\\\ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/franceatbayOOdawbrich FRANCE AT BAY MAKERS OF NEW FRANCE By CHARLES DAWBARN 10s. 6d. net With 16 Illustrations Pall Mall Gazette : Well worth setting alongside the best literature that we have on France from Bodley or the Philosophers, for the book is imbued with a profound and instructive sympathy expressed in admirable form." Mornino Post: "A triumphant book which ought to be read by everybody who wishes to understand the new orientation of French mentality." Standard : " Brilliant in its character sketches of the 'Makers of New France.'" Observer : M Mr. Dawbarn has all the humanities essential to this difficult craft- insight into character, sympathy of interests, an eye for the typical and a sure hand for the indicative touch." Liverpool Post: "Mr. Dawbarn is a literary ambassador of the Entente." FRANCE AT BAY BY CHARLES DAWBARN u AUTHOR OF "MAKERS OF NEW FRANCE," ETC. MILLS & BOON, LIMITED 49 RUPERT STREET LONDON, W. Publuhed 1915 DEDICATED TO PRINCESS NUSRAT ALI MIRZA 340815 PREFACE This is not a war book in the ordinary sense. It does not contain pictures of moonlit battles, or pages saturated with blood. It seeks only to give some account of France at work as well as at war, of efforts to organize herself in the hour of agony. The first exhaustion had passed, the first staggering shock of battle, joined with a foe, relentless and prepared for years. France, on the other hand, had other thoughts than war; she had indulged a little her love of reverie, her dreams of art and intellectual conquest. The war had become an intellectual habit against a background of terrific fact. " The only casualty list allowed " — the black of widows and bereaved mothers — told of the death-roll : how voluminous and crushing it was. Yet, on the faces of these women, as on the faces of the brave mutilis hobbling down the street, we read courage and resolution. In answer to the talk of peace, a stricken mother said : " Let there be no peace till the victory is won. My son, killed in the trenches, would have willed it so; my son who survives has no other thought." It is the common feeling of the country. The civilian courage expresses itself in reorganiza- vii viii PREFACE tion — proof of vitality just as it is proof of resolution and fixity of purpose. It means that a greater France, more solid, united and secure, better educated, with high principles, will arise from the turmoil of the conflict. Just as new industries must result from the foundries and the forges which have sprung up from the war, so new virtues have blossomed in its dread atmosphere. But, are we sure that these are not the old virtues which have lain dormant in a soil rendered sterile by luxury and egoism ? In any case, the sacred union, that Palladium of France, has intensified energies, and swept away the artificial bounds of party. In so doing it has carried France forward and backward — forward to destinies of un- known splendour and back to her own glorious past. You can trace these historic virtues to the high mountains of their origin, when Gaul met Roman, and Vercingetorix, the first French generalissimo, waved a triumphant sword in his wild country of the Auvergne. Brunetiere connected religion and morality with the pessimism of man, which leads him to grave reflections. And thus courage, under fierce trial, is associated with thoughts of moral grandeur and a desire to elevate and strengthen natures vitiated by a hyper-civilization. Behind the glint of armies, we behold the glint of the Cross : the soldier-priest bending over the dying combatant and speaking to his soul. And behind him, again, is the figure of a woman, grande dame or simple peasant, solicitous for the sick and suffering. Thus does gravity come upon a nation reputed for its light character. From the sodden field of battle has sprung the white flower PREFACE ix of spiritual life ; garlands of a pure fragrance wreathe the statue of Joan of Arc, more than ever the National Maid. Like Galatea, she has come to life, and, under her rapt gaze turned to Heaven, the world in fervent accents sings — Amour sacre de la Patrie, Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs : Liberte, liberte, cherie Combats avec tes defenseurs ! Here is a strange M revenge " such as the prophetic did not realize. Viviani, Premier of the Republic, speaks the language of Deroulede in his perfervid moments from the plinth of Strasburg. The Faubourg St. Germain, Clerical and Reactionary, melts into the Faubourg St. Antoine, foyer of the Revolutionary spirit. They are one in singing the burning strophes of Rouget de Lisle, now sleeping his last sleep in the bright com- pany of the Invalides. And that first National Fete of the war, which brought de Lisle from his suburban grave to the gilded dome beneath which Napoleon lies, found the President on a pinnacle of eloquence such as even he rarely attains. Thus, the Union Sacree has stilled the murmurs of the Chamber as it has reconciled conflicting interests. 1 I have thought that a picture of France, " making good," in the homely American phrase, and framed in the unchanging metal of the Union and of the greater Alliance, was a stimulating spectacle for gods and men. For, in the midst of war, laboured the peasant and 1 Speaking in the Chamber on August 26, 1915, M. Viviani, the Premier, said : " All the sons of France have become reconciled on the day of danger under the high ideas without which there are, on the battlefields, only mercenaries and no longer free men. n x PREFACE artisan, the schoolmaster and politician, cultivating the soil and sowing next year's crops, erecting fac- tories and rebuilding villages, forming the mind and character of youth and framing salutary laws. And out of the sick wards of the hospital, as out of the in- timacy of the trenches, arose a comradeship solid and enduring because founded on mutual comprehension. You may boggle at the word " virtue," fearing some harsh and forbidding image, some ungracious, moral pose. Yet the virtues are as transparent as they are real. The first is courage in adversity, the second discipline. " Ah," you say, " discipline is a new quality to give the French." And yet it is quite deserved. There is the discipline of Conscription, of which I treat with as much impartiality as I can bring to bear, and there is that larger discipline of the nation as a whole. Such discipline is necessary to salvation. It, and not the Terror, as some have supposed, saved France from disruption. The religion of sacrifice imposed a monstrous holocaust and yet inspired a sublime heroism. The virtues which have grown up in the atmosphere of the Great War, how- ever, have not made France spiritually proud, but they have caused her to reflect gravely upon her shortcomings. For France has many defects : happily, hypocrisy is not one of them. Michelet said : "La France a cela de grave qu'elle se montre nue aux nations. Les autres, en quelque sorte, restent vetues, habillees." And the Anglo-Saxon has the cold prudence to retain his dress that he may the more comfortably perhaps scrutinize the nakedness of others. Yes, France has faults ; she is too vital not to have them ; she touches PREFACE xi life at too many points, not to feel sometimes the contamination of earth. But if, as Michelet says, she displays her blemishes to the world, at least she does not hide them in the home. Purity and sound- ness — the union sacrie in the last resort, exist there. But then you say : " Those books ! the Realist writers who pictured a corrupt France and faithless men and women ! Is not the indictment true, since the prisoner has confessed ? Does not the 4 school ' pique itself on fidelity to nature, on an exact paint- ing of the milieu ? " Yes, in a measure, but the French tendency is to exaggerate every ill that good may come from the cry of " wolf." Latin ideality means a disdain of compromise. "But the light- mindedness of France," you ask, and proceed to quote instances. Here the roman de mceurs may help you, but hardly history. History says that France held aloft the banner of freedom in Revolutionary times against a Europe in arms, and that the power- ful of the earth trembled at the thunder of shoeless feet on the battle-ground. That does not look like light-mindedness, nor could we give the name to Hugo, Balzac, Renan, Pasteur, Berthelot, Rodin and the rest. But France needs no apology of mine. This book has no other aim than to set down the thoughts and some of the civic achievements of the country during the Great War. Sometimes I touch upon controversial points, but there is no desire to labour a Cause, be it conscription or our time-honoured voluntary system : my sole concern is to express the truth as I find it, on the lips of politicians or peasants. And, again, I have endeavoured, in that hard subject, " What France xii PREFACE thinks of us," to express what is passing in the mind of the average Frenchman, setting down nought in malice. For we must realize that in the mass the two nations are driven to hearsay or to the newspaper for their opinions of each other. And those flamboyant paragraphs, which please the people's pride, have more chance of remaining in the memory than colourless official news, which says that England has doubled her battle-line and organized munitions. These facts are hidden away in inconspicuous type, and lack the attraction of the other. So Jacques Bonhomme is not always sure that England is serious in the war, for his eye has caught the heading of his newspaper : "Another Strike in Wales." And his fellow-man in England goes to bed with the conviction that, but for John Bull, France would not last a week. It is well to say these things — if they can be told in the spirit of truth and with the desire that good may come of them. Finally, in writing about France, one has always the solace of the thought that though she may be swayed upon the branch in the oscillation of events, she can always save herself, for she has wings. As Victor Hugo says: " Soyez comme l'oiseau, pose pour un instant Sur des rameaux trop freles, Qui sent plier la branche et qui chante pourtant Sachant qu'il a des ailes." Charles Dawbarn. CONTENTS PREFACE I IMAGINATION II STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS III FRENCH ARMY AND DISCIPLINE IV ALSACE-LORRAINE . V LA REVANCHE (dEROULEDE) VI PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY VII FRANCE AND HER NAVY . VIII PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES IX CONSCRIPTION X ROLE OF THE PRESS XI WOMEN AND THE AVAR . XII WORK OF THE HOSPITALS XIII A YEAR AFTER XIV DRINK AND THE WAR . XV POLITICS AND PERSONAGES XVI LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS XVII WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND XVIII FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION XIX FRANCE ON THE MORROW OF VICTORY Vll 1 17 31 41 53 67 81 91 107 120 131 144 156 168 178 191 203 216 227 xm FRANCE AT BAY CHAPTER I lyjj THE NEED OF IMAGINATION A perfunctory knowledge of the French, gleaned from a few visits, will hardly help us to that complete understanding of those temperamental differences from ourselves which lie below the salients of the common view. The circumstances of the Great War have rendered such comprehension more than ever necessary. How are we to work with our Allies, to gain full advantage of co-operation, unless we read their minds, learn their ways of life, and their habit of thought? If, in the texture of this book, some rays of light traverse its warp and woof and reach the reader's eye, then is its mission fulfilled. I wanted to present France as she is in the throes of a great fight, at bay to her enemy, struggling for existence, that she may be able to breathe more freely on the morrow. I wanted to present France as I see her, modestly proud and immeasurably great. I should like English people to perceive her greatness as well as to realize the forces that have been at work to change and modify her into what she is to-day. And, to do that, one must not be content to repeat the phrases of the 1 2 FRANCE AT BAY newspapers, bus exercise a little enterprise and embark upon an imaginary journey across France. Let us look out upon life from the train and motor-car, rub shoulders with it in the market- place, and not imagine that we see the whole of it from a cafe window on the Paris Boulevard. This has been a common error in the past — so common that it has exposed itself. The public of the Anglo- Saxon world has at last realized that the true France lies, not in cosmopolitan assemblages in great centres of population, but in the hard-working, patiently- enduring, thrifty, and scarcely articulate population of the provinces. Where is this vain and frivolous people, this decadent race of which w r e have heard so much? I will tell you where it was in September 1914. It was on the banks of the Marne and the Germans were on the other side. After a few days' fighting, the Germans were still on the other side, but much farther away — nearer their " natural frontier " ; they were fleeing, in fact, from the decadent French. This was not a bad performance, when you think of it, for a senile and out-worn people, admittedly ill- prepared for war with the greatest military power. The France with which we have to do in this book is the France of the battlefield and the hospital, the France behind-the-lines, of the militarized factories and the farms and fields. The heroism of fighting France has been revealed by the communiques; but these rather inhuman documents do not speak of the hospitals where the men lie dumb, uttering no cry when wounds are probed, when surgeons perform their harshly necessary work. And these victims of the war merely say to the orderly who has been THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 3 holding a wounded limb for the better part of an hour : " Pardon, my corporal, for making you wait so long ! " Incidents of the sort are too pathetically common to be recorded. Nor can emphasis be laid in official literature on woman's work in alleviating distress — new conquests for her graciousness and beauty, new children for her yearning heart to mother. Entire Yellow-books would fail adequately to convey her service to the nation when quietly, without the least fuss or parade — no special uniforms, no photographs in the journals — she replaced man in a hundred situations. And so modestly was it done that scarcely did one perceive it. The feminine mobil- ization was as orderly and complete as the masculine mobilization. To the superficial, there was nothing changed at all — only the flutter of a simple dress, a forage cap set on dark tresses, where formerly there had been the uniform of the man. These pages, written in the odd moments of a busy life, are intended to provide a peep behind the veil, which is often a veil of tears. Yet the vision of the New France is comforting and uplifting. It may serve a patriotic purpose, perhaps, for we have need to know this inward France, for our own safety and as a debt owed to valiant Allies. You will find no bombs in this book, little of the shock and shudder of battle, merely the smoke of monstrous cannonadings shrouding laborious figures which bend to common tasks. If the picture shows courage, if sympathy is excited and stimulus given to greater effort, and if a greater comprehension exists for the French in their tasks of to-day or to-morrow, then is the writer compensated. 4 FRANCE AT BAY It is not for him to discuss how real was the desire for revenge; whether the songs we heard and the books we read were to be taken literally as signifying that France was ready to fly at the throat of Germany, if not to stab her in the back as the Germans them- selves averred. By the force of events, such a question has become academic. It is more pertinent to ask : Did France do anything to provoke the war? Our answer is clear, clear as the conscience of France. She is innocent of any provocation. Her policy was conciliatory to such a point that she could not have proceeded farther without loss of dignity. She gave up her Foreign Secretary for the sake of peace. What further concession could have been asked, if not the sacrifice of territory, which was also made ? All observers have praised her calmness and courage at the moment when they were most needed, and no record of the country at war could neglect a pheno- menon so powerfully interesting and elevating. None who knew the France of a decade ago could fail to make a comparison flattering to the France of to-day. Some have suggested that this is no new fact, but merely the old France renewed at the springs of history; but such quibblers must confess — what- ever name they give to the transformation — that here is the country clothed again in the splendour of the Golden Age and presenting a surpassing picture of moral grandeur and beauty. Not only must we understand that we may appreciate all the nice gradations of the change, but we must realize such facts as temperament and ideals, which will help us to work harmoniously with our Allies in the years to come. For only the super- THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 5 ficial can suppose that our association will cease with the war. Our isolation has departed and can never be recovered; we must invent new safeguards for our national continuance, and safeguards of an in- tellectual sort are as imperative as those of a military sort. Since we are partners in arms and partners for a period to which no man can set limits, it behoves us to learn not merely what the French are in them- selves, but in what regard they hold us collectively and individually. And it is certain that they prize us principally because of our character, because of our natural and moral distinction. If we lose these characteristics, then shall we lose part of our prestige and part of the esteem which is given generously abroad to every self-respecting Englishman. Is it possible to retain those qualities, which the foreigner admires in us, and yet reach closer sympathy and touch with France ? It is, indeed, by remaining true to our natures that we best serve and satisfy the French. Our support is at once moral and military, and the first is more precious than the second. Professor Albert Sorel, the historian, used to warn his students never to forget that England was an island. " Vous comprendrez ainsi ses navigateurs, son absence d'armee, son commerce, la stabilite de ses lois, ses mceurs, sa politique." And England herself forgets that her insular position is undermined by rapid steamships, by Zeppelins and aeroplanes, by submarines. Stolidly unconscious of the change, she seems to be exasperatingly inaccessible to new ideas. Thus is she in danger of falling between two stools : of failing to realize her new situation and of retaining, 6 FRANCE AT BAY to an unconscionable degree, the mentality of the islander whilst unconscious of his limitations. Never has she received such a wealth of friendly and con- structive criticism as to-day from observers who neglect the fact that she has fulfilled her part of the bargain in keeping clear the ocean ways, whilst France was ill-prepared, even after repeated warn- ings during the last forty years, for the gigantic task which political necessity had thrust upon her. At the same time, they have not made due allowance for England's lack of resilience, for the fact that her solid fabric does not vibrate easily to new impressions. It takes time for the new idea to germinate. Such lack of imagination is dangerous in a European war, in its failure to grasp its extent and real significance. For this reason, we may suppose that there would have been a readier response to reality if women, with their quicker intuition and sympathetic insight, had been included in the councils of the nation. John Bull is the one man who needs the womanly adviser at his elbow, to temper his granitic density. Such an innovation, alarming though it might be to the conservative elements, would go some way to attenuate the charge that, in the second year of the war, we did not even then sense its deadly peril to our existence. No men have a quicker grasp of actual problems than many of the voting sex, and I am presenting the average French view in saying that we have shown an in- credible slowness in mastering the meaning of the conflict. It is true that this result seemed partially to have been reached at the end of the first year of war, but THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 7 at the cost of what efforts ? At the cost of a strenuous newspaper campaign, rebuked by all the respectable and conventional elements in English life. It was the truth perhaps ! but, was it not disgraceful to speak so openly, with such brutal ungentlemanly frankness ? Where were our manners ? Thus we continued to think of pleasant speech and etiquette whilst Rome burned. Wonderful detachment. Few realized that England was being stifled, blinded, " doped " by her respectability. The difference in her temperament from that of the French is sufficiently revealed by the Press. In England the casualties are published so that he who runs may read. People at their breakfast tables have the satisfaction, melancholy though it be, of knowing the cost of victory — or a reverse. In France repeated efforts to induce the War Minister to publish similar lists have always failed. Yet every one knew that the death-roll was tremendous. A tabulated return of the sacrificial victims on the altar of the country was not necessary to bring home its actuality to French sensitiveness ; the mourning in the street spoke with a sad, sufficient eloquence. The setting forth of names in print was more than could be borne; the popular sensibility was too great, it would not have been proof against this publication. It is not necessary to argue whether this is the right course or not, whether the French would have lost heart and been filled with despair at seeing their formidable list of dead ; but it is significant that the English published their casualties, while concealing in other ways the importance of the war. Nor, when the Censor had been particularly busy, were 8 FRANCE AT BAY there any signs of it. The blanks had been carefully restored. The article read smoothly; the public did not suspect that there had been omissions. But in France the omissions were patent to every eye; they cried from the house-tops. They were visible even in such sober and reputable organs as the Temps and the Debate. Whole articles sometimes disappeared, leaving only the title. It is hardly necessary to say that this energy in suppression was particularly directed against the advanced and self- assertive journals. But in monuments of pondera- tion, how did it occur? What could have been their " indiscretions " ? And tongues were set wag- ging. People who were really interested, and had the necessary influence, generally ended by discover- ing the character of the offending statements. So this obvious excision served the double purpose of preventing certain facts from becoming known until they were too old to matter, or certain views from being expressed that would have weakened confidence at a critical moment; and yet they informed the public that the whole truth was not published and stimulated a desire to know it. Thus readers were not deluded into believing that everything was for the best in all possible worlds — and the secrets of the War Office remained intact. The half -enlightenment of the suggestive blanks was better than no bread — something, evidently, had been said that should not have been said in the supposed interests of the national defence, and the public was warned, through its imagination, not to regard everything as couleur de rose. The strong nerves of the British people, on the THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 9 other hand, could better have supported the truth than the French — it would scarcely have been worse than heavy casualties — but this privilege of hearing unpleasant realities was denied them, and many supposed that the cheery optimism of the Press represented the exact state of affairs. They had failed to visualize the war as the French had done; they maintained, too well, the character of spectator. Thus there is danger in the sweet illusions engendered by such a system which bowdlerizes the strong passages of generals' reports and gives a false fictitious air of a happy ending to isolated acts in the world drama. The sanguine speeches of Cabinet Ministers in England seemed extraordinary to the French, more especially when we were holding a length of line ludicrously disproportionate to our population and resources. Nor could the French, with their keen sense of the ridiculous, quite reconcile themselves to the notion of stolid Englishmen manning trenches round London — when Northern France and Belgium were ablaze with cruel, savage war. No public man in France with whom I have been privileged to talk ever expressed to me other than astonishment at the slowness of my countrymen in adopting conscription. It seemed to each a self-evident proposition that against as resolute a foe as the Germans, visibly preparing for war — without the least mystery — for many years, it was necessary to devote every ounce of energy that our energetic nation possesses. We must know the French to appreciate the character and extent of their patriotism. I was struck with the fact that on the first National Fete day, after the declaration of war, there was a visible union 10 FRANCE AT BAY amongst the classes to celebrate a date in the Republican Calendar. Political divisions and class distinctions were swept away. Camelots du Roy and the Jeunesse Republicaine would have taken part had they not been in the trenches side by side. But Republicans, Bonapartists, Royalists, consorted in a friendly spirit — in memory of the Bastille, but the " Bastille " had become the common foe. M. Poincare's speech happily translated the " sacred unity." In ringing phrases he declared that France would not consent to a halting, defective peace. Patriotism wears a different aspect in the two countries. In France, certainly, the patriot-soldier is ill requited. He gains but a halfpenny a day; the separation allowance for his wife is a shilling a day and five- pence for each child. This, certainly, is not a brilliant affair for the skilled workman. In England the war has not been unfavourable for the working-man. In the midst of it he could find the heart to strike for higher wages, even if his employers were as much to blame as he. A formidable conflict arose in Wales after eleven-and-a-half months of war. Even the Socialists in France were inexpressibly shocked — not that the men protested against the huge profits of the masters, but that such a war within a war should have been possible. Again, the proportion of married men in the army was so high that it lent colour to the suggestion that here again was " a good affair." The married women, in encouraging their husbands to depart, were not unmindful, it would seem, of the economic side of the arrangement, whereby they obtained more in his absence than if he had remained at home. THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 11 And in restraining the son from enlisting, the women, also, consulted their private feelings. There is, of course, plenty of pure disinterested patriotism amongst the working classes in England; but prima facie, from the foreign point of view, the movement was mixed with a good deal of self-interest. The heart was only allowed to speak after the purse had been satisfied. But this, of course, is one of the inevitable disadvantages of a voluntary system working in the midst of a national crisis. Does the average Englishman always realize the meaning of patriotism ? That it is a desperate, blind falling in love with one's own country and has nothing to do with " business as usual " — or other- wise. This again, of course, is the Continental view. However inflated may seem the language in which a Frenchman talks about his country, his patriotism is a sacred and pure flame kept bright by the re- membrance of 1870. At the back of his thoughts is either the personal recollection of the invasion or a transmitted feeling of horror. His brain teems with mental pictures of the Debacle. And this second war in forty-four years has surpassed vastly in scale and intensity the first (which, indeed, is dwarfed to infinitesimal proportions), so that there is for ever in his heart the fearful spectacle of rapine, pesti- lence and murder, which is war without its epau- lettes. To have one's soil invaded, one's property destroyed, to be subjected to the ignominy of a foreign domination — that changes one's conception of war quicker than anything else, and is responsible for the difference in the French and English points of view. No longer can one look upon war after 12 FRANCE AT BAY such experience with the philosophic calm that dis- tinguished some Englishmen at critical moments in the campaign. Patriotism is linked with imagination ; it is linked, also, with knowledge — knowledge of the political map of Europe. Political geography has never been a strong point with the English; it is indigenous to the soil of France. Every barber's assistant can give you excellent reasons why the Alliance with Russia exists; he has likewise a clear notion of conflicting tendencies in the Balkans. He has generally a grasp of political definitions at home and abroad, which would make his fame in England. The foreign policy of France is closely watched and criticized by an intelligent mass of citizens. If such is the case in England, it is difficult to explain the zigzag course of the good ship Foreign Office. The politician having any understanding of foreign problems is the exception in the House of Commons, and in the provinces he scarcely exists at all. As a con- sequence, the breath of sound discerning criticism rarely blows upon the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Our party system has some measure of responsibility for this immunity. The ship of State is divided into watertight compart- ments, labelled Radical and Conservative, in either of which, as in a casemate, the Foreign Minister is fairly safe from attack. In France the infinite sub- division of the Ministerial Republicans and of the nominal Opposition into warring and jealous groups, however bad for the dignity of Parliament (if that is aimed at), at least provides a constant fire of criticism against the Quai d'Orsay. And that criticism is often THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 13 the more effective for being secret in the Foreign Relations Committee. Since the Island Empire is called to play a vast role on the Continent, its first concern should be to adjust itself to the new conditions. A knowledge of geography is imposed on our statesmen. It is not sufficient for them to call for a map when they enter Downing Street for the first time. We must expect from them a technical knowledge not inferior to that of foreign specialists. The Press, admirable in its tribute to France and in rousing the country from its lethargy, has succeeded, in spite of the popular resentment shown in defence of sacred, if exploded principles, in breaking down some of the barriers of ignorance. But much remains to be done. Some of the great provincial papers in England either neglect foreign politics altogether or draw wholly false de- ductions from the meagre details supplied by the agencies. The result is that public opinion is in- sufficiently prepared for any sudden development in the foreign situation. The Channel rolls between, and though at one point the shores approach each other, at others, a vast sea stretches immeasurable in its misunderstandings. In one part there are the shoals marked " differences of temperament " ; in another protrude the jagged rocks of sheer, black ignorance. In these dangerous waters the barque Entente may founder at any moment. But, happily, the light- house of Caxton's invention exists to flash its friendly beams over the sea with its lamp kept burning, a sacred illuminant on the altar of Sympathy. Many French people regard the Channel Tunnel as the readiest means of developing and consolidating 14 FRANCE AT BAY good relations. There is in the argument, of course, something of that spirit of self-interest with which they reproach us when considering some aspects of British patriotism. There would be little room for misunderstanding, they say, in an hourly train service between Paris and London, with the two capitals as closely linked, politically and economically, as London and Manchester. On the other hand, the obliteration of physical frontiers would be followed by some weakening of racial frontiers. Should we become Continental in ideas ? I have said that such a result would be deplored by the French themselves, who place us on a pinnacle apart from others because of our qualities of truthfulness and good faith. On the other side of the medal is our influence over the French. If we abandon virtues, they may acquire them or reproduce them in a distorted form. As in Hichens' Flames, there may be an exchange of souls, with disastrous results. But if some exclusiveness and particularity are inevitably lost in our composi- tion, new grace and lightness will be added, just as the French will receive certain elements in which the national crucible is supposed to be deficient. It is essential that we should not give any im- pression of making money out of the war. There must be no crude appeals to the French public to buy British coals or British beer because of the brotherhood in arms. " Trade follows the flag," but goods should not be wrapped up in it, neither should it trail over the cash register. By recognizing French sensitiveness to the truckstering methods of the merchant behind the army, we shall avoid the appearance of offence. The flag is a sacred emblem — THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 15 not something to wave above an emporium. This notion of patriotism is as distasteful to French senti- ment as that a politician should criticize his country when the battle is in progress. Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman's attack on the English army in the Boer War remains a startling example of inadvised- ness, from which even the intransigeant Socialist in France would shrink. If Jaures spoke for the Moors when a French column was marching on Fez, his habitual attitude as professional critic almost justified it. It remained, none the less, exceptional and im- possible in a responsible statesman. Having this exalted conception of his country's cause, whatever the circumstance in which she draws the sword, Frenchmen find difficulty in appreciating English reluctance to national service. Surely John Bull realizes, say critics petulantly, that his own country is aimed at, rather than ours ? England is Germany's great rival, not France. The English " day " has suc- ceeded to the French period of brilliance, and Germany not unnaturally expected to succeed the British. Had they shown the common qualities of savoir faire, the world would be at their feet. But now .... Only those who know the Germans, at first hand, realize the strength of this argument. It came to me with great force from a summer spent in Germany in 1913. My companion was a young American, graduate of our oldest university. Speaking German as fluently as his native tongue, he made friends with German naval officers when we stayed at Kiel. As he mingled with them on the tennis-court and in the club, he was amazed by the bellicosity of their language, by their animosity towards England. She 16 FRANCE AT BAY was the arch-enemy and must be brought low; the sceptre of the sea must be wrested from her by the strong hand of the German navy. Such conversation was enlightening. For the French, as for the English, closest union is necessary that we may cultivate the sense of inter- pretation, that we may understand the trend of national politics, that we may mix with the spirit of criticism a kindly understanding. CHAPTER II STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS I had the good fortune to be passing the Prefecture of Police at the very moment when the notice of mobilization was posted up. This was at four o'clock on Saturday afternoon, August 1, 1914. The docu- ment was a half sheet of paper upon which was written, in the somewhat florid hand of the French civil servant, " Mobilisation Generale. " It appeared on the southern door of the building, facing the river, which is marked " Sapeurs Pompiers." Invisible hands seemed to have placed it there; I saw no agency at work. Amazing that this simple line of writing should mean so much ! It glowed from the dark oak door, a seal set upon human destiny, the destiny of a nation. A few passers-by stopped to gaze at it ; then others arrived. There was no word said. Every one looked deeply interested and grave. Round at the front of the building, to which I passed, another paper fluttered, starring the grey stones with a patch of white. People ran. Something in the air told them this was no common announce- ment. There were presently fifty, then a hundred, then several hundred, round that innocent -looking scrap of paper. The effect was magical. The whole street seemed to be running. Other bits of white c 17 18 FRANCE AT BAY paper appeared on other doors of the great building, which is the centre of the police life of Paris, and on the walls of an adjacent post-office. A man, brawny looking in his working clothes, questioned the authen- ticity of the notice. It must be a joke, " Ca c'est la blague ! " he said scornfully ; " there are no crossed flags on it ; it can't be real." But a young lieutenant standing by rebuked him gravely. Yes, it was perfectly correct ; it was the mobilization. On my way by omnibus to the Boulevards I passed through streets in which life seemed to flow much as before, yet with a subtle something hard to define, a feeling of electricity in the air. But the aspect of the Boulevards was that of any other Saturday afternoon in midsummer. There was an immense number of people walking along the pavements and sitting at little tables in front of the cafes. Although the vehicular traffic had suddenly dwindled, as if the drivers had received secret information, these big arteries had not yet begun to throb with the tre- mendous news. We still continued to roll rapidly along the Boulevards and then, suddenly, one was conscious that the news was known — that it had penetrated the mesh of streets from the Bourse. The word " mobilization," uttered in scarcely more than a whisper, had sped like the wind through the air, alighting here and there amongst the groups, making little eddies of excitement and profoundly stirring the pulse of the people. With remarkable speed, processions formed them- selves and marched, swaying with irresistible eager- ness, down the Boulevards. Cook's tourists passed in a char-a-banc, waving little flags, English and STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS 19 French, procured heaven knows where, and cheering madly. Later, a numerous group passed, preceded by a large English flag, the origin of which was still more mysterious. What subtle knowledge of the secrets of the political universe had induced them to drag it from its hiding-place at this moment and wave it, as it were, in the face of two nations, a symbol of collaboration, of that blessed word " inter- vention " ? And the crowd, with that peculiar instinct that belongs to Latin crowds, of all others, cheered heartily this mark of English sympathy, this naive expression of popular conviction that England must come in. It was clear that the whole town saw the inevitableness of it. How could it be otherwise ? reasoned the man-in-the-street. His faith reposed on no formal contract, but on the readings of his own heart — the heart and understanding of the people. And yet, suppose England refused to stand by the side of France and left her to her fate, as she had done forty-four years before. What then ? When darkness came, there was a strange move- ment of suppressed excitement in the street. Many of the inhabitants, especially the younger gener- ation, never went to bed that night, but stood in groups about the public squares, discussing quietly, and yet with obvious earnestness, the great fact of the war. They were looking at the soldiers passing in the streets that seemed already darkened. Through the night, beneath my windows, was the steady tramp of soldiers, marching to the war. The next day, Sunday, was more definitely military — the first day of mobilization. Officers sat out in the street at little tables at the Ministry of Marine in 20 FRANCE AT BAY the Rue Royale and beneath the trees of the Esplanade des Invalides, checking off names and giving their owners quiet instructions. There were order and method in the arrangements and confidence in the public mien. None the less, people spoke in low tones, as if fearing that the Fates should overhear — those relentless Fates of the Debacle. " This time we are prepared," they agreed. " Yes, we are prepared. We have a man in Joffre. II est quelqu'un ! " And yet Paris had no illusions ; she knew what war was and even what was defeat. As if by enchantment, the 'buses had disappeared from the old routes. From my window I could see transport officers commandeering horsed vehicles : butchers' and bakers' carts, drays and lorries. " Cest la guerre qui commence ! " The streets wore an utterly strange air of busy emptiness — not the emptiness of death, but the clearing of decks for action. One marvelled at the fervent quietude of it all, at the total absence of " nerves." Where were these hysterical French of whom we had heard so much? In this expectant hush, the flags that appeared along the facades of the buildings spoke in the fluttering accents of a fete. Now and again a long low auto- mobile, containing officers in uniform, raced through the street, stammering in a high explosive way, as if its urgent speed had rendered it inarticulate. But its very incoherency told of great affairs. Silent deter- mination was written in the faces of men, especially in the troops that passed, bound for some point along the battle-line and swept from yesterday's dreams and occupations by this swift current of mobilization. There was no hilarity, no cocksureness — that was not STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS 21 the characteristic, nor, in the ordinary way, keenness and enthusiasm; it was not a picnic, a glorious adventure, but a sacrament, the solemn hour of sacrifice and consecration. And in that spirit officers were saluted by soldiers and civilians as if they were priests engaged in holy service. Sometimes thoughtless demonstrators, youths below the military age or members of a foreign colony resident in the city and anxious to curry favour with the French, shouted " A Berlin ! " but the cry awakened no response in the popular breast. It was ill-fated, " A Berlin ! " There was something sinister about that. It struck mournfully upon sensitive ears, like the wail of drowning men. " A Berlin ! " What memories it conjured up of the blind folly of un- preparedness ending in disaster and despair. The Press carefully refrained — absit omen — from noticing the cry — this strange Press that was reduced to quite extraordinary proportions : a single sheet with scarcely any news in it, instead of the plethoric columns given gaily to the chronicles of Paris, its political intrigues, its fashions and its plays, its crimes passionels. Gone, all gone, all the glow and glitter of la ville lumiere ! — disappeared in the gulf of a European war. And rumour stalked abroad, rumour in its most fantastic guise, rumour goblin- shaped, monstrous, ill-formed. I had not realized before the true office of the Press to give consistency to wild imaginings, to bestow human face and figure on the twilight gnome, to apply some common test to emanations from the cave of wonders, to draw from the vast cauldron at least some bone of fact. But the Press was perforce silent and spoke no word 22 FRANCE AT BAY of rumours — only the merest details of things that had little or nothing to do with our haunting fears and suspicions. And what rumours existed in these early days ! The concierge avers and some one is equally emphatic that : " So-and-so has been shot as a spy . . . and a general has proved a traitor — I am sure of it ! My cousin's fiance has seen a letter, which was written by a Minister. . . . There is no doubt about it; it is clear enough. ..." The Cabinet meeting prolongs itself late into the night. The Government is making its momentous decision. Whilst waiting for the final word in a little room at the Ministry of the Interior, opposite the Palace of the President, where the Ministers are gathered, I am bombarded with questions from members of the Paris Press. " Surely England can see what would be the consequences of abstention? She would sign her own death-warrant." In the Metropolitan!, a moment before, I had met a dis- tinguished writer on foreign affairs, who was hurrying to rejoin his regiment as officer of reserve. He was just as emphatic. " Let not England hesitate," he said ; "it will be fatal if she does. Imagine her position if Germany defeats us : German ships at Calais, policing the Channel, watching the coming and going of English trade ; England stifled with German hands at her throat." In the street, amongst friends, one could not escape the same questions. A French diplomat button-holed me upon the Quays. " Surely England will not leave us in the lurch, she under- stands her own interests better