Army Pomp Gone

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 437, 20 August 1928, Page 14

Army Pomp Gone

Sombre Parade fn Paris PUBLIC HAS ALSO CHANGED All pomp and glory will soon have disappeared from militarism if one may judge from a recent display in Paris. All the gay uniforms of Prance’s past have gone. THERE is no longer a review of troops at Longchamps of such a kind as to impress the public and foreign Ambassadors with some conception of France’s military might. There is no longer any of the feverishness of preparedness. The recent review was only an official function. It was not a display. In khaki and horizon blue —for there are still large stocks to be used up —all arms filed past the President of the Republic and his Ministers in celebration of the anniversary of the storming of the Bastilee, Prance’s first effort toward political freedom. Such of the public as had nothing else to do than watch this official act cheered heartily for the President and Premier and American Ambassador and such notabilities as they recognised.

They cheered the regimental bands and colours and they cheered the scarlet and gold of the Algerian and Moroccan chiefs, invited to enliven with their costumes this somewhat sombre fete. More Efficient Than Ever But if any one needs a demonstration that Chauvinism is as dead as the Dodo in France, he should attend this one military festival of the year. The military machine is not any less efficient because it has shed so many of its trappings. It is possibly more efficient than it has ever been. What has changed is the public which used to revel in such displays and think historically of “The Day.” This army which filed past was businesslike in its equipment. It made no appeal to the imagination, to ideals of glory. And the public which watched it pass felt and demonstrated its feelings toward it exactly as it felt toward the cheered the firemen and police when they in turn filed past. Here and there when some stout citizen recognised the flag of his old regiment he might raise a special hurrah. But he stopped short, self-conscious under the stares of those around who deprecated such a display of warlike emotion. In just the same way as meaning has largely gone from the Fourth of July celebrations in America, so it

has gone from the fourteenth. Neither America nor France feels her liberties any longer in question and these anniversaries of violent acts are only an excuse for a public holiday. The day’s heroes were those who waited all through the torrid heat of the morning for the doors to open for free performances at the Opera, Opera Comique and Comedie Francaise and those who danced untiringly in the public squares. Every one except those heroes had fled to the country to escape tin stuffiness of the city, where the temperature was 92.