GEORGES CLEMENCEAU.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1758, 11 September 1917, Page 4

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU.

REBEL AND STATESMAN. In the Passy district of Paris, a-c-ross the (.Seine from the Eillol Tower, there is a quiet street, Rue Franklin,- where a little old man sits at his desk in a great, dim study, alone but for the two sphinx heads that guard his door. The man at the desk is Georges Clemenceau, a living’ sphinx, with the heart of a rebel and the brain of a statesman; a Veudcan conservative by blood, a revolutionary by instinct. His has been a lonely, studious life, interrupted only by a prodigal’s venture into the fashionable clubdom .and opera circles of Paris, where he formed a close friendship with Rose Caron. The son of a poor country physician, his thirst for Jirst-hand information look him far afield, even to New York, where he paid iiis way with lessons in French. ’With his saving's he returned to France, studied medicine, and established himself as a practitioner in the Paris of the dying Second Empire. Came the war of 1870-1871. The Commune carried him to the city hall of Mortmartro, whore, though the revolutionary in him held sway over the statesman, lie is said to have wept over his obligation to countersign the death sentence of Mgr. Darboy, Archbishop of Paris. Ho left the mairio to becomes a political journalist, and married an American girl. His marriage proved a mistake, but never did that personal experience lessen Clemenconn's regard for (he United States or for Anglo-Saxon ideas and institutions. One of the outstanding accomplishments during'' his later premiership was (lie consolidation of !lie entente eordiale with England, Money has never interested Clemencoan. He has long supported him-wlf entirely with his pen, except lor a lecture tunr through South America in 1961), which lie underlook because hi- 1 ' savings had vanished during his two official years at the Place Beauveau —the Ministry of the Interior, it is a fair estimate to guess that now, as for many years past,-except during his ministry, he maintained himself and his grizzled old man servant on less than two hundred dollars a month. Nov lias Clemenceau ever sought official power. “I can do my work for Franco heller from this newspaper desk,” he said when ho was editor of a daily L’Aurore. Yet, when ho was invited, on ihe eve of the Moroccan trouble, to join Sarrien’s Cabinet, and later to form one of his own, lie answered the call in a spirit of self-immola-tion —the spirit of patriotism. Soon after his resignation from the Premiership, when one of his few friends addressed him as “your excellency,” the nervous little man snapped behind his drooping, while mousladu': “Shall J never again be Georges Clemenceau ?” Yet, in discussing the FrancoClcrman crisis, over Morocco, lie confided; '‘No one knows bow near it brought Pra.m-e to war —and defeat. No one killin' what sort of direct rao.-sages 1 received from the Kaiser at the Place Beauveau, nor what a task it was for me, singlehanded. to maintain peace with honour. if 1 never do another service to France, I shall die knowing that I have done my human share.” His place in the history of Fram-e must he left to (lie perspective of lime. “Cabinet Wrecker/' they called him when his editorials torpedoed without warning French Ministries Unit are already forgotten. “Traitor to France,” said the Nationalist- when lie saw good in Britain. “Political Clown!” cried the Socialise, when his rapier-like, logic reduced I hem to abuse. Few love him; many hale him; none are indifferent, and all admit the purity of his devotion lo the welfare of France. Perhaps Georges Clemenceau would have written his name in taller loiters into the chronicles of his time hail he not retained so much of his youth in Ids rebel heart. But ho could nut have served France bolter than by showing np and clearing out Ibo demagogues and time-servers who so long made light of the destinies of Iheir country. To-day, at seventy-five, lie goads (lie sluggards of .France in Iho pages of “J/Homme Eucliaine,” and the Government finds valuable advice in what iho censor suppresses. It is not always good that the crowd 'should hear the wisdom of the Sphinx.