than that ? " And another said, with a touch of menace in his voice, " If England abandons us now, the Entente is over STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS 23 for ever. It will have a terribly discouraging effect upon our troops and will cause deep depression in Paris." One's replies were unsatisfactory enough, and yet it was impossible to be affirmative without creating what might be a dangerous illusion : " You know England's hands are absolutely free; she has always refused to bind herself. Whatever the sym- pathies of her Government, she can only act in ac- cordance with public opinion and after mature reflection." " Yes," we are impatiently told, " that, of course, is true enough. There is no formal agree- ment, no bond or signed pact; yet the flowers, the cordial and manifest meaning of the speeches when the King and Queen came, do they count for nothing ? Surely, after such a demonstration, you will not leave France to her fate ? That would be monstrous ..." until one did not know where to turn to hide from the " indiscretions " of those " who wanted to know." What would happen to British diplomacy and British prestige on the Continent if England adopted the Manchester School view of her responsibilities and reverted to an isolation which would be anything but splendid ? These thoughts troubled one immensely as various processions loomed into view on the Boulevards, carrying the flag which has stood for right and justice throughout the world. Was it really possible there could be a betrayal ? and yet the fevered hours went by and there was no declaration by the British Government. These doubts were particularly poignant on the night when the mob wrecked the German shops along the Boulevards and the main avenues of the capital. It was an object lesson in what a crowd could do 24 FRANCE AT BAY when really roused, and it was small wonder that Englishmen, looking doubtfully across the Channel, said to each other : " It is our turn next." And then, to add to our confusion, came leading articles in some English papers. Hastily summoned to high places, I was asked whether these outpourings represented the true spirit of England. Happily, my answer received its confirmation in the change of tone of the papers themselves and in the mag- nificent response of the whole nation. No longer Pharisaical counsels were heard; they were utterly lost in the decision to adopt the only possible and honourable course. The oracle of Downing Street had spoken, and spoken to such splendid purpose that every one was satisfied and cried with the Figaro, " La Loyale Angleterre ! " And Paris settled down to the sensation of being really at war. Except for the absence of vehicles in the streets, life seemed to be following normal lines ; but in certain of the business quarters a Sabbath calm had descended in closed shops and deserted foot- ways. Everywhere was the notice : " Fermee a cause de la Mobilisation." At night came dark thorough- fares, and a silence broken only by the passage of troops marching to the depots or of heavy motor wagons bearing stores to the Front. The great white beams of the searchlights on the Eiffel Tower and the Automobile Club of the Place de la Concorde stabbed the soft poetic darkness in search of Zeppelins. They swung a weird light over the river, gliding blackly beneath the bridges, and the red eyes of the little steamers shone dully in the gloom. This quiet Pro- vincial Paris was not without its charm. And yet STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS 25 how docile it was. It allowed itself to be packed off to bed at ten o'clock; it took no stock in its drinks ; it allowed absinthe to be suppressed without a murmur; it expressed an equal indifference to aperitifs. The sole amusement was to watch the arrival of the Taubes ; they came every evening at six o'clock with a touching regularity. The stout heart of Paris was not to be reduced by such paltry means — and people stood in careless expectation of the visitors. How admirable the people were, during these days of trial, as admirable as in the siege of Paris, so picturesquely described by Francisque Sarcey. The people are always admirable — perhaps it is only the governors who are wanting. Our governors departed when the battle of the Marne had just begun, and there were some extraordinary scenes at the railway stations. They were crowded to excess with passengers, fighting and scrambling for the trains. Many waited hours, even days, for the chance of leaving. And the trains themselves were jambed, even to the horse-boxes and guards' vans, in which people stood for many hours on the way down to the south and safety. Sometimes through the windows of the trains one caught sight of grinning lunatics — the asylums were being removed, a sign of the humanitarian instincts of the French even at this hour. And from other windows looked out orphans and old men and women, the habitual guests of charitable institutions. The sight affected one, but in a different way from those other scenes I had witnessed at the railway station, when the troops left for the Front. Then men, women and children 26 FRANCE AT BAY mingled their tears, but there was a strain of courage and devotion through it all. Women gave up their men bravely, even though they wept ; the men quickly recovered their spirits, momentarily dashed by the thought of leaving their dear ones, for their resolution was firm. They knew that the supreme hour had come, the hour in the Garden of Gethsemane, and they steeled their soul to be equal to it. Paris, I think, was much relieved when the politi- cians left, leaving the coast clear for the serious defence of the town. General Gallieni's proclamation flamed from the walls and gave courage to those who re- mained. " I have received a mandate to defend Paris, and I shall defend it to the end," was the proud signal of faith and valour. The air seemed less lurid after the departure of the rulers. It put an end to intrigue, which had begun to raise its head and imagine vain things. There was a plot, said some, to deliver Paris to the enemy : were not negotiations already going on ? In any case, the fearful — at a safe distance in the Provinces — were convinced that the city could not be defended. But that was not the opinion of Gallieni, or of those who remained : that is to say, the majority of the Parisians. The new military Governor went at it with a will, and it was part of the pleasure of Parisians to inspect the chevaux de frise, the deep trenches, stone walls, and barricades of fallen trees constructed at the city gates to hamper the march of the enemy. Even if they could not have stood a moment before modern armament, there was a suggestion of resistance about them — of " doing something," which went straight to the heart of Paris. But outside the city, yet STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS 27 within the entrenched camp, were other and more serious signs of opposition : kilometres of barbed wire, endless lines of deep trenches wherein lay monstrous guns, and other guns protruded their black forbidding nozzles from rose-gardens as one whirled by in a motor-car for which, after infinite formalities, a laisser passer had been obtained. Forts, said the popular tongue, had been abolished — there were no more of such constructions since Liege and Namur; but, in the black earth, all sorts of terrible engines lay perdus ready to belch death. And there was certainly a visible activity in General Gallieni's preparations which bespoke the born leader, the man of energy and resource. And though there was a baffling lack of news, and none save those who had got into actual touch with the army at all realized the position, the natural optimism of the Parisian prevailed. He would have illuminated the darkened city and hung out additional flags for the battle of the Marne had not Joffre declared in answer to the demand : " No, there are too many dead." Then hospitals were opened and women displayed immense devotion in nursing the sick. All the great hotels in the Champs Elysees, which had resonated before the war to the sounds of the Tango and the swish of skirts, were now converted into hospitals, French and English, Russian and Japanese. And these institutions sprang up in all parts of the city wherever a large house could be obtained and a staff of doctors and nurses be recruited. Every society woman transformed herself into a charitable worker. And I think many who had danced the Tango in the 28 FRANCE AT BAY old days with untiring zeal were not displeased to escape from the thraldom of the social round : the tea and Bridge parties, Bergson's lectures at the College de France, the concerts and theatrical enter- tainments, the Persian balls and the other sumptuous inventions of cosmopolitan society. And rare civic courage and abnegation revealed itself during those fateful days. It is true that some retired precipitately to their chateaux when the Germans were advancing, but there was present in all classes a great spirit of sacrifice, a desire, ardent and continuous, to help those who had suffered from the war. The poorest were fed by canteens, and elaborate measures were taken by allocations and grants of food and clothing to alleviate distress. In Montmartre, the night haunts, which used to attract the gay, careless money -spenders of the world, were converted into centres of an exquisite charity, where those who had ministered to our entertainment in times past, by song and dance or by the pictorial arts, were made to feel that artist and bourgeois were one. La Cigale had found a shelter from the storms of a terrible winter. And mingled with this sweet work of charity and brotherliness was talk of the situation, military and political. One did not get much enlightenment about either from the newspapers, comic little productions which strove to subsist, as in the old time, upon the news of the day before yesterday. Yet you knew that a war was in progress : the eloquent blanks told you that — so eloquent were they that one won- dered whether they were always real. Were they not invented sometimes to whet our curiosity at a low STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS 29 price ? Occasionally there was news from Bordeaux of daily meetings at the Chapon Fin, and Cafe de Bordeaux, of deputies and senators who did not seem to mourn too deeply over their separation from Paris and her anxieties; and there were rumours of suppressions of newspapers owned by outspoken politicians ; M. Clemenceau's Homme Libre became the Homme Enchaine (*' the Man-in-chains "). Yet, in this posture, so unfavourable, one would think, for literary effort, he managed to rattle his chains to a tune of protest with his accustomed perversity. The Press in Paris gained its chief nutriment from the communiques — meagre fare tricked out with a little academic prose from members of the old grey Institute by the Seine. But though it was stately, it was seldom inspiring. One came reluctantly to the conclusion that an immortal on daily tap becomes very mortal. The official information given to the Press was served out in a species of coach-house, fitted with a long table and chairs, at the Ministry of War. Here, from time to time, an attache made declarations concerning military or political events and policy. Yes, a Taube had come to-day, but one need not insist upon it. The loss of life was insignificant, the damage very slight. And when, later, the Government departed, we were warned that if we heard in the night the rumble of furniture vans containing the Government archives, we were to take no notice. It was a strategical move to leave the hands of the military free for energetic defence. And Gallieni probably suffered gladly the departure of Messieurs les Deputes — at least, now there could be no divided counsels to weaken the arm of the defender. 30 FRANCE AT BAY Paris without theatres or music-halls, without its evening " distractions," silent, deserted, as sober in the night-hours as a small provincial city, extraordin- arily calm and composed in the daytime — these are the impressions that linger in the mind of the great days in la ville lumiere. CHAPTER 111 THE FRENCH ARMY AND DISCIPLINE French people have a peculiar faculty for being misrepresented, and in no direction is this more apparent than in the army. Obviously it is no pipe- clayed institution and yet one was constantly amazed at the laisser-aller of the pioupiou. This was before the war. English people, accustomed to the perfec- tion of their own soldiers, whose buttons shone in the sun and whose boots reflected the crease of impeccable trousers, had rarely a flattering opinion of Dumanet. The tunic and red trousers generally showed a dis- position to fall apart and the nether garments were either too short or too long. In the former case, they gave prominence to the immense boots, which were made for the march and not for the parade ground. Dumanet seemed to carry his linen in his pocket, which bulged ominously. Added to the neglect of his uniform was his slouch. Even on the march he did not keep step always with the neighbour. How could this careless-hearted soul be compared either with the drilled machine of Germany or with Mr. Tommy Atkins beautifully groomed and shimmering with bear's grease ? Evidently it was quite impossible. The casual observer forgot many things ; one of them was to look into the face of the little French soldier. 31 32 FRANCE AT BAY He would have read there intelligence and vivacity. Had he followed Dumanet on manoeuvres, he would have learned his good humour and his gay unbreakable spirit. He comes up smiling after a march of fifty kilometres, with a heavy pack on his back which con- tains his extra clothes, spare boots, pannikins and kindling for the fire which is to boil his soup. He breaks into song again after the weary tramp in the sun along dusty routes nationales lined with straight poplars and planes, across woods and stubbled fields, whence rise the frightened partridges and hares to the delight of men bred up to la chasse — a song that ac- companies the simmering of the pot on the camp-fire, a song that breathes the joys of peace rather than the austerities of war, that expresses the red blood of the race with no refinement of tongue. And Dumanet's adaptability is discovered in the field. He takes advantage of each depression of the ground to build his fire or prepare his couch. He is the handy man. He is full of initiative, of intuition, of resource. His quick brains interpret orders and even discuss them in a spirit which would be fatal to a system more rigid and less human in its application. This is the man upon whom in the last resort depends the safety of France. I have said that appearances are deceptive. The French soldier wastes no time in considering the cut of his coat. He is not unhappy because his boots do not shine. He does not seem to be seriously dis- tressed when he is dirty. Nor do his commanders give him fancy drill even in the piping times of peace. He has not to stand, for hours at a time, with his thumbs to his trousers' seams. That kind of drill was THE FRENCH ARMY AND DISCIPLINE 33 abolished long ago in the French army — if it ever really existed — abolished when the army was re- modelled after the disasters of 1870. Then the mot oVordre ordained simplicity, and uniforms were the first to feel the influence of it. Many of the gilded reminders of the Imperial regime were swept away. The Higher Command began to take its duties seri- ously. Staff men ceased to be drawing-room soldiers to become students of war. Gradually there was formed a brilliant General Staff composed of the best brains in the army. It did not talk about itself or get itself talked about ; it was content to do its work without advertisement. If politics had left the army alone, all would have been well ; there would have resulted a cohesive mass welded together in the national defence. But an evil genius pursued France, implacably, for a number of years. Political friends, rather than his own merits, advanced the officer. In an attempt to correct the abuses of a Clerical authority, the Republican sec- taries had gone too far and the Dreyfus affair was their excuse. Happily the extreme danger of a policy which divided the military house against itself was brought home to the consciousness of the nation. Vive Varmee became a popular cry after having shared the suspicion of Vive le roi. Workmen, fresh from anti-militarist talk over petits verres, stood in the street to see the regiment go by and uncovered to the flag. The full danger of the old indifference became apparent when the Panther anchored off Agadir. France began to realize that she had given an im- pression of weakness and division to the enemy. " Stop the Rot " articles began to appear in the 34 FRANCE AT BAY Press, particularly in the Echo de Paris, which, though wedded to reaction, has written some admirable reforms in the chapter of its changes. About this time, Joffre was appointed to the chief command of the army ; the reign of politics was over, the reign of efficiency commenced. From that moment the patient began to mend, and, like a self-respecting convalescent, he thought of his toilet. It was simple enough in all conscience — the frills had been suppressed, but was it quite suitable to modern war ? He had serious doubts about it as he looked at himself in the mirror. Mon Dieu, he was not smart, certainly. And he summoned the tailor to put touches to his raiment. The tailor, who was also an artist, was called Edouard Detaille. That battle-painter designed a picturesque new uniform which Parisians found opera bouffe, but Detaille himself said was confused with bastard imitations put forth by the War Office. In any case, all that remained of the efforts of the reformers were the puttees. But they were important. They represented the 20th century in a uniform too voyant to be practical. It was the point de depart for a radical change. Parliament intervened to substitute for the traditional blue and red of the infantry a new and 44 invisible " cloth after the English and German model. It was not without a pang that the army bid adieu to the red trousers, which had played their gallant part in history. That the blue adopted showed white under the searchlight, soiled easily and was a colour difficult to reproduce did not detract from the essential character of the change. It meant that the French army was designed for business and intended THE FRENCH ARMY AND DISCIPLINE 35 to justify that high opinion that experts had formed of it. It had become a modern fighting machine. When war broke out, people had almost forgotten what Dumanet was like in the unreformed days. It is true that you still saw men with ill-fitting uniforms and unshaven chins miles from the Front ; but they were the old generation — fathers of the young men in the line. In an army of four to five millions, some allowance must be made for the difficulties of equipment. And the Territorial army was forced to content itself with the old uniforms, when it had any at all beyond the kepi and the fustian jacket marked with the regimental number. But at the breath of war the conscript soldier had auto- matically changed into the first-class fighting man. His slackness had disappeared with the slack of his trousers into his top-boots and his puttees. And the First Reserve, after contact with the trenches, became so adapted to its work that Joffre suppressed the special designation and incorporated it with the active army. In like manner, of course, the English Territorials caught up the life and spirit of the Regulars. Nor was the transformation of the casual pioupiou into the serious soldier in the least sur- prising to those who saw the real man behind the vague exterior. Even in peace time he becomes a different person when on the march. The slouch disappears under the general impulse. In immediate response to duty, to the necessity of the hour, is found the key- note to his character. It lies at the base of French discipline. Here, again, the casual observer often draws a wrong conclusion. He is convinced that 36 FRANCE AT BAY discipline is frayed like the clothes of the Territorial. " It simply does not exist," he will tell you confidently. "The army is scarcely more than an armed mob; discipline, as we English understand it, is totally wanting." There is some excuse for this hasty judg- ment, just as there is some excuse for other current opinions on France. The subordination of the ranks to the command appears to be very doubtful at times. If you draw near, you will surprise an argument between a lieutenant and a corporal, perhaps in some spot behind the lines. In the end, the officer yields on a small point of discipline, and the men go down into the village to buy their tobacco — the subject of the argument — shouting : " He is a good officer ; he is a good officer ! " The spectacle is disconcerting to British minds. The principle of the thing is surely bad, is a natural reflection. To an Englishman trained in the strict letter of the law it seems dangerous and disintegrating. Not so to the French, however. They will tell you that in important mat- ters their discipline is adamant. If in time of danger a man were to desert his post, death would be his punish- ment. Below the apparent looseness is a rock which cannot be pierced by any personal considerations. Under an unrepealed law the penalty for striking a superior officer, even in peace time, is execution. It is easy to suppose, therefore, that military justice is unrelenting in time of war. There is, indeed, no misconception in the mind of the French soldier. He knows how far he may go. He knows that, when the affair is urgent, he must obey promptly and exactly. But how is he to know the essential from the unessential? By the manner of THE FRENCH ARMY AND DISCIPLINE 37 the officer. There is no mistaking gravity, a matter of life and death, from the merely formal or trivial. It is felt in the voice as in the manner. A French- man disguises his feelings with difficulty, whether officer or private. He conveys his meaning un- mistakably to his fellow-man. He is always vivid and descriptive, and the other understands that to be inattentive is to court disaster. Again, there is a vast difference between discipline in the " line " and discipline in the Territorial Army, which is rarely required to man the trenches. In the former case it is much stricter. But mutual sympathy and compre- hension are at the bottom of the French system. A man obeys, not because he must, but because he realizes the necessity of the order. His reason has been appealed to ; and yet the voice of the command can be stern on occasion. " No weakness will be tolerated. Die where you stand rather than yield ground," wrote Joffre in the Orders of the Day before the battle of the Marne. But the Generalissimo owes his influence with the rank and file not merely to his great position and indefatigable zeal, but because he knows how to inspire affection. His very titles, "Grand-pere Joffre," "Pere Joffre," "Notre Joffre," betoken that. There is nothing irritates the French mind and disposes it to revolt like injustice. And thus the French officer gains his greatest hold over his men by being scrupulously just. In nine times out of ten, he is no aristocrat. His origin is as plebeian as that of the men he commands. He is a peasant, perhaps, or the son of an artisan, like Col. Marchand (whose father was a carpenter). Whatever his family or 38 FRANCE AT BAY lack of it, he has gained his authority by study and hard work. The fact that there is no organized officers' mess in the French army says a good deal. It means that the social life of the regiment in times of peace has not received the same development as in England. Where, obviously, a large number of officers are living on their pay, expensive social pur- suits are out of the question. The fortune-less man of studious habits can and often does lead an existence of great simplicity and austerity entirely wrapped up in his profession. He is as little seen in the drawing- rooms of society as in the card-room of expensive clubs. He has " no use for " one or the other. His sole indulgence is an occasional evening at the Cercle Militaire with his comrades. If married, he leads the quietest of lives with his wife and baby ; the theatre once a week constitutes his modest pleasure. In garrison towns there is a certain formality ; the colonel and the general commanding have to be propitiated, and likewise la Colonelle and la Generate ; but even those social obligations are designed to be as little irksome and as inexpensive as possible. Generally they consist in attending certain stately receptions once or twice a year, at which everybody is stiffly uncomfortable and wholly official. But morgue is conspicuously absent from the French officer. The distinguished chief, like the undistin- guished subaltern, has no " side." Perhaps the only exception is the cavalry regiments, where commissions are held by men of family, but there it is rare to find any undue insistence on rank and social position. This curious attitude towards the inferior is not one of the faults of the Latin temperament. The notion THE FRENCH ARMY AND DISCIPLINE 39 of a colonel making sartorial suggestions to his officers would not occur to the head of a French regiment. The events of forty-four years ago have had a profound influence upon the army ; it is infused with a sincere and earnest patriotism and a desire to adapt dis- cipline to democracy. Hence the man who rises from the ranks, who has received his commission on the field, finds no hostility, secret or avowed, amongst those who have entered by the habitual gates of the Poly technique and St. Cyr (the Woolwich and Sand- hurst of the French army). There may be sometimes a little display of intellectual superiority, but the atmosphere is breathable and generally stimulating. Outside the service the army is frankly bourgeois and unostentatious; inside, it is frankly utilitarian. The fact that it is shaped to a definite end, the business of war, does not exclude from it the grander qualities of heart and head, which run through it from top to bottom and inspire its noblest actions. This summary sketch may show how readily the army has adjusted itself to the conditions of universal service under a Republican regime. It explains why Social- ists can serve, as well as Royalists, with no greater hurt to their feelings and convictions. The flag is a great healer of divisions. Once it is engaged, mere labels disappear. That is what France has found in the present war. Conscription has enabled her to rally all her sons to her defence, and conscription has this amazing effect of abolishing barriers. It is a bond of union between the Duke and the dustman, the anti-clerical and the devout Catholic, the priest and the apache. The regiment has made the New France largely what it is. It has taught the Bourgeois, 40 FRANCE AT BAY gun-shy when Socialists are shooting in the Parlia- mentary preserves, that even the advanced reformer may be an honest man, and the Republican learns for the first time that the Churchman with leanings towards Bonapartism is yet a most excellent French- man. Astonishing discovery ! Similar revelations may be expected in England in the wake of the war. The middle-class does duty with the poor in the trenches and each gets to realize the other's point of view. And it is well to know what the window- cleaner thinks ; so many of us go through life as if he never existed, thereby depriving ourselves of a fund of useful knowledge. But the shouldering of the common burden is not the unique advantage of universal service. It brings home to each the mean- ing of war. It is not merely a tax on the courageous which can be shirked by the Bob Acres, each must bear a part, unless he is physically exempt. The theory that one section of the male population may fight for another section of the male population is contrary to the French conception of equality. Patriotism becomes a different matter when it means personal service. And since each citizen must serve, he must be convinced of the justice of the cause, for on one side lies duty and on the other the unjustifiable killing of one's fellow-man. CHAPTER IV THE QUESTION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE The fate of Alsace-Lorraine has been the fate of all weak provinces which fall into the hands of con- querors. The struggle has been constant to preserve individuality. And individuality, under the iron heel of Prussia, is notoriously difficult to preserve. This torn fragment of France has been the battle ground of contending influences, French and Teutonic, of contending ideals, Liberty and Kultur. Standing midway between two peoples, the Alsatians and Lorrainers have not been quite understood by either. That has been their misfortune. The fact that they speak a patois which sounds like German, though the syntax is French and there are many French words in it, has given rise to the idea that their sympathies lie that way. But this is not so. Even Abbe Wet- terle, the well-known Alsatian priest, has had to plead with Parisians not to misjudge his countrymen by reason of their speech. If they did not speak French any better, he said, it was because they had not been allowed to learn it. This simple explanation throws a lurid light upon the sufferings of Alsace-Lorraine during forty years. Again, the French have failed to understand the complexity of the problem. They have not realized 41 42 FRANCE AT BAY that there are two Alsatias; the one native, the other immigrant. One speaks of Alsace rather than of Lorraine, for it has remained more distinctive in character. The immigrants are, of course, the Germans, who number three hundred thousand in a total population of one million eight hundred thou- sand. They form the privileged and dominating caste. In their comfortable innocence, they imagined that, like certain animals, they had taken the colour of their surroundings and were indistinguishable from them. Were they not pure Alsatians ? Had they not founded businesses and families in the country, and did not their children speak the patois? Soon they ceased to regard themselves as other than Alsatians, and this self-awarded certificate of origin led to more confusion. The intelligent traveller who over- came passport difficulties and penetrated into Alsace, found it easier to believe that the provinces wanted autonomy rather than anything else. The sentiments he heard expressed were German rather than French — like the language; he did not realize that he had been confounding the imported Alsatian with the genuine article. The very silence of the native and his reluctance to express opinion — reluctance which extends even to the Alsatians who live in Paris — aided in his error. The naturally taciturn peasant is rendered suspicious by the regime under which he lives. Oppression has made him shy of confidences. Alsace is not a country in which you can interview the corner grocer and cobbler on local opinion with any chance of success. Inquiries meet with vague answers. This attitude of detachment led to misconception when the French THE QUESTION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 43 crossed the frontier at the commencement of the war. They were amazed to find hesitancy in the welcome, and, in some cases, positive treachery. How to explain it? This was the country — between silent Vosges and rushing Rhine — over which the heart of France had yearned since '70. Soldiers, as well as civilians, made the mistake of confusing the divergent strains, French and German, in the country. The peasant's timid smile and reluctant hand were the sign of his terror of reprisals. Nor were these fears exaggerated, for those who cried, " Vive la France ! " when the French entered their territory, were dealt with after the German code when the enemy resumed his occupation. Again, when the French were led into ambush (and this happened more than once), their guides were not Alsatians except in name ; they represented the conqueror with Teutonic thoroughness. In many villages, the mayor, the school and post-masters acted as Government agents even if they were not always conscious of their character. And the French en- countered these officials in their first entry into the country. The military adventure none the less aroused enthusiasm and a realization that la revanche had now begun, that the Provinces torn from France forty-four years before, against the wishes and in spite of the protests of the inhabitants, were being recovered. It is impossible to exaggerate the emotion that a Frenchman feels at the word " Alsace." It has a soft caressing sound like that of " mother," and suggests the continuation of his personality like that of " son." It conjures up for him the vision of high-pitched houses and timbered house-fronts, 44 FRANCE AT BAY lighted by windows with tiny panes. He thinks of the elders of the village in their picturesque cos- tumes, the voluminous frock-coats, furnished with immense pockets, coming down to the heels, the red waistcoats and broad-brimmed hats. The multitu- dinous petticoats of the country women have their special significance according to their shape and colour. A long red petticoat means a Catholic village, a short green one tied with ribbon a Protestant one. Perched upon the roofs are the red-legged storks, legendary guardians of Alsace. The children sing a roundel on the return of the birds in spring, while the German policeman casts a disapproving eye upon both birds and children. Is there not something seditious in the stork with its contemplative air and indifference to authority ? Alsace means all this and more to the French, though perhaps they may know the country only through Hansi's drawings. The patriot understands its sorrow at being parted from France — that intolerable divorce — and its constant suffering is to him a personal affront. Joffre well interpreted the sentiment of these citizens of France when he said, with the brevity that is characteristic of him : " Your return is definite ; you are French for all time. ... I am France, you are Alsace ; je vous apporte le baiser de la France" This was the language that all could understand and appreciate. It is the real Alsace. The tears and cheers, flags and flowers, which greeted the President of the Repub- lic and the Generalissimo when they arrived in the country, were from its heart. Though narrow in geographical limits, the provinces are deep in their emotional experience. They were profoundly stirred THE QUESTION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 45 when the first bit of territory was opened to France. Behind the line drawn and doubly locked by trenches and troops, natural feelings found their expression. Fear, not lack of sympathy, had checked their ut- terance before. When the President came among them, it seemed as if they had never ceased to be a part of France. Those two hundred years, from the days of the Sun King to the Franco-Prussian War, resumed their sway over them ; they recognized them as the most fruitful in their history. Their industries had prospered, and from the soil, thickly set with villages, had sprung philosophers, savants, soldiers. Some of the best of Napoleon's generals were Alsatian. It is not true that Alsace and Lorraine have lost their allegiance to France. The Abbe Wetterle declares that they are more anti-German than ever, and none can say that they have not had justification. 41 Remember you are in the enemy's country," said the Kaiser's officers to their troops, when they stood in the market-square of Mulhausen. They divined the real feeling of the inhabitants. And if Alsace has not been won to German rule in four-and-forty years, it must be confessed that the wooing has been clumsy. It lacked the psychology which has been wanting in all German policy. The conqueror's method savoured of the footpad's alternative : " Your money or your life." The " inferior race," as the Germans, in their delicious complacency, called the Alsatians, were asked to love the " superior " or be bludgeoned for their recalcitrancy. Such summary methods do not suit the free and rugged temperament of a Border people, who enjoyed great liberty before coming under the mild rule of 46 FRANCE AT BAY France. Many of their cities were virtual Republics, and a long tradition of freedom has given them a taste for independence and democracy which assorts ill with Imperial notions of government. It explains also the demand for autonomy, which has been part of the election platform of all parties in Alsace-Lor- raine. Even those who favoured union with France found it a convenient screen for their real propaganda, and the German Socialists knew it to be potent with the native voter. In both cases it successfully masked ulterior aims and avoided trouble from the police reporters who attended the meetings. But, since the war began, the cry for autonomy has ceased in the general anxiety as to the issue of the conflict. In any case, Berlin could hardly have objected to it when, in the mouth of its own agents, it took the form of Imperium in Imperio — merely another autonomous State within the Empire. The German Socialists have adopted the programme with great success ; it brought them nearer the working-man, who is par- ticularly accessible to the German sj^stem of state insurance, a practical Socialism that has implanted itself in the hard ground of -autocracy. The con- version of the working-man represents one of the greatest achievements of the French in Alsace. The over-playing of the German role, here as elsewhere, has been one of its causes. Under the influence of eloquent speakers, the artisan has looked on the liberty offered by France and contrasted it with the drill-sergeant methods of the Germans. He has chosen, instinctively, the freer institutions. As was natural in the circumstances, there was a little vacillation in the middle-classes amongst those THE QUESTION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 47 born just before or after the war. They seemed to have inherited the depression of their progenitors and never to have recovered the good spirits habitual to Frenchmen. They were inclined to accept the inevitable, as they regarded it, as the best way of saving trouble. Why quarrel with a fait accompli? Why not submit to the iron yoke ? Was it not better to live harmoniously with the Germans, since they were there ? The same low vitality existed in France itself ; the country was asked to forget its humiliation in 1870. It was so much easier to accept one's fate than to struggle against it. Such a doctrine found favour even in official eyes. Alsace was told that if she would renounce her birthright for a mess of pottage, that dish would be made very appetizing. But in her stiff-neckedness, Alsace preferred peace with honour to the peace that was no peace, and continued to hanker after the free existence that had been hers under the Republic. It is true that Bismarck gave a constitution, which established a species of Parliament with two Chambers and a Statthalter ; but the Imperial veto as well as the Imperial appointments to the Upper Chamber quashed real initiative and left merely the semblance of local government. All the while the country was being ruled by exceptional laws, the more odious in their irony because drawn from old French laws unrepealed, which gave them a false colour of legality. It was under their authority that German officials insisted on the substitution of German signs for French ones. Many are the incidents, highly humorous if they were not vexatious, which have resulted from this policy. Coiffeur became " friseur," restaurant 48 FRANCE AT BAY " restauration," liquidation totale " total liquidation." Even burial inscriptions had to be changed. One innkeeper, forced to alter his sign, asked permission to add an old French picture to it; it was granted. The next day the inhabitants were delighted to see the sign, which represented a French regiment marching through the village with band playing and colours flying. Underneath, in large letters, appeared the word, significant in the circumstances : " Restauration." The embargo on French has become a byword in Europe for its absurd ferocity. School-children have been punished for conversing in the forbidden lan- guage in their play-hours. A German school was foisted on a French community on the least pretext. It sufficed for a small minority to say that it did not understand the lessons given in French for the change to be made. The result has been what any but a German administrator would have expected : an eager cult of French. No social advantage attached in Alsace to a knowledge of German, but every family which wished to be considered chic sent its girls for a year to Paris or Brussels to perfect their accent, though it rendered itself as suspect as if Madame wore Paris dresses and Monsieur had frequent business engagements which took him into France. Everywhere the native found himself at a dis- advantage. In law or business, he was predestined to failure if his opponent were a German. Germans held the best places and took care to show their superiority by an utter contempt for local customs. Thus the German official called between twelve and one — his own appointed time — just when the Alsatian THE QUESTION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 49 family were sitting down to lunch — and his siesta prolonged itself until past three, during which time he was invisible to the citizens. On waking in the middle of the afternoon, he would drink coffee and milk ! These things, says Hansi, the most spirited of cartoonists, divide a people more profoundly than proportional representation ! In any case, they effectually divided the Alsatian from his German neighbour. Racial differences account for much in life, par- ticularly when they mark the governor from the governed. From their youngest years, the German and Autochtone are widely apart. The young Ger- man begins to wear top-boots as a small boy going to school ; he lives in an imitation Gothic house with ornamental iron edging on the roof; the other is a picturesque little fellow in a beaver bonnet, living with his family in a charming atmosphere of tradition. In the cafe you may remark the two : the one noisy, gulping beer and sauerkraut, the other reflective, conversing in low tones, and sipping from his glass. This divergence extends to all the affairs of life, and presents the unbridgeable chasm. In Strasburg, where the German element outnumbers the native by three to one, the two live side by side, but never mingle, like the two rivers, the Rhone and Saone, the clear and dark waters of which flow abreast but keep to their respective channels. The two races have their churches, their clubs and institutions and even their shops, which they patronize to the exclusion of others. It shows that even after forty-five years a basis of entente has not been found. Though not the pretext of the present war, Alsace- 50 FRANCE AT BAY Lorraine is one of its underlying causes. Had there been no cession of metropolitan territory in 1871, there would have been, probably, no revanche, no rankling feeling, which, sooner or later, renders in- evitable conflicts between nations. Alsace has been graven on the heart of France ever since the day when, as Louis Blanc said at Bordeaux, it served as a ransom for the rest of the country. The Alsatians protested, their protest remains a monument to the injustice from which they have suffered. " Pensons-y toujour s, rten parlous jamais, 19 advised Gambetta. This was the attitude of most Frenchmen — except those who followed Deroulede in his eager quest of recovery, or that other section which professed to have forgotten — in the interest of international commerce. For the rest of the country, there was an uneasy feeling that the hostages for France were being harshly treated. Behind the veil, arose from time to time their cry of suffering. For forty years they have wandered in the desert with no Moses to lead them to the Promised Land. This period of struggle has had its phases, like the Thirty Years War, at the end of which Alsace came under the crown of France. In the first period there was a distinct effort after conciliation. The Statthalter Baron von Manteuffel, who had distinguished himself in the war, was clearly anxious, as he expressed it, to heal old wounds and avoid creating new ones. He called the notables of the district to him and some of the younger proved amenable. Municipalities were bidden to Government receptions and there was an appearance of calm. It ceased under the obvious ill-will of functionaries, who thwarted the statthalter's policy. Nor when THE QUESTION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 51 they were revoked by his orders, did it make matters better, for the new arrivals were more rabid than the others. Functionaries and " colonists " poured their grievances into the ready ear of Berlin and the statthalter was openly disavowed. Complications would certainly have ensued, had not the statthalter had the good grace to die after having opposed a popular celebration in Strasburg on Bismarck's birth- day. The next period was dominated by the unbend- ing will of Bismarck, who sent Prince von Hohenlohe Schillingsfurst to rule the country. The latter soon discovered the real character of his mandate and has left it on record in his Memoirs that Bismarck tried to foment trouble in order to repress it by armed force. Then came the close season, when Alsace and Lorraine were shut up by a passport system, designed against the foreigner. Though