CLEMENCEAU, THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE INCARNATE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1864, 15 August 1918, Page 2

CLEMENCEAU, THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE INCARNATE.

Writes “H.W.” in the London Daily Maih-'-He is the spirit of France incarnate. Old in years — 70 at least —’young of heart, clear of mind, rugged of countenance, sturdy of build, terse in speech, quick of decision, and prompt of deed, he knows his mission is to save France, and he is saving her. Why does Clemenceau, the “Tiger,” the “Destroyer,” (he terror of Governments innumerable, stand to-day as the conscious, recognised head of all (hat is truly preservative, truly national in the French people? Early last November, while the Painleve Cabinet was still in oflice, I made, as so often before, my pilgrimage to “(he. Tiger’s lair,” high above the Seine, near the Trocadero. The Socialist Party had just placed their veto upon a Clemenceau Government. Yet his tone was the tone of a Prime Minister already in office. Sitting sideways in the bend of his horse-shoe table, a square grey cap cocked above his strong forehead and Mongolian cheekbones, the sun pouring in from his tiny garden and striking full on a bronze Hermes, which, by an inspiration as daring as happy, he had crowned with the battered helmet of a British Tommy, he carved out the situation in a dozen trenchant phrases in forceful English or French, as he chose, and concluded:

“I do not seek power. The country calls for me. There is my strength.” Four months later, at the Ministry of War, on the second day of (he March offensive, I found tho same man, slightly paler, somewhat graver of mien, but equally direct, equally forceful; plainly the embodiment of the will of France. Clemencoau stands at this supreme hour for France because he understands the war as France understands it; because he has lived it for twelve years at least; because lie foresaw it, knew how it must come, and strove to prepare France and the friends of France against it; because his faith and vision, his firmness of- heart and hand, have never faltered. Therefore France trusts him as she has trusted no man since Napoleon. HE SAW AHEAD. In April, 1908, Clemenceau, then, as now, Prime Minister, attended in London the funeral of a British Prime Minister—Campbell-Banner-man. After the funeral he asked Sir Edward Grey what England would do when the Germans should bolt through Belgium into France, seek to seize the Channel ports, and capture Paris before resistance could be organised. “It would make a great stir in England,” was the answer.

“Slir! We shall want help, not a stir,” returned Clemenceau. “One hundred thousand British soldiers across the Channel within a week would not stop the rush. Two hundred and fifty thousand would stop it. Five hundred thousand would help us (urn it back. You have not ■got even 250,000. You must get them —and remember (hat, if men can be improvised, you cannot improvise rides, ammunition, and artillery.”

In the following August Clemcnceau lunched with King Edward on, fhe balcony of the Hold Weimar at Marienbad. German journalists watched the scene from below, ami reported that Clemeneeau “engaged the King in lively conversation,.accompanying his remarks by forcible gestures.” The whole German press speculated upon the subject of that talk, but failed to guess the truth. Clemeneeau was repeating to King Edward his conversation with Sir Edward Grey, and adding, “1 am convinced that the confiding insularity of British statesmen will one day involve Europe in a catastrophe.”

Clemeneeau is to-day the spirit of France incarnate, because, forseeing, he warned her ’and her friends of the peril, kept a stout heart: despite their blindness, upheld their cause against other Frenchmen who would fain have sold the British Empire and the independence of France to the enemy, and because be has acted throughout as a spur, a tonic, and a fearless augur of victory. He leads France because he has knowledge, fire, and a firm grip of principle. President Wilson may be the prophet, but Clemeneeau is the moral spearhead of the Alliance.