE.

“ONE OF THE®GREATEST SOLDIERS OF THE AGES.

Mr Lloyd George attend the Welsh national banquet at the Hotel Cecil recently and, to the unbounded delight of the 600 assembled guests, was accompanied by M. Briand, the French Prime Minister, Marshal Foch, and several other prominnet Frenchmen then in London. Mr Lloyd George called for cheers for Marshal Foch, who, he said, was one of the greatest soldiers of the age (cheers)— a man whose name would live as long as the story of Europe was read; a man to whom the liberties of the world owed more than to any other livng man; a man who a great soldier, consecrated the sword, his genius to the cause of freedom, the triumph of which was more largely due to him than to anyone else. (Cheers). Marshal Foch, responding in French, said: Finding myself among you tonight, I think of those who fell during the war. The sons of Wales were real heroes. (Cheers.) They wero for us great examples, and we will certainly never forget them. Their memory will maintain the relations of friendship between our two countries for ever. (Cheers.) Mr Lloyd George later said: “I rose to propose the toast of our guests, and it had Brodyr a’n Caredigion in if. 1 will say a word about Brodyr first. We are specially honoured to-night with the presence of some of the most distinguished names in Europe. I am sorry that Marshal Foch has had to leave, but T am glad he was able to put in an appearance. He is not a Breton, but he lias done the next best thing—he married a Breton lady, and he lives in Brittany. As for M. Briand, he is a real Breton, and as a fellow-Breton I am proud of him. He is certainly one of the greatest names not merely in France but in the world. He is one of the greatest Parliamentary orators of the age. 1 know, and none better; I am not sure that I knew of any who are his equal. He is Prime Minister now for the seventh time, and if you knew what I know you would be sorry for him-(laughter)—if you knew as much us he and I know about this job yon would know that it is a matter not for felicitation, .hut lather for commiseration. (Laughter). I quoted the other day on a more controversial occasion, the saying of a great European statesman: “God help the man who is called upon to rule a country after a war.” That was M. Briand. He has lM?en called upon to govern his country after war. He lives in Brittany, he was brought up in Brittany, a coast which ’ has bad to bear for unknown centuries the wild storms if tin* Atlantic and the raging gales of the Bay of Biscay—fit environment, in which to train a Prime Minister—(laughter)- and I am only sorry* for a man brought up in a quiet, tranquil little glen in Wales who also lias had to face hurricanes. (Laughter). He is a skilful sailor. •He has had experience of the sea, and I believe he loves it—which s more than I do. (Laughter). He is one of the most skilful mariners that has ever guided craft in politics. I have always been proud of the fact that he is of our blood and race. He is a groat Welshman. (Laughter). He says vc are ; nnexing Brittany—(Cheers)— nid that lasts longer than annexation. BATTLE. IVINNER OF A DECISIVE

“We have with us another very distinguished statesman, who has been guiding tho destinies of France and who is now Secretary of State for War in France—M. Barthou. Ar. Barthou has won renown in two fields. He is a member of the French Academy. He is one of (lie most distinguished literary men in France, and if "his fame had •rested merely on his writings it would have been an enduring one. His life of Mirnbeau is well known in this country. He is a great and eminent statesman as well. Jle and I have had disagreements, but men will mako mistakes sometimes. (Laughter.) But we have signed the Treaty of Alliance, and we are working hand in hand and heart to heart. France and the Alliance need his ripe experience, his great skill as a. Parliamentarian and his undoubted ability. We have M. Loucheur with us. He is a French Minister whom f saw a great deal of during the Treaty days. With the exception of M Clemeneean, T do not suppose I saw any other French statesman as often as I saw M. -Loucheur. He had a very '■nsy task; in fact the easiest task was left to him—and that was reparations. (Laughter). No wonder he looks so well. He has thriven on German reparations.

We have also a very distinguished soldier whom I am specially delighted to greet here—General Gournud. General Gourand commanded the French troops co-operating with us in Gallipoli, lie there was very severely wounded. M hen lie was conferring with an English genera] a slid] tell, and lie has been deprived ol onehrm. lie was in the great battle on the east of Reims on July 15. (Cheers) It was in many ways the most remarkable victory* of the campaign, and if you will read Ludendorff’s Memoirs,” and I think Hindenburg’s also, you will find how the defeat of Miiit- great attack to the east of Reims completely broke the German plans and was the beginning of their collapse. (Cheers). He withdraw his forces to ’he second line of trendies. The Germans expected to find him in the first. When they c ame there was nothing for them, but when they advanced there was a good deal for them. It was a. (“i v remarkable victory. He was one ol the finest and most chivalrous soldiers in the war. (Cheers.) There is no man in the Trench army for whom 1' ranch soldiers have a deeper respect; there is no man in the French army whom British soldiers have a. deeper affection for. (Cheers.) And there is uo better friend of this country, and all Guise who co-operated with him, whether in France, in Gallipoli, or in Syria know the deep regard with which lie is i esteemed by every soldier and administrator who comes in contact with him We especially greet him here to-night. HFROTC ENDURANCE.