German officers went freely about France, French officers were practically debarred from entering the two lost provinces. Alsatians were arrested on the frontier — some even who had come to smooth the pillow of dying parents. It was the regime of oppression in full sway only modified by various efforts, more or less patently insincere, of giving Home Rule to the country. The present war has demonstrated the true inward- ness of German rule. Alsatians were hurried away at the opening of the campaign to German regiments, and those who resisted were placed in the forefront of the fight, where they were speedily shot. The Germans treat Alsace as they have treated all their colonies, they oppress them with vexatious measures. France and England at least try to raise their de- pendencies to their own level. The one is a little 52 FRANCE AT BAY too precipitate, perhaps, to please the judicious, the other lags a little behind the idealist; but in both cases there is an evident intention to elevate. But the German endeavours to depress, to depreciate, to give excuse for more " authority." He has blundered in Alsace as he has blundered elsewhere. None but a temperament of stone could fail to be aroused by a policy so brutal and gratuitously insulting. Finally, the regulation of this question of Alsace- Lorraine must form part of the Treaty of Peace, for it is a question essential to the existence of France. She has need of this border country which was hers in the days of Gaul, as Caesar and Tacitus testify. Richelieu, Danton and Napoleon have each realized that the Rhine is one of the natural boundaries of his country. Had, indeed, Napoleon kept to this line, he would have avoided much trouble. It is impossible to think that the claim of the Socialists to leave Germany in possession of the two provinces will ever obtain the sanction of the mass of the French public. CHAPTER V DEROULEDE AND " LA REVANCHE " The banner of Deroulede is the banner of the nation. His very language, which evoked the smiles of those who called him an exalte, is employed even by Socialists in the great cause, which has linked all parties in the State. A prophet and a scourge, crying against lethargy and pusillanimity and satisfaction in an illusory peace, unwise in some of his methods and often exaggerated in his metaphors, he had yet the truth of the matter in him. Dying on the threshold of the Great conflagration, which he saw afar off as a thin shaft of smoke on the horizon, he did nothing to provoke it, but everything to warn his countrymen against it. This tribute to him may serve to show that the New France is but the outcome of the Old. Out of the tribulation of 1870 have sprung faith and strength and a desire for life; out of Alsace and Lorraine, the symbolic land of Deroulede, have come the passion and fire of France at Bay. Deroulede is one of those admirable figures which appear rarely in the life of a nation. His outstanding merit was to love France, and to him who loveth much is much forgiven. It was his excuse and justification for actions that sometimes appeared eccentric and were always romantic. He was of the race of Don 53 54 FRANCE AT BAY Quixote, generous, courageous, chivalresque, ready- to draw his sword for a righteous cause, specially if that cause were France. Then it became sacred, inviolable, immutable. Deroulede represented La Revanche; he incarnated it. For this reason he seemed to live in the lost provinces ; it was the great Cause to which he devoted himself. The words Alsace-Lorraine were graven on his heart as was Calais on the heart of Queen Mary. To him the delivery of the country to Germany was a supreme humiliation. He suffered with it in its distresses and experienced disgust and grief at its treatment from Prussia. The iron entered into his soul. The shutting up of the territory by means of passport regulations, the constant annoyance and persecution of the population supposedly hostile to the conquerors, were as keenly felt as if they were a personal insult. To him no rest was possible until the provinces had been restored by force of arms and the insult of dis- ruption for ever effaced. It inspired his life, it haunted his dreams day and night. With him, com- pliance with the statu quo argued a man of mean spirit, almost a traitor to his country. How well I remember his tall, commanding figure, which caricaturists made longer still, tightly buttoned in a frock-coat until he looked, as Madame Severine said, " like an animated flagstaff." The simile was happy, for he bore the banner of Irredentism. And his burning eyes, his big resonant voice, his emphatic gestures, as if he were lunging at an enemy with a sword, all conveyed the impression of the ardent fighter. To him the sanctity of the soil was more than life itself. " Appear or disappear," he cried DfiROULfeDE AND 4 LA REVANCHE' 55 to Boulanger at the critical moment when personal and aggressive action was needed to betoken the leadership. The downfall of the wax Caesar was Deroulede's great political disappointment. Another was the death of Gambetta before he had definitely pledged himself to the great reform which was at the back of all Deroulede's tempestuous politics. This was none other than a reform of the Constitution. To advance this he seized General Roget's horse by the bridle at Carnot's funeral and endeavoured to get his rider to follow him to the Ely see. " Suivez- moi, mon General," he said. " Friends await us at the Bastille, at the Hotel de Ville, at the Elysee. It will be a fourth of September without effusion of blood." (The fourth of September was the date upon which was proclaimed the Third Republic.) These were stormy times during which the Republic seemed to rock upon its base. It had survived Wilson and Panama, was it going to succumb to Dreyfus and, incidentally, to Deroulede ? Au fond Deroulede and his friends wanted not to establish a monarchy or even a dictatorship except as a means of bringing about another form of Government, but a plebiscitary movement. Though at the trial attempt was made to inculpate him in a Royalist plot, Deroulede was really anti-royalist, holding that kings were not sufficiently national. Were not kings by their marriage with princesses of other countries members of one large ruling family? How, then, could they take a definitely patriotic line when a struggle took place between nations ? This view is curiously at variance with that expressed by French people to whom the Republic is not the chosen form of Govern- 56 FRANCE AT BAY ment and who argue in this fashion : " Que voulez-vous ? Ministers come and go, the President is only elected for seven years, et apres, what interest has he in the State ? whereas a king remains and is permanently identified with it." No; Deroulede's remedy for the ills of the body politic was a division of authority : Parliament to confine itself to legislation, the President of the Republic to be the Executive, not dependent upon Parliament. Deroulede attributed the abuses that had grown up since '70 to the admixture of the two functions. How could there be direction and control or a real reflection of the will of the people in a magistrate who owed his place and power not to the popular vote, but to the vote of a body of his fellow-politicians ? Deroulede's point was that the great republics of antiquity, Rome and Athens, as well as the two modern examples, the United States and Switzerland, were not parliamentary republics. He expressed great fondness for the American type, with its autocratic President and its Cabinet of personal nominees. There was no democracy, he said, unaccompanied by a plebiscite or referendum. Only if his powers came from the people could the elected head of the nation accomplish anything; otherwise, he was the creature of the oligarchy, to whom he owed his exist- ence. A democrat who was injudicious enough to say that the President of the Republic belonged to the people certainly would be shouted down : his tenets were impossible. But this was not the type of Government for which Danton and Robespierre fought. Deroulede said these things in a remarkable speech to the jury of the Assize Court to which he was DEROULfcDE AND ' LA REVANCHE' 57 committed for his attempted coup oVetat — rather contemptuously, no doubt, since the proper tribunal seems to have been the High Court. " It is a king- dom without a king," cried the prisoner with great truth, for in the shadow of the disaster of 1870 arose a Republic which was a truncated monarchy. Appeal had been made to the Royalists because they alone of the parties in the State had stood aside from events. The Imperialists were considerably compromised — the false dispatch of Ems, which was really responsible for the war, was not then known; the Republicans had strenuously endeavoured to save the country, but had met the fate of people who are too late in their enterprise, and so the way was clear for the con- stitutional monarchists. The country proved itself conservative in its instincts ; a " safe " constitution was planned; the Elysee was to be kept warm for a King. The Republic was indeed a low-spirited makeshift. Deroulede insisted that those who drew up the Con- stitution of 1875 had no real mandate from the people. Such a reform as he proposed would establish and fix responsibility, he claimed. The weakness of it was that it involved the destruction of the fabric that had been painfully erected and which, later, received a definite Republican tinge, when the country had sufficient composure to express its real opinion. With scorn, Deroulede repudiated connection with the Royalist plot, for which, none the less, he was sentenced to banishment, after the Assize Court had acquitted him for practically the same charge. The prisoner revealed no names, but, for his pains, he earned the reputation of a hot -head who had 58 FRANCE AT BAY attempted single-handed to ride down the Con- stitution. At the last minute his supporters failed him ; the General at the head of the troops was not 41 his " General ; the coup d'etat was a miserable fiasco; but Deroulede and his faithful henchman Marcel Habert, who went with him into exile, kept the secret of complicities locked in their bosoms. The list was burned in the grate when Deroulede was awaiting at the Reuilly barracks his transference to the Conciergerie. He was as clearly disappointed here as when he tried to induce Felix Faure to make a move. But Faure, though he had known the reformer for many years, and was one of the founders of the League of Patriots, wisely declined to commit himself to the course proposed. It was characteristic of the patriot that he went boldly to the attack with- out ever thinking of expediency. There was no temporization in this headlong character. It repre- sented his strength and his weakness. If his plans failed for want of co-ordination, from timidity in others, or some vice in the initial project, they bore witness to the candour of his soul, his utter refusal of half-measures. If Deroulede's new Republic possessed the grave disadvantage of requiring the sudden death of the old one and thus seemed to be removed from the field of practical politics, one must recognize the generosity and justice of many of his views, and the clearness of his vision, especially in foreign affairs. He saw that France could not stand alone after the defeats of the Terrible Year, and was one of the first to realize and to work for the Russian Alliance. It is not surprising, however, that he did not foresee, DEROULEDE AND ' LA REVANCHE' 59 at that moment, any possibility of an alliance with England. Had he done so, he would have given proof of almost supernatural prescience and per- spicacity. On the contrary, suspicions were aroused by the role which we seemed to be playing in France. An intelligent man is largely influenced by his environ- ment, and Deroulede belonged to the generation for whom England was, with some justification, no doubt, per fide Albion, It seemed to him that she was at the bottom of many of the troubles from which France suffered. There was the celebrated Norton affair, in which a mulatto interpreter at the British Embassy sold documents to M. Millevoye, Nationalist deputy and writer in La Patrie. They purported to be copies of letters passing between the Embassy and the Foreign Office, and incriminated, amongst others, Clemenceau and Rochefort. Deroulede was sceptical, and said so, but Millevoye resolved to bring the affair before the Chamber. The understanding was that he should ask simply for a Committee of Inquiry to examine the papers, which had been bought for £8000. Instead of that, in the sensation caused, he lost his head and his case by assuming the authenticity of the letters. M. Deville, the Foreign Minister of the day, denounced the documents as an imposture, and exonerated Clemenceau. The latter's obvious satis- faction at such a vindication exasperated Deroulede. Disgust at Millevoye's poor tactics and at the attitude of Parliament caused him to retire from his seat to the calm of the Charente, in which was his constituency of Angouleme. On the eve of the Norton affair occurred his great battle with Clemenceau, one of the sensational 60 FRANCE AT BAY episodes in his stirring career. He began by de- nouncing Cornelius Herz, which was another reason for not liking England, for was she not harbouring this German Jew whom he stigmatized the corrupter of Parliament ? and when he had finished with Herz, he said suddenly : " Who is the man who introduced this agent ? You all know him ; his name is on all your lips, but you dare not pronounce it, for you fear his sword, his pistol and his tongue. Well, I brave all three, and I name him : * C'est Clemenceau.' " A thunder-bolt had fallen. Somebody whispered in Deroulede's ear as he descended from the tribune, " He will kill you." But Deroulede, flushed with his success, returned : " What I have done is worth it." However, Clemenceau, famous duellist though he was, did not kill his man, and Deroulede continued his meteoric career. Even if he suffered exile, he had the satisfaction of knowing that Clemenceau, also, was temporarily eclipsed, though, in reality, quite undeservedly. Deroulede did not understand, like many of his countrymen at that moment, that Eng- land does not bribe foreign politicians to sell their country, and indeed has no secret diplomatic funds to dispose of. Later, when he understood the English better, he counselled his League of Patriots to refrain from any demonstration against Edward VII when His Majesty visited Paris in 1903. 1 This letter was written from his exile in St. Sebastien, which he refused to leave until he was granted a dignified 1 " Whether it be desired or not, every hostile cry against the King of England is the equivalent of a cheer for the German Emperor." — Deroulede's letter to the League of Patriots, April 1903. DflROULfcDE AND ' LA REVANCHE ■ 61 amnesty. It was typical of Deroulede, who was always a gentleman. It is clear also that he did not approve of the Nationalist attack on M. Loubet when the President's hat was struck at Auteuil. Yet Deroulede trying to convince Rochefort of the necessity of a Russian alliance must have been amusing enough. " What ! " exclaimed the old Com- munard, "you want me to advocate an alliance with the autocrat ? " But Deroulede's persuasiveness pre- vailed, and Rochefort astonished the world by ad- vocating the alliance and blasting away difficulties by a daily discharge of dynamite. On the other hand, Deroulede's policy seemed to centre in the recovery of the lost provinces. It was said ironically that every July 14 — the national Fete day — he recaptured Alsace-Lorraine on the Place de la Concorde with his burning speeches before the Statue of Strasburg. But Deroulede never wantonly preached war. It is true that his language was full of martial imagery, that he brandished the sword, but his real object was to awaken his countrymen to the danger of illusion. He saw the folly of crying Peace when there was no peace ; but being conscious of the horror of war, he could not lightly advocate it. Nevertheless, he said, death was better than dishonour. "En avant, tant pis pour ceux qui tombent, La inort n'est rien, vive la tombe, Quand le pays en sort vivant. En avant ! " It is right, however, that his memory should be cleared from an aspersion. He was a torch, not a firebrand ; if he was an incendiary, he wished merely 62 FRANCE AT BAY to burn up falsehood and shame ; he did not set a light to homes and suffuse the country with a blood-red glow. Let us be prepared for war, he said. His speeches always recalled the annee terrible. He was the poet of La Revanche, and his heart bled for the provinces under the Prussian heel ; none the less he was convinced that there was no greatness possible for those who were content to remain defeated, and that what had been lost by arms must be regained by arms. And yet he knew what war meant in sacrifice and heroism, in sorrow and suffering, specially for the poor, who are doubly afflicted by the loss of their dear ones and by the economic disturbance which results from war. Yet there was something greater than all that : it was principle, it was char- acter, it was the greatness of a people whose heart is in the right place, whose ideals are high, whose politicians are disinterested. Here was a sufficiently large programme for any country, especially for France, which was passing through a period of acute and dangerous depression. In a remarkable speech at Buzenval, near Paris, the site of a battle in '71, he said that nothing rendered war more imminent than the declarations of Pacifists, and detractors of the army with their counsels of desertion. " To say that the nation is resolved not to defend itself when attacked, and to allow Europe to think that there are Frenchmen who would rather make civil war than foreign war, is to invite the Prussian ... to slash in the face a people without heart or sword. To affirm, on the other hand, that France intends to be respected, that she is ready to maintain her rights if violated, to DfiROULfeDE AND 'LA REVANCHE' 63 march to battle if attacked, to defend foot by foot her territory, her fortune, her liberty, to reply by cannon to cannon, by bullets to bullets, by the sword to the sword, is first of all to put an end to German rhodomontades and, afterwards, to assure the proud peace which alone is worthy of a free nation. Finally, this would render victory possible if some imperial fantasy or some Teutonic duplicity were to make war inevitable." Happily Deroulede was not exclusively the warrior in instinct. He was a charming conversationalist, an accomplished Parisian, and could turn a compliment to a woman with great skill and gallantry. He had descriptive power and could paint a portrait or a scene with something of the happiness of phrase and economy of words of Guy de Maupassant. His gaiety and good-humour in private life made one forget his fierce denunciations in public; under an exquisite social veneer, he hid the political leader. To hear him describe his interview with Boulanger, in which he urged him to become the saviour of the country, his parleyings with his followers on the Place de la Concorde in feverish moments when they were ready to invade the Chamber, his talks with Boulanger in Jersey, with Victor Hugo and Augier, with Alfred de Musset and Tolstoi, was to receive most interesting impressions, and of his exile he had personal touches to present of the young King and Queen of Spain. Deroulede was poet as well as propagandist, and will be known for ever for his soldiers' songs. The style suited the subject. The verse was often faulty in form and rhythm, but it was always inspired by lofty thought and a vibrant 64 FRANCE AT BAY patriotism. It went straight to the heart, and it thrilled like the sound of a bugle. It expressed every emotion except fear, and despair which he did not know. Deroulede, himself, was a most courageous soldier. Even when wounded on the battlefield of Sedan, he was humming an old war-song with a red rose between his teeth. " It must be Deroulede," said some one far off who had caught sight of the rose. To get more quickly to the frontier, he explained, he gave up his commission in the Mobiles — an auxiliary force in which Kitchener served in 1870 — to enlist in the Zouaves. There is a picture of him, in his sister's house in the Boulevard Malesherbes, carrying his wounded brother out of fire. Later, when he had escaped from Germany, after some perilous adventures, he became an officer in the Turcos and gained a great reputation for valour, and the Arabs even credited him with a charmed life, so often did he escape from death. A fall from his horse cut short his military career and he re-entered civil life to write patriotic plays. Here, as in his poetry, words were but the medium for his political ideas. The stage was the pulpit from which he could thunder out his dis- gust at French complacency in defeat, his disgust at French politicians, whose real fear was that war would give popularity to the successful general. You could scarcely have pictured the mature De- roulede from his youth. He grew up suddenly — in the war of 1870. The horror and humiliation of it sank into his sensitive nature. He abandoned the dilettantism which had been the despair of his bourgeois father, who wanted him to enter his own DEROULEDE AND 'LA REVANCHE' 65 profession of the law, and he became the ardent, untiring patriot and drum-beater to the nation. In season and out of season he preached the necessity of a strong France, able to hold her own, able to win back what she had lost. Though Deroulede for a time was convinced of the perfidy of England he held out his hand, above the chasm of parliamentary differences, to Delcasse, who, on the morrow of Fashoda, strove to forget the old antagonism and forge new ties. His ideas on this subject are best expressed in a personal letter to me from his sister, in which she says : " M.Deroulede found that a conquered and mutilated country could not and ought not to seek for territorial compensation otherwise than on its own territory. The reproach made to Clemenceau was not of loving England, but of seeking her orders." With what joy Deroulede would have seen the pro- cession of May 16 to the statue of Joan of Arc on the Place des Pyramides, on the very site of the fosse in which she was wounded in her attack on Paris. And in this procession marched Mile. Jeanne Deroulede, thus emphasizing her brother's part in this happy tribute to the Maid. He would have rejoiced ex- ceedingly in the homage of the English chaplain, who made a speech and laid a trophy of flowers on the statue in the name of the British Colony, and in the bouquet placed by English officers on the market-place at Rouen on the site where Joan suffered her terrible death. The valorous figure who is the subject of this article is best limned by his last speech at Cham- pigny on a battlefield where sleep three thousand five hundred French and eight hundred Germans. 66 FRANCE AT BAY The condemnation of patriots at Metz, Strasburg and Colmar moved him to intense indignation, and he finished his vibrant discourse, delivered in the dramatic circumstances of a last illness — so weak that he had to support himself on crutches — on a ringing note of patriotism. His long, haggard, suffering face gave immense emphasis to the words, which were delivered with much of the old timbre : " Vive a jamais notre bien-aim6e France." This was his last ap- pearance to Parisians; he died in Carnival time at Nice. To-day France presents the image of a country such as he dreamed of and prayed for, a country at grips with a relentless enemy, a country emerging from the long sleep of indolence and despair, a country deter- mined now and for ever to be the mistress of her destiny. This was the France that Deroulede loved to evoke, this was the France he considered worth dying for. CHAPTER VI PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY The war has brought into prominence the person- ality of French leaders. When Joffre took command, as the " first mobilizable man " in France, his name meant very little to the public, but that little was all in his favour. The better informed knew him for a quiet, laborious man, with a massive, dominating personality, who disciplined fearlessly, with a single eye to the service. And somehow, from the very first, his name, even to those who only knew it by the merest hearsay, inspired confidence. His por- traits gave the impression of a real leader, not of the beau sabreur, of whom France has had dangerous and regretful experience. At last, the country had got a soldier upon whom it might rely. A provincial paper of repute, after the battle of the Marne, reported a conversation with him, which, whether inspired or not, enhanced the prestige of the man and made the public feel more firmly than ever that here was the needed army chief. " We should have won at Charleroi," was the refrain of the article, " We should have won." And why did "we" not win ? Because of the insufficiency of generals, whom, according to popular report, Joffre remorselessly cashiered. He declared that he had brought up the troops necessary 67 68 FRANCE AT BAY to meet the Germans, but that some commanders had failed at the critical hour. And people knew, by this same organ, that he had insisted, more or less in vain, on the rejuvenation of the higher commands. Another cause of satisfaction was his victory of the Marne, through his assemblage of an army at Amiens, all unknown to the Germans, which elbowed the enemy away from Paris, exposed his flank, and brought him to disaster. Joffre's strength and purpose were revealed by his treatment of defaulters. That was firmly fixed in the public mind; but there leaked out the further fact, still more appealing to the critic in the cafe, that, ten days before the culminating phase of the battle of the Marne, he had advised the Ministry of War of the likely course of events, had foretold his victory, in explaining that the Germans would retreat too far, and had likewise foreseen their adop- tion of a new line of trenches on the Aisne. These new positions, he said, they would occupy for months — all words that came literally true. The mathemati- cal brain of Joffre had worked out the problem to a stalemate. To force the game, new factors must come into play, of which the chief were guns, more guns, and still more guns — bigger and more powerful guns. Calm prevision, indeed, is one of the chief qualities of the generalissimo. He sees the problem, learns everything that can be learned about it, and then decides. Critics declare that he does not act with sufficient swiftness when once a solution is clear; and that his economy of men at critical moments, his reluctance to risk lives, entails sacrifice at other times, but these are questions that we may PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY 69 leave to the few who are competent to deal with them. Yet it is possible that over-reflection and precaution rob him of the full effect of his vision, which power he shares with Napoleon ; but, in the case of the Corsican, there was added a swift and amazing faculty for action. His battles were won by the rapidity with which he delivered crushing blows upon the weakest link in the opposing chain. One gets an illuminating glimpse of Joffre and his character from his own country, the French Catalan, on the northern side of the Pyrenees. It was here that Joffre's youth was passed, and it is here that he first impressed contemporaries with his pertinacity, and even with his pugnacity, for he fought with other boys that he might be left in peace to work at his favourite mathematics. In the French Catalan one realizes how different the people are from other Frenchmen. The type is Spanish or Moorish : the swarthy complexion, the flashing eye and high cheek- bone, bespeak a race which is that of early settlers in France. Pride and independence belong to the Catalan, and he has some other characteristics, such as industry and sobriety, which he shares with the other Southern populations of France. Yet Joffre, possessing, as he does, many of the attributes of the south, stands apart in other of his qualities. Light- haired, until the silver came into his locks, and light- coloured for a southerner, he presents an unusual type. He, himself, declares laughingly that he is a Wisigoth, one of the hardy race of warriors which over-ran the south-east corner of France. When M. Messimy, the then Minister of War, saw Joffre for the first time on his appointment to the supreme 70 FRANCE AT BAY command, he asked whether he was not a Norman or perhaps a Flamand. " No," said Joffre in his decisive way, "je suis Catalan." A Catalan never thinks of himself as French, but always as of a special race divided by the Pyrenees from his brethren in Spain. At Barcelona, the centre of the Spanish Catalan, is a daily paper in the tongue, which is not a mixture of French and Spanish, but a language of its own. " Now we have left France," say the Catalans one meets in the train, as the Eastern Pyre- nees is entered. They do not mean to suggest a want of French sentiment by this geographical exclusive- ness, but merely to express their own individuality. They are extremely loyal, on the contrary, to their French mother, and though their "nation " exists on both sides of the Pyrenees, their true country and faith are France and her cause. Rivesaltes, where Joffre was born, is a small, rather unkempt-looking town of Spanish aspect, close to Perpignan, the centre of the French Catalan. Im- mense lagoons, representing an overflow from the Mediterranean, which is only a few kilometres away, reflect the sky and give a characteristic charm and colour to the district. You have thus the sea and the mountain, for the lofty mass of the Canigou, the chief height of the eastern chain, is not far away. From its summit on a clear day one may descry the high -perched Notre Dame de la Garde of Marseilles as a white spot shining in the distance. If the large shallow lakes, dotted with the sails of fisher craft, give a certain triste and wild beauty to the scene, they add also a fear of fever. A project to convert them into dry land has ended in discussion; but PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY 71 the district has lost at least its evil reputation for unhealthiness. One is struck, at Rivesaltes, with the quantity of wine -casks upon the platform and in trucks upon the railway : hogsheads of the good wine which grows in this plain of Roussillon, stretch- ing between the General's town and Perpignan. 11 1 am a Catalan of the Roussillon," wrote Joffre proudly at the foot of a photograph now in possession of M. Delcasse, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. And this rich plain, with its ferruginous clay soil, grows men of iron as well as grapes, which have in them something of the body of Spanish wines. In a narrow little street, the Rue des Orangers, in the oldest part of Rivesaltes, was born the future commander-in-chief, in a house of insignificant appearance. A dark little antechamber, behind paradoxically " genteel " doors, leads one to the stair- case and the upper room, where Joffre was born — a singularly unpretentious-looking apartment, low- browed, with a bed in the alcove, lighted by a tiny window giving on to a courtyard. Kitchen and dining- room are close together, with the bedroom in between ; upstairs are other bedrooms, a store-room for winter's fuel, which is raised by a pulley protruding from the window. This is the birthplace of the great man, and is as modest as he has always remained, in keeping with his utter democracy and simplicity. He is the type of the modern Republican general. In Rivesaltes they rejoice in his accessibility and urbanity. When he stays in the town — he has a plain and com- modious house here (the legacy of a relative) and occasionally spends a summer in it — he fascinates the townspeople by doing his own marketing. Joffre's 72 FRANCE AT BAY father was a working cooper, owning a little land on the Roussillon. Of his children, three only now survive : the General, a married sister, and a brother who is a Government functionary. An uncle took charge of Joffre and saw to his education. Pleased by his progress, he sent him to the Lycee at Perpignan, and afterwards to Paris, where he entered the Poly- technique a year earlier than is usual. It was here that the war of 1870 surprised him, as a youth of seventeen, and gave him his first taste of arms. A local admirer, a Mile. Clara, has formed a Joffre album. Here is Joffre in various stages of his existence, as well as an old uncle who was quite a character, and given, they say, to poaching — but one is particularly impressed by the little faded photograph of the General in the dress of a Lyceen. One remarks the clear, steady gaze, the firm, calm, self-reliant air of the youth. The child is father to the man. The General retains a homely ** tang " in his speech, which is not the least of his claims to popularity in the south. In the early days, when he was engaged on fortifications, he spent a holiday in mufti in the Pyrenees. He was particularly interested in a fort guarding one of the Passes, and drew near to examine it. He was arrested suddenly by a detective and carried before the commissaire de police. " Are you a German ? " asked the latter. " A German of the Roussillon," returned the young officer, in the broadest Catalan. The magistrate, who knew enough of the tongue to recognize the purity of the accent, laughed and let the prisoner go with apologies for the mistake. With his speech, too, Joffre has retained, what is also inherent in the Catalan, fidelity in friendship. PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY 73 When I was at Toulouse, some six months after the war had broken out, M. Hue, the editor of La Depeche, told me that Joffre used to visit him at Tours, when he was a soldier in garrison there ; the future general was then a captain building forts round Paris. He was not deterred by the journey from the capital from visiting his friend every Sunday. Just as he is faithful in his private relationships, so he is immutable in his allegiance to duty. He was asked to recommend a friend for an army corps. " No, no," he said, " leave him where he is, at the head of a division." The friend came to urge his claim personally. " I like you very much," said the General-in-Chief, " but I like France better." If he does not encourage overweening ambition in others, to the detriment of the service, he is innocent of it himself. " The war found me in my position ; I did not seek it," he says ; " if I fail, let them send me away." Unlike men of meaner mould, Joffre surrounds himself with brilliant collaborators ; he does not feel the necessity of shining through the inferiority of others. He is admirably supported by General Foch, who is the Second in Command and chief of five armies in the north. When war broke out, Foch was at the head of the 20th Army Corps at Nancy, the capital of French Lorraine. He was approaching retirement when his great chance came, for he was sixty-three. The battles of the Marne and Yser, where he was in charge of the centre, revealed him as a tactician. Sir John French, in an official dis- patch, gratefully recognized the support he had given him in Flanders. The south is surely the 74 FRANCE AT BAY country of generals, for Foch was born there, in the Pyrenees, at the village of Valentine; Gallieni at St. Bea, close to the Spanish frontier; de Castelnau in a village in old Languedoc, and Sarrail at Carcas- sonne — a remarkable proportion of leaders in the present war. Foch is of the older school who has yet known how to adapt himself to the most recent developments of scientific warfare. Before he commanded at Bourges, and, subsequently, at Nancy, he professed strategy and general tactics at the War School. His post brought him into contact with the rising gener- ation of staff officers. If the French Etat -Major is soundly versed in history and the general science of war, it is greatly owing to General Foch and the keen interest he took in his work. Nor has he allowed the past and its lessons to weigh too heavily upon him. When history does not square with modern trench fighting, so much the worse for history. Foch used to analyze the causes of failure or success in his lectures at the War School. Very interesting were his conclusions on the Franco-German War. He showed how inferior was von Moltke to Napoleon; he had no " vision " like the Great Captain, and, consequently, lacked the intense impulse necessary to act in war. Von Moltke brought his troops to the battle and let them fight it out for themselves. It was not his directing brain that really secured victory, but a certain firmness in the command profit- ing by accident and the weakness of the foe. The French were beaten principally because of their errors ; it is only now by their magnificent conduct that they have retrieved the deplorable mistakes of 1870. " The PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY 75 Germans have been forced to fight underground," said M. Paul Deschanel, in the Chamber, and the fine expression will serve as an illustration of the new conditions, as of the new temper of the French, who failed in the other war because they were wanting in the will to conquer. Nor had they always the will to obey, for de Failly and Garibaldi both brought disaster on their armies in the east because of failure to follow orders. And then Foch explained that discipline and obedience were not blind and unreasoning things, but living and intelligent, a species of co-operation, requiring the spirit as well as the letter of the order to be comprehended and assimilated. Foch taught these things brilliantly in his lectures and in a book called The Conduct of War, which gave him first place among military thinkers. And in the field he has shown not only the knowledge of a commander versed in the lessons of the past, but the swift decision of one able to adapt himself instantaneously to the tactical evolution of to-day. He has known how to handle these new forces, to " realize " new conceptions of war. After Foch comes in general esteem, perhaps, Gallieni, the " Defender of Paris." His popularity with Parisians is not unconnected with his courageous defiance of the Germans when they were advancing upon the city. " J'ai requ mandat de defendre Paris contre Venvahisseur. Ce mandat, je le remplirai jusqu'au bout" The historic placard assured the city that it had a champion in the General, though one may doubt whether the fortifications which stretched out far into the country could long have resisted an enemy attack. In any case, they pro- 76 FRANCE AT BAY vided the Parisians with a Sunday spectacle and the sensations of war. The stone walls at the Paris gates, the barricades of felled trees and the chevaux de frise profoundly moved the popular imagination — par- ticularly the Bois, which was turned into a vast victualling centre, with its herds of cattle and its stacks of fodder. Destined from the cradle for the profession of arms, this green old warrior of to-day, whose tall spare form, large osseous face and sharp eyes behind the pince-nez express energy in every line, is chiefly celebrated for his rule over Madagascar. He is of the type of colonial soldier which has sprung from the loins of France over-seas, when a lust of land came upon her and she added to her possessions in Asia and Africa. Gallieni was captured in the Sudan by Ahmadou, a fanatical chief, and each morning of his captivity, which lasted seven long months, he was pleasantly reminded that his end had come, and that he would die that day. Happily, Fate had other destinies in store for him, and he re- venged himself on his captor by taking his country in the name of France. Gallieni was in Madagascar when Joffre was there as an engineer-officer building the defences of Diego Suarez. That was the begin- ning of their friendship. The Gallieni regime coin- cided, also, with the Boer War, and the General has expressed to me his admiration, almost his reverence, for Lord Roberts' conduct of the campaign. Though utterly opposed in temperament, the two men had in common an alert energy that would not shame Mr. Roosevelt, the Apostle of the strenuous life. The Governor's rule over the island was highly successful. PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY 77 When he arrived, French rights were shadowy, and Queen Ranavalo intended to make them more shad- owy still; but Gallieni was not to be denied, and presently the titular sovereign of the island was speeding to Algeria, where she remained as permanent guest of the French nation. Once in formal posses- sion, Gallieni began in earnest the work of organiza- tion, and the result was good order in the island and the commencement of a number of interesting under- takings. Experience in parts of Africa followed, and Gallieni returned to France with a great reputation, which he enhanced by the clever handling of his army at manoeuvres in Touraine. As Governor of Paris during the days of trepidation, he showed a perfect sang-froid. His action, too, against " the Germans of the Interior " (M. Finot's name for the drink traffic) bore witness to his moral energy. His sense of discipline bade him remove temptation from the uniform, and Paris and the surrounding districts have profited by an enforced abstinence from absinthe, and, in the case of soldiers, from all spirituous liquors. Picturesqueness of appearance is a passport to popularity when accompanied, as in General Pau's case, with a picturesque personality. He is open and free in manner and chevaleresque. His General's cap, worn jauntily on the side of his head, suggests the panache; his single arm — the other was lost in the war of '70 — symbolizes the mutilated country, and thus is created an ensemble lovable and adored by the crowd. To the General were confided the first operations in Alsace, and his return to Paris, after his success at Mulhausen, had almost the charac- ter of a triumph. When Alsace became of secondary 78 FRANCE AT BAY importance, in the general battle -line, the one-armed hero suffered an eclipse, for he was sent to the Balkans on a politico-military mission. A superb leader of men, his courage and elan electrify his soldiers. Somewhere exists the letter he wrote to his mother when he lost his arm as a young man at the age of twenty -two in the struggle of five-and-forty years ago. It is a delightful piece of gaiety, good humour and gentle irony. These characteristics have carried him through life until he came within grasp of the supreme command. But he refused to put out his hand to take it, because, he said, " I have but two years in which to do my work; it is insufficient for such responsibility," and with a gesture, as charming as it was disinterested, he proposed that Joseph Joffre should be Generalissimo of France. His fine energetic face is a true index of his character. One of the best-known generals after Joffre is Sarrail, who distinguished himself in the Argonne in command of an army. His conduct at the Retreat was soldierly and full of resource, and he certainly contributed to the success on the Marne. He wears a greyish beard which, with his clear, rather prophetic eyes and forehead, give him a striking resemblance to Henri Quatre, the Bearnais. But his physical resemblance has not reacted on his character ; il n'est pas plus monarchiste pour cela — in fact, he is a good Republican, one of the few Republicans, so rumour says, in the French higher command. In the course of his career, he was orderly officer to General Andre, the inventor of the fiches, or secret notes on officers' opinions. But that was long ago, and if Sarrail ever sympathized with these unsportsmanlike PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY 79 proceedings, he has long since learnt the better part of wisdom and tolerance. His predecessor at the Dardanelles, that " unroofed charnel-house," was the gallant Gouraud, the " lion of the Argonne," the youngest officer of his rank in the French army, for he is not yet fifty. Gouraud is as youthful in ideas as in face and figure, and that quality is as precious as it is rare. Badly wounded on the rocky slopes of the Turkish shores, he, like General Pau, has lost his arm. After the Sudan, the Tchad, Morocco and the Argonne, it is not sur- prising to find him in the Dardanelles. He is a magnificent-looking man, blue-eyed and stalwart, and commanded, with the prestige of great personal courage, his heterogeneous army of the " line," colonial infantry, brown-faced zouaves and tirailleurs, and black-faced Senegalese. Amongst the generals who remain are de Castelnau, Dubail and Manoury. The first is one of the seniors whose name is familiar to every reader of the Press ; after a year of war he was given a group of armies in the centre. In the early days of the campaign, when he was fighting in the east, an officer of the staff announced the death in action of his son, Xavier de Castelnau. The General remained for a moment silent, as if communing with himself, and then said, in a calm, steady voice : " Continuous, Messieurs." It was typical of his quiet heroism. Dubail is one of the Republican generals who distinguished himself in the Vosges, receiving his Grand Cross on the battlefield. He has the fine and thoughtful air of the intellectual soldier and is as humanitarian as Joffre himself. Manoury, who was severely wounded in the trenches 80 FRANCE AT BAY at Soissons, whilst reconnoitring the enemy's position, and was made K.C.M.G. by the King, came from his farming and rose-growing in the country