“ LA BELLE FRANCE.”

Hokitika Guardian, 11 June 1930, Page 5

“ LA BELLE FRANCE.”

Privileged by a travelling scholarship to spend two years in France, Miss • an Castle, A!.A., has returned to licr native New Zealand with various extremely agreeable impressions of that charming hut, in recent years, much-criticised country. “There is no country,’’ she declared in a AV.E.A. lecture this week, “which is so little understood or appreciated as France.” AA itli this observation as a, \ basis, the lecturer proceeded to prove, hbr case. Ihe result was a very attractive pic-/ t-iare ot “L.i Belle France,” so attractive, indeed, that, the attention was momentarily defected from other pictures previously presented—of a nation of selfish money-grubbers, suspicious of their international neighbours, the “spoilt child” of Europe, fat and prosperous while others were lean and in the trough of economic depressions. It is probably correct to say that none ot these pictures, even, including Miss Castle’s is a true representation oi La Belle France as she really is.

It has been said of the British that tli oil' method of reasoning is to argue from the particular to the general', and of the French that tliev do exactly the opposite. However, that may' be, it explains in some measure some of the familiar generalisations associated in British minds with France—as, Tor example,, that everyone in France is like .tiie Parisian in temperament and outlook. In point of fact, the difference between the French Nord find the Alidi is almost as great as that between England and Italy, while the Alsatian and the Lorrain correspond more closely to the South German than to their French compatriots. > •

But dislike of French political doctrine and her militaristic outlook should not blind us to her outstanding contributions to all that is included in the wide terms" culture arid civilisation., To understand and appreciate a country it is necessary to know its history, its arts, its. difficulties, Its hopes and fears, its temperament. Europe and the world are greatly indebted to French literature, music, and the fine arts. From the eleventh to "the' fourteenth century France } was the centre of intellectual life in Europe.: The home of modern European letters is unquestionably to be sought, in France, which lias assimilated the best elements in Celtic and Teutonic literature.’ The French founded the school of modern history, inaugurated , the religious drama, and the secular theatre. Neither Alilton nor Shakespeare was read in France before the eighteenth century On tire othr hand, Boileau and Le Bossu exercised a profound influence on the literary form and correctness of Queen Anne’s reign.

The period between 1870 and the opening of the 20th. century was conspicuous by the vitality of the French arts. The novels of Zola, Flaubert; Balzac, the brothers de Goncourt, Daudet, de Maupassant,, .and: the plays of Binmts had a profound influence,; on the younger generation, and greatly advanced the process of emancipation from tradition. “Modern-"'French art,” says one writer, “tends to become more, the art of the people, a mixture of naturalism and,poetry, .deriving its inspiration, by preference, from the world of the working man, and of nature.” This period gave us Corot, Millet and Courbet, described as the real originators of French contemporary painting.

French music,has produced Gounod, Chopin, Debussy, Berlioz, Saint-Saens, Massenet; the stage, Moliere, Sardou, to mention but a mere handful of the great French oreative artists who have largely influenced science, and philosophy', France has been a ~ generous contributor to the progress and advancement of the world. That: she has given at the same time aU impression of extreme naturalism and one-eyedness in the great problem of peace is chiefly because within 4 two generations she has twice been invaded and despoiled. It would do Erance an injustice, however, if we did mk ?ee . bevond her fortified frontiers to the citadels of art and culture she has built within.