“Then we have AT. Berthelot here. He is wise enough not to be a politician. His father was a politician before him, and Prime Minister of Franoe, *nd he

knows that a politician’s life is a dog’s life (Laughter.) So he determined to have nothing whatever to do with politics. -But lie belongs to that able body of civil servants; he is one of the best known and most powerful civil servants in France —one of those men who really govern a country whilst the politicians pretend to govern it. (Laughter.) We welcome M. Berthelot and Madame Berthkft here to-night. (Cheers.) I think we now leatve the Brodyr and come to' the Caredigion. The Caredigion is a Scotsman (Laughter). They are a race of their own. (Cheers). As our Allies and as we know, and as onr enemies know, a very fine race they are too. (Cheers.) During the war, when we had to organise and to get all the forces we could, I had only one complaint about Scotsmen, and that was Jpei-e were too few of them. (Laughter). I ain delighted to have present with us Welshmen—here and across the seas—a real live /Scotsman, patriotic to the core, and one of the finest specimens of them. Those who say that Scotsmen have no sense of humour have never met Sir Robert Horne. (Laughter). Less than five minutes with him would completely disabuse their minds of that fallacy. We are delighted to welcome him here. (Cheers). “I have only one word more to say. We welcome great Frenchmen liere for the distinction they have won, for their renown, and for their race. We love France. (Cheers). We think Franco lias rendered services to humanity that are incalculable. (Cheers). She has endured, she has sacrificed more for humanity than any other country in the world—suffered in what she has endured, suffered iif what she has faced, faced it heroically, with an endurance, a feeling, a heroism which is beyond computation. When the story of mankind is told the name of France will be blazoned on the most conspicuous pillars in the Temple of Liberty for ever. (Cheers). Wo welcome them for themselves; we welcome them for the country they represent. We are glad to see them at conferences, and it is conferences which bring statesmen and leading men of various lands together. They are the best guarantee of pence. In my judgment the greatest value of the League of Nations is not what it resolves, not what it does even; it is because it is an occasion that, will bring the leading spirits of all lands together, and, if you do that, quarrels between nations will become more difficult and wars become impossible. (Cheers). 1 therefore propose to you ‘Fin’ Brody’r ar’ Caredigion,’ coupling with the toast the names of the Prime Minister of France, M. Barthou M. Bartlielo., M. Loucheur, General Gourand, and Sir Robert Horne. A WELSH AN OF FRANCE*

’ B. Briand, who was received with great cordiality, the guests rising and 1 singing ‘For He‘s a Jolly Good Fellow,’ and liis first words were: “Be of. 1 good cheer.” Ho was not- going to make a political speech, although lie 1 half suspected they thought he was. What Mr Lloyd George, whose friend--1 ship was so precious to him, had said of him, he accepted with certain reservations. Mr Lloyd George said they ’ were going to hear a poor, wretched man who had been through political 1 -solitude, having been Prime Minister 1 seven times, and who deserved their commiseration. They must have thought he was a dangerous man, a man who made it his business to get iij) at tlie end of a dinner and poison the rest of the evening with his eloquence. But let them be of good cheer; he would say nothing to spoil the traditions and familiar character of that gathering. He was not only a Frenchman ; he was .proud to be a Welshman of France (Cheers). Owing to a freak of nature, a sort of deep cut had coup, between the two parts of Brittany, but despite that deep channel they were hold together and stood together. Tt had been said by a. man who was neither a Welshman nor a Breton, and who was utterly deprived of imagination—Bismarck- that nations should be classified into two categories, female nations and mule nations, and quite naturally he classified his own Fatherland as a male nation, and the Celts as belonging to the female nations. jf Bismarck were to come back and visit tho Breton moors and country, and enter their churches and town halls, he would see many glorious shrines containing tho names of the Breton boys who answered tlie call of justice and liberty, did their duty, and were now lying in tho cold earth. They had shown that Celts belonged To a male race. Those dead now lying in the eartli were looking at them and telling them what their duty was—-telling them to pursue tlie same unity, in the same cause, in order to free humanity. But there was nothing to he feared in that respect. It might happen that differences would arise, which some would think insuperable, but it was sufficient to remember 1914, to live again the five supervening years, in order to overcome and drive away all misunderstandings, all differences—even the greatest. Mr Lloyd George had spoken of Franco in terms which went right to his heart. But he had not said everything aliout her. He (M. Briand), who had lived through the first heart-rending' hours of tho war in 1914, could tel] them that on the day that tho French heard that Great Britain would be bv her side, she felt fit ; for any sacrifice, and was sure of final victory. Victory had come, and now j radiated over both flags. It was not tho victory of France alone, or of Great j Britain alone, but it was the victory of | the Allies by and through Great Britain ( and France. Ho raised his glass to the Prime Minister, to tho Welshmen pre- j sent, and to the noble and glorious Great Britain.