to command an army corps and then an army in the centre. His notable performance was his attack in the battle of the Ourcq. Maud'huy, victor at Metzeral, is one of the most popular chiefs, who uttered to the Creusot hands this famous mot : " Work hard and we will strike hard " — a species of Nelson signal which flashed through France. The vicissitudes of war make it difficult to draw a list of generals, for, in the supreme test of battle, reputations wither and die or blossom like aloes in the thunder of the guns. Yet of those whose portraits adorn the windows of the town, or hang as pendants from feminine necklaces : Joffre, Foch, Manoury, Franchet d'Esperey, Sarrail, de Langle, de Cary, are men not merely to lead soldiers to victory, but to scheme to save their lives. The spirit of France is not militarist for all its devotion to military leaders ; the fighting spirit is not a desire to fight but a desire to be rid of fighting. There is no joy in the killing, no fierce pleasure in the trade of arms, but a deep and ardent resolution to do one's duty that the country may be saved from the invader. And this is the great distinction between France and Prussia; this implies a military physiognomy different from the German militarist. The brutal martinet of the school of blood and iron is not the French conception of the military chief, but a patriot trained in the science of arms that he may the better, and with all honour and with all humanity possible, serve the sacred cause of the country. CHAPTER VII FRANCE AND HER NAVY Notwithstanding a splendid line of seaboard along the Channel, the Atlantic and the Mediterra- nean, the French are not, instinctively, a sea-faring folk. The old jokes about their reluctance to cross the sea and their fear of mal de mer are generally true : the average Frenchman has no enjoyment of the water. And his poor navy was for long a prey to the idea that it was a costly and well-nigh useless institution. Doctrinaires obtained posses- sion of it, and great was the joy of an admiral and a journalist when they were able to show (before Sir Percy Scott) that the age of the mastodon had passed and that of the microbe had arrived. Within certain limitations they were right. The guerre de course is deadly against commerce, and may place the merchant marine of a country at the mercy of an enemy, and submarines and torpedoes can bar out, certainly, the stronger Power from ports and harbours and prevent a close investment of a coast. Some specialists hold that with 200 submarines you could blockade England — but they are assuming that human ingenuity works only one way, the way of destruction. Experience has shown that there are means of dealing with the peril ; and even g 81 82 FRANCE AT BAY the toll paid by English shipping during the acute phases of submarine warfare was small compared with the bulk of it. Yet the theory, as first pro- pounded, had the fascination of economy to a thrifty people and meant that the French, by building under- water craft, scouts and torpedo boats, could save millions on their marine insurance. But the notion had the disadvantage of being born too soon. Camille Pelletan, its brilliant advocate (and alas ! judge and jury as well, since he was Minister of Marine), preached none the less a gospel grateful to the Chamber. For once, a popular policy meant retrenchment, and not a still greater army of officials. It meant that big ships had seen their day and that little ships, which destroyed commerce and harried the enemy, were to have theirs. And so captivating was this to every earnest amateur, though horrifying to every expert, that the shipbuilding programme of the country was hung up for a decade. From being the second navy in the world, France became the fifth, behind Germany, America and Japan. And yet the theories of the Pelletan school had more than the average amount of truth in them — for we are told that no dreams are wholly divorced from fact. Their disadvantage was not merely their revolutionary character, but the indifferent fashion in which they had been thought out. The under- water craft popularized by M. Pelletan were too small for their work, and they had not yet reached their present state of perfection. Again, M. Pelletan's method of conducting his State department was scarcely re- assuring. A doctrinaire, unfortified by professional experience, he permitted disorder to reign at head- FRANCE AND HER NAVY 83 quarters and seemed to take a boyish delight in putting spokes into the administrative wheel. Arsenal hands and lower deck ratings were encouraged to bring their grievances to the Rue Royale, over the heads of authority. People, who remembered their history, thought that revolutionary days had come again, when the lower deck discussed orders with the captain, and this anarchy, they recalled, was re- sponsible, in part, for Nelson's victories. Even to- day, discipline in the French navy does not present the stone-wall of the English and German systems. It is paternal, like the discipline in the army ; officers fraternize with their men. Except in war-time, and on actual service, sailors do not salute their chiefs on board, much less ashore. This apparent laxity has led to allegations of ill-discipline which are really unfounded; sometimes they can be attributed to political prejudice. Thus, Louis Jaures, captain of the ill-fated Liberie, which blew up in Toulon harbour, was accused of permitting slackness on board, but the charge (which was never substantiated) probably arose because the sailor was the brother of the Socialist, whom, by the way, he resembled only in physique. That discipline existed at all, during the Pelletan regime, is proof of the resistance of the Breton sailor to insidious influence. Catholic Brittany, with its over-flowing families, has always given France her seamen. Even though the drinking, favoured by private distilling (in this country of orchards), has caused a loss of stamina, the State has invariably obtained its supply of handy men. But one must take into account the latter's mentality. The 84 FRANCE AT BAY peculiar quality of French discipline is due to an attempt to adapt itself to peasant idiosyncrasies. There is a custom on board ship of hoisting the flag each morning to the sound of music. The men are lined up on the deck, facing the stern. As the flag is broken from the staff, each one bares his head. In former times, when tobacco was chewed — the practice is now rare — old sailors removed their quid when this ceremony was taking place, but retained it when speaking to their officers. This subtle differ- ence, trivial in itself, typifies the spirit of the French fighting man, on land or sea. He uncovers to the flag because it symbolizes France. In both services the motive power of discipline is love of country and the assumption that each man will do his best because he is a patriot. Every part of the long coast-line of France is represented in the navy. The ship's company con- tains the unemotional Breton, the exuberant Meridional, men from the Dunkirk and Calais region, men from Bordeaux and Bayonne. These varied races — real nations within a nation — live in perfect harmony despite their mutual jealousies, because they feel an equal call to serve. The inscription maritime has provided the French navy with excellent material in the coast populations; but the modern battleship is a complicated machine, re- quiring trained intelligence and technical skill, rather than the ruder qualities of fisher folk. For this reason the townsman, with his quick brains and energies, is encouraged, more and more, to adopt the sea. The artisan is needed aboard, and he, of course, is not a product of the fishing hamlet, within FRANCE AND HER NAVY 85 sight and sound of the sea, but of the towns with their tall chimneys, and the clatter of machinery. Thus, a new type has come into the navy, leavening the old lump and introducing changes, intimate, but not less real, in the character of the seafarer. M. Gaston Thomson and M. Alfred Picard ruled over the navy for a time after M. Pelletan's meteoric career had subsided in general dismay; but the real period of reform began with Admiral Boue de Lapeyrere. It was an innovation to confide the Ministry of Marine to one who knew the service professionally, but success was the outcome of it. The patient began to mend from the very first The sailor-Minister worked miracles, both inside and out of the Rue Royale, in the name of reform. Great changes were effected during the eighteen months of his reign. He reorganized the squadrons and he reorganized his Ministry. He effected the latter by forming a Navy Board on the lines of the British Admiralty, giving departmental responsibility to experts, instead of continuing the autocracy of the Minister without real oversight and control — a battered legacy from Colbert. The Admiral brought the country to see the folly of a policy which had lost France her naval rank in the world. He imposed a regular programme upon Parliament, instead of haphazard construction, which had made the squad- rons a collection of samples. He gave the country homogeneous fleets, constantly renewed by the most perfect types. The Great War modified the output from the naval yards and interfered with the ship- building plan, but the principle remained; nor is there likely to be any return to the laisser-aller of 86 FRANCE AT BAY other days. When Admiral Boue de Lapeyrere hoisted his flag on the Courbet, on the day of mobilization, he found himself in possession of an efficient machine manned by zealous and well-trained men. Concentration in the Mediterranean resulted from changed political circumstance. England was no longer the enemy to be feared, but the friend to be trusted — to defend both sides of the Channel in the event of attack. Thus the naval problem was simplified for France; her beat became the Midland sea. The change came about gradually, when Admiral de Lapeyrere was at the Ministry, sitting at Colbert's gilded table and overlooking the wide prospect of the Place de la Concorde. The inevit- able political crisis sent M. Delcasse to the Minister's cabinet to continue the good work and the Admiral to his quarter-deck. The ex-occupant of the Quai d'Orsay brought his tremendous energy to bear on the problem. His great authority in Parliament gave him the ear of the Chamber, and obtained its votes, and the majority soon supported him in his laudable ambition to make France supreme in the southern sea. Austria was " indicated " as the enemy in the event of hostilities — Italy was already known for her sym- pathies with the Latin sister ; and it broke upon the consciousness of the public that under-water craft could not win battles, whatever its moral effect and whatever its influence on naval construction. With the quickness of Gallic intellect, the nation realized that the future of the navy was as much below water as above it ; but, unhappily, she did not profit by her discovery, but let others take the lead, FRANCE AND HER NAVY 87 despite the brilliant " realizations " of Jules Verne. However this may be, French naval yards began hammering rivets again and bending plates, even if the first start was not altogether satisfactory, for " Dantons " were born instead of Dreadnoughts, though the latter's period had come. Still, it was better than nothing; the germ of renaissance was there; it needed, merely, careful cultivation. M. Pierre Baudin, who succeeded M. Delcasse" at the helm, almost contemporaneously with Mr. Winston Churchill at the British Admiralty, used his best en- deavours to secure greater rapidity of output from the naval yards. This of itself meant a fight with routine and inertia, for arsenal workmen had been taught to regard themselves as a class apart. Pampered by the politicians, some adopted, even, the pose of anti- militarism, ridiculous in the light of their employ- ment. That period has passed; it need trouble us no more. There are no longer anti-militarists in France; they have become fused into the patriot by the scorching flame of war. To Admiral Boue* de Lapeyrere belongs the credit of restoring discipline and mutual confidence to officers and men. The senior French Admiral is a typical sea-dog, a vieux loup de mer, in the French phrase. He is never happier than when pacing his quarter-deck, and has few pleasures away from it. He prefers the starlit sky to any painted ceiling, and the rude breath of the sea to the well-bred tones of the drawing-room. His experience and attain- ments make him the technical guide as well as the spiritual confessor of his fleet. Simple in manner, he is adored by his sailors and addresses them in the 88 FRANCE AT BAY language they can understand and appreciate. His active temperament would have desired some brilliant engagement as apotheosis to his career; if that is denied him, he accepts it as a sailor should. Years ago, as a young lieutenant, he made his name on the little gunboat Vipere, which took an active part in operations against the Chinese; and he waited only eight years for his ship, instead of the usual fourteen. He had the advantage of a double training under Fournier, whose flag-captain he was, and under Courbet. Both were excellent masters : the former, still green at seventy-two (nine years senior to Lapeyrere), recalls with pleasure his talks with King Edward, just as the " Father of the Fleet," to-day, counts amongst his pleasant memories the presence of the Prince of Wales on his flagship during man- oeuvres in the Mediterranean. Though of aristocratic family, he is persona grata with Republicans, a fact that has its importance in a service said to be " honeycombed with Reaction." His tact and knowledge of economic conditions stood him in good stead as director of the naval yards of Rochelle and Brest — excellent preparation for his work in Paris, whither he came with the reputation of a man able to handle the State workman. The French, like the British, fleet suffered months of inactivity, looking for a foe that always hid itself ; nor did Jacques get those brilliant glimpses of war which relieved the monotony for his English confreres. If the losses were inconsiderable, except for battle- ships sunk in the Dardanelles, the services rendered were quite important in commerce -raiding, in the bombardment of the Belgian coast and in the convoy FRANCE AND HER NAVY 89 of troops. Africans and Indians were safely landed in Marseilles, thanks to the French fleet, and despite the activity of the Goeben and Breslau, which prowled the seas. Brest, Cherbourg, le Havre, and Dunkerque were protected, and on land the sailor played his part. He worked searchlights on the outer rim of Paris, looking into the night for hostile craft, and at Dixmude, Ypres, Furnes, he and his brother, the marine, acted like the heroes they are. Thrown into the trenches for twenty-four hours at Dix- mude, the marine fusiliers remained thirty-six days. Paris remembers that, for its marsouins are dear to its heart. Nor must the service of the fleet to commerce be overlooked, though no glamour or newspaper reclame attaches to it. It kept open the trade routes of the south, and, in conjunction with the British ships, gave commerce its free access to the northern and western ports. Invisible danger haunted the French squadrons as it haunted the English, but in a less degree, for the Austrian fleet, bottled in the Adriatic, was powerless for ill. In his great command the admiralissimo was seconded by Vice-Admiral Charles Chocheprat and Rear-Admiral Le Bris, the gunnery expert of the navy. At the outbreak of war, France had 23 battleships, 10 being of the Dreadnought class, 24 cruisers, 8 light cruisers, 80 destroyers, 140 torpedo boats and over 50 submarines. " Do you consider," I asked M. Augagneur, the Minister of the Marine, " that the days of the big ship are numbered?" "Oh, no, I do not say that," he replied, " but the big unit can no longer play the exclusive part that was formerly assigned to her, 90 FRANCE AT BAY though she is still capable of rendering great service. The submarine cannot ensure victory, but it might ward off defeat." " Armour," he said, commenting on a recent action, " has shown its inferiority to cannon." Here, perhaps, is some indication of future naval policy in France; in any case, French people appreciate their fleet as never before. Critics may complain of early inactivity in the Adriatic, but this has little to do with appreciation of a splendid service which has exerted continuous and almost invisible pressure upon the enemy under conditions which are not as " fair-weather " as some suppose. The winter Mediterranean gives mountainous seas, astonishing to those who know only its unruffled calm. CHAPTER VIII PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES Compiegne was full of life and gaiety the night before the Germans arrived. If the inhabitants realized that the enemy was so close, they gave, certainly, no sign of it. A notice, boldly displayed on the front of the Renaissance Town-hall, stated that a certain individual had been fined for spread- ing the report that the enemy was coming; so one had to be careful. Besides, no one knew exactly, except the soldiers, and they did not cry their inform- ation from the house-tops. A few of the citizens, indeed, seemed to have guessed the meaning of events. Doubtless, the worst phases of the retreat had not been revealed to us; we could only surmise what had happened, what would happen. Meanwhile, the town was filled with soldiers ; the English had taken possession. English motor-cars were parked in the Town-hall square; the Provost-Marshal was round the corner, dealing out discipline and good order, and English officers were everywhere. The French marvelled at the youth and gaiety of their friendly invaders. It comforted them not a little to see their radiant faces, to hear their boyish laughter. There was no hint of demoralization, nothing but confidence and disdain of danger in an 91 92 FRANCE AT BAY army that had retreated with amazing rapidity for a fortnight past. Officers and men showed equal calm and a certain hope of victory that conveyed a subtle sense of security to the civilian. We had come suddenly upon Compiegne in our search for " the contemptible little army," and were astonished and not a little touched by the tranquillity of the town. Of course, Paris was brave too, but in another sense ; people there knew, at least, something or imagined they did, and shook their heads gravely over the turn of affairs. But here in Compiegne, upon which the Germans were descending swiftly, there was no tremor, no halt in the normal life of the town. I mixed with some of the soldiers who were talking of the great fight at Mons, of the subsequent retreat, of the possibilities of to-morrow. Their experiences had been awful. One man was certain that he was the only unit of his battalion left ; afterwards, I met other men, who were equally certain of being the only units left. Such exaggeration was pardonable in a fight against overwhelming odds. Alas ! the published lists showed how grave the losses had been. These survivors described, with many a vivacious expression, the battle in which they had taken part, the dreadful racket of the guns, the murderous effect of the fire — men dropping fast around them. And, then, the retreat. " But, Lord bless you, sir, we're a-leadin' of 'em on. We shall catch 'em soon in a three-cornered bit of country, and there we shall have 'em, for they'll stick fast and leave their guns behind 'em." Prophetic words, as the event proved. PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 93 A man from a decimated regiment described graphically how he had shot a spy that afternoon. " I seed him a dodgin' about and I ses to meself : What ho ! what sort of a blighter is this ? He was runnin' in a field behind a hedge, and every time I stopped, he pretended to be gatherin' turnips. I seed 'im gettin' up suddenly, so I let fly and knocked 'im over. 'E was a German spy right enough." In the absence of the Engineers, a young subaltern of a Line regiment, who seemed to have a consider- able experience in that sort of thing, was putting in a charge which was to blow up the bridge at the proper moment. Meanwhile, the air was full of rumours. The enemy was advancing, the cyclist scouts reported; but it was difficult to imagine it amid the cheerfulness prevailing. The bars were filled to overflowing; at a little cafe officers sat cross-legged, jauntily discussing events. A stalwart Highland officer pressed me into the service as inter- preter. His men wanted tea ; could I arrange about that? and there were some few purchases to be made. The town, which had been bright enough up to nine o'clock, suddenly quieted down. But our night in the big hotel was not tranquil. Officers of the staff, and correspondents — a mere handful in the desolate-looking dining-room — were the only guests. A knock at the door came in the midst of our slumbers ; it was the voice of the chauffeur. " Open, please." "What is it?" "If you please, the military want our car and say they will commandeer it ! " " Oh, impossible 1" we exclaimed with sleepy deprecation, and lost touch again with cold realities. 94 FRANCE AT BAY But it was not for long. A young orderly arrived in the dress of a private, a very distinguished orderly, bearing one of the best-known names in France. "I must take your car," he said authoritatively; " I must get into Paris." There was nothing to be done. "Will you wait a little?" we asked; "we are rather tired." " Not a moment after seven." "Very well, then; we will be ready." It was then five. After a hurried breakfast in the big dining- room, resonating with the voices of two or three officers discussing anything but the war, we took the road again in the grey morning. Mounted troops were already filing out through the avenues. Immense lines of convoy were passing, the young men on the service waggons looking the picture of good spirits and good health. As we traversed the forest of Compiegne, we passed a regiment which was bivou- acking there. Camp fires were alight; the men were making tea and coffee. Later on, we learned that they had engaged the enemy and captured nine guns. As we continued towards Paris, pathos was added to interest in a series of wayside scenes. Village folk were leaving their homes and tramping into Paris. Some carts were piled high with household goods, but this was the exception; the majority took very little with them, evidently thinking that the occasion demanded the lightest equipment possible. Some pushed a perambulator in front of them, packed with eatables and bottles of wine; at least they would not starve for a few days. Long rolls of bread obtruded from the little vehicles, crowded with packages of all sorts, and sometimes PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 95 Baby sat aloft, crowing with excitement over this unusual kind of picnic. The characteristic of the procession was its courage and its calm. None seemed to take his position tragically, and that was comforting to see. Even the old people, who leave familiar scenes with great reluctance, smiled and joked with the passer-by. Their demeanour showed as plain as words that the real heart of the country was stoutly optimistic. It was as if each had said : " Of course, we have to go away ; it is a nuisance ; but to-morrow we shall come back." And this cheerfulness, happily, was not misplaced. Nevertheless, there were sharp reminders of the war; troops were everywhere. Our car came to a sudden stop in answer to a sentry's challenge. Whilst he examined our papers, a French Territorial, "bearded like the pard," tired and dusty, accosted us. " You are going to Senlis ? " " Yes." " Well, then, take me ! " And he flung himself in, with his rifle. He was still suffering from shock; his nerve was gone. Huskily, he told us his experiences. He had been at St. Quentin, with other elderly soldiers of his classe. They were marching towards a wood, when suddenly they were attacked by the Germans with machine-guns, and — well, there he was. Approach- ing nearer the outskirts of Paris, we remarked great gangs of men who were digging trenches in a field — eleventh-hour preparations to check the advance — and as we entered the city fortifications, my com- panion remarked, pointing to the flags on the facades of the houses : " They will soon have to take those in. The people know nothing, nothing at all, or they would have taken them in of their own accord." 96 FRANCE AT BAY Fortunately, in this case, the lugubrious prophecy was not fulfilled. Just a year after, I was in Compiegne again. Nine shells from German long-range cannon had fallen and demolished houses in the town. Happily, no one had been killed, but the experience was a little disconcerting. No harm, however, had befallen the Hotel de Ville, or the Palace with its treasures, its memories of the marriage fetes of Louis XVI with Marie Antoinette, of Napoleon and Marie Louise of Austria, of brilliant routs and hunting parties under the Second Empire. And it escaped also without serious damage from the fortnight's occupation of the town by the Germans. A certain anxiety, none the less, wrinkled the brows of the Municipality — one never knew what Fate had in store for the historic monuments of which it is so proud — and six thousand of the inhabitants had left their erstwhile peaceful and prosperous town as a personal protest against the German attentions. It was after the great battle of the Marne, and some kind of train service had been established with Esternay. On the way thither we noted the marks of war, the scarified countryside. Passengers in the train talked of that and of little else, if it were not of the good behaviour and bravery of the English. They were the popular idols, it was gratifying to hear. To their kindliness and joy of life was joined that supreme merit in the eyes of the peasant of paying well for what they took. There was a soldier in the train, whose happy smile betokened that he, too, was basking in the sun of popularity. He had lost PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 97 his way, he said, and was now engaged in finding it, with the aid of a pretty peasant girl, who had invited him home to tea. His only regret was that " mother," who smiled approval on the rapid courtship, failed to grasp the full meaning of his eulogium of her daughter, owing to her deplorable ignorance of the idiom. It was astonishing how the education of foreigners had been neglected. Yet they were very kind, as the frequent passage of the wine bottle testified. His praise of the French army was not as hearty as his praise of the other sex; but this sprung, perhaps, from limited experience, since he confounded " line " with " Territorial." We passed a sentry on guard. " Sloppy lot," he said, looking dreamily out of the window with the eye of the expert — " rather like our Territorials, ain't they ? Good enough for amateurs, what? " When finally I left this jovial son of Mars, he was declaring solemnly that he would never, never return to England. It was his homage to the Ally — possibly a little overdone. Everywhere the countryside was torn and twisted by the force of battle. The wires were down, lying in tangled masses by the side of the railway, which, also, had suffered from the tide of war. Portions of the permanent way had been torn up and relaid ; the ballast had been ploughed by shells ; shell cases lay about the fields ; there was evidence of deadly work in gaping holes in houses, in scorched and broken trees. After infinite delays we crawled into Esternay. The village had been brutalized by war, and one was conscious of the moral damage that attends a hostile army on the march. At a cafe near the station I heard a story comparable with the 98 FRANCE AT BAY worst sufferings of Belgium. A deep bullet mark on a house -front betokened the place of execution of a German commandant, who paid with his life for the crimes he had committed. He and drunken fellow- omcers outraged and then murdered a girl, who had waited on them in a cafe opposite, now half ruined by shot and shell. She had refused to listen to their propositions worthy of a Roman orgy : the result was outrage and death. I had the story from the sister-in-law of the murdered girl, whose courage in the face of death and insult had won for her an army medal. The village walls whispered of other tales of cruelty and licence. The drawn blinds of a shop hid the pitiful tragedy of a young and comely wife shamefully ill-used by the exponents of Kultur. In the old grey church the Germans had placed their wounded, and upon the tower a machine-gun peeped from beneath the folds of a Red Cross flag — a typical instance of their perfidy. Premises had been stupidly gutted by the invaders, the furniture or goods piled up and broken, without rhyme or reason, except the lust of destruction. But most of the serious damage to houses had been caused by the fire of the French 75 mm. in an effort to dislodge the Germans. An ancient man mumbled out the story of his capture and retention as a hostage. He and his companions had been conveyed to a neighbouring village, where they were immured in a wine-shop. Such an arrangement had had its compensation ; there had been always plenty to drink, if nothing to eat. He was wearisomely insistent on the point — nothing to eat — until one felt that the fate of the village was as nothing compared with the loss of his meals. PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 99 Our way through the village was marked by an unending succession of broken bottles. They lay everywhere, behind the hedges in the fields, behind the walls in the gardens. The Germans had rifled the cellars in a search for wine. Their success in this direction accounted, not a little, for their failure in the battle which raged with such fury round the chateau. The 75 mm. had driven great holes into the wall — an invitation to depart to the German staff, which was feasting under the shadow of family por- traits with the aid of family plate. Standing well- placed in spreading fields upon a slight eminence above the Little Morin, which winds among the trees a few hundred yards away, the pleasant-looking manor-house was a position of importance, as the signs of battle showed. The fight had been terrible over the gentle slopes, commanded by a road which passed by the chateau, from which the Germans had poured in a deadly fire from their machine-guns. The ground was still strewn with broken rifles, with over- coats and kepis, belonging to a battered French regiment, which had come under the withering fire. But victory had gone to the Allies none the less. The Germans were driven from the village on their great trek to the Aisne, and left their dead to be buried in the fields over which elderly labourers were now driving nonchalant ploughs. In a trench lay dead Germans, in their top-boots and green-grey uniforms. They had the patrician look of the Prussian Guard. In the lane, as we moved past a wood, we smelt the nauseating stink of decomposing bodies. They were lying in ditches, thinly covered with straw, awaiting interment in the 100 FRANCE AT BAY battle-ridden fields, already marked with mounds of earth. In the woods was the intolerable reek of dead horses. Mounted gendarmes and Territorials passed, under the charge of a captain holding his loaded revolver; they were searching for " Bosches " still hiding in the woods. At Sezanne, a few miles away, we snatched a little sleep in a bed, from the dampness of which we were glad to be protected by our mackintoshes. Close by are the marshes of the Gond, where the Germans left guns and immense quantities of stores in their retreat to the Aisne. Under the chill, rainy sky, the sullen treacherous soil, with a swollen river flowing between reed-edged banks, looked the fit grave of an army; and just as melancholy as this expanse of flat, drab country were the villages which surround it. A vision of destruction was presented, a hideously tangled mass of ruin. We entered a village church, standing roof-less and window-less to the rain and wind. Pews and church ornaments were broken and over- turned, and the fire of inflammatory bombs had completed the ruin. Only a statue of the Virgin remained, smiling benignly, as if miraculously saved amongst the wreckage. The bells had fallen, half melted by the fire. On the walls a hand had written : " Cursed be the Germans for their work here." That imprecation in chalk, glaring on the grey-black scorched stones in the glowing dusk, an island in a sea of wantonness and malignity, seemed, in a scriptural sense, to be the writing on the wall, a warning to those who had provoked it. We passed a farm in which the Germans had burned their dead, and, incidentally, the charnel-house ; and then PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 101 came villages in which there was a germ of life. The women and children peeped out timidly from half -ruined houses ; here and there, attempts had been made at reconstruction, some effort to obliterate the path of the tornado. The regenerating influence had been at work. In other of the villages, certainly, there was a wonderful recuperation. Around Meaux, where the battle of the Marne raged in all its madness, the villages have resumed their normal life. Barns are neatly thatched, cottages are mended, everywhere the ravages of war are disappearing. Bridges that were blown up by the French and English to stop the Germans have been rebuilt with speed. In some storm-centres, little remains to tell the tale, save the graves in the corner of a field, with their little wooden crosses surmounted by a sodden and dis- coloured soldier's cap. Flowers of a tender re- membrance bloom here : the proud red rose, the humble violet. The peasants in their quick recovering to a normal existence give proof of an unquenchable vitality. Farther still, in the region of Vitry-le-Francois, the Quakers have devoted large resources and much time and ingenuity to the succour of our Allies. Ploughs have been lent to mayors of communes for the peasants who have lost their stock, houses have been built for the homeless amongst the stony wastes. Sanitary work has been accomplished, bodies re -buried which had been over-hastily interred, ponds and wells drained and cleaned wherever there was danger of spreading infection. The sect, so charmingly named the Society of Friends, distinguished itself in 1870 102 FRANCE AT BAY in the same sort of Christian enterprise. Then, as now, a corps of young men turned themselves into engineers, plumbers, carpenters and bricklayers. The grey uniform with a tricolor star again became the badge of brotherly love and compassion through the devastated areas, a friendly light shining in the wilderness. Seed for new crops, clothing and money, have also been distributed — God's work of building up, where others have destroyed. " We cannot be soldiers," they say, "because of the words of Christ; we serve, therefore, humanity instead of the trade of arms." Noble inspiration, noble mission when the world reeks with slaughter and destruction ! At Lourdes I found saints of another communion, admirable men and women, labouring to comfort soldiers. It was a new Lourdes to mc, far removed from the scenes of religious fervour that I had wit- nessed a year or two before : a great multitude of pilgrims surging over the bridge of the Church of the Rosary, bearing candles in their hands, and singing hymns ; scenes of great spiritual force and emotion, when some poor cripple, gaining new force, rose from his bed and began to walk. " A miracle ! " shouted the people. The crowds at the Grotto, kneeling or singing in ecstasy ; priests breaking in upon the hymns with exhortations to prayer and with the fervent ejaculations of the Revivalist, made an ineffaceable picture upon the mind. But to-day the sick were there in the hospitals, so were the priests, sometimes doing duty as orderlies ; but the crowd was wanting. And yet a miracle had happened, the miracle of regenerated France. Weeks later I was on the road to Rheims ; it was PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 103 here that one obtained a glimpse of war. As we sped by in an official car, sentries sprang out menacingly from the side of the road, to examine our papers and to know the reason why ; a general's chauffeur hooted angrily at us to clear the road. The great mass of the cathedral loomed large above the martyred city ; from a distance it seemed scarcely to have been touched. Nor did we gain much impression of the bombardment from traversing the streets of the lower part of the city. But in the Rue de l'Universite, once bustling with activity, now a heap of ruins, we come suddenly upon the centre of destruction. The business part of the city had been torn to shreds. The archbishop's house was utterly destroyed. We approached the cathedral with fear and questionings in our heart. Had the priceless work of the master builders of the centuries been entirely lost ? Happily, though the damage was bad enough, our worst apprehensions were not realized. A bruised and sombre face, still human in its outlines, raised itself to heaven in the dull and murky atmosphere. Statues had been mutilated and tracery defaced by fire of the scaffolding rather than by the direct action of the shells. The attitude of suffering and sorrow suggested a crucified Christ. This tragedy of beauty and splendour was as affecting as if a living, sentient thing had been stricken down and lay bleeding at our feet. It was still a wonderful evocation of the Gothic, one of the splendid monuments on earth. Within was ruin. Not one bit of the precious fourteenth- century glass remained in its place. As one picked up a fragment from the floor, one was struck with the exquisite colouring of the blue. Outside, Joan of Arc, 104 FRANCE AT BAY proudly seated on her horse, still raised a triumph- ant sword as if undismayed by this savagery against the House in which her King was crowned and her life seemed to have come to its great fulfilment. She seemed, then as now, to be the symbol of France valiant and defiant in the midst of ruin. To the superstitious, her safety seemed a miracle, for near by a huge German shell had raised a mound big enough to have proved her sepulchre. The spirit of Joan of Arc seemed to have entered into the inhabitants of the city. One shell fell a few yards from our motor-car ; the " tang " of the gun was like a hammer beating upon iron. Then another projectile fell almost on the same spot, raising a cloud of dust. " Is anybody killed? " asked an old man chaffingly of two girls who passed; they answered with a nervous little laugh. A boy in carpet-slippers climbed a rubbish heap, to look down upon the engine with an academic interest. The white starched cap of a nun shone like an aureole in the dusky perspective of the street as she walked rapidly by, not even turning her head when the premonitory cloud appeared heralding the explosion. Both shells fortunately did no harm amongst the rubbish. Being the hour of the aperitif, the little wine -shops in this desolated district were crowded with men and women of the working class, who gathered as if glad to find solace in each other's company in this city where Death waited for them at every corner. It was in a spirit of oblivion that they drank their beer and talked the gossip of the day ; but the bombard- ment would obtrude itself : a well-known townsman had been killed that day, just as townsmen were PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 105 killed every day. An Englishman, I gathered, had had a particularly trying time of it. As the guardian of great interests and the employer of a large staff, he could not leave the city, and thrice had been taken hostage by the Germans. On one occasion he thought his hour had come when a cyclist messenger declared that he had been shot at on the city boundary. The lie was so clumsy that even the German officer per- ceived it — otherwise, the penalty was the hanging of the hostages. But even painful experiences become tempered by time. In a hotel where we stayed awhile, the energetic little manageress had not moved since the hour when the first shell fell. " And are you not afraid for your house ? " I asked. " Oh, no." " But the bombs have fallen next door?" "Yes, it is partially destroyed — but not here, nothing here." And that was all, no complaint, no quarrel with the dull monotony of danger, but just a courageous waiting for the happy time when the city would be free from the invader. For the moment, she spoke as quietly as if the Germans were bombarding the town with peas. On the next day we were rolling back to Paris over country roads, barred by sentries who demanded ferociously our laissez-passer. As night closed in, lanterns were swung in our faces before we were allowed to proceed and the chain was dropped that hung across the road. Through a sparse forest of twinkling lights we arrived in Paris, threading dim avenues to the central quarters. Restaurants were closed — it was ten o'clock — but with a little man- oeuvring one heard that it was possible to relieve one's 106 FRANCE AT BAY thirst. Irreconcilable Parisians, who disliked being sent to bed at ten o'clock and who stayed up till twelve out of sheer habit, frequented one of the cafes which, during the day, drove an honest and open trade. At night, the shutters went up with sub- missive alacrity, but behind them gathered a little assembly of habitues animated by a fearful joy, for were they not breaking the law ? They discussed the situation with the air of conspirators. An elderly gentleman who had fled the capital at least three times, because he was told the Germans were coming, proved a very lion in breaking regulations. But he made such a noise that the proprietor asked him to leave. He declined flatly, and the order was repeated with such loud insistence that the customers them- selves called for silence with a vociferous " sh ! " At any moment the police might enter and place the after-hours cafe under their formal ban. On the whole, the customers seemed to me rather more de- pressed than the inhabitants of Rheims, under the shadow of their daily bombardment. I thought that in the two pictures was much of the essence of life in France. CHAPTER IX CONSCRIPTION : A CONTRASTED VIEW The view of conscription in the two countries is eminently characteristic. The Englishman's objec- tion to it may be traditional (that is, political), or it may be technical. He may object that it interferes with his personal liberty, and subjects a man, until past the military age, to irksome obligations ; or he may feel that it is impossible to apply conscription to England for lack of space to train, say, another three or four million men, and that it is now too late in the day to institute an elaborate scheme for the education of officers. For modern warfare is an affair of science, and those who lead in it must be scientifically trained by a professional course which is a matter of years. But whatever ground he takes, his main objection is probably to compulsion ; other- wise it is difficult to see how he has resisted the thrust of events until this hour. The question has been raised, certainly, in an acute form by active-minded and public-spirited newspapers ; but they have suf- fered in the popularity of the unthoughtful for their pains. The Englishman, then, has a strongly rooted objection to compulsion. He is an amateur by tradi- tion and by inclination. It is only reluctantly that 107 108 FRANCE AT BAY he admits the professional or even the expert in politics ; it is only reluctantly, too, that he admits the principle of professionalism in his games : his cricket and his football. He feels it is not quite the thing. Bishops and other excellent persons write mournful letters to the Press about the gladiators who are paid to amuse the crowd. In cricket the " Mr." is carefully inserted before the amateur that the public may know that, in applauding him, they are encouraging a gentleman. The spirit of the country is amateurish. High competence, it is true, is allowed in the law, but that is the fetish of the English people. Yet the specialist in theology is a little suspect unless he stops short at the common acceptances. ... It is so easy to run off the rails of orthodoxy. The spirit, if it exists in other countries, takes a different form. If you get friendly with an American, an enthusiastic " Fan," he is likely enough to tell you, with undisguised delight, how much his club pays its professional baseball players. He is not in the least shocked at the principle. The Englishman likes as little the notion of paying his Parliamentarians as he does his sport exponents. Alone amongst the nations he was convinced that his interests were better represented by the amateur than the professional, and he did not shrink from the idea of his shores and national existence being de- fended by the amateur soldier. Until quite recently professional keenness in the junior service was looked down upon as an affair of " swots," scarcely for the sportsmen who had adopted the King's uniform in the spirit with which they donned the " pink " in the shires. This did not prevent them from being CONSCRIPTION: A CONTRASTED VIEW 109 courageous as lions in the fight, the fine flower of chivalry in their conduct before the foe. There is nobility in the posture of a man giving freely and spontaneously his youth and strength for the country. It is a magnificent conception, in con- sonance with our history and the genius of the race. The voluntary system sounds sweetly in our ears. John Bull does not like to be compelled to do any- thing. Naturally disciplined and law-abiding, he has no particular love either of the policeman or the drill sergeant. So many institutions are voluntary in England which in other countries are supported by a rate. The Englishman prefers to give of his own free will. He does not like to be compelled to bear arms even in the defence of his own land. The Englishman's objection to compulsion is so strong upon him that even the exigencies of a great war can scarcely shake it or change his faith in the civilian soldier, splendid type that he is, who came into being through Napoleon's threat of invasion a hundred years ago. Pacifists declare that any other system is a menace and a provocation. A large standing army, they say, provokes war because of the spirit it engenders. And extremists protest that it is not England's interest to fight, which is true enough. Her prosperity is bound up with Free Trade and her great carrying system, which puts her in touch with all the world. Her commerce stretches out its delicate tentacles in all directions. The fact that she is an entrepot and international clearing- house for the exporting nations makes it desirable and even necessary that she should maintain un- broken the cords that unite her to her neighbour. 