The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1919. FRENCH REJOICINGS.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 July 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1919. FRENCH REJOICINGS.

However enthusiastically the other Allies may enter into the Peace Celebrations there is no nation which has such a powerful incentive for rejoicing as France. For nearly fifty years • she has been smarting under the defeat inflicted upon her by Prussia, and the consequent loss of the Alsace-Lorraine proSPges. To-day, France is free,

land though the cost of this freedom has been very heavy its attainment is none the less sweet. The French are always at their best in times of rejoicing, and Paris lends itself to imposing pageants more fittingly than any other capital. The mercurial temperament of the French people enables them to enter into such historical celebrations as the victory fetes with whole-hearted abandon, and it is not difficult to conjure up a vision of the intensity of their fervor on such an occasion. They have good cause for high spirits and unbounded rejoicing, for the menace that has been hanging over the nation for the last century is now only a memory. The gates of the Arc de Triomphe have been re-opened for the first time since 1870 amid a ceremony the like of which has never been witnessed in Paris. British regiments were there with hundreds of their colors, also detachments of Highlanders and Australians. It was the presence of representatives of the Imperial forces that gave the fetes that touch of completeness that would otherwise have been absent, and it may confidently be assumed that the Parisians, both civil and military, fully recognise that it is the aid given by the forces of the British Empire that has made possible the rejoicings over the victory which has made France secure by paralysing her cruel foe. After all that the French nation has suffered, the people may well be almost mad with joy at the tables having been turned on the disturbers of her peace. The occasion was worthy of the highest honor and the utmost enthusiasm, while the presence of six million visitors in Paris testified to the absorbing interest taken in these historical proceedings. It was a proud moment for thft Generalissimo (Marshal Foch) when side by side with Marshal Joffre they headed the procession of Allies, Marshal Petain leading the French troops, and Sir Douglas Haig leading fifteen hundred British soldiers, while the vast crowd that lined the route, thrilled with pent up joy, acclaimed the deliverers of their country as only French citizens can. The decorations probably more closely than anything else typified the feelings of the people, for they are said to have been the most magnificent in living memory. So stirred were the people to the very depths of their being that few of them slept on Sunday night, yet amidst all this spontaneous outburst of joy those who had fallen in the titanic struggle for liberty were not forgotten, a touching ceremony taking place prior to the procession, when the three outstanding figures in France-—the President, the Premier and the head of the Army deposited wreaths on the Cenotaph at the Arc de Triomphe, in the presence of crowds who brought their floral offerings in honor of the dead. Obliterated for the time being were the thoughts of the ruin and devastation committed wantonly by an unscrupulous enemy. The uppermost and all absorbing sentiment was victory. France at last can hold her head in the joy of possession of the whole of her territory and face the world as a free and happy nation that will begin the work of restoration and reparation with a light heart, and the British Dominions can feel that the help they gave in bringing the French out of the toils of Germany has been help contributed in the noblest cause. But for the Allies France must have been long ere this in German possession, for the first act of the Bhns on the outbreak of war was to endeavor to march to Paris, and dictate terms that would have enslaved the French for all time. For a period of four years and a half the fiercest struggle in history took place on French soil. . Now that it is over and the enemy humbled in the dust, it is only natural that the rejoicings should be on an unprecedented scale; there are few right-feeling people in the civilised world who do not in their hearts join with the French in the day of their joy, as heartily as they sympathised with them in the time of their trouble. May the new era that has dawned cement closely the brotherhood of nations sr> that war may be no more!