The Daily News. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1917. FRANCE'S BITTER CUP.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 September 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1917. FRANCE'S BITTER CUP.

France has had many heavy trials and gone through much suffering in past years, but the wonderful, vitality and eheerines3 of the people is still largely in evidence. If ever a nation was chastened by fire and sword that nation is France, and to-day she is still drinking to the dregs her cup of bitterness. Yet, because she has been saved, ;is if by a miracle, from being crushed by the Teutonic hordes, the people arc full of hope and courage and enduring their great struggle with noble heroism. The extent of her sufferings it is impossible to realise, and probably it is only the women who can tell. We know enough, however, to be filled with intense pity and admiration for the way in which they are facing the terrible ordeal which is placing such a heavy tax on their powers of endurance. To those who. watched the progress of the previous Franco-German war the incidents seem but as of yesterday, and yet for the last three years and more the French people have again had to suffer at the hands of the same barbaric vultura that swooped down on French territory with suc'i disastrous results. In the interval th t > ; rench people became once more gay and light hearted. Outwardly they are that today, but the strain is there, and it can be discerned upon the faces of the women. It is not, Bays a contemporary, -o much the fact that her wrongs are as many as they are fearful that has riveted the attention and compelled the wondering admiration of mankind as the dauntless, unbroken, unwearied spirit with which they have been met and borne. We may search the speeches of ho leaders of every political party, but we shall search in vain for trace or sign of departure from that standard of high resolve and unfaltering determination which was theirs from the hour when the barbarians broke in floods. across their frontiers, and the sound of their guns could be heard and the helmets of their armies seen from the walls of Paris. The downfall of such a people at tho hands of such a foe would indeed mark the beginnings of the swift reverion of the .present race of men to the cave of the savage and the lair of the brute.' It is by no means improbable that the plight of the great French Republic was a potent factor in eventually drawing the United States into the ar in order to forward tho cause of lemocracy. This theory receives support from the words of President Wilson in reply to the congratulations of the French President on the United States' entry into the war, when 'Dr. Wilson aid:—•

"At this critical hour, when the destinies of civilised humanity are in the balance, it was a subject for joy and satisfaction to me to receive your congratulations on the attitude which my country was forced to adopt in opposition to the pitiless policy and actions of Imperialist Germany. It is very agreeable to us that France . . , should welcome us to-day in the ranks of those fighting for the defence of liberty and the rights of humanity. We are standing here as the champions of the noble decomracies whose plans and actions will contribute , to perpetuate the rights and independence of humanity and to safeguard the true principles of the liberty of man. Whatever the sufferings of the French nation may be. there is no question that its spirit remains unchanged and unquenched and its loyalty unquestioned. Those who went among the French people after the Franco-German war could not fail to be struck with the indomitable exuberance and marvellous recuperative powers, and so will it be at the close of the present struggle although the sufferings will be incomparably greater than in the former cat*. Th»v now realise Ger-

many's aim as they liave never realised it before, hence tlieir determination tu win or go under and the latter is too hideous a fate to contemplate. This is wiiy they are putting up such a great fight, because victory means freedom, while defeat would leave them a crushed and enslaved race. It is as well that we should fully,recognise tho part the French are playing and what they have at stake, and the more accurately this is done the greater will he the pride in fighting with and for them in the interests of humanity.