110 FRANCE AT BAY War is bad for trade, as Norman Angell cogently proves in The Great Illusion. A leading article or two in the London Press maintaining the same thesis obtained notoriety on both sides of the Channel, and gave Frenchmen a disagreeable impression of Eng- land's material view of her international obligations. England fights shy of the professional when he is on his hobby-horse. The incontrovertible character of Lord Roberts' propaganda did not gain him his cause. People were fascinated but only half con- vinced. " An amiable crank," they said, " warding off old age by an active hobby." The idea of com- pulsory military service is as repellent to English sentimentality as the Channel Tunnel, which destroys the illusion of " the tight little island " as completely as the " splendid isolation " theory, which is still one of the cherished idols of the Englishman's Home. Nor has he grasped entirely that the progress of artillery has brought one point, at least, of his shores under the nozzles of foreign guns. His roman- tic attachment to the notion of England sheltering behind her own bulwarks is as much part of his insular character as the compartment system in English railway travelling, or those repellent stone walls round English property. Though the fact is unsuspected by many of his foreign critics, John Bull is a confirmed sentimentalist. Dear to him (and excusably so) is the notion of the inviolate isle, girt about by the eternal sea — even though the island has ceased to exist except geographically. Sub- marines have not undermined the spirit of his seclu- sion. Not only is he cut off physically from the Continent of Europe by the surrounding waters, but CONSCRIPTION: A CONTRASTED VIEW 111 he is cut off more effectually still by the growth of centuries of character. His separation has given him sturdiness, independence and originality. But we may suppose that, if the Tunnel had been in exist- ence, as well as the system of universal training with its corollary of a large staff of scientific specialists, Germany would have hesitated before taking the short cut through Belgium, which was the long way round to Paris. And it is at least conceivable that, if England had definitely stated her intention to defend the neutrality of the little Kingdom, Germany would have hesitated a little longer before running the risk of meeting three Powers in the field. In the matter of the Tunnel, England chose for once to believe the experts — General Wolseley and the rest — perhaps because their judgment coincided with her own preconceived ideas. She saw danger from a sudden act of treachery, or whatever the parti- cular bogey was. Opinion was definitely set against the Tunnel on general grounds of prudence, not un- connected, perhaps, with a care for the coasting trade. Great Britain's attitude with regard to the Tunnel is much that of her view of conscription, and that is why I insist upon it here. But the public in the latter case heard the appeal of Lord Roberts, read some popular books, which admirably expressed the aims of Germany, and then turned to its golf and said, half seriously, half with its tongue in its cheek : " Dreadful, isn't it ? But, you know, we have lived so long with- out it." One party in the State gave heed, and began timidly to canvass opinion on the subject of con- scription, or at least some system of school-boy training, such as the cadet corps proposed by Sir 112 FRANCE AT BAY Ian Hamilton ; but nothing was done beyond news- paper talk. In France the question has long since emerged from the political stage. It is true that in the early days of the Republic, the party of La Revanche, that is, the military party, was associated with one type of politician. It is true, also, that a certain ardour in military affairs, and a certain desire for adventure, seems to belong to the school, but every one, duke or concierge, recognizes the urgent need of protecting frontiers, and has adopted the only possible method : compulsory military service. And the burden is borne cheerfully in spite of the weight. And when the Three Years system was voted, the country adopted that in a similar spirit. It recognized the necessity. It saw in it the irreducible minimum against the growing legions of Germany, and M. Barthou's achievement was to get that view acknowledged by a Socialist- Radical Chamber. French statesmen, understand- ing the ultimate designs of Germany, realizing that if they were themselves crushed it would be the end of England, with German ships comfortably moored at Calais, Dunkirk, Brest and Marseilles — every French port, in fact — with British shipping closely watched — realizing these things, marvelled at the tranquillity of England. Surely she must understand, they said, that only by conscription can she hope to exist, to play her part, to render effective the Entente ? How, indeed, could the Entente come to full fruition unless there were large military forces behind it to keep the peace and play the policeman? England had signed no contract, and left herself free to act as she desired, but it was felt that she would realize CONSCRIPTION: A CONTRASTED VIEW 113 inevitably where her interests lay. Mere fleet action obviously would not win battles on land. England had recognized that in the past by sending troops to the Peninsula and to Belgium. In Belgium itself, where, a few months before the war, I was asked anxiously what would be the attitude of England in certain eventualities, leading statesmen declared that the moral effect of sending quickly only twenty thousand men into the country would be tremendous. It would show Germany that neutrality must be re- spected or one would risk a rupture with England. It would be tantamount to a profession of faith, to the caution gravely uttered : " Hands off at your peril ! " Thus a compulsory system existing in England would have had a vast steadying influence, in Continental opinion, upon Germany's military ambition. Force thus employed has a pacific influence. The pacific value of conscription is often dis- regarded in England. For conscription is pacific, not provocative ; it is civilian in its prudence and preserv- ation, not military. The fact that every one has to be a soldier is an immense deterrent from jingoism, from clap-trap in music-halls, from absurd and un- dignified manifestations. And it will be a deterrent in proportion to the manner in which conscription is carried out. If it is thorough, if it is logical, if the politician's son is as little likely to be exempt as the son of the labourer and the artisan, then conscrip- tion becomes a real instrument of peace. And again, it is scarcely to be imagined that France would go to war " with light heart " — to use the historic phrase of Emile Ollivier on the eve of 1870 — when it means i 114 FRANCE AT BAY sending her own sons into the battle. It is clear that even if democracies like England and America become bellicose as the result of a violent Press propaganda, the fact that every man has to fight has a great re- straining influence, even upon those whose weapons are habitually paper and printer's ink. Though, at the commencement, the unthinking population wel- comed the war, there was not amongst the mass, deeply conscious of its meaning, any jubilation, but merely a quiet determination to defend the soil. Such an attitude is as dignified as it is intelligible. A British Minister of the Crown insisted that en- thusiasm was one of the advantages of voluntary enlistment. Enthusiasm for what? For the killing of one's fellow-man ? Enthusiasm for such a war as that which has brought all the young men of the nation into the firing line, and a large proportion of them into the cemeteries and hospitals, and brought suffer- ing and degradation upon the most prosperous little country in the world and upon the richest and most industrialized parts of France? Enthusiasm, if it means holy anger and a desire for chastisement, yes ; but not enthusiasm in any other sense for killing. This war, above all modern wars, is shown to be bestial and brutal to a degree shocking to all right- thinking people. Few are enthusiastic in France for war, but all are ready to do their duty as citizens. This attitude is noble, too, the attitude of obedience, quand mime — in spite perhaps of quivering flesh and of a sensitive artistic imagination, which perceives to the full the horror of war, and by its intelligence pierces its false glory. The picture of France mobil- ized for war is the picture of a nation rising as one CONSCRIPTION: A CONTRASTED VIEW 115 man, each man a part of a great machine, exclusively concerned with the business of making war. A professional army can be used purely for police work in colonial wars, but when the metropolis is attacked each able-bodied son should rise to defend it. This is the theory of conscription, and it is sound and human. " Enthusiasm " in continental ears seems to suggest a sort of glorious sport — not surely the sport of asphyxiating gases ! Duty is the key-stone to the arch of conscription; we must cultivate the virtue of patriotism. The whole nation is thus knit together in a common suffering, in common anxieties of a common lot. That is better than the gladiatdr class, the class set apart for fighting. Looked at logically, should one able-bodied class be required to protect another able-bodied class ? Youth, courage, enterprise, all the manly virtues are penalized by the voluntary system, which leaves the least interest- ing portion of the community safely at home. It is true there are Chauvinists in France, but at least their " enthusiasm " is tempered by the knowledge that they and their sons are of those who must support that policy in their own persons. Thus is brought home to each man political responsibility. The fact that the lower classes in France are better informed on foreign politics than many of the middle classes in England is largely due to the circum- stance that the subject is painfully interesting to them. Behind their frontiers, a few hours away from Paris, flash perpetually hostile bayonets. If the foe were permanently encamped four hours from London (the distance between Paris and Alsace), you would find a different pose in England in regard to conscription 116 FRANCE AT BAY and in regard to foreign questions. The security of the sea has bred indifference, and indifference has induced ignorance. French people have a profounder sense of foreign politics than the English ; they under- stand more readily than we the real meaning, the underlying obligation of the Entente. Their leading statesmen realized, years ago, that England must establish a large army, which, making use of the Channel Tunnel, could operate with speed and effi- cacy on the Continent. And France comprehended more readily than we the role of the under-water fleet, and the future of the guerre de course. She saw that the exclusive reign of the armoured leviathan was over. So many of the working-class in England said, after the war had been in existence some months : " Had I only known the need of men, the need of shells, I should have offered myself as soldier or artisan." This was the spirit of the nation inadequately repre- sented by the hesitations of the Government. But the Government had the excuse that the splendid response of the country rendered compulsion unnecessary; which of course is good reasoning. And such an argu- ment can only be successfully challenged by showing enforced service to be right (as equitable and just), or as necessary for the national defence. Conscrip- tion, of course, is the scientific base for making war. By its means the skilled workman is mobilized in the factory or workshop, the miner in his pit, the railway- man on his system, just as another category of the male population takes its place automatically in the trenches. It means the systematic organization of the country for war. CONSCRIPTION: A CONTRASTED VIEW 117 The menace of future wars will cause us certainly to organize the women of the country, that they may take their part in the scheme of things. When war breaks out, they will be able to employ their trained energies as nurses in base and field hospitals, and fill positions in offices, shops and municipal adminis- trations, thus liberating men for their work at the Front. There will be a national register kept of feminine competence. Each woman will have her place in the military cosmos, and this applies to France as much as to England. The result in its moral and physical aspects will give satisfaction to woman, who feels that, in the affairs of the nation, she has been persistently neglected. We shall thus expect to avoid many of the grotesque scenes which held up English Ministers, and also to some extent the Suffragette, to the laughter of the world. The details of woman's exact part in the military machine are being worked out in actual war conditions; the success of the French experiment is conclusive. One of the English working-man's objections to conscription is his fear of a military caste having a perpetual sway over the more active years of his manhood. And there is some justification for this fear, for even a great European war has not changed the almost fanatical regard for the universities and public schools as the breeding-grounds of officers. The working-man is a little fearful of the perpetual dominance of Rugby and Oxford by virtue of the military register. And here France, again, offers a lesson. In a democratic national army, class distinc- tions are moderated, if not abolished. An officer's speech may often betray his humble origin, but 118 FRANCE AT BAY Dumanet thinks no worse of him. More and more, no doubt, commissions in England will be given to likely rankers. Thus will the army-makers satisfy the tendency of the age and remove from the working- man his fear that he may be directed by an officer with the minimum of professional competence and the maximum of social influence. Tommy's love for a gentleman has undergone modification in response to the change in his mental if not social status ; in France it has never existed. Another great advantage of conscription is that it distributes the burden equally to town and country dweller, for in France, as in other countries, the peasant follows the trade of arms with great reluctance. He is not naturally adventurous, and prefers to remain within sight and sound of the familiar spire. Had the French army depended on voluntary enlist- ment when the call came to arms, the result in rural France would have been very unsatisfactory. Conscription being an acknowledged necessity in France, is moved out of the region of controversy, but, apart from that, it is the most democratic system yet devised. The nation being at war, the whole nation is engaged in it except those physically de- barred. And as I have tried to show, it is a great instrument for peace, when directed, not by an autocrat (more or less gifted and subject to human error), but by democratic Ministers. If you have democratic control and responsibility combined, you can scarcely have an aggressive policy. France has been persistently pacific since national service was instituted on a thorough basis by the Third Republic, and this notwithstanding that she is historically and CONSCRIPTION: A CONTRASTED VIEW 119 by temperament a warlike nation. The influence of conscription, acting on a wide electoral basis, has kept down the fighting spirit. Thus the tone and temper of German diplomacy, which has really pro- voked the great conflict, can only be modified by modifying its source of inspiration. The moment that it ceases to be esoteric and becomes popular, it ceases to be menacing, particularly if the man-in-the- street has to back it with his own right arm. And doubtless its orientation will become even more pacific when women are admitted to the vote. CHAPTER X THE ROLE OF THE PRESS Mobilization touched the newspapers, as it touched other departments of human activity, and the effect was instantaneous. The liveliness and spontaneity for which French journals are famed were totally wanting during the first year of the war. In ap- pearance they became attenuated, with blotchy countenances, and the tone and texture of their con- tents were painfully uninspiring. Nor was the reason far to seek, for the inexorable hand of national service had seized the youth of the various offices and left age and maturity alone with its wisdom and experi- ence. If the papers took on an unaccustomed aspect of gravity, it was not surprising — it was their business to be grave. Circumstances and, I confess, a certain distaste for light literature at critical moments, pre- vented me from following the vicissitudes of the more amusing Boulevard publications, which flaunt their gaiety from every kiosk; but even they, I am told, adopted a certain seriousness in their comments on the situation. As the war became a literary habit, these flippant children of Parisian pavements babbled in the nurseries of wit and badinage with precocious gravity, posing as servants of public spirit and reform. It was as if Lucifer, thrown from exalted spheres, had 120 THE R6LE OF THE PRESS 121 leapt back again to celestial place and power, and lectured St. Peter on his duty. Another effect of mobilization was to renew the youth of venerable institutions upon which genera- tions of Frenchmen had been nourished — since, indeed, Paris had become La Ville Lumiere and a foyer of art and letters. Foremost amongst the rejuvenated was the Journal des Debats, whose century had been lately passed, but, like the celebrated British cricketer, was still running. Napoleon, no doubt, read the Debats on the eve of Waterloo. In any case, it had kept the measure of the old journalism and wrote its leaders, I am sure, in the flat-brimmed hat of other days. People found its steps a little slow; it came not swiftly with its news, like the Matin, sturdy Mercury of thirty years of age, or as such frank demo- crats as the Petit Parisien and Petit Journal, with their million readers apiece ; yet it had its qualities of sound and accurate information and judicious comment upon affairs. There was no " intelligent anticipation of events " as was fitting in a grave and reverend signor of the Press ; but, in the war, it blossomed with the unexpected freshness of a venerable aloe. It gave us something to read, and not the mere dry bones of the communique, which meant nothing to the un- initiated. It talked with pleasant garrulity of Paris life and touched, sometimes, the heroic note. In the best style of flaneurs and chroniqueurs were revived scenes of the war. The writing was polished and scholarly, as if bombs and asphyxiating gases were powerless against Virgil and Horace. The Temps, also, if it missed the hand of Andre Tardieu, its brilliant writer upon foreign affairs (en- 122 FRANCE AT BAY gaged at that moment in recording history at the Front), at least recovered, early in the course of the war, its suave Olympian manner, its definite literary cachet. Critiques of books and plays appeared — plays of a bygone theatre, of course, for the living drama had ceased to be — and charming evocations of a Paris past or present, but always picturesque and comforting in the sense of civic virtue. All this spoke of calm and confidence in a city fifty miles from the battle-line, which any day Zeppelins might bombard and partially destroy, wiping out Opera and Elys6e, laying low the Eiffel Tower in the midst of crackling speech with the Allies, or shattering theEcole de Guerre where theories were now being turned to practice. All these things might have happened ; it was amaz- ing that they did not happen. But the guardians of the air were vigilant ; they were not reading news- papers, but humming perpetually in the blue with eagle eyes fixed on any cloud that might hide an enemy. Sometimes the latter came, but rarely got past the outer fringe of Paris, with its low crown of hills, from which glitter at night a suburban con- stellation. To the Parisian it seemed strange that the Press should give him topics other than the war to discuss over the bridge-table of an afternoon. And the Temps earned his gratitude in another sense, for it kept alive the trembling flame of the arts, and fluttered a pennant for England when she was in need of praise. Elsewhere, I have shown how French people were irritated at the nonchalance of John Bull, at his interminable discussions whether or no he should remove his coat. The Temps was useful in telling how England had employed her navy in clean- THE RdLE OF THE PRESS 123 ing-up the seas, how no German flag flew upon it, how France owed the continuance of her colonies to this immunity from German ships, how French ports, by this same means, were open to British and American imports, how her own troops had been moved from Algeria and Morocco to the motherland in perfect safety because Jack Tar in the North Sea had his eye upon Hermann in the harbour at Kiel. And it said other things necessary to be said in the interest of mutual faith. For, although those who frequented official circles knew well what England was doing : that her battle-line had been prolonged, that every engineering shop in the country was red hot with work, yet these things were not known to the Frenchman in the mass simply because he had not been told in language he could understand. He saw only the reluctance to make sacrifices, the greed of coal-owners, haggling with hard- mouthed men — and the common propensity to think rather poorly of one's rich friends did the rest. The Temps, therefore, was patriotic in holding the scales against the ill-natured comment of the meaner Press, which preached homilies on the strike in Wales. Was it not proof of cold calculation, that England was penetrated with the spirit of self ? And in setting that right, the leading French paper performed its part in the perfect understanding. Gradually, as the war grew into a chronic fact and the Parisian became acclimatized to his own strange country and its " atmosphere," he noticed a trans- formation in his favourite journal : it became more voluminous. In the early days it was certainly a shock to find organs, upon which one had leaned for 124 FRANCE AT BAY guidance through the web of news, reduced to micro- scopic size. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are influenced by bulk. The big book overawes us ; it reproaches us in heavy accents with a misspent youth, with neglected education; in the same way, the portly paper with a good round waist and mellow, oracular voice impresses far more than the shrill treble of a lively print which we can carry easily in our pockets — whereas the great newspaper refuses to get folded and distends itself like a flag in the evening breeze. The state of the Paris journals bespoke the paucity of raw materials and of their own " reduced circumstances " — they appeared, in fact, besmudged and diminished editions of themselves. Yet the owners of these papers had satisfaction in the fact that they cost little to produce. And thus it came to pass that organs which had languished in the wan smile of party politics, now discovered there was profit in multitudinous pence, and they became, for the first time, income-bearing investments. Per- haps the most amusing transformation was La Guerre Sociale, now converted into a " Parisian " sheet, and read even by the pretty woman over her chocolate in the morning. It was conducted with great spright- liness by Gustave Herve, the ex-anti-militarist. Now it is notorious that the reclaimed sinner exceeds in zeal those who have never wandered from the fold. And Herve's sojourn in the wilderness, when the State gave him husks to eat for his attempt to con- vert conscripts into deserters in the name of pacific- ism, had the startling effect of turning himself into a patriot. His smiling gibes each morning at what he regarded as Government inaction, his challenge to THE R6LE OF THE PRESS 125 the high Heaven of the army to show cause why it did not repeat the miracle of the Marne, refreshed us with the dew of a lively temperament after the parched summer of " official " news. Discontent disappeared in the haze of this cheerful humour. Often just and constructive, his criticisms were never the outcome of a sour and carping disposition. Unhappily, some of his best efforts were read only in the dim light of early day, for they were seized at birth and hurried to the awful oubliette where lay the rebellious and unlicensed offspring of the Press. Of course, Herve had the calm confidence of the armchair strategist and let us know how much better he could do it than those benighted professionals of the general staff; but, beyond this light assurance was sound common sense, a charm of writing amounting to real talent, and the sunny smile and habitual gaiety of a French- man with a good digestion. He was one of the literary surprises of the war and, malgre lui, an odd corrobora- tion of the old-fashioned notion of prison as a remedy for ill-regulated reformers. He is a good soldier spoiled, for, though he hurried to the trenches, his eyesight did not equal his will to shoot the invader, and a sympathetic commandant sent him back to teach the Socialists persistence in the good cause, a duty which he performed well. In the same breath with Herve one should men- tion Clemenceau. With Joffre, the veteran polemist might have said that the war found him at his post; he did not seek it. But there the resemblance ends. Notwithstanding his seventy-four years, M. Clemen- ceau has the vigour of ideas, the energy, the verve of a young man. Though forty-five years have passed 126 FRANCE AT BAY since he was Mayor of Montmartre, he has the same intrepid spirit, the same juvenile iconoclastic taste. He still wrecks idols with his editorial sword-stick — idols of smugness and mediocrity. He had certain betes noires in the war, which he took no pains to con- ceal ; it was the Censor who took pains to prevent us from reading about them with the desired frequency. History has recorded the septuagenarian's suspension at Bordeaux, whither the Government had gone during the battle of the Marne; but V Homme Libre (the original title of his paper) was equal to the Censor and appeared next day under the name of VHomme Enchaine (" the Man in chains "). Even manacled, the incorrigible editor continued to wield a picturesque and powerful pen. Like Herve, Clemenceau pleaded for activity in the long entr'acte after the victory of the Marne, and when his remarks were too pointed, the Censor refused his Imprimatur. Yet, such is the suggestion of a powerful mind, that the article, even whited out, seemed to tremble with pale anger. One felt the criticism behind the blank space, the more so that the rest of the paper managed to convey the sensation of stifled speech. Another figure which sprang into prominence these days was Charles Humbert, senator of the invaded Meuse and editor of the Journal. This famous paper, which Has achieved the apparent impossibility of a million circulation on its neutral politics, and on the strength, probably, of the short story, was acquired by the senator and his syndicate in the second year of the war. The interval had been filled with an active propaganda by M. Humbert, who fired round after round from his journalistic trenches in the good cause THE R6LE OF THE PRESS 127 of " more munitions." He believes, as ardently as M. Roosevelt, in the strenuous life, and there never was a Frenchman who had more the temperament of an American hustler. Secretaries wait on him in the night hours and transcribe his thoughts, and only a modicum of sleep stands between him and his readers, or his fellow committee-men at the Senate, or the affairs of his once devastated department. His pro- paganda of the guns was reinforced by M. Henri Berenger, in the Matin, who insisted that the organ- ization of the factories should be as formidable as the organization of the army. Thus all the leaders of French opinion performed their duty in inculcating heroism and in insisting on efficiency in high places. M. Arthur Meyer, veteran spokesman of the Faubourg, champion of throne and altar in the Gaulois, proved by his commendatory tone that even Republican France was better, in his Royalist eyes, than Imperial Germany. He summoned the authority of the ancienne noblesse, with its dim coronets and diadems, to the support of democracy in its struggle against invasion. And M. Charles Maurras, another Nationalist writer, showed that the Union SacrSe was no vain word amongst the writers of the newspapers. He had nothing but praise to give to M. Viviani's speech, in which he destroyed Parliamentary intrigue by arous- ing Parliamentary enthusiasm. Academicians and men of letters, like Maurice Barres and Rene Bazin, recounted glorious episodes of the war, and, by their articles in the Echo de Paris, elevated hearts and crowned military and civic courage. Yet the prose of leisured writers is scarcely suited to the daily Press. President Poincare's advice to his fellow Academicians 128 FRANCE AT BAY to be "militants in the cause," was interpreted literally, and delicate and reflective pens tried to become rude implements of war. It is not given to every man to leap the barriers and plunge into the melee without losing his own soul, and when culture descends the ladder, axe in hand, he does more damage to his own sensibility than harm to the enemy. Sometimes this propaganda, in the name of belles lettres, was as dangerous as it was futile. The efforts to minimize reverses to the Russians in Poland induced a wrong state of mind, for they were narcotic in their effects. " But the Germans do not exist any more ; I have the authority of Monsieur X for it," was the natural con- clusion from the arguments of the writer — as foolishly optimistic as that the abandonment of positions gave positive advantage to the retreating army, and hastened, in some strange way, the termination of the war. Though no doubt the susceptibility of the Censor needed careful management, a " moderate " truth was better than the visionary's view, in which moral forces were held to counterbalance the material facts. Another danger was the entry of politics into the arena. Mrs. Partington's broom, which tried to keep out the Atlantic, would have been just as ineffective against French politics. They will enter through every chink and crevice of the edifice. But the Press wrestled bravely with the temptation to at- tribute failure to an anti-Clerical general, and success to a stout Republican, or vice versa, according to the particular tenets of the writer. It was hard, too, for Socialists not to discover that really the Reactionaries were being favoured outrageously at the Front, whilst THE R6LE OF THE PRESS 129 honourable Democrats were being sent about their business for the least mistake. Nevertheless, it was as refreshing as it was surprising to find politics fore- sworn and a pure efficiency exalted in strongholds of prejudice. And Gustave Herve proceeded to a solemn declaration : that he would rather endure the worst Reactionary, if he were competent, than suffer the Republican fool — remarkable admission, even in France at bay. Yet it was too much to expect that this apostle of Socialism would refrain from saying that Jaures, the Great Tribune, had claimed with prophetic force that France should build strategic railways to the Belgian frontier instead of enlarging barracks, should utilize her reserves as Germany did and should constitute la Nation armee by giving each man a six months' training and thus obviate the Three Years law. There were joints in the armour of Jaures' Nouvelle Armee, visible to the professional eye; but it is a fine book and foretells, with rare intuition, the course of the great war — like Wells in his War of the Worlds. Indeed, the outsider has seen most of the game ; is it not the raison oVHre of the journalist ? An organ that reared an irreverent head during the war was the Bonnet Rouge. It showed a posi- tive genius in getting itself suspended. Like the traditional old offender, it spent a longer time in the shades of retirement than in the light of day. Notices appeared frequently upon the walls of Paris sealed with the symbolical red cap and cockade, and stating that the journal would reappear on a certain day ; an hour after its " return to circulation," it would be seized again by the police. Incorrigible Bonnet Rouge ! Its carping spirit extended to all mundane matters, 130 FRANCE AT BAY so that one dined on hors d'ceuvre and sauce piquante instead of the homely omelette of the habitual cuisine. The Bonnet Rouge owed its notoriety, if not its exist- ence, to the war, and there was a crop of papers that sprang up, mushroom-like, in the shadow of the national crisis — organs that depended on the camera for their food, and showed in its crude verities how utterly the picturesque had escaped from the modern battlefield. Only the artist with his eye for " types " could evoke in V Illustration something of the old- time poetry and romance of war. Sic transit . . . applies as much to war as to peace. But the comfort- ing reflection is that the Press of France, like the Press of England, showed clear-sighted patriotism in its writings on the war, and when it sinned, it sinned in the interests of " More light ! " Perhaps some day our rulers will realize that the truth, naked and un- palatable, is best, even in war. It is part of the price of progress that we should know all. CHAPTER XI WOMEN AND THE WAR The part played by women in these great events is so important that it cannot be omitted without penalty of incompleteness from any survey of France in war time. How heroic that part has been is demon- strated by many incidents, not the least being the feminine resolution, in certain districts, not to shed tears when the men departed for the Front. The wife and mother determined to keep a brave face as if they were dispatching husband and son on some banal journey of pleasure or business. And such a resolu- tion was the more courageous because those who arrived at it were from the South, by nature expansive, and moved easily to tears and laughter. But no; the moment was too grave, either for tears or laughter ; it was a moment consecrated to the country's need; thus there was restraint, as well as dignity and con- cealment of private feelings. To their honour women dominated their emotions, their tendency to weep; out of consideration for their men they steeled them- selves against fear. They declared that the Cause was worthy of the supreme sacrifice. Every woman resolved to be a Joan of Arc in her measure, to be valiant, to suffer without complaint for La France bien-aimee. And so the brave set faces reflected 131 132 FRANCE AT BAY none of the fears that trouble a woman's heart at the critical moment when husband, son or brother leave for the Front, for the great Unknown, for the deathly enterprise. It must be confessed that the women of Paris were not quite as heroic. There were heart-rending scenes at the railway termini. Women and children sobbed and tears streamed down the cheeks even of the men. This was not weakness; on the contrary it showed a certain strength — that, being conscious of the danger, they did not recoil from it, but went bravely forward, overcoming poor human weaknesses and bracing the soul with ties of steel. To be in- sensible to danger is to be easily brave. But even whilst the women wept, they encouraged their men to fight for France. And then, equally charming and admirable was the behaviour of the sex which, on the morrow of mobilization, took the places of the men without the least ostentation, without the least difficulty. It was a solemn and inconspicuous little game of chasse-croise. The world swung a little on its axis, but its customary revolutions were main- tained. Men went to the Front to meet the foe, women went to the counting-house, to the shop, the bank, the post-office, the workshop and factory, and the farm. They stepped quietly into the breach ; there was no fuss; there were no speeches. They became ticket collectors on the trams and on the underground; they took a great part in the toilette of the City; some young women delivered coal, and carried out even this rude labour with a certain feminine grace. Many stood beside the men in arsenals and arms factories and helped in the muni- WOMEN AND THE WAR 133 tions war. Whether the work was manual or whether it was clerical they showed a perfect adaptability, enabling the country to be run with great success in the absence of its valid male population. Native intelligence and talent aided woman in this work. Indeed, one may say that mobilization was successful in France largely because of the women. And if universal service is adopted in England, one must first work to bring women to that pitch of economic efficiency for which Frenchwomen are famed. It is a truism that women carry on a large part of the commerce of the country, and especially the small retail business. The man does the rough work, the woman keeps the accounts, and comes into contact with the customers and represents in fact the head of the concern, whilst her husband is the hands. And you may see each day what faculty for management she has; with what ease and efficiency she directs hotels and cafes and shops of the smaller sort, where she sits enthroned at the pay-desk, with hair un- ruffled and neatly drawn behind her ears, the corsage, glistening in its blackness, fitting like a glove. This impeccable figure, frigid in its calm, is an admirable business woman. Order, method and suavity are hers. Nothing escapes her. She follows all the operations of the business with the eyes of a lynx. And if I were writing a treatise on French economics I should say that the defects of the French business system are largely feminine defects, innate defects of woman's nature, and are the outcome of a timid, conscientious, over-careful and meticulous nature. On the other hand, Madame Dupont is positive and practical and less given to day-dreams than poor 134 FRANCE AT BAY vague man. She has been trained in economy from her cradle by her own excellent mother ; she has learned by constant precept the value of a sou. Descended from a long line of careful housewives, she has become expert, and, like the cotton operatives in Lancashire, is the product of atavism and inherited skill. Women in England, I have suggested, are less adapted by their training and education to accept sudden responsibility. Life is organized differently on the English side of the Channel ; women are not required either to possess a dowry or the equivalent metier. Thus there is not a large mass of trained women immediately available for work. One of the phenomena of mobilization in France was the con- tinuance of business — after the first shock of a sudden withdrawal of all the young men — on very much the normal lines. It is true that some of the business streets in Paris presented a death-like stillness, for on each premises was written : fermee a cause de la mobilisation, but this condition of suspended anima- tion was commoner to the towns than to the country. Harvesting was completed in many cases before the last contingents were called to join the colours ; but women had to carry out many of the operations of the farm, to care for the stock, to sow and tend the growing crop. For the ploughing, they had generally the assistance of a younger son or of youths from the village ; or, perhaps, grandfather was drawn from his quiet contemplation over the garden gate to resume the occupation which had been laid aside for years — and there were always kind neighbours to fall back upon. WOMEN AND THE WAR 135 I have referred to the predominance of women in rural retail trade. They are very successful in this species of work, and their large sense of diplomacy enables them to bridge difficulties and to placate the angry customers with a skill and unruffled temper that are not given to every one. In addition to these arts of persuasion, the woman director pos- sesses a moral courage and directness of thought and speech which are infallible in extracting from the hired help the best that he or she can give. And the wonder of it is that this competence exists without harshness and loss of charm. A woman does not cease to be woman because she has become an efficient partner in man's business. And no less a tribute to her intelligence and feminine subtlety is the fact that in this dominance she does not rob man of his prestige. She conveys no sense of inferiority; the facade is there; man is still in possession of his self-respect. Woman simply says : "I shall do certain work because I can. and that leaves you free to do your work." That work may be the general oversight, or it may be mechanical, or it may be (and often is) in the petite bourgeoisie mere waste of time on the part of the man : days spent in fishing, hours in games of dominoes with the crony at the corner cafe. But charm and dignity remain with the woman. And this is so when she follows some of the higher occupations. She may, for instance, teach recondite subjects in a secondary school. She may hold classes in philosophy or higher mathematics, but, in the interval her baby will be brought to her and she will discuss with the bonne or with the country nounou the questions of feeding and little details of the child's 136 FRANCE AT BAY health. Momentarily she has ceased to be the has bleu, to become the mother. And it is delightful in France that woman, who has sought the larger avenues of employment for her best powers, has not turned herself into some ridiculous caricature of a man. She is still a woman; the French Suffragette rampant is impossible, because she would be out of the picture. The Frenchman on his part is generally a sym- pathetic companion, rather than the distant and strangely uncomprehending bread-winner of some English households. " What can she want ? Has she not a liberal allowance — plenty of good food, friends and pretty dresses ? " A Frenchman would be less positive and more ingratiating. An English lady, who went one day to the Chamber and lobbied for votes for her French sisters, distributed roses with her smiles to the Deputies ; it was the better part of feminist propaganda. It is obvious that if woman uses force, she can be beaten at her own game, and force evokes force. Amongst a certain class of Frenchwomen there is a strong desire to be represented in Parliament ; but they are the Intellectuals — extreme in all their views, particularly on questions of matrimony. They contend that a woman can leave the upbringing of her children to her grandmother, admirably adapted, they say, to that function, whilst she herself pur- sues some professional calling side by side with her husband. And it must be remembered that in France the majority of women work. In the working- classes there is scarcely any exception, and the system is extremely wide-spread amongst the petite bourgeoisie. WOMEN AND THE WAR 137 And, though the long absence of the mother from the home cannot be good for the child, it is as a rule brought up in its infancy in the country, which is excellent for its health, and the grandmother at this stage, in reality, does act as the mother. And in the result the poor children of France are not as neglected as those of England, especially the waifs and strays of London and the great cities. Religion, of course, has a considerable bearing upon the position of women in France. The Church of Rome teaches the submission of the sex. Thus a woman may feel that she is acting contrary to traditional teaching when she strikes out a line for herself. Woman's voice is not to be heard in the Church according to the Apostolic teaching; she is to efface herself. And the teaching generally of Rome is that woman is the temptress, the danger to be resisted. Youth is warned against her ; the Church teaches her intrinsic sinfulness. And so women find that the assertion of their " rights " is out of harmony with the place assigned to them by Church and Society. But to-day they are so occupied by their duties that they have little time to consider their rights. In Aix in Savoy, which I visited during the war, I found a woman running the large hotel in which I stayed, and next door, one of her sex was acting as coiffeur and removing beards with delicate speed from stubbly chins. Both admitted that they had no time to think of their rights. They did what they could, they said, and what they must, but as to voting, well, that was men's affair, and this attitude of mind is general enough amongst the shopkeeping and smaller commercial class of France. 