FRANCE TO AMERICA

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1946, 1 March 1919, Page 1

FRANCE TO AMERICA

“DON’T BE TOO GENEROUS,”

WHY FULL REPARATION IS WANTED.

If at this hour, when the dreadful nightmare is passing away, mutilated France could make another appeal to America, her sister and friend, she would say to her: “Don’t be too generous,” wrote Stephanie Lauzanne, editor-in-chief of Le Matin.

Everyone will admit that throughout her Jong and troublous history France has always been the land of chivalry, generosity, and humanity. Even in this atrocious Avar, when it

came to hand-to-hand lighting in the trenches, she still felt pity.

I shall never forget, on the batllelield of the Marne, at tlie village of Ethepilly, plundered, sacked, and burned down by the Huns, those Zouaves who were sitting beside some German wounded on a small square. In their own glasses (hey poured out a little cordial for their prisoners; they gave I hem (heir last cigarettes. One of them had even taken, as if he were his brother, the head of a wounded German in his left hand to support it. With his right hand, very carefully, he was giving him a drink. 1 pointed the scene out to a German major, and said to him:

“See! That is war —at least, it’s war as we understand it."

At Klieims, while (he Cathedral was on (ire —the work of German shells —French Sisters of Charily threw themselves into (he (lames |o save German .wounded. Thai also was war as we understand it. Ami to-day, after four years of horrible struggle, we can fare (lie entire world ami say that if (here is hlood on our hands (here is none on our eouseienee. And ye( we call out to Ameriea : “Don't bo Inn generous,” Two imperious and inexorable duties are be.fore us: France must: have reparation; France must have guarantees. *

France must have reparation, for seven of her departments—equal in area and wealth to the Slate of New York—have been laid waste, burned down, ami razed. Three hundred and fifty thousand houses have been broken into, pulled down and shattered into bits, and it has been computed that merely to rebuild them It would require an army of 100,000 men working , for twenty years. Who is to furnish that army ? France? No, but the destroyers and incendiaries. Of course (hey will protest, and implore, and complain that it is sentencing German youth to banFlabour. They will Into soften the hearts of neutral countries. In the name of common fairness, should they be listened to?

Those 350,000 houses contained some 500,000 beds, which were either stolen or destroyed, and 1,000,000 Frenchmen at present have no roof over (heir heads, not even a pallet on which to sleep. Ho we shall have to go to (lie.thieves and plunderers, and lake (he 500,000 beds and bedding we need. More, cries, more complaints, more lamentations. The women of Germany will say it is inhuman, that war is being continued after war is over: they will cable to the women of America. (And oven as I write these lines the news comes that they have done so.) Ip the name of common fairness, should they he listened to?

The mines of Northern France have been .scientifically and cleverly tampered with, filled with water, or destroyed. Nor a lon of coal can be extracted from Lens for another two years. The normal output of these mines cannot he restored for

{mother five years. Meanwhile who will supply France with the coal she so badly needs'! England! No, why should it be England? It will be Germany, who should have left those mines alone. And of course Germany will protest that she is being deprived of her fuel, and that after having been starved she is being frozen. She will appeal to (he world and to humanity. In the name of common fairness, should she be listened to ?

There is one thing France cannot do, and that is to distinguish between the German Government and the German people. In 1.914, it was undoubtedly the German Government that hurled itself at the throats of France and Belgium, and hu-

inanity and democracy, but it was also the German people. And when, on the 3rd of August, 1914, speaking before the Reichstag, that is, before the people of Germany, Beth-mann-Holhveg made his abominable statement: “Yes, we have invaded Belgium, and this is against international law, but we are in a state of necessity, and necessity knows no law,” not a shudder, not a tremor shook that people; not a cry of indignation was raised. In 1915 it was undoubtedly the Kaiser and Tirpilz who ordered the sinking of the Lusitania, but when that crime became known, it was the people of Germany who howled with joy and shouted with enthusiasm in every corner of (he empire. For four years’it was undoubtedly the military caste of Germany and the German General Staff who allowed thieving and plundering, and authorised I heir men (o remove everything they could from Belgium and France, but the robbery and plunder profiled the German people.

When in duly, 1018, the American hoys entered Chaleau-Thierry, (hey found stacks of parcels ready for shipment, containing all the linen, silver, and jewellery of the unfortunate inhabitants. To whom were those parcels addressed'? Not to the Kaiser, but to the women of Germany, to the old men of Germany, |o (he oeople of Germany, who were the accomplices and beneficiaries of all this systematic house-breaking. And here is an example of how the German people appreciated these robberies. Here is a letter recently forwarded to me, and which was found on a German officer made prisoner by the French troops; Mansbach, 3rd duly. 1 have safely received the twentyone parcels, and many thanks for them. I wish you could have been there on Saturday, at (he unpacking of the live parcels, which 1 received together, to hear (he remarks made at the sight of the pretty drawers, the petticoat, the shirt, the little bonnet, and the shirtwaist. One could see that they came from well-to-do people. It would be best if yon couhigo back to such places; you might lind more things. Everything is useful to us. Your Mother. Such a letter, which no American woman, no French woman, would have ever written or signed, gives a little idea of the character of the people we arc dealing with. There must be reparation, or it would be enough to make one despair of justice on earth. There must be punishment, or it will all begin over again. France must have guarantees, and in all organised societies guarantee against (lie repetition of a crime is obtained by punishing the- culprit. The German people have committed a series of crimes; the German people must pay the price. The lightest punishment Unit ean be inflicted is to allow them to suffer some of the evils (hey have'inflicted on others. And that is why, speaking to Ameriea, for whom he have a deep and abiding affection, America to whom we are henceforth bound by ties of eternal friendship, Ameriea with whom we have twice fought side by side for the noblest of ideals, we say to her, “For God’s sake don’t be too generous,” What America wants eve want as badly as she does, We ■want thishorror to be the last, we want free people to live free under the flag of liberty, we want our children and the children of our children to live proudly and happily and to enjoy the fruits of this earth withou.t fearing a return of such abominations. But for this justice is neederj, and there is no justice when the guilty go unpunished. The spirit of revenge must find no entrance to our hearts. T lie re is no room for hatred. No revenge and no hatred —but neither must there be weakness. We have no right to be weak. Our dead forbid it. And the voice of our dead should be heard above all other-. From their graven, over which the earth has barely closed, we can hear them say, “Justice! Don’t be too generous !”