138 FRANCE AT BAY Yet it seems inevitable that change must come from women's enlarged activities. Certain new facts have emerged from the turmoil of the war. One is the official recognition that has been given to feminine competence; woman had been doing a vast amount of work before, but it was unrecognized. The fact that the work went on during the enemy occupation of a large part of the territory is a tribute, more or less satisfactory, as I have insisted, to feminine courage, doigte and savoir faire. Will a development of her position along the lines I have indicated materially change her status in the country? That is a matter upon which it is difficult to pass an opinion ; but some of the grievances that weigh upon her, both legal and economic, and the inequality of her pay as compared with man's will surely be remedied. Prophecy is proverbially dangerous and I shall not adventure into these paths — but at least the war has left profound traces on feminine psychology. It does seem as though there will be less frivolity than before. We shall find fewer young and even elderly women occupying a great part of the day in Bridge and Tango. There will be ample employment for their leisure in dealing with the misery created by the war, enough for them to think about in devising remedies for some of the distress. The Frenchwoman of fashion has become serious ; the sight of suffering has effected this. Mere questions of toilet or of household manage- ment, even the rather exaggerated care of her children, must recede a little before this absorbing problem of dealing with the moral damage of the war, of succouring the hearths left destitute, of showing WOMEN AND THE WAR 139 sympathy with the young girls whose lovers have been torn from them by the cruel war, with the children left fatherless, and fortune-less. And the literature she reads has taken already a graver turn ; the novels are of a different atmosphere; they have ceased to be erotic and perverse. And if you object that human nature is always the same, that it may be inspired by a temporary influence, but that it will inevitably fall back to its dead level, that an fond it is unchanged, then, I think, your pessimism will be put to a rude proof before very long. The lesson has been too terrible, too persistent, too close to our own lives, ever to be neglected by the present generation. And yet, in another respect, I anticipate a consider- able loosening of social customs, and the rigid eti- quette which has bound women hitherto to a formal line of conduct. They will be freer in their comings and goings, and greater deference will be shown to them in the street. This was one of the noticeable features of the changed Paris upon which I have enlarged in another place. And if the old frivolity has gone, the exaggerated attention to dress and personal adorn- ment, woman, I think, should be accessible to wider interests and ideas. Will she take a greater part in affairs ? Will she obtain the franchise, municipal and parliamentary ? I do not know, but it is reasonable to suppose so — though I decline to dogmatize on the subject. And undoubtedly woman's sense of economy would be valuable in public management. Institu- tions managed by women are notoriously efficient, and Frenchwomen, presumedly, would not be behind their English sisters in this respect. 140 FRANCE AT BAY The girls' lycee has had a profound influence upon the attitude of the young woman of to-day. This has been due to two circumstances : first, her studies have emancipated her to some extent from clerical influence ; secondly, the young ladies go to the lycee alone. Thus Frenchwomen begin to enjoy some of the freedom of their British and American sisters; the chaperon is no longer essential. Girls, indeed, walk freely in the streets, and there will result from the war, I feel sure, a more spiritual conception of women, especially as one has seen her in hospitals and in various charitable enterprises, absorbed in her work, unconscious, devoted, entirely given to the service of others. Again, I think she will be found to attach less importance than before to money. If not rejoicing in poverty, she will be willing to bear it for the man she loves. A large number of persons necessarily will have their fortunes affected; the young father has been killed, there are no dowries for the children. From this fact will result a marry- ing for love. I think, also, that the war will bring about greater sympathy between women; the rich and the poor will be drawn together. It has been a great opportunity for women, they have won everywhere incontestable victories. In filling the places of mobilized man, they contribute to the safety of the country. And, not merely that, they exhibit to the world, convinced almost against its will, their own superior capacities. Have they not the right to be proud of their success? Feminism triumphs, everything that was refused yesterday is being granted to-day. None suspected that this would be the result of European war. In the tram- WOMEN AND THE WAR 141 ways and underground they quit themselves, liter- ally, like men ; in the cafes, women waiters bring the beer which is from a French brewery. In the great emporiums the mobilized employes are replaced by women. It has needed a European war to show that to measure muslin, to try on gloves, and sell garters was women's work rather than man's. A battalion of women has entered the War Office as clerks and secretaries; women teachers have taken the place of men teachers in the schools; in certain University towns, women professors, charged with the Baccalaureat class, do their work to general satis- faction. It is proved, now, that men may leave their positions and that women can fill them. Besides serving the country, they have the added satisfaction of feeling that they are establishing the equality of the sexes. But one may ask, with a certain appre- hension, what will happen after the victory, when the warrior returns, diminished in health and activity, from his sufferings in the trenches? He has grown old and weary, from a year or more of war. A woman occupies the position that once was his in the shop, office or factory. She is fresh and unwearied and has gained great competence in the metier; he, on the other hand, finds he has left something of his youth and enthusiasm for work on the battlefield. Will the one yield gracefully to the other ? If so, which one ? Will the woman say with deadly logic, " Ty suis, fy reste," or will she turn, with the instinct of domesticated woman, to household duties? Per- haps the answer will be found in the graciousness that often accompanies strength. In any case Parlia- ment and Public Opinion will be on the side of the 142 FRANCE AT BAY returned warrior. But what will be the attitude of the employer faced with the alternative of dis- charging the better and possibly cheaper worker? Painful enigma to which, we suppose, special legisla- tion will offer some solution. But the morrow can take care of itself; sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. And again, it may be urged that man who has lived the larger life in the open air, who, sleeping under the stars, has grown active and vigorous in body, with nerves of steel, is not going easily to adapt himself to cramped civilian conditions. The little airless workshops will prove stifling to him. He will feel that shackles have been placed upon his limbs; he cannot move, he cannot breathe. He will be glad perhaps to leave woman where she is in a position which events and her own industry have created for her. The Frenchwoman has distinguished herself also in war work. Though lacking the training of the British nurse she has become highly useful in the wards under the guidance of doctors. M. Millerand, Minister of War, stimulated her enthusiasm with great ingenuity. Without the least suggesting that some had neglected their opportunities to become efficient, he announced that the white veil would be reserved for the trained nurse, the blue for the adminis- trative department, and the grey for philanthropic helpers without qualifications. M. Millerand was Parisian enough to know that none would wish to wear the grey veil, symbol of inferiority. Feminine enthusiasm, you may observe, is adroitly handled in Paris. Then, too, women have worked admirably in look- WOMEN AND THE WAR 143 ing after refugees and in making garments for soldiers, in taking care of their dependents, in collecting an immense amount of money for the wounded, in promoting entertainments for their benefit, and, in a dozen ways, in dealing with the exceptional position created by the war. And the more robust type of woman has found an outlet for her energies in the war factories. Happily for her progress and material happiness, there is a tendency to pay her at the same rate for the same work as man. Nevertheless, the Napoleonic Code continues to say dispassionately : " The husband owes protection to the wife, the wife obedience to her husband." CHAPTER XII THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS There is no side of the war which appeals more strongly to our sympathies than the care of the sick and wounded. It is admitted that in the beginning the French system was far from perfect; in fact its many defects inspired severe criticism in and out of Parliament. At a special sitting of the Chamber, devoted to the Service de Sante, it was stated that only one hundred and fifty doctors were mobilized out of fifteen thousand, and that many trained hospital attendants had gone to the Front as com- batants instead of exercising their vocation in the hospitals. There was, in fact, considerable confusion and overlapping. It was evident that the Service de Sante, depending upon the Ministry of War, had not had the same care bestowed upon its organiza- tion as the army under the powerful direction of General Joffre and the General Staff. None had realized, indeed, what would be the extent of the demands made upon the service, on account of the development of artillery fire and the masses of men engaged. There was a great lack of motor ambulances, and, in consequence, the wounded had to be evacuated by slow and uncertain transport to distant hospitals, as far as possible from the firing-line. No selection of cases was possible, and this led to long unnecessary 144 THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS 145 journeys on the part of dangerously wounded men whose condition became aggravated by septic infec- tion of their wounds and by fatigue ; infection, also, was rendered more likely from the fact that doctors were forbidden to touch the bandages en route. The wounded had thus to travel long distances in hot, airless, uncomfortable trains, often composed of horse-boxes hastily improvised, and when they arrived at their destination, after three or four days' journey, it was too late : the ill had been done. In this way gangrene and other cases of infection occurred which would have been avoided had there been earlier surgical intervention. The Service de Sante of the Army claimed that this disorder, produced for the most part by the failure to foresee the magnitude of the task, was limited to the time of the great retreat from the Belgian frontier ; but Dr. Doyen, the famous surgeon, in a confidential report to the Government, says this was not so. The same state of affairs existed after the battle of the Marne and continued in some dis- tricts until the end of the first year of the war, when public opinion insisted on remedial measures being taken. The condition in which these men, suffering perhaps from compound fracture or severe head wounds, arrived after having been travelling for three or four days, was deplorable. As an instance of the lack of supervision, Dr. Doyen alleges that men with bandages smeared with blood, who were not wounded at all, glided in amongst those who were and arrived at hospital. In a communication to the Biological Society of Paris, he has shown that most war wounds contain microbes capable of producing erysipelas and 146 FRANCE AT BAY septicaemia. Wounds from shrapnel and shell splinters, into which particles of clothing have been carried, nearly always contain the bacilli of gangrene and sometimes of tetanus. In the greater number of the wounded who had come under his observation, he could trace, he said, the result of delay in their infected condition. Happily vast improvement has been effected since those lines were written by a surgeon who, though one of the most daring and gifted practitioners in Europe, has not the good fortune to please his confreres ; but his conclusions are not to be set aside on that account, and, since they are now recognized as true and have been remedied long since, there is no harm in referring to them with the object of showing the difficulties under which the department had to labour at the commencement of the war. The gigantic demands made on the medical service had not been anticipated ; every expert was taken by surprise and none imagined that the total of the wounded would reach its actual stupendous figure. The French Service de Sante, caught in a moment of reorganization, was tem- porarily overwhelmed, like our own department ; but, happily, has profited by experience. One of the worst mistakes was to send the best surgeons to field hospitals, where it was impossible to operate in calmness and security owing to the con- ditions, and where the best surgical skill was thrown away in giving first-aid, whereas it was logical to send the highest professional talent to the base hospital, em- ploying the ordinary practitioner in preparation work. Indeed, the conditions of modern battle are so terrific that it is most difficult to provide against them. It is THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS 147 notorious that many of the civilian doctors, who were mobilized at the outbreak of war, were incompetent, by reason of their training and experience, to deal with the complicated wounds arising from battle. On the other hand, the French, with their habitual quickness and adaptability, effected great improvements in a short space of time, and many of the delays in reach- ing the base hospital, thereby giving the wound every opportunity to become infected, were avoided by a better organization and a larger utilization of motor ambulances. Experience also enabled a better calculation to be made of the hospital needs of the army, and, happily, the wounded were rarely refused admittance at their journey's end for want of space. The French Red Cross (the Union des Femmes de France) did magnificent work, and kindred societies also merit well of the country; but, human nature being what it is, a certain friction arose between rival societies. Nevertheless, one of the redeeming features of the war has been the devotion of the women in the cause of the sick and suffering. And this has been the more admirable because there did not exist in France, as in England and America, a large body of highly trained nurses. The nuns who left the country as the result of the Government legislation had not been replaced by qualified lay sisters, and nursing was done by rather haphazard methods. The devoted amateur was instructed in an elementary course, which was in- adequate to grave cases ; the permanent staff contained women of inferior intelligence and character, and the night nursing was in the hands of men. It was some- thing of a revelation to the French to find that English 148 FRANCE AT BAY nurses undertook the responsibility of the wards at night. The want of efficiency in their own women- nurses was partially explained by the superiority of the surgeon, who rendered himself independent of their help, by the part taken by students in the treat- ment and by the existence of a dresser in each hospital. Thus the r61e of the nurse was reduced to an irrespons- ible minimum. One result of the war, however, will be to induce French women with a vocation for hospital work to continue their studies. Hospitals sprang up all over the country. In every health resort, particularly in the spas in the Auvergne and in the Pyrenees, which, in ordinary years, resound to the gaiety of a cosmopolitan host, hundreds, some- times thousands, of men were nursed in the hospitals improvised out of schools and hotels. At Vichy alone were some fifteen or twenty thousand, according to the exigencies of the Front, and, as the summer advanced, they mingled with the ordinary patients undergoing their " cure," and thus brought home to them the meaning and the consequence of war. Everywhere where one went, to the hospitals in Paris, behind the lines in the north and centre, or in the sunny south, so far geographically from the war that it seemed but an ugly dream, there was the same invincible gaiety, the same touching heroism. The men whom mobilization had wrested from comfortable and peaceful situations, had forged for themselves, in a few weeks, the ame militaire and were anxious to affront again the dangers and hairbreadth escapes of the trenches. It is now freely admitted that these hospital in- stallations were far from perfect; the great majority, THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS 149 of course, came into being at the sudden call of war. Before that they were schools or nunneries, or perhaps barracks. Sometimes it was difficult to remove the dirt, which clung closer than original sin. But microbes show a greater discrimination than they are credited with by cold medical science, and even in the most un- likely surroundings, where apparently scrubbing had yielded the least results, there the patient flourished, by no means discouraged by a discoloured floor be- neath his bed and by the none too spotless corridor outside the ward. The food was good, his treatment at the hands of clever surgeons and doctors generally intelligent and scientific, and he grew well in an atmo- sphere which, if it reeked with garlic, was also redolent with the kindness, cheerfulness and good humour which flourish in the south. Much is done to cheer up the wounded, and, in every hospital, entertainment was part of the cure. Perhaps the most interesting and touching of all were the daily concerts in the refectory of the Grand Palais, where, in the days gone by, when Paris was simply a mile de plaisir (or so it seemed), hung the pictures of the year. Here the star was Eugenie Buffet. Every Parisian knows this popular artiste, who has had an original career, as original as her character. Tiring of the ordinary conventional life, Mme. Buffet conceived the notion of becoming a popular muse, of singing in the courtyards of the houses with a troupe of artistes. And the pockets of the blue apron she wore in those days soon became filled with the coppers thrown by midinettes to their favourite singer, who stirred their sentimental hearts, as Fragson used to stir them, by a frank appeal to the simple emotions. To hear 150 FRANCE AT BAY Eugenie Buffet sing to her wounded soldiers from the Front — zouaves, chasseurs alpins, chasseurs a pied, artillerymen, with here and there a black face under the red fez of the Senegalian — was to receive an educa- tion in the art of moving crowds, of awakening echoes in the human heart which vibrate eternally to stories of love and sacrifice, of vengeance and despair, of hope and heroism. Eugenie Buffet sings in a rather hoarse voice, a voice that has worn itself away in draughty courtyards, with the rain coming down, yet there is something attractive in her art. If the vocal medium is wanting in colour and roundness, there are grace and charm in the manner ; she has something of Yvette Guilbert's gift of charac- terization — she can interpret by a gesture. If she has not the witchery of Yvette, her complete possession of the roads to one's understanding, she addresses her mes- sage to the heart and sets the pulse beating to a tune of patriotism and glory. From singing in the streets of Paris she has learned all the methods of popular appeal: how to grip her public with a phrase, a telling intona- tion. This other Yvette electrifies us with the fire and emphasis of her song, not sung as an opera-singer would sing it, but almost as a recitative, with a meaning, a sentiment in every line. (Alfresco concerts are one of the delights of residence in Paris. A woman with a guitar and men with violins accompany the singer, and the crowd, which has bought from the lame boy selling the songs, delightedly joins in the chorus.) You should hear Mme. Buffet as she sings u Dans la Tranchee," by Theodore Botrel, the Breton bard who has carried courage in his songs to the soldiers, whose THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS 151 thoughts and inmost feelings he knows how to express — "Le sergent — qu'est cure — lui dit, Repose en paix, heros beni Sur qui la gloire s'est penchee Dans la tranchee; Nous te veng'rons, nous Pjurons tous, Car la victoire est avec nous ; Elle mont' la gard' pres d'nous couchee Dans la tranchee ! " It is given with wonderful power, with a true French army blend of bonne camaraderie and virility, and a tender appreciation not merely of the heros beni, but of the sergeant who is a priest, and knows how to face death as priests have faced death since the war began. She has handed out little papers containing the song, in the manner of the pavement artiste and her success is instantaneous. Each man sings the song intensely, as if performing a rite. And this figure mounted on a chair, blue forage cap on her locks, her full bust moulded in a species of hussar uniform, is as inspiring a muse as ever populace had — a real Patti of the streets. And to-day I have the pleasure of hearing another artiste — characteristic, too, in his way. His name is France, predestined name for a popular singer. He possesses an amazing trick of awakening enthusiasm, of summoning sensation, of evoking the soul of his hearers by rushing down the hall between the double line of soldiers, gay and debonair, even if wounded and weary (and some are still wearing their bandages), just as if he were the villain in a Chinese play. He is elderly, and his crown, innocent of hair, shines like 152 FRANCE AT BAY a pale morning star. As he charges down the room, with outstretched finger — it might be a bayonet and the enemy in front of him — he rouses his hearers to the highest pitch. He has fired the powder train, and cheers and plaudits reverberate through the long apartment with its roof of glass, like the rattle of musketry. This same Grand Palais is an admirable example of the French spirit of improvisation. In the days, so long ago now, when France was not at war, the build- ing, glorious vestige of the Great Exhibition of 1900, was the abiding-place of art. From May to July the pictures hung there in endless rows, in a long suite of rooms, upstairs and downstairs, and in interminable corridors. Then the war came; there was no more art, save the art of the battlefield. Painters, like Georges Scott, drew the " types " at the Front — land- scapes, the nude, the other studies had ceased to mean anything; and the Grand Palais, innocent of pictures and statuary as it was innocent of the horses of the Concours Hippique, was pressed into the military service, first as a dep6t for the marine fusiliers, who policed the town, to the joy of the Parisians, in the early days of the war, and secondly as a hospital and convalescent home for the grands blessis. And the hospital proved to be one of the best equipped in this town of hospitals, where the Red Cross floated from proud buildings, formerly the caravanserai of the rich or their private residences. In the entrance hall of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts was a dentist's department, devoted to the poilu's defective teeth. In another department was an installation of radio- graphy, resulting from a gift of ten thousand francs THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS 153 (£400) generously offered by a lady visitor on learning that there were no X-rays to locate the shrapnel bullets and splinters. A laboratory and an American oculist shared a neighbouring space. In a studio, which seems more in keeping with the old character of the building, worked two sculptors — one a Prix de Rome and the other a Gold Medallist — executing plaster casts of feet, arms and legs, which hung from the walls as if they formed an exhibition of Rodin's " work." These casts are useful in the making of artificial limbs. Downstairs, in a great hall of mechanical appliances, soldiers exercised their stiffened muscles. But a section of the hospital that saddened us most was given to two thousand cripples, who sheltered here whilst waiting for their fate in the world to be determined. Such as were able played at tennis and other ball-games, under the eyes of the monitors (them- selves wounded in the trenches) who were employed in what was once the Athletic College at Rheims. Hortensias on waxed tables in the dining-room gave an air of clean elegance to the place, which was very refreshing. It was a town of hospitals, and perhaps the most curious examples of it were the Russian and the Japanese hospitals side by side in the Champs Elysees, once the highway of fashion and now the highway of healing. The meticulous care of the wounded by the Japanese is proverbial; their private opinion that Western methods of bandaging are not equal to their own is an amusing example of the pride of a new people in its Occidental development. Farther away was the American hospital at Neuilly, of which French people speak with a certain awe and 154 FRANCE AT BAY wonder. It was marvellous in the perfection of its details. On the ground-floor they burned the poor soiled clothes of the man from the trenches, there they undertook the sterilizing processes. In an upstairs room a dentist restored teeth to shattered mouths; on the same floor were beautiful wards presided over by well-known American women. They were gay with flowers, and in the afternoon tea was served by ladies bountiful. Beyond were the laboratories and the operating theatre, through the door of which could be seen white-robed surgeons at work. Miracles of science were performed in this American hospital, handsomely housed in a new lyc£e in suburban Paris : torn and flattened faces reconstituted, jaws mended, noses rebuilt, broken bones cunningly set — a work of moral and material rehabilitation upon which the cleverest surgeons of New York had been engaged. This was certainly the most perfect hospital in France, and represented the gulf that stretched between an institution endowed by money and science and some hastily installed hospital in Brittany and the inaccess- ible provinces. France, indeed, has not the money to spend on State hospitals that can be lavished on a private institution such as the Neuilly hospital, where the expenditure per patient was said to be from nine to eleven francs a day, as against a third of that amount spent by the French Medical Department. But every- where was the same good will, the same intense desire to do the best one could. Paris and France owe a debt to America for her unfailing generosity during the war, and thousands of good American dollars have been distributed in hospital and relief work. Happily, after the first confusion resulting from a THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS 155 lack of motor ambulances, our own English hospitals did excellent work in Paris before Boulogne became the base; thereafter, the installations aroused the admiration of everybody. Sir Almroth Wright's bac- teriological laboratory and an admirably equipped hospital train, steam-heated and fitted with spring beds, were leading features of the base. At Versailles, too, in the Trianon Hotel, close to the park gates, was established a military hospital to which large numbers of infectious cases were sent and were treated in isola- tion tents in the grounds. Nor must one forget the women's work, not only in nursing but in surgery. The Women's Emergency Corps, under Dr. Garrett Anderson, was specially commended for its work both in Paris and in the north. A new avocation for women has resulted from the war. Nursing has become a recognized profession in France. At the same time, great attention is now being given to the equipment and sanitation of hospitals. In advance of us in scientific treatment, the French lag behind in their practical appreciation of hospital hygiene. The war has awakened both patriotism and pity ; the first has been called an instinct of race, the second of humanity, and to humanity we make appeal when we speak of the sick and wounded — in the " local " name of patriotism. CHAPTER XIII A YEAR AFTER One year after the war found Paris a picture of composure and self-mastery. The guns still thundered sixty miles away, but the city's life ran on normal lines. Parliament sat intermittently, every week or so, during the hot weather, the business being chiefly war business and the passing of rather drastic measures, measures for dealing with shirkers, for the registration of plant for manufacturing munitions, for the expropriation of land for cemeteries for British and Belgian soldiers, and for giving powers to prefects to abolish alcohol during the war, and in sweeping away private stills in the country. This shows the temper of the legislation twelve months after the commencement of the war. The city was engaged in its usual summer occupa- tion of discussing where to go in August. Nor was it a question quite easy to answer, for, obviously, some of the chief touring -grounds were " out of bounds." One could not go any longer to Bayreuth to hear " Parsifal," or wander through old German cities ; nor could one betake oneself to Austrian spas in an effort to get thin; any chance of visiting Constantinople was removed, for the Levant was sown with mines ; Italy, too, classic land of art and 156 A YEAR AFTER 157 eternally attractive to the French, was engaged in the tragic game of war and therefore closed to visitors. Venice, the Incomparable, was sitting, not in the majesty of her regal splendour, but in a tight corset of bags of cement formed to protect her treasures against bombardment. There remained Switzerland ; but here again the Frenchman feared that he might meet the foe; the German, on his part, probably abstained for a similar reason, so that the poor country of William Tell, already seriously harassed by the question of foodstuffs for her population and of raw material for her manufactures, felt herself deeply injured by the war, more especially as she was forced to keep on foot in her mountain passes half her mobilized army. The French, of course, have the resource of their own resorts : the delightful Dauphin e (often called the French Switzerland), the Auvergne, the Pyrenees and the Jura : but the richer bourgeois seems to disdain his own watering-places. In any case they are re- markably little known, and the hotels are not, gener- ally, the last word in comfort. The spas of France, though extremely rich in curative waters, are less well organized than the German, where science and system have produced a state of perfection. The best-equipped region is the Pyrenees, where exists a remarkable gamut of healing waters as well as exquisite scenery. Luchon, Bagneres-de-Bigorre, Cauterets and a dozen others are enchanting spots. . . . This problem of holidays is resolved in many cases by staying at home or by taking up one's quarters in a suburban town, a few miles from Paris, such as St. Germain, Versailles, St. Cloud, or 158 FRANCE AT BAY one of the little towns on the Marne, now happily free from most traces of their tragic experiences, though, alas ! the graves are there to point to their reality. But Nature seems to conspire to make us forget. She is perpetually covering up the traces of the cataclysm that we may not remember. An earthquake passes, a region is devastated; in a few months, in a few years, all the ravages have been repaired by the great healer. Many elected to remain in Paris during the summer months and to make the Bois their headquarters. There is always a great crowd there on Saturdays and Sundays, and there are such numbers of chairs spread along the paths that one would imagine that the season was still in progress and that the fashionable world was going by in elegant insouciance in the Allees des Acacias in its luxurious limousines and beautifully appointed equipages. And the crowd would, of course, pass judgment on the occupants, remarking that the Grand Duke was certainly ageing, that Mile. Polaire's costume in her brown upholstered victoria was really more original than ever, that Mile. Chenal was sculptural, that the American millionairess so frequently seen on the racecourse was a dreadful little flirt with her retinue of male admirers. ... It is extraordinary to think that Paris has had no season, no spring Salons, no early Horse Show, no exhibition of aeroplanes or auto- mobiles, no charming fetes in the Bois, no gala- nights at the Opera with an attendance of kings with brilliant suites, no sparkling Review at Long- champ, no Grand Prix, or Journee des Drags. Stupendous 1 How, then, do the wheels of life A YEAR AFTER 159 revolve for that hardened routinarian, the Boule- vardier? Mystery. Many have departed. There are quarters of the town where the closed iron shutters tell their own tale. The stream of vehicles in the Champs Elysees is extremely thin — true barometer of the social world. There are vacant spaces in many of the streets of Paris which make it look like a provincial city. And, yet, in other regions there is great activity, specially about the big shops. The movement there is quite extra- ordinary in the afternoon hours. Feminine Paris evidently has not lost its fondness for shopping — nor, apparently, the means of gratifying it. And the terraces of the cafes are just as crowded as ever they were before the war, though the cosmopolitan element is absent, and the summer millinery of the women has turned them into a flower-garden. This is a sign of calm and confidence and it gives a special physiognomy to the town. One thinks inevitably of the scenes immediately after the mobilization; then the terraces were cleared away and the cafes wore a singularly subdued and chastened air. To- day, Paris is herself again, her restricted summer self. There is, however, no spirit of festival abroad. The Reviews continue in the music-halls, either broadly gay and steeped in the esprit parisien, or spectacular and patriotic in tone. Beyond that there is no entertainment except the cinemas or an occasional performance at the Opera Comique. Theatrical Paris sleeps its summer sleep with a thoroughness that suggests the sleep of death. Will this city of all the arts awaken again to its old 160 FRANCE AT BAY activities, to its tremendous outpouring of nerves and temperament, to its artistic creations, to evoca- tions of its old genius ? One idly speculates on the future, but not to doubt that the seed is there ready to spring, in good time, to fruition. A fete day with- out a fete seems to be an aberration singularly out of keeping with the character of Paris. On July 14 there is no dancing in the street under swinging paper lanterns to the blare of improvised orchestras. It is a day consecrated to the wounded and to the honour of Rouget de l'lsle. His body is transported from the suburban Choisy-le-Roi to the Invalides, fit resting-place amongst the heroes of the revo- lutionary wars for him who inspired them and their ragged soldiery with the inflammatory eloquence of the " Marseillaise." Even dead and turned to clay he is still at the service of his tormented country ; his body is carried on a revolutionary gun-carriage at the front of troops and politicians with their scarves of office shimmering on white shirt-fronts. His body lies beneath the gilded dome, but his spirit goes march- ing on, and represents, to-day, much of the sacred fire that burns in the breasts of the people and causes them to envisage another year of war, with its attendant sufferings, with dauntless courage and unquenched fervour. No, there are no fireworks to-day, but the flame of an eternal faith shines in the eyes of France, a faith which is proof, as it was in Rouget de l'lsle's case, against distress, against moral and physical suffering, against long-deferred hope, weighed down sometimes by a sickening sense of human helplessness. The grands blesses (as they are touchingly A YEAR AFTER 161 called) — those who have lost arms and legs in the war — are the heroes with Rouget de l'lsle of the Fourteenth. They are the new saints of the calendar ; the day of the Bastille is consecrated to them. The war-cross and the Legion of Honour gleam from their chests. They are decorated with flowers and the bright paper medals which were " struck " in honour of the Journee de Paris. Paris has a deep and reverent cult for her wounded. A leg -less soldier passes in his little chair, propelled by a lame comrade. A girl goes by, almost brushing with her dress the wheels of the little vehicle. She turns her head; a look of compassion, of maternal feeling comes into her face. She takes the bunch of violets from her bosom, stoops down to the mutilated figure in the little carriage and pins them to his tunic. Tears of commiseration have started to her eyes, they match his which fall upon her hand — tears of tender gratitude. . . . Later in the day, heavy showers fall. A soldier, deprived of one of his limbs, hails a cab; he has not noticed that a young woman is occupying it. She leaps to the ground, with a charming gesture, and will not hear of his remon- strances. " Je vous en prie," he repeats with the gallantry of his race ; but she insists. A crowd has gathered with the startling speed that crowds gather in Paris ; but she has disappeared, leaving the wounded knight in possession, malgre lui. The same charming solicitude prevailed at an entertainment given to wounded men at the Tro- cadero. It was crowded with victims of the war, men permanently disabled and dreadfully disfigured. The national song had never been sung, perhaps, in M 162 FRANCE AT BAY more affecting conditions. Less -wounded comrades helped the others to rise, and friendly crutches sup- ported them whilst they sang the invigorating phrases of the " Marseillaise." The public conspired to help their chers blesses when they left the building — a procession of glorious cripples, maimed in defending Paris and France from the foe. To his infinite joy, the police carried a black soldier ; an arm was wound round each " agent's " neck and he grinned recog- nition of this signal honour with every one of his shining teeth. A young lady distributed cigarettes. Every one sought to do something for these poor, dismembered sons of France, and that is the spirit everywhere. It is seen in woman's constant de- mand : " How can I honour the brave mutiUs, those who have suffered in their persons from the war? Am I to bow to them, regard them with a friendly smile as they pass, or show in some way — perhaps by placing my hand upon my heart — that I feel for them in their ' diminished existence ' ? " This rather naive anxiety admirably expresses a common senti- ment. How is the civilian to show his admiration for those who honour our common humanity? Permissionaires throng the street and seat them- selves joyously at the little tables of the restaurants, radiant to find themselves again in Paris after nine or ten months, or perhaps a year, of absence in the trenches. They have no need of their war medals to be identified. There is something not to be confounded with the man who stayed at home, in the mien of the combatant. His manner is that of the militaire who has done something beyond wear military clothes and drive a pen, or perhaps a motor- A YEAR AFTER 163 car within the comfortable circle of the Paris camp. He is the antithesis of the embusque, who passes by, round-shouldered, white-faced, reminding us of Shakespeare's description : "a lily-livered gentle- man, a whey-faced loon." In the sparkle of the eye, in the ruddy glow of the cheek, in the decided and yet modest carriage there is the mark of the man. There was no necessity to say that So-and-so had been to the war, and that this other had found a comfortable billet, thanks to his social relations ; such a fact was apparent; it "leapt to the eyes." None could doubt the pleasure with which they tasted again the delights of civilian life. Ah ! how good it was to be surrounded by one's loved ones, to take the wife to one's arms, to embrace the children, to hear again from sweet lips words of love, of con- stancy and comfort. The happiness of the poilu was evident enough as he sat in public places, the centre of an admiring circle, or courting the girl of his heart with an entire absence of embarrassment. No Frenchman thinks an apology necessary for so obvious a course of conduct as making love to the preferred woman. Both sexes realize that tender demonstrations and caresses are the fuel of love — not something to be ashamed of, to be suppressed from some prudent spirit of forestalling matrimonial disaster by economizing kisses. But the poilu, though pleased with his first contact with the old life, could scarcely habituate himself to a permanent return to civilian conditions. The narrow, unad venturous life had lost its salt. The little bedroom, how cramped and confined it seemed after the star-studded bivouac. The stifling factory, 164 FRANCE AT BAY the tiny shop in which he worked a while ago, how could he think, except with horror, of long hours in that stifling atmosphere, bending over uncongenial tasks? It seemed incredible that he had ever sub- mitted to such a thing. To-day, other ideas and the stirring impulse of a new energy have come to France. Another world has opened to her eyes. The blue service uniform, washed by the rain to a whitey grey, hides a quite different sort of temperament. The war, the excitement and dangers of every day, have bestowed a new nature. No longer is there content- ment with the peaceful paths of an unemotional occupation. The state of mind of the home-returning soldier is that of the traveller arriving at an oasis after a fatiguing and perilous journey across the desert. He rests awhile, under the grateful shade of the palms, listening to the tinkle of the water which is music to his ears ; but after a few days he is anxious to set out again on his conquest of space. His appetite for the desert, for the great wide open sand-plains, will not allow him to sit long at ease. And to-day his country calls, an irresistible sound, a magnet doubly strong to draw him from the sweet fetters which bind him to his home. Back again in civilian life after unutterable experiences, the soldier finds a pleasurable emotion in renewed touch with his own world ; then comes a longing to depart, for, in the trenches, he has moved upon another plane, in which sacrifice and spiritual sensations bear him upwards to new heights of thought and action. What is comfort, what is even human affection in the great white light of duty which searches his very soul ? French people mingle poetry with their admiration A YEAR AFTER 165 for the soldier. It is, no doubt, a less practical and more abstract instinct than that of the Englishman, whose sympathy is far less a matter of ecstasy than a reasoned desire to do good. The uniform in France assumes the sacerdotal character of a vestment. And the more bespattered it is, the more rain-soaked, the more it speaks directly to the heart as the symbol of devoted service. To the public it seems more real, more in keeping with his divine mission to defend the motherland that the poilu's uniform should be weather-stained. The spotless tunic, the perfect fitting riding-breeches, the belt shimmering in its perfection, which accentuates the elegant figure, these seem less interesting than that long and often ill-cut overcoat which ordinarily clothes the French pioupiou. But the exigencies of the campaign have brought wild changes into military costume. Khaki seems likely to assume a large place in the army, perhaps because it is easier to obtain. This change of raiment typifies, no doubt, some change of heart, or at least a hankering after English ways. Even the term poilu, held in high honour when the war began, and signifying a warrior of the purest water, is now resented by the younger school as something slightly derogatory. It con- jures up before the ardent eyes of youth the notion of a hairy, rather dishevelled creature with the com- plexion of an old red brick, to which absence of water has contributed as much as exposure to the sun and air. A well-trimmed beard and moustache give character to the face, but the unkempt condition suggests the wild-man-of-the-woods rather than the military figure. However, Joffre's " shaving " order, 166 FRANCE AT BAY issued with the new uniform, was not quite as drastic as some artists, with an eye for the picturesque, would have us believe. The commander-in-chief merely recommended the troops to trim their beards or shave their chins in the interest of personal clean- liness; he did not decree the suppression of the moustache. None the less it is a fact that many Frenchmen at the Front shave clean, and in their case, at all events, the term poilu bears a suggestion of irony. Thus contact with the British is effecting a subtle change. But the transformation in the habits of the people, brought about by the war itself, is vastly more radical than that. The French nature has been shaken in its deep-rooted saving tendencies. Even the bloodiest period of the Revolution failed to disturb the peasant in some parts of the country in his habitual routine. The diligence ran as in ordinary times ; people went about buying and selling as if there were no cutting off of heads in Paris, and no uprooting of old ideas. And the peasant is hard to move, as the present war has proved by his reluctance to leave his native village or the farm upon which he was born, even under the bom- bardment of the enemy. The countryman, also, has a profound distrust of everybody except perhaps the smooth-tongued financier who wheedles money out of him for working copper mines in the moon; but his attitude in general is one of deep suspicion. Banks, oh no ! One remembers hearing of a scene at Lyons, not so many years ago, when an enter- prising firm tried to settle its land purchases from peasants by cheque. The indignation was intense. A YEAR AFTER 167 What were these thievish practices ? Inducing the poor man to part with his possessions and then putting him off with a pretence of payment with a piece of paper not even signed by a State official ! This extreme caution and overwhelming fear of change are common to the smaller tradespeople even on the fringe of Paris, who look askance at cheques and keep their money in the house. But M. Ribot, the French Chancellor of the Exchequer, succeeded in inducing the petite bourgeoisie and the peasantry in the provinces to yield up their gold to the Bank of France in ex- change for notes. It was a triumph, and it was due to M. Ribot's talent for inspiring confidence, his unblemished reputation, and his irresistible respect- ability. This, certainly, was not the least miracle of " the anniversary," that the " little world " of Paris brought its gold, which it had hoarded for years, and laid it at the feet of Marianne. Triumph indeed ! M. Ribot had known how to conquer timidity in a patriotic appeal. CHAPTER XIV WAR AND THE DRINK QUESTION An unexpected result of the war has been to direct people's minds to the drink question. They had been aware, in a vague sort of way, of the dangers arising from alcohol, but they had not realized its true gravity and import. It came home to them with a shock from evidence that could not be gain- said, that the peril was real. In some districts, notably in the Vosges, where the consumption of alcohol is very high, men arrived drunk on the day of mobilization. They had followed the local custom and imbibed numerous petits verves before leaving for the front. Henri Schmidt, a lieutenant in the Medical Service, who is also a Deputy, struck with the danger that such practices presented to the national defence, wrote to the General commanding the Eastern army. The latter immediately suppressed absinthe within his military zone, and similar mea- sures were taken in other quarters. One of the earliest districts to be affected was Paris, where the Prefect, acting under the military authority, took the necessary steps to prohibit the sale. After a disgraceful reign, full of danger to her " subjects " as well as those dependent upon them, the green Goddess was deposed. Parliament seized the occa- sion to confirm the prohibition and made it a penal 168 WAR AND THE DRINK QUESTION 169 offence to manufacture or sell absinthe. M. Schmidt, from his place in the Chamber, introduced the Bill and it was triumphantly carried. The strange thing was that it provoked little or no protest. Even the trade accepted it after making a proviso that the duty it had paid on accumulated stocks should be refunded. Here, evidently, was a most important step, which never would have been taken but for the war. Out of the evil of a great conflict had arisen the good of a great reform. One realized that there was another military danger in alcohol. The soldier whose system is saturated with it recovers but slowly from wounds which heal much more rapidly when the patient is abstemious. It was discovered also that the districts most subject to alcoholism gave the poorest results in recruits. There are whole villages in Normandy in which none of the young generation is fit for military service. The degeneracy is the more remarkable, for Normandy was once renowned for its tall strong men. In Brittany the Conseils de Revision or recruiting-boards found a similar state of affairs. Alcohol had done its work with fatal thoroughness. The hardy and strong population of seafaring folk had fallen victims to eau de vie, which should be called eau de mort, for its effects are deadly. In certain districts there is little to choose between town and country worker, for both are tainted with the vice. The artisan who prides himself on his intelligence is just as wanting in control as the illiterate peasant in backward Brittany. But the evil that men do lives after them in their children even if the good is oft interred with their bones. Alcoholism has the most deplorable results 170 FRANCE AT BAY on the second generation. The stature of the race is affected and the number of physical and mental weaklings is immeasurably increased. That drinking and insanity go together is beyond doubt; the one curve follows the other. Insanity had risen to such a height in France before the war that new asylums were planned. . . . But the connection between absinthe and crime is such that a volume might be written upon it. Had France been energetic enough to eradicate the evil, her position would have been infinitely stronger in the present war. In the last fifty years she has spent upon spirits a sum equal, probably, to that which she has spent upon wars. Worse than that, she has positively welcomed the enemy in her midst and encouraged him in his depredations. " Alcohol is the Home Enemy," says M. Jean Finot, editor of La Revue. Youth and energy have been poured out uselessly, stupidly. The nation's vitality has been sacrificed to the nation's ugly idol. Alcohol in France always means spirit — brandy, liqueurs, the concentrated essences — and never wine or beer. This is quite understandable, and to deprive a Frenchman of wine is a hardship as unthinkable as to deprive an Englishwoman of her tea. The vine represents a vast and honourable industry in France which it would be madness to destroy. It seems to incarnate the sun of France, its warmth and light and the very genius of the people. A capital of four hundred million pounds is engaged in wine-growing, and the value of the yearly crop is about forty millions. In any case, it would need an exhaustive argument to convince a Frenchman of the harmfulness of wine, especially drunk as the bourgeois classes drink it, WAR AND THE DRINK QUESTION 171 diluted with water. But some wine-drinkers are far from these sober practices ; they absorb three or four quarts a day, and when, much to their surprise, they find themselves in hospital, they can only ask in comic despair : " What have I done to deserve this ? My habits are so exemplary." Less harm is imputable to the light beers which have replaced wine in the north, when they have not been themselves replaced by spirits. The Frenchman generally distrusts the water-drinker. The conclusion of Henri Murger's Buveurs d'eau was that they were ill-natured — a sentiment that has been elevated into a proverb. Both Horace and Rabelais, we remember, came to much the same conclusion. But when France drank nothing but the product of her own vineyards, which cover an area of 1,600,000 hectares, representing three-tenths of the world's supply (though the vine area has been reduced of late years and the figures do not include Corsica, Tunis and Algeria), she was unquestionably a sober country and was often quoted as an example to intemperate England. The sight of a man drunk in the streets is still rare, and rarer, perhaps, than a few years ago, paradoxical as this may seem in face of the statement that the evil has grown steadily for some years. But the explanation is that spirit-drinking does not produce the outward signs of inebriety that wine- or beer-drinking does. But the saturation of the system with alcohol is a far more dangerous form of intoxication than the other, and more lasting in its effects. It changes the character of the drinker, who becomes sombre and irritable after the first exhilaration has worn off. Depression, insanity, 172 FRANCE AT BAY crime, suicide are some of the benefits that France buys for sixty millions sterling, her yearly expenditure on spirits. And for these gifts of demoralization, each French citizen pays, on the average, thirty-six francs. But this money expenditure, apart from the crime and insanity to which I have referred, does not represent the total loss. There is the time lost from drunkenness and its resultant incapacity and loss of energy due to tuberculosis; for the two are twin sisters and the cost of their maintenance is a million pounds a month. The death-rate is directly affected by alcoholism. Calvados, Seine Inf£rieure, Eure and Somme, the most alcoholized of the French depart- ments, show the highest mortality. The deaths exceed 2 per cent, of the population. The Creuse has the lowest death-rate and the lowest consumption of alcohol, namely 1J litres per head yearly, against twelve in some centres, though, as I shall show, these cannot be complete figures, for a large pa,rt of the consumption escapes the statistician. The inferiority induced by drink extends to in- dustrial production. French manufacturers con- stantly complain that they are badly served by their work-people owing to their inebriety. The output is poor compared with the English worker, and this common fact is more evident in the deep-drinking departments than in the others. Alcohol produces a poor type of factory-hand, incapable of prolonged effort. In " killing the worm," as the artisan ex- presses it, he kills his own chance of success in the labour market. His habits, also, react upon his offspring. " Bacchus is no enemy of Venus," we are told, and some of the most drunken parts of WAR AND THE DRINK QUESTION 173 the country, such as Brittany, are the most prolific. But infantile mortality is relatively high and, of those who live, many exhibit signs of degeneracy. Alcohol produces a brutish kind of drunkenness as opposed to the fictitious gaiety of wine. A long course of spirits, particularly of absinthe, saps the vigour of the mind. By its subtle essence, absinthe acts directly upon the nerve centres ; in consequence, it is more dangerous than whisky. It is true that brandy has replaced to a great extent the deadlier form of alcohol, and that certain substitutes, taken as aperitifs on an empty stomach, are almost as bad : but this does not detract from the importance of the step taken by the French legislature. Until the other day a great instrument for degrada- tion existed in the bouilleurs de cru, whose power in the electorate was extraordinary. The bouilleur de cru (or private distiller) is an anomalous person who has been improved away by the legislature on more than one occasion, only to be re-established just before the General Elections. However, at the end of the first year of the war the Government suppressed him. His position was analogous with that of the old farmer in England who brewed his own beer. The French peasant may still distil from the produce of his own orchards in a public distillery, but he is no longer allowed, duty free, a quantity of alcohol for himself and his family. The family was often stretched to include the commune ; in fact it was the vaguest term. Practically, the peasant brewed as much spirit as he could dispose of. When he had supplied the local cabaret, he would pay any workman he employed partly in u wet " wages, partly in dry. Thus the 174 FRANCE AT BAY workman's family was corrupted as well as the peasant's, for the " wet " wages exceeded his in- dividual requirements and the wife and children were initiated into the dangerous joys of la goutte. Even the baby learned to cry for a little brandy in its bottle. In working-class districts in Paris children not infrequently carry cognac to school to drink in the lunch interval. France certainly has attacked the question of alcoholism with a scientific enthusiasm. Neither working-man nor peasant could be influenced by quite the methods employed in England. The notion of the blue ribbon, indicating abstention from strong drink, has something comic in it to the clear logical French mind; at best it expresses a negative virtue. It is true that the Anti-Alcoholic League (with a distinctive badge) is doing admirable work and has 130,000 members or associates, but out of that number only 6 per cent, are total abstainers. Work has been begun, also, in Finistere, where the Catholics have attacked strong drink in one of its strongholds. The White Cross League has been admirable. The work is carried out on very sensible lines. The children in the schools are instructed in the evils that result from alcoholism, and the lessons are driven home by rather lurid diagrams, which no doubt make a powerful impression upon the young mind. This work began with M. Poincare\ who, in 1895, as Minister of Public Instruction, signed a circular recommending the teachers to bring home to their scholars the danger of drink. The anti-alcoholic lessons, however, did not become obligatory until years afterwards. Now they are as much part of the curriculum as history WAR AND THE DRINK QUESTION 175 and geography. Those children who belong to the temperance societies are taken frequently by their teachers to the headquarters of the League, where they listen to further physiological reasons against alcohol, so that the mind receives its bias in favour of sobriety at an early age. The workman has his own reason for not joining the anti-alcoholic society. It is a bourgeois affair, he says; it has become suspect because employers have become interested in it. They know by ex- perience the influence of drink on output. An exception to this attitude is the railway-worker, who has joined the League in great numbers. Yet in certain advanced circles reform in drinking habits has come about through arguments which are not those of the temperance propagandist. " Don't drink," say the Socialists, " because alcohol is taxed, and by its means the Government oppresses you. Save your money and discourage the gendarme." Such arguments, however unorthodox, are instru- ments of progress, no doubt, since they effect reform. But the workman, if he carries less of his earnings to the cabaret and more to his wife, has not become thereby less an egoist than before. The course of his ambition is changed, that is all. He will not raise up children to the State, and, thus, imitates the middle classes in their " economy." The fact that the population of France is dwindling and has suffered in numbers from the war is an additional reason why the health and happiness of those who remain should be safeguarded from poison and disintegration. The younger clergy show a decided sympathy with 176 FRANCE AT BAY temperance, though the old cures still like to clink glasses with parishioners, if only out of a desire to be friendly and to conform with local custom. It is one of the reproaches against the Third Republic that it has not taken a firmer stand against the wine- shop and has allowed the publican to become the ruler of country districts and the grand elector upon whom the deputy must count for his return to Parliament. The legislature has shown timidity in dealing with this powerful personage. A simple declaration suffices to open a cabaret. It is true that the Palais Bourbon has decided that no more wine-shops can be opened in Paris without authorization, and there is a project to limit the number in France; but it is a classic example of locking the stable after the horse has been stolen. Though, in the majority of cases, the working-man takes his pleasure sanely, passing the Sunday out of doors with his wife and gosse, either in the Bois or in some favourite spot in the suburbs, a considerable proportion of the class is addicted to drink, and the misery resulting is one of the lament- able features of city life. When one thinks that the consumption of alcohol paying duty in France averages four litres per head, it is easy to see that when private stills existed the actual consumption was enormous. The official figures are sufficiently disquieting. In reckoning the consumption, we may eliminate two- thirds of the population; thus the taxed spirit prob- ably represents a thousand petits verves a year for each drinker, calculating that four litres furnish 350 glasses of spirit. At Le Havre, Rouen, Caen and Boulogne the consumption has reached a litre a month per head of the population. WAR AND THE DRINK QUESTION 177 The war has brought the evil into strong relief for reasons which I have explained; it has shown, also, its prevalence amongst women and even amongst children. It has led the Minister of War to threaten to deprive of their allowances those women who are guilty of excess. Naturally, the next step awaited by the country is the interdiction of all alcohol, at least in time of war. Some of the generals com- manding the zones have taken this step in regard to soldiers. But reform to be permanent must be based upon solid foundations. The middle classes must co-operate with the authorities in providing soldiers homes and rest-places as a counter-attraction to the wine -shop. The sloth and indifference of the bour- geoisie has contributed to the evil. Here, as in England, the solution is to be found in cheap cafes where no spirits are sold, which shall be made bright and attractive by a large supply of newspapers. The drinking amongst soldiers of the new formations in England is almost entirely due to ennui — nowhere to go. If the energies aroused by the war are not allowed to subside, then we may expect to see a vast difference in the health and happiness of the people. But the middle classes must leave their money -getting awhile to help in saving the poor. It will be good economy. N CHAPTER XV POLITICS AND PERSONAGES Like many human institutions, the French Parlia- ment suffers from a plethora of persons, if it is rather lacking in personalities. But the War Cabinet contained at least an average amount of political sagacity and compared favourably, man for man, with the Coalition Government in England. War found the Viviani Cabinet in office; then, on the top of this tremendous situation, came the assas- sination of Jean Jaures, the Socialist polemist. Here was a combination to try the nerves of any states- man; but, Viviani, though new to office, boldly rose to the occasion. He did not lose his head over the war, and he made the assassination of Jaures an occasion for a splendid manifesto in which he appealed to the patriotism of the working classes. At the same time he praised the dead orator, strongly condemned the deed by which he had come by his death, and promised punishment of the assassin. His frank recognition of Jaures' high qualities won him the approval of the Socialists, and, incidentally, showed his magnanimity — for the dead leader was undoubtedly an embarrassing opponent. Viviani, like some of his chief colleagues in the Cabinet, began his political life as a Socialist, and probably 178 POLITICS AND PERSONAGES 179 remains one at heart ; but responsibility has brought prudence, and thus the wine of generous ideals has been tempered by expediency. After he had con- jured the danger of a civil outbreak, through the assassination of Jaures, there remained the far greater danger: the European War. That was not so readily dealt with. Nevertheless, the Premier, who had emerged from comparative obscurity less than ten years before, dealt faithfully with that crisis. There came the shock of reverses on the frontier, with the Germans marching rapidly on Paris. Taking counsel with the President and his constitutional advisers, Viviani reformed his Cabinet and made it a Government of National Defence. If it had not the width of the English concentration, it represented respectable elements and contained the most reputed politicians of the day. Jaures was dead and could not form part of the Cabinet, even if he had relented on that point, and it was noteworthy that no member of the Opposition, properly so called, was invited to take a portfolio. Thus Albert de Mun, the esteemed chief of the Catholic party (who died a few months after Jaures), had no opportunity of serving his country in an official capacity : the two extremes of patriotism met in a common end. Yet the Cabinet, such as it was, gave satisfaction to public opinion, and was a coherent effort to obtain the best results that political wisdom and experience could furnish. Viviani' s celebrity dated from a single speech, made when Church and State were in the balance, and the State weighed down the scale. " The lights of Heaven are for ever extinguished," said Viviani 180 FRANCE AT BAY with mocking emphasis, and Catholics were shocked at this Voltairean spirit; but the expression pleased the fashion of the moment for strong condiments with the anti-Clerical dish. Yet in office, M. Viviani showed that he was neither more intolerant nor provocative than his fellows; he gave proof, on the contrary, of large-mindedness and of careful modera- tion in action. Though born in Sidi-bel-Abbes, in Algeria, he has nothing of the fatalist in his com- position. Trained to the law, like most French politicians who achieve greatness, and most of those who do not, he had no particular history — and, consequently, should be happy if the adage is true — when the Germans crossed the frontier; but he is young enough to make it. It was evident that skill and savoir-faire were needed in the difficult circum- stances of a war, when every part of the machine, moral, military and economic, was tried to the utmost. But the post of greatest difficulty belonged to Maitre Millerand, who undertook the Ministry of War. It was a crushing responsibility and presented ex- ceptional difficulties : first, because of the insufficient preparation for war, as the result of frequent changes of policy in the last forty years, from which his de- partment suffered; and secondly, because of the curious temperament of French deputies who find exercise for their ingenuity in obstruction and their talent for intrigue in the group system of French politics, by which a dozen different jealousies have to be met and overcome. Be this as it may, M. Millerand battled with considerable success against the sudden emergencies of the campaign. He is accused of having tried to do too much and of showing the temper of POLITICS AND PERSONAGES 181 a Dictator; but he had every excuse for adopting a system which means rapidity of action, even if it exposes the Minister to the full effect of faults. The Chamber gave him three Secretaries of State, one charged with Transport and Commissariat, one with the Service de Sante, the third with aviation, and he accepted them rather grudgingly, it is said; but of his own free will he chose a Parliamentary secretary for Munitions, and this decentralization had the happiest results. M. Millerand's trained endurance as a successful lawyer had full scope in this arduous post. In his practice at the Palais de Justice, he earned a great deal more than as Minister of War, with a salary of £2,500; thus he presented the phenomenon of a lawyer who had sacrificed income to serve his country; in England, politics are the lawyer's road to high emoluments. But even he found more than sufficient employment for all his energy and ability. And behind the facade of the Sacred Union there was a great deal of manoeuvring of Parliamentary puppets, which claimed the right to what is euphemistically termed " Parliamentary control." M. Millerand, patient, laborious, somewhat uninspiring, was the centre of this contest of private appetites for power. In England, Parliament seemed as little able to visualize the war as the public itself. Almost the only exception was the soldier, who arose from time to time from his place, and broke the dull com- placency of the assembly by giving it a glimpse of realities. Such energy on his part was generally wasted, for the outburst was attributed to his excessive youth, and to his deplorable failure to 182 FRANCE AT BAY understand Parliamentary reticence. When, in spite of dignified somnolence, and in contrast with com- fortable platitudes, the truth was uttered, there was a look of shocked surprise on the faces of his colleagues. In France, things passed somewhat differently. Parliament was tragically aware of the war from the first day of its opening, and strove to impress the public with the fact; but the methods of the deputy were not always helpful to the good cause, and would have wrought harm had the Censor not exercised his powers of suppression and limita- tion. The French Chamber sinned by excess of zeal rather than by any appearance of indifference. The French, like the English assembly (in spite of contrary impressions), was really anxious for the war to be well and expeditiously conducted; but it did not always realize the methods by which this had to be done. Thus, a spirit of criticism was engendered in the smoke-laden atmosphere of the corridors and of the Salle des Pas Perdus, not wholly creditable to Parlia- mentary disinterestedness, for personal ambition intervened. One group warred against another group with the object of setting another Minister in the saddle and even of substituting another generalissimo. The politicians who were ready to " swap horses in the middle of the stream " had no doubt about their competence. Were they not lawyers, and therefore armed by nature and training to assume any re- sponsibility ? And, as we know, the law leads to everything in France provided one leaves it early enough — for the Chamber. But such reforms, unless they had real and urgent warrant, were so re- volutionary that they could not be brought about POLITICS AND PERSONAGES 183 without a rupture of the union sacree. The Minister most menaced declared that if he were disturbed in his all-important post, he would not allow himself to be made the victim of such a combination without involving others in his fate. Like blind Samson, he would pull down the pillars of the Temple and crush his enemies. M. Millerand's temperament is that of the success- ful advocate the world over. He is a good-looking man, with pleasant features, crowned by abundant grey, curly hair, and sharp eyes glance from behind the pince-nez; stout and of medium height, his stooping back is the result of a bicycle accident years ago. He began his political life as a Socialist, and when Waldeck-Rousseau summoned him to office as Minister of Public Works and Railways, the bour- geois gasped and said : " What monstrous thing is this? We are no longer safe from wild schemes of expropriation. The middle classes will be saddled with the whole burthen of taxation." Sombre prophecies of the sort prevailed. The timorous were convinced that sacred vested interests were jeopardized. Yet all that happened was that M. Millerand's depart- ment accomplished more work in eighteen months than in the ten preceding years. The new Minister proved to be a steady and systematic worker. As a speaker, he is unemotional and addresses himself to reason rather than to sentiment. On this account, his orations please less the Chamber than those of a speaker who knows how to tickle its vanity or excite its facile enthusiasms. Though remaining a philosophical Socialist, M. Millerand has a horror of extremes; he is fundamentally a reformist. It is 184 FRANCE AT BAY true that, years ago, his language was much less moderate than it is to-day, but I doubt if he has changed much in his opinions; it is the world that has changed in its attitude towards social reform. M. Millerand is a sincere believer in the duty of Parliament to work for the amelioration of poverty ; but he is no advocate of confiscation and resists all attempts at revolution. He is the brake rather than the spur, and deprecates violence in any form, giving his support only to a broad, slow, general development. Sometimes the " war " brake was irritating to the forward party in the Chamber, who desired to exercise Parliamentary control in the spirit of the Committee of Public Safety, which sent commissioners to the armies of the Revolution — somewhat inept creatures in their semi-military dress, tricolor scarves and top boots. But the Minister was always opposed to any historic revivals of that sort, holding that complete independence should accompany responsibility. His speeches are rather monotonous, and a little heavy, but are stuffed with good sense and sound argument, with no tricks of oratory, and nothing to tickle the ears of the groundlings. Thus, he was scarcely armed against the intrigues which finally drove the Chamber to an open agitation, to quell which the Premier had to appeal, in a speech of remarkable power, to the patriotism of all parties. Immediately in the rear of M. Millerand appears the figure of M. Aristide Briand, who is one of the most powerful politicians of the day. He was the iminence grise of the Cabinet. His prestige is very great — especially since he broke up the great railway POLITICS AND PERSONAGES 185 strike by the expedient of calling up the railway workers as part of the mobilizable army. Such a coup, which broke the movement at once, was bitterly resented by the Socialists, more especially as the Premier arrested some of the leaders of the party with which he had consorted in unregenerate days. But they have forgiven him long since, and he enjoys to-day a remarkable position among his quondam allies. Like the Prime Minister and like the Minister of War, M. Briand has become " adapted to his milieu" as his phrase is, and much water has flowed beneath the Pont de la Concorde since he and Jaures went together for long walks, with Jaures as the conversationalist and Briand as a rather morose listener. Yet he is still a Socialist and dreams of reconciling the two irreconcilables : Capital and Labour. M. Briand's charm of manner is proverbial, and his faculty for finding a formula is adequate to any circumstance. He was always the potential premier in the Viviani Cabinet — the power behind the throne — but, officially, he was Vice-President of the Council, as Minister of Justice. The political discovery of the war was M. Albert Thomas, who is also a Socialist, but a Socialist of the complexion of M. Miller and : a real reformer with no touch of the Revolutionary in him, and yet pro- foundly interested in Labour conditions. These he studied au fond both in France and Germany, after he left the Ecole Normale, for he is a man of parts and learning, though the son of a baker. He is another example of France renewing her youth and finding new vitality in the lower middle class; here, as elsewhere, the upper bourgeoisie shows signs of 186 FRANCE AT BAY exhaustion; it has worked too hard, perhaps, to maintain its " place in the sun." The leading men of the Cabinet are modest in their beginnings and are " the architects of their own fortunes " in the good wholesome English sense. M. Thomas' admission to the Cabinet as a consultative member, after he had been chosen by M. Millerand to be his first lieutenant, was a reward for unremitting labour at the Ministry of War. Strange as it may seem, this Socialist deputy, who, until a few years ago, followed the pacific calling of a teacher of history in a girls' Lycee, developed a positive passion for artillery and even invented a cannon of his own. Then he became titular head of the department for munitions, and immediately showed great organizing capacity, calling artillery officers from the Front to aid him in im- proving the system in munition factories, setting over the workmen a man who understood the A to Z of industrial output, and finally, invoking the aid of expert technicians in the higher branches of in- vention and manufacture. This he did with great speed and efficiency, sparing himself no pains to increase the production of the arsenals. The only serious criticism addressed to him, probably, was his accessibility to the newspaper press. His optimistic statements on the subject of munitions were con- sidered to be a mistake. To be too exuberant is to provoke reprisals from the enemy, the critics declared, for he is ever on the watch for information. Rather portly in person, of florid countenance, with hair and beard a trifle unkempt, M. Thomas suggests the Professor of Philosophy rather than the organizer of the war factory; but there is an expression of POLITICS AND PERSONAGES 187 energy in his " colour," as in the eyes which shine behind the honest spectacles. If he was the dis- covery of the war, his own discovery was the im- portance of the man behind the gun. In his room in the Champs Elysees hung a picture representing a sentinel on guard before a factory, the chimney of which is belching smoke. Thus is symbolized the new military brotherhood, uniting the maker and the user of guns. One of the most attractive figures in the Cabinet is the venerable M. Ribot, Minister of Finance, whose principal achievement was to draw wealth from the legendary has de laine. From its kindly depths he got twenty millions of good French money in seven weeks. The peasant loves his gold and is always reluctant to part with it ; but M. Ribot, whose appear- ance, as well as his stately orations, inspire confidence, made an eloquent appeal to the petit monde to prove itself patriotic and carry its stocking contents to the lap of Marianne. In the late days of the Second Empire, M. Ribot was a functionary after having been a lawyer — a not uncommon evolution; then he held office under the Republic — responsible office, for he was at the Quai d'Orsay at the moment when the Grande Alliance was signed, and was one of its chief authors. A leader of the Progressist Centre in the Chamber, he stood midway between the two extremes of Albert de Mun and Jean Jaures. The two wings, alas ! passed away ; but the central figure remained to hold the country's purse-strings in a crisis with such authority that even M. Caillaux gave him a certificate of competence, saying that he was one of the few financiers having the confidence of the 188 FRANCE AT BAY money world. His biographer credits him with a passion for the violin, for rose-growing, and with a tender solicitude towards grandchildren. For such as judge by signs, there is something subtle in his sartorial change from a top-hat to a democratic " bowler," which has synchronized with his political metamorphosis. Contrary to the common rule, M. Ribot has moved towards the Left instead of away from it ; he has grown more Radical as he has grown older. In the fulfilment of a Radical programme of reform, lies, he thinks, the political safety of France, but in the days when he led the Progressives in the Chamber, before he migrated to the higher spheres of the Senate, he showed no sympathy with the Dreyfusards, and opposed the separation of Church from State. None the less, he has succeeded in winning the esteem even of his opponents, by his unswerving honesty and rectitude. And then came his admirable con- tribution to the War chest, as the result of his speech to the people. The scenes were charming enough, for, to the single louis of the midinette were added rare old coins, and sometimes even the jewellery of peasant-folk, who had resolved to hold back nothing of their treasures from La Patrie. Thus war galvanizes the country into new energy, and promotes sacrifice and the unity of a people. A figure of world-wide interest and renown is Theophile Delcasse\ His small, well-knit form has often inspired the caricaturists of the Kaiser, by whom he is not liked, for he is regarded as Germany's arch enemy. Those who criticize him at home are inclined to represent him as a revengeful man, full of hatred POLITICS AND PERSONAGES 189 of the Germans, for the humiliation cast upon him when he was driven from office by M. Rouvier by the intervention of the Wilhelmstrasse. And again, did he not, in a tremendous speech, bring about M. Clemenceau's downfall and thus turn the tables on the " Tiger " for his attack upon him, in which he was accused of wishing to provoke war when the country was not prepared for it ? But that is hardly a fair way of looking at it. M. Delcasse is not easily daunted, and showed a stiff front to Germany when she attempted her brow-beating policy. But it is unjust to suggest that he sought war. There is an obvious and proper middle course between seeking war and being reluctant to swallow any insult. M. Delcasse saw there was a point beyond which the country could not go without loss of dignity, and it was soon apparent that M. Clemenceau, as well as M. Sarrien and others who succeeded M. Delcasse in office, were forced to follow where he had led. For it was the only line consonant with the safety and independence of the Republic. The German was a little too insistent in his efforts to bring about a rapprochement ; his wooing was so clumsy that it had the look of menace. And so M. Delcasse must be exonerated from the crime of wishing war, if so hideous a charge was ever seriously advanced. For his policy merely consisted in a logical development of what had gone before. But those who do not like this strenuous politician, who seems to be made of iron, like his mountains in the Ariege, will continue, I suppose, to depict him as a fierce little man, mounted on a chair and grasping a mighty sword — a sort of militant and malicious Tom Thumb. Yet his 190 FRANCE AT BAY real talents lie in conciliation; he has all the charm of the South, from which he comes, like Joffre and the chief generals of the Republic. He has a positive gift for bringing opposing elements together and providing a solution for them. It was he (with M. Cambon) who negotiated the famous Entente treaty with Great Britain in 1904, and it was he who helped to bring Russia into line with England and France; who detached Italy from the Triple Alliance in favour of the Allies; who fought hard for the suffrages of the Balkan States as against the diplomacy of the Central Empires. M. Delcasse, it is true, loves the ring of battle; but it is the clash of conflicting interests, the war of policies and principles and not the slaughter of human beings. And like M. Barthou, he was one of the first to suffer from the war in the person of his son, who was wounded and made prisoner. M. Barthou is another personality who, outside the War Cabinet at the moment we are describing it, might easily have been part of it. Perhaps the reason why he received no portfolio was the opposition of the Socialists, who do not forgive him for his suc- cessful advocacy of the Three Years Law. But those who were inclined to read provocation into this military measure for lengthening service were speedily undeceived when they saw what the German prepara- tions were. We may leave the Cabinet here with the final thought that it was the image of the nation, in its dignity and laboriousness, and its determination to persevere until the end. CHAPTER XVI LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS There is a great difference between the London and Paris crowd, a difference which has been demonstrated with extraordinary force since the war began. How totally different is the attitude of the two crowds towards its soldiers. The one is manifestly moved and shows unconsciousness ; the other is moved secretly and thrilled, but dare not show it. I am not speaking of a crowd which has come together at the blare of trumpets and the roll of drums ; it is always possible to collect a crowd in such a way ; but I am thinking of the passage of a regiment in the streets, troops on the march for serious purpose. The reserve in England in such circumstances is a little shocking to the sensi- tive soul : how misplaced, how shamefaced it is ! I have seen troops arrive exhausted, white and weary from the Front, where they had been in a tight corner in those dreadful early days of the war. The people knew they had been overwhelmed by dreadful odds, and that they had escaped barely from the most difficult pass ; yet did they raise a cheer ? Did a hand go out to them ? Did any one call them heroes and say they deserved well of their country, and make them feel that England welcomed them back as children who had done their duty dangerously, per- haps ineffectually, but, as Englishmen, without 191 192 FRANCE AT BAY flinching? Not a bit of it. The public knew the facts, such as they were related in the public Press, but gave no sign of recognition. It looked on glumly : the returning soldiers might have been a party of hop-pickers, of belated bean-feasters creeping back to work, a little ashamed of their excesses. Each watched the neighbour out of the corner of his eye, lest he should be guilty of enthusiasm, of any departure from good taste. When men left for the Front, it was much the same : an absence of demonstration. You may assert that none knew that it was the " Front " — only the Germans knew — but there is a subtle some- thing which tells the crowd when men leave for battle, even when there are no posters announcing it, no paragraph in the papers. But the wives and daughters and sweethearts assembled in the crowd made no movement of farewell; few dared to embrace their men. What would Peckham think? Would it not be shocked by any weakness ? There was curious evidence of this spirit in the streets. Companies of recruits marching along Oxford Street at the hour when people pressed to their busi- ness evoked no cheer, no lifted hats, no fluttered handkerchief, no stick or umbrella waved, in patriotic emotion. The lads in khaki were made to feel the chill of British respectability. Only a solitary carter raised his hat and cried : " Hurrah ! Good luck to yer." He was answered by a rippling smile from the ranks — it was an oasis in a desert of indifference. Servant girls cheered from upper windows as the troops went by ; otherwise, London was voiceless, too restrained and well-bred to let its feelings be known* And yet this has not been always so. The classic LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS 193 example to the contrary is Mafeking. Here we had the mad carnival spirit of London, the spirit of riotous abandon. The anti-German riots showed what could be done by a crowd in a temper. The same phenomenon was witnessed in South Africa. A mob resolved to express its opinion, to wreak its vengeance for dastard acts of war, and then it returned quietly home, without indulging in the least looting. There was no prolongation of the scene of disorder, when the demonstration had accomplished what it set out to accomplish. It had a definite object, and that was the internment of the Germans. Certainly it made mistakes. It attacked Germans long settled in Eng- land and known to be friendly; it destroyed the property of innocent people who had asked only of the country of their adoption the right to work incon- spicuously for a living. None the less, in spite of its blunders, its lack of discrimination and its cruelties, the crowd worked for a principle, and that principle was that the alien enemy should not be allowed at large in time of war. The crowd was in its lynching mood. It was the terrible justiciar, cruel and revenge- ful, but still, one can say it without irony, acting in the interests of civilization. There is nothing so indicative of national tempera- ment as a crowd; it is the true barometer of racial humour. In France, particularly, it is the mirror of the nation. It reflects its impulses and its prejudices. The crowd is base, cruel, brave, good-humoured, according to its mood. It depicts the general trend of popular feeling with unfailing exactitude. You hear rarely of a crowd demonstrating in a sense con- trary to national sentiment. It has its own rough o 194 FRANCE AT BAY code of justice even if it acts according to its instincts and desires. It cries, it demonstrates, it brandishes fists because it is convinced that somebody is not playing fair, that somebody in office is showing indifference to the common interest. Crowds and demonstrations in Paris often exhibit by their atti- tude a just sense of indignation. When Chauchard, the multi-millionaire proprietor of the Magasins de Louvre died, there were hostile demonstrations at his funeral which caused an alteration in the route of the cortege. The crowd showed its exasperation at the terms of the will, which left the vast fortune away from those who had helped to make it in favour of persons who, according to popular rumour, had employed the grossest wiles of flattery to obtain it. A French crowd is typical of the Latin temperament. It is angry, restive, amused, good-humoured, gay, with the same swiftness with which the average Frenchman experiences these emotions. The crowd is the sum- total of the average man with something added of blackguardism and cowardice and a preternatural sharpness which belongs to the gutter. The crowd is the common man magnified, with his defects rendered still more prominent; often his qualities disappear. The beast is angry and lashes its tail; blood is mixed with the foam of its jaws. In a vindic- tive mood it has done amazing things, amazing because of their suddenness and sheer unpremeditated boldness and savagery. Even if the feat of taking the Bastille was scarcely heroic, since the revolution- aries were opposed by elderly guards, it was prompted by the same sort of elan and spontaneity which carried Napoleon's troops to victory. LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS 195 A savage and exulting spirit presided over the executions in the reign of Terror, and in this mood Communists destroyed the Tuileries and Hotel de Ville. And yet what a contrast this spirit presents with the peaceful temper shown on Sundays and fete-days ! How patient the crowd is, how absolutely determined to extract as much innocent amusement as possible from the hour. This is the Parisian in his normal mood; he is simple and unaffected, and difficult, one would suppose, to rouse to anger. " How easy to manage ! " you say. He seems, certainly, to be inspired by the gentle flaneur spirit. Life is pleasant to-day, under the blue sky and bright sun. Let him enjoy it as he may. And crowds are lining the sylvan paths of the Bois and the avenues leading thereunto, showing no impatience, waiting by the hour together for the King to go by. For foreign monarchs are dear to Republican hearts. Parisians stand deep in the royal path to cheer the sovereign when his visit betokens some new fact of importance. They seem to divine the meaning of interviews be- tween important political personages; they have a sure and rapid vision of the things that matter. The true inwardness of an event strikes home to the collective consciousness. This one-ness in action and impulse is seen in the physical movement of the crowd, its susceptibility to measure. The Parisian, like the Dervish, finds a certain rhythm irresistible. It excites him ; he becomes mad with it ; it impels him to deeds of violence. There is something extraordi- narily impressive in a crowd rhythmically marching, the whole street in movement, like a field of wheat bowing before the wind. The rat-tat-tat of an 196 FRANCE AT BAY impatient crowd in a building waiting for the curtain to ascend may lead to any act of folly. Drunk with its own heady draught, the crowd is capable of any- thing. It may wreck a building and set fire to it. Revolutionary outbreaks may come from a moment's madness. It needs but the baser elements to apply the match to its own inflammable materials. The mob is tigerish enough when moved by strong pas- sions. In the Dreyfus case we had instance of it in howling manifestations in the street, in theatrical burnings of papers, in conflicts with the police, in the destruction of kiosks. The Panama crowd too, the crowd which hissed M. Loubet, on his return from Versailles, where he had been elected President of the Republic, represents an old-time Paris, pictur- esque and forceful, a crowd that felt deeply, that protested vehemently. Does it feel as much to-day in its quiescent attitude ? That perhaps is not a fair way of putting it ; but at least it is less demonstrative. Even before the war had added a grave national preoccupation to the anxieties of every day, the old fiery spirit had subsided. Rarely it flamed, and then the common astonishment bore witness to the change. In the old time, barricades were erected in the street on the least provocation. How often they appeared in the last century ! They were a feature of the Commune. Curiously enough, the last barricades in Paris were occasioned by the Sunday Closing Act. The smaller shop-people complained of the unfair working of the measure. But the May Day demon- strations often brought a wave of popular anger and a great possibility for mischief into the street. M. Lepine, the then Prefect, held the bridges as if LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS 197 he expected the Germans; his preparations were flattering, certainly, to the " enemy." Both Rochefort and Deroulede, oddly dissimilar in character and yet amusingly alike in explosive methods, knew the joys of an overwhelming popu- larity, and their return from political exile was welcomed by hundreds of thousands. Yet, in this case, the vast throng in the street meant but the homage to an old reputation. The demonstration, whatever its numbers, expressed no vital principle; it was the Sunday crowd benevolent and bon enfant in search of sensation. Both exiles, prodigal sons indeed, had survived their political usefulness. Their return evoked a sentimental interest, and that was all. The hero had really ceased to count, and this huge black- coated Sunday crowd was really a cortege accompany- ing a political corpse to the shades of oblivion. Deroulede, generous and chivalrous to a fault, nobly inspired, feeling sincerely his mission, was, I suspect, grievously disappointed by the fact that, on the morrow of his grandiose reception, none came to consult him upon a positive propaganda [he could not foresee that, on his death, his principles would become national]. The crowd killed, without thought of resurrection. The strange thing is that this heterogeneous assemblage should know so perfectly its mind, and how to express itself distinctly, coherently. It condemns this man, it exalts the other. Whence comes this one-ness in the mass ? — so strange when one reflects on the divers elements composing it. Fre- quently the crowd has a different mentality from the ordinary man, as M. Gastave Le Bon has pointed out in his Pyschologie de la Foule. How is it that it is 198 FRANCE AT BAY not divided against itself : one half animated by one set of sentiments and the other by another diametrically opposed ? The crowd by its attitude seems to follow the line of national thought. Reuter in our news- papers must note its exact temper and the " colour " of the demonstration. Has the crowd applauded the passage of the King, or has it remained significantly silent? These things are scanned in high places as indications, straws upon the wind of the popular temper. When King Edward inaugurated the Entente in 1903, his gesture seemed to be premature. But his political sense, sharpened by residence abroad and by contact with continental opinion, knew better than his advisers at home. The crowd began by being silent, then it apprehended the deep meaning of the visit, especially when the monarch spoke felicitously to a deputation that waited upon him of " our friends the French." 1 Its reserve broke down; it became enthusiastic, it cheered; it had realized that the genial figure passing along the Boulevards in a cloud of cavalry represented a new force in politics — the force of Anglo-French friendship. Its brains and instincts were excited by the fact. And this Parisian monarch had brought a new political combination, happy in its possibilities of peace and security, to the consciousness of Paris. Later, when M. Poincare went to London, the crowd gave him a welcome, sur- prising in its intensity and political comprehension. 1 In receiving a deputation from the British Chamber of Com- merce in May 1903, King Edwaid said, "Divine Providence has designed that France should be our near neighbour and, I hope, a dear friend.' 1 LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS 199 He was cheered as is rarely a foreign visitor to London. The British sovereign's visit to Paris a few months before the war broke out was an amazing expression of that same innate political sense of the populace. When His Majesty, accompanied by the Foreign Secretary, returned from Vincennes after witnessing a great military review there, the crowd again com- prehended and shouted rapturously : "Vive le Roi," and, more significantly still : " Vive Sir Edouard Grey." It was the first time that a British Foreign Minister had been cheered in Paris, and it marked an era of what one might call popular diplomacy. The people had understood. They knew the importance of the visit, even if the politicians did not. Out of the mouth of babes had come forth praise. The man in the street had realized the inevitable trend of the Entente and that it must take on a resolutely defensive character. He had seen the cloud on the horizon, no bigger than a man's hand, and had regarded it as a portent. The French crowd, im- pulsive as it is, is profoundly political and prophetic in its insight; it sees in a flash and interprets by imagination. Emotionalism expresses itself freely in the French nature; there is no desire to hide it- If moved to weep or to cheer somebody, the French- man is not ashamed to weep or to cheer. He does not stand in awe of the opinion of his fellow-man — perhaps he knows that the latter will be weeping or cheering too. Then, again, the Gallic temperament is readily accessible to symbolism. Even the working- man, whose pose in peace time is a truculent anti- militarism, is affected by the flag. In spite of himself, the sombrero comes off and he cries " Vive l'Armee " 200 FRANCE AT BAY when the regiment passes, though a moment before, at the buvette round the corner, he has said some desperate things about the uniform as the badge of slavery. But symbolism has stirred him. When he thinks of the tricolour as the outward expression of La Belle France, all argument is taken away; he becomes intoxicated with an Idea. War has shown us the power of an Idea. Give the people an idea, an idea of country and of social service, and they are electrified into action — inspired by the thought that they may be useful to humanity. There is always a theatrical sense in a Frenchman, the perception of the effective, the realisation of the deep dramatic moment. He seeks instinctively for the quick responsive touch. In the early part of the war, a regiment was passing the Madeleine, as the Cardinal Archbishop in red robes was descending the steps. He paused a moment and then blessed the troops : strange scene in what we sometimes call pagan Paris. People knelt in the street ; others bent their heads in prayer; many were affected to tears though they had lived for years outside the pale of orthodoxy. What had moved them to this extent ? To what sudden impulse had they yielded? The cocher doubtless obeys the same influence when he removes his hat at the passage of a funeral. He would not probably go inside a church except for the christening of his child . . . but the appeal of that solemn procession in black is irresistible. Another scene belonging to the early days of the war illustrates the same spirit. It was at Notre- Dame : a great service of intercession was in progress. For the final Benediction, the Archbishop and the LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS 201 Cathedral Clergy issued from the main doors of the building and took their places upon a platform erected just within the railings before the main facade. In front of them spread a vast mass of people, even to the opposite side of the river. It was secretly moved by the ceremony and its meaning, though thousands could not hear a single word. But, when the Host was elevated, a hush fell upon the throng ; each one felt a divine fluttering at his heart. It was a strongly dramatic moment, out there under the cold light of Heaven, animating and enthusing sensibility. With- out knowing it, the crowd felt the significance of things. Its imagination was stirred, for it lies close to the surface. When war broke out, scenes of pathos and enthusiasm took place in the streets. The crowd threw flowers which the men stuck in their rifles and in their mouths. Women and children accompanied their husbands and fathers to the station. Tears coursed down their cheeks. The father wept as well as the others. That is part of French expansiveness. Yet when the train steamed out of the station, bearing the troops to the battle area, the young man, who had wept so copiously and declared dramatically that he would never see Paris again, was already whistling and singing with his friends. Because he has a quick intelligence and possesses a brain to realize the suffer- ing and sordidness of war — and, by an effort of will, and by his intensity of faith in the cause is able to overcome that — M. Dupont is doubly a patriot. He conquers himself before conquering the enemy. By their reserve English people give foreigners the impression of a lack of feeling. I remember the astonishment of a Frenchman at witnessing an Eton 202 FRANCE AT BAY boy take leave of his father, who was going to the Boer war. " Good-bye, sir," said the son, as quietly as if the head of the household were off for a picnic ; no kiss was exchanged, a solemn formal handshake and that was all; even the wife was coldly embraced. " The English have no feeling," says the foreign ob- server, not realizing the Spartan courage that is behind this attitude, and he lends an ear to the calumny that English prisoners are neglected by their kith and kin at home because the latter vaguely imagine that the Government is looking after them. " Cold English," he says again. Our countrymen, by their excessive attention to the facade, gain an undeserved reputation for want of heart. And yet this reticence is merely of yesterday. The seven- teenth-century Englishman was expansive and re- sponsive to every mood, and that was the golden age of Art in England. His coldness, therefore, is a result of convention — a mere pose. Immeasurably improved in outward graces since the Victorian era, the Englishman has yet retained a certain shyness of manner disconcerting to the foreigner, though those who know him best realize that it is but the envelope of his character. When it is merely a question of personal conduct there is little to be said ; but when his calm and apparent indifference is a discourage- ment to the soldier marching to the Front or looking naturally for some appreciation of his brave deeds, then it becomes another affair. Coldness is a national disservice. CHAPTER XVII WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND What France thinks of us is evidently not to be gauged by the empiric method of some chance cafe conversation with the Boulevardier. The Paris flaneur (if the type has not been improved away) is an amusing person, sometimes enlivening in his con- versation, often able to throw a new light on common subjects; but as an historian, or as prophet of his time, he is not to be taken seriously. His capricious humour depending on the weather or the state of his domestic affairs, his desire to epater swings him from an extreme of exuberance to the depths of comic despair. Extremely susceptible to the currents of optimism and pessimism which float in the air, he is unarmed, by his superficial nature, before the snob or the neurasthenic. Hysterically impressed by the conversation of the last man with whom he has spoken, he is the most deceptive of guides. His high recep- tivity and limited experience of life beyond the city walls — for he only leaves Paris-by-the-Seine for Paris- by-the-Sea or Paris-in-the-Mountains — Trouville or Deauville, Aix-les-Bains or Luchon — provide him with an outlook entirely inadequate to such problems as a great war or a nation's conscience. To suppose him the king of birds when he is merely a sorry 203 204 FRANCE AT BAY rooster aiming at owl-like wisdom is responsible for many a grotesque view of France as a country light in character and of more than doubtful morals. Has not Monsieur Machin, the indefatigable first-nighter, whose opinions are so often quoted in the organs of " the Faubourg," declared, in the presence of all the world, that the Chamber is occupied in nefarious en- terprises against the common weal, and that all Ministers have skeletons in their private cupboards ? These round-table conversations in the haze of " Mary- land " in the hour given formerly to the "green god- dess " (before she was dethroned in favour of more homely deities) are peculiarly favourable to perverse expression. And a casual foreigner, confident in his ability to read French opinion in a couple of weeks, is impressed with the wickedness of it all. What can you expect from a country like that ? he says, and per- haps writes it in a solemn review. He has not seen through the pose of the cynical gentleman with high- pitched voice and unspeakable clothes inking blue- lined paper on a corner of the cafe table. He does not realize that this man is quite incapable of represent- ing France, or, indeed, of consistently representing himself. His justification for existence is that one day he may be taken at his own valuation ; otherwise, he would disappear in the blue smoke of his cigarette and never be seen again. French opinion must be ascertained by a just com- parison of the sentiment of Paris with the sentiment of the provinces. If you have no time to get into touch with provincial France, to talk with Normans and Picards, with men from the North, with men from Bordeaux, from Lyons, from Perpignan, you will WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND 205 obtain an excellent idea of country opinion from the perusal of provincial papers. There you will find a point of view you had not suspected, for, like most Englishmen, you had been taught that Paris was France. The sentiment of the country rarely changes. The town fluctuates from hour to hour according to the news, to the political temper of dominant groups, as to whether England at the moment happens to have a " good Press." A feeling that she is not doing her best, that she is lagging in the fight, sends down the mercury of the barometer ; but the touch of a warm hand, of a Kipling, of a Lloyd George, of a Kitchener, may send it up again. Yet to-morrow one must not be surprised if the mercury again descends. In the provinces the conditions are more stable. The peasant or small shopkeeper in the country towns is largely removed from those influences which affect the susceptibility of his brother in the big centres. He looks at every question of politics, of religion, or his own affairs from a different angle. He has his own fixed notions of right and wrong, his shrewd sense of where his interests lie. He varies very little in the standard he applies to foreign politics, and for him, indeed, the cardinal points of the political com- pass never change. He is Republican by conviction, and from the feeling, doubtless, that this style of government best suits his material interests ; on the other hand, he may revile the Government for its indecision or its capitulation to Socialism, and find salvation only in a return to monarchy. That simple faith in kings (though it is difficult to say what kings) is founded on the conviction that a more vigorous government, less servile to the l oi polloi, would effect 206 FRANCE AT BAY marvels in national development and perhaps influence, in some mysterious way, the crops ! The townsman is often a weathercock swinging in obedience to the wind. If it blows east in the after- noon papers, round he comes to the view that really England is too bad. What ! another strike in the midst of war ? It is monstrous. And where are those million men, and what are they doing ? England, no doubt, has forgotten all about the war in her desire to make money. Those absurd visits of the Zeppelins to British shores and bombardments by submarines, what do they amount to ? Nothing but the loss of a few dozen civilian lives. English civilians talk as if they were a race apart and had no right to be involved in war. That is an affair for soldiers; they are not soldiers, but business people who only want to mind their own affairs. What a shame that they should be attacked by these horrible engines of the air. When Tauben come to Paris, or big howitzer shells are dropped on Compiegne or Dunkirk, there is some com- motion, but the sufferers say, with a just sense of proportion : " You must expect this sort of thing, for we are at war. It is nothing to what our poor poilus have to stand." Even the perfection of the English soldier's clothes, I gather, is not agreeable to the critic. He finds the officers too spick and span, too set upon their personal appearance to be " practical " chiefs. He prefers the rough look of the French soldier with his soiled and badly cut uniform. That is more real, he says. This is trench warfare, and they do not mind the mud. Foot-high pots of marmalade and the other luxuries without which Tommy is supposed to be unable to WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND 207 fight move him to a certain sardonic mirth. Such childishness is almost as amusing as the trenches round London, in which, he has heard, retired bankers and other elderly sportsmen await the coming of the invader. Meanwhile, he reflects bitterly, thousands of men are being struck down in the north of France in a grimly real war. England is criminally slack, says this aggressive person, to whom, I hope, I have not given an ex- aggerated place. Why was not cotton stopped before ? he asks — the indispensable cotton for making shells. Why was England so callous of the lives of her own men? And then this vast trade with Scandinavia, why was it permitted when every ton of food-stuff and merchandise meant the prolongation of the war? " Really, I begin to think," he exclaims petulantly, " that you regard the war as a colonial expedition " — thereby quoting the words of a French writer who crossed the Straits to see what England was doing in the fight. " She is too much in the wings instead of up on the stage," he says. " Not having suffered in her own person, not having felt the edge of the foreign sword, she cannot imagine what it means to us to have ten of our richest departments in the occupation of the Germans." It must not be concluded that the French are not cognizant of all that England has done. They realize her colossal effort, the loyalty and exactitude with which she has carried out her obligations and far ex- ceeded them on a scale of unheard-of magnitude. This book could be filled with articles that have been written on the English achievement, inspired, I am sure, with the best intentions. But it would not 208 FRANCE AT BAY be true to say that the people as a whole are upon their knees before the " miracle of England," as Jean Richepin calls it, much as they admire the heroism of her sons. But we are neighbours in a great fight, standing shoulder to shoulder. We have looked into each other's eyes ; we have seen each other's qualities ; we have glimpsed each other's defects. The glamour has worn off; but what has remained? I think a great sediment of esteem and affection, and a new com- prehension of English qualities have remained. At the same time, I find a desire that we should show a readier understanding of the new conditions that have come about since the war began, that our understanding should be awakened, that our outlook should be broadened. It was a spirit of sacrifice, not the Terror that was the great motive force in the Revolution. And the spirit of sacrifice is animating the French to-day. Sometimes they look across the Channel a little wistfully, and fail to find it there. Yet they are very anxious that England, in en- deavouring to adapt herself, should maintain her virtues of independence, integrity, reliability. If she becomes more accessible to new ideas, let it be without giving up any of those splendid old principles of truth, honour and justice upon which the empire has been founded. Let her play even a greater role in the world, but let her read into her " lines " something less of self, giving greater variety to the interpretation, a touch less of superiority in the intonation. 1 Para- doxical as it may seem, some advanced Republicans 1 The complaint against England, in short, is that she is " inartistic "- in the war in putting self before the subject. WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND 209 in France regret any attack on English institutions, urging that they have contributed to her solidity and power, and without them she would be lost. At the same time it is obvious, as M. Emile Boutroux says, that England is moving rapidly towards that demo- cracy which represents the political ideal of France. But men who have themselves seen the follies and weaknesses of democracy and realized that it is often the expression of a materialism, principally because the mass of the electorate is necessarily occupied with the satisfaction of its material needs, fear that, in be- coming wholly democratic, England may lose some- thing of her high-mindedness. Therefore, say these observers, this old-world England, with her Court and her aristocracy, with her National Church, with her ruling classes and amenable masses, stands in the Continent of Europe for steadfast principle, for slow and consistent evolution, and, at the same time, is a pillar of liberty and a shining example of political morality and purity of administration. France in war presents a picture of confidence and calm which can be more accurately judged in the provinces than in the crowded centres of population. In the different journeys which I undertook in the first year of the war I could not fail to be impressed by the force and direction of public opinion. The war has chastened the nation and has promoted a new and living ideal as well as effected the union of all classes by removing subjects for internal conflict. Though people in the country spoke of the duration of the war with a certain sadness, and even with a fear of economic complications, nowhere was there any faltering in the feeling that it must be prosecuted 210 FRANCE AT BAY until the enemy was brought to his knees. And one looked in vain for discouragement and despair. The peasants' opinion of the English was a pleasant discovery. It was lavish in its praise. There were no half measures in the admiration for the braves alliis. The English army was a wonderful machine ; the speakers had seen it on the march and in camp, and were deeply impressed by its order and method, by the care it took of its units. I gathered that, in the peasants' view, there would have been some faltering of the public attitude in France at the critical hour, some weakening of the national spirit, had it not been for the serious steadying influence of the English. Would not the quaking politicians have given way before the nerve-racking march on Paris ? That, at least, was Jacques Bonhomme's view. He and his like were heartened by the co-operation of the English. It seemed to them that behind their nation, which had suffered so much from this and the pre- ceding war, there stood the friendly giant, John Bull, ready to help, never at a loss, always master of him- self, always true to his word. One was conscious of England's popularity when one received the invitation, charmingly and graciously given : " Will you not step inside and taste a little of my white wine ? It was grown on yonder slopes and has something of the sun in it." The Midi was particularly demonstrative towards the English. It was in travelling by train that one got into contact with the people, for the English- man was accepted as one of themselves and shared in their confidences, in their hopes and fears about the length of the war, its probable cost and the effects WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND 211 of victory. In Savoy, as I walked the hill-side above Aix-les-Bains, I had instances of the esteem and regard in which our countrymen are held. " Monsieur est Anglais ? " and after that would come a long recital of the speaker's recollections of Queen Victoria, of Princess Beatrice and other members of the Royal Family. Then a neighbour would arrive and chat about the war. " Faut que 5a finisse, pas ? " and he would launch also into eulogiums of the English. Were they not a wonderful people, so clever in arranging things, so propres — " why, they take a bath every day ! " and the voice sank to an astonished whisper, " and not simply when they are ill." A village tradesman who joined the group, said : " Ah, I like the English. My sister went to London once as femme de chambre to a Milady who was very rich and very chic, and she says the town is epatante, so enor- mous and yet so quiet and well-ordered compared with Paris. And the police are giants, so superb and calm, in their blue uniforms and helmets. They wear white gloves and have no need of a baton to make the traffic stop." Another says : " The English lads are so self-reliant and are taught to do things for themselves. What manly little fellows they are — and so polite. Indeed, all the English are polite. One would suppose there were no rough people in their island; they never say the dreadful things to each other that people do in France when they grow angry. The English are so correct and strong and considerate to women." Tommy's personal popularity is great in every corner of France; his conduct, with rare exceptions, is exemplary ; he is a popular figure because respect- 212 FRANCE AT BAY ful of authority, and he never abuses hospitality. The illustrated publications, particularly in the early days of the war, vied with each other in showing Tommy in interesting attitudes. Tommy's clever- ness, good humour and courage were themes for friendly pens. "He is always charming with the children," the mothers said, and every kiosk showed Mr. Atkins playing with schoolboy glee and perfect abandon with la petite Suzanne or le petit Georges. We are misjudged, often because we hide our hearts under a cloak of formalism instead of wearing them upon our sleeves. Sometimes we are accused of want of feeling. Does not the English soldier whistle as he goes past the cemetery where his com- rades lie ? The Frenchman, on the contrary, doffs his hat and makes the sign of the cross in honour of the fallen. I have before me a letter from a man written to his friend as he was going to the front. The train crawled past a multitude of green mounds, the resting- places of the brave. The soldiers left their games of cards to crowd to the carriage doors. There was pity and consternation in their faces, and the look that said : " In the midst of life we are in death." ... It was some moments before they returned to their cards, and then one said, with a certain manly resignation : " Ah, well, perhaps each of us will get our six feet of earth before very long." The method of raising an army by posters, and the flamboyant appeals on the London hoardings — " Your country needs you " ; " Rally round the old flag " — appear extraordinary to French people. If the coun- try requires a man, they say, why does it not demand his attendance at the depot instead of requesting it ? WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND 213 What is this melodramatic language, the language of the music-hall, in a dangerous national crisis ? Com- pare this with the French system, and you will see the force of their surprise. A scrap of paper appeared bearing the simple words : " Officiel. Mobilisation Generale. Demain, premier jour de mobilisation." Here is war without music, without parade, purely utilitarian — without any "rallying round the old flag." And those who had visited London compared the excitement of that capital with the calm and silence of Paris. The crowded music-halls and theatres, did they not show an absence of seriousness that was quite inconceivable, a failure to visualize events ? " Busi- ness — and pleasure — as usual " was shocking levity to a people struggling for their very lives. In the early months of the war French leading articles told us, with the frankness allowed by the censor, that England was paying scant attention to the war. " But the fleet," you say, " surely that is doing its duty ; surely we have kept our bargain there ! " " Yes, yes, you have kept your bargain; the fleet is right enough. Of course, we want our commerce maintained, our sea- lanes kept open; but, unless the foe is driven from France, there will be no commerce." Perhaps, by way of continuing the argument, we insisted that England had contributed money to the Allies and furnished them with stores of all sorts. " Quite true," the sceptic admitted, but declared : " All your efforts should be directed to military operations, to forcing the enemy to demand peace. If England had gone earlier to work and obtained the army necessary in this emergency, do you suppose the war would have 214 FRANCE AT BAY dragged out to its present length? Of course the voluntary system is respectable. Every hero who offers himself to his country is respectable; but is such a system sound and democratic ? Does it place the burden equally upon people, or is there not some- thing arrogantly aristocratic about it ? In any case, it is inadequate to the present crisis." It is difficult for the French to reconcile an ardent patriotism and a desire to end the war with England's attitude to- wards national service. A spirit of ease and indiffer- ence seems to them the explanation of this reluctance to shoulder obvious duties. And then you may hear the English spoken of as making war with light heart. I was confronted not long ago with this curious allegation from an old Parisian. " With light heart ? " I repeated. " Yes, sir, with light heart. Is it not light-hearted to bring a pack of hounds to France in time of war ? And if that, after all, is a mere incident, what about the Dardanelles ? Was there not light heart there — light heart that brought a heavy reckoning in men and ships?" I imagine that, unless care is taken, a source of heart-burning may be found in rival trading methods after the war is done. The English are superior in most commercial ways and particularly in banking, which, in France, is archaic in its slowness and pre- cautionary spirit. Thus a certain niceness will have to be observed in our business dealings with the ally, so that the suggestion of self-interest shall not be raised. But there are not wanting symptoms that the solid and loyal co-operation of England will meet with the WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND 215 recognition it deserves, not merely at the hands of the thoughtfuFand well-informed, but from the people throughout France. After the war had lasted for more than a year, M. Jean Hennessey, a deputy, and also a member of Sir John French's staff, spoke grandly in the Chamber for the heroism of the English, who had given, he said, a superb example at the battle of Mons. They had held on to the Craonne plateau after the battle of the Marne, and, on the Yser, had only 5,000 men left available out of an entire army corps (about 40,000). Without conscription Great Britain and her Colonies had given admirable support to France. And this testimony was followed later by articles in the French Press in which much the same language was employed. CHAPTER XVIII FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION Profound economic changes have resulted from the great upheaval, and many more are to be ex- pected from the following peace. The place that Germany occupied in France since the other war is quite startling. In Paris alone there were 25,000 German firms, and the daily list of sequestrated houses in the Journal Offlciel showed the Teutonic hold on the provinces. Certain industries were almost exclusively German. They had established a quasi -monopoly in dyes and chemicals, in drugs, opticians' lenses, watch-glasses, electrical apparatus, cheap cutlery, ironmongery and toys. They had obtained predominance in finance, and Germans sat on the boards of many leading banking establish- ments. As Professor Renard points out, they owned coal mines in Normandy, iron mines in Lorraine, beauxite in the south, vineyards in the Bordeaux dis- trict and in Champagne. They supplied the peasant with much of his agricultural machinery. Along the Riviera, they staffed the hotels and held practically in their hands the cut-flower trade. Their infiltration into the great stores, which are common to Paris and the large provincial centres, was quite remarkable, and many of the articles sold as 216 FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION 217 French were really of German manufacture, though the design might have been Parisian. There were thirty-five fashion journals in Paris in the hands of Germans, which showed that they sat at the fount of fashion as well as at the receipt of custom; and their ability to manufacture cheaply has con- tributed to their success in the world. It was so conspicuous in France that one wonders they went to war to obtain possession of a country which they could have obtained — -with a little patience — without fighting at all. Perhaps they wished to test their mighty military machine — not the less wonderful because of the organized industry behind it. They showed genius — if that means infinite pains — in satis- fying the customer. Prospectuses and catalogues were in his language; weights and measures were converted into the equivalents, and even the carriage was reckoned to the client's door. These things mean success. The commercial traveller was scien- tific in his methods of attack. You might not like him, you might wish to kick him downstairs, but you were bound to acknowledge his ability. He was willing to make every concession, to leave goods on approval, to allow machinery to be used free for a year in the hope that he would obtain an order after- wards. German banks were active and accommodat- ing, and stood behind business like the munition factory behind the combatant. They advanced money to the customer on his bills and charged quite reasonable rates, whereas French banks, like French business men generally, decline to take risks. Whilst German banks supported commerce, French insti- tutions preferred to act as agents in issuing foreign 218 FRANCE AT BAY stock. They are shy of innovation and averse from speculation. Their affair is a sure thing. They lend when there is no uncertainty, with ample security. As to encouraging the trader, that is the last thing they think of. They take care to be well paid for any service they may perform. The French, too, are little disposed to back finan- cially enterprises in their own country. The man who starts a new business or manufactures a patent has the greatest difficulty in eliciting his country- men's support. Better if he applies at once to the foreigner; and it is largely for this reason that German capital and enterprise secured so large a hold in France. In such a matter as the spas, which in France are superior to any in the world, native organization was second to the German. French concessionaires spent little time or money in adver- tising the attractions of their resorts. " There is the water," they seemed to say; "you see by this analysis how good it is — all the doctors praise it. Why, then, does not the public patronize it? How backward it is ! " And when it is suggested that the ordinary visitor is not moved by medical litera- ture, these indifferent promoters again receive a shock. " Sapristi, c'est etonnant!" This curious spirit, common enough in England, of course, does not engender enterprise. Germans advertise their spas with the method they employ in other affairs : they are thorough in everything. Doubtless they would have exploited the natural beauties of the Dauphin e (as picturesque in its way as Switzerland) if they had been blessed with such a region in their own country. France is not yet properly FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION 219 organized in the tourist sense, and the Swiss system of co-operative advertising has not been adopted by her hotel proprietors. Mining also needs development. The mountains hold treasures other than those of the rich sulphur springs incomparable in certain maladies. In some places, notably in the Pyrenees, the "white coal," or water power of the mountains, has been harnessed to great undertakings. This utilization of the water- falls points to a new industrial future for France, just as does the large importation of coal from England, rendered practicable by the numerous harbours. France must pay her war debt by an increased pro- duction of manufactured articles and by the intensive development of her natural resources under the im- pulse of her industrial "elite." Her poverty in coal has not allowed her, until this moment, to rear up great industries such as exist in England; to a large extent she has been the country of the handworker. All these things exercise influence on the course of trade and on the character of the people. The capitalist is often a sleeping partner in a business for which he has little concern, except a speculative interest. Neither his brains nor his strong arms have gone to the upbuilding of it. In a financial crisis France is almost impregnable because of the stolidity of her capital; she is un- affected by the ebb and flow of manufacturing trade. She has not exposed herself, by a large industrial surface, to the breath of depression ; she is not amenable to it. Her wealth is made by the peasant, rather than by the artisan or millhand. The essential difference, therefore, between English and 220 FRANCE AT BAY French finance is the deadness of the latter, whereas British capital is alive — paying wages, laying down machinery, living the strenuous life of daily pro- duction. Though there are complaints that English banks, battening on securities, are indifferent to trade and prefer to find their revenues in a species of pawnbroking, yet capital, whether in the banks or outside of them, is vastly more responsive to industrial claims in Great Britain than in our Ally's country, where the talent of a Minister and Acade- mician was necessary to pierce the pocket of the peasant through his patriotism. Small shopkeepers in the country hide their money in mattresses and other strange places and produce it gingerly in any sort of crisis. Naturally secretive and imbued with the precautionary spirit, they fight shy of the banks. It is not unusual to find the owner of a tiny shop able to change a thousand-franc note. The hoarding habit produced great stringency during the early periods of the war. Thrift was exaggerated into a vice. The retail business of the country was hampered by a shortage of the yellow and white metal, and paper issues at low denominations were made. In certain districts one-franc and fifty- centime notes were circulated by the local Chamber of Commerce ; but this currency was restricted to the district and refused outside of it. The inconvenience of such an arrangement can be readily imagined. The war, then, will bring more confidence, perhaps, to Jacques Bonhomme or more particularly to his wife, who holds the purse strings; but no silver-tongued Minister of Finance could ever get quite to the bottom FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION 221 of the inexhaustible has de laine. 1 One of the singular features of the crisis was the democratization of finance. Workmen and Breton bonnes discussed the War Loan in the Underground. In England the effects must have been even greater, for the workers have not the same frugality, nor have they had the same access to the public funds. It is apparent that France must direct her energies more resolutely towards trade and commerce; her methods must be improved. The German's un- imaginative exactitude is formidable in business. Every detail is studied; nothing is left to chance. Markets have been captured as the result of slow siege and the learning of languages, and even of the phrases to be employed in talking to the purchaser. Thus victory came as the result of ceaseless tiny steps in the desired direction. Whatever the natural talent of the French, they cannot stand against a system, unless they are themselves scientific. Thus, France must bring a swift and ordered speed, and not merely spontaneity in invention, to her aid to become mistress in her own domain ; she must avoid waste and overlapping, must regulate her output and must study the conditions and possibilities of labour, to learn what can, as well as what cannot, be done. The Germans were great customers of the French. They were the largest consumers of Bordeaux in the world ; they bought great quantities of fruit from the south, and endless articles de Paris from everv where. That 1 It was calculated that three and a half milliards of francs (£140,000,000), largely in gold, remained in the people's hands in September 1915, notwithstanding the large subscription to the War Loans, 222 FRANCE AT BAY market must be replaced by others, and, naturally, England comes the first into view. Now in all busi- ness matters she is superior, as becomes " a nation of shopkeepers." She has a genius for affairs, and clear, direct methods that are assets in such a career. If we have lost ground through a certain indifference, it has been born in us by a fabulous prosperity. We have earned our money easily, by virtue largely of our reputation and credit ; we have not had to slave and struggle for it; and this, again, has affected the tone of our appeals. In trading with the French, we must take care not to hurt their susceptibilities. American methods : " It's your money we want ! " (with the outstretched finger) will not do in France ; there must be something more suave and more insinuating than that. Nor must there be a too sharp invocation of the uniform or the flag to urge the excellence of our wares. Let them stand upon their feet; political and adventitious aids are in doubtful taste. Appeals to commercial France must be delicately made, lest John Bull be credited with an intention to turn his alliances into cash. It must be remembered that dissatisfaction arose from the high exchange with England, which complicated the French exporter's business by an adverse eight to ten per cent. As a class, the Gallic trader is not as well informed as the commercial man in England. He was convinced that, in some nefarious way, England was responsible for the high price of her gold ; he did not realize that it was a pure question of supply and demand. To his suspicious nature it was a deep-laid scheme to obtain an unearned profit — not the simple result of making large purchases across the Straits FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION 223 unbalanced by French exports. In normal times, gold shipments would have rectified the inequality; but war prevented this ready adjustment of the scales. And, to increase the bad impression, French manufacturers returned from visits to England with the quasi-" certainty " that money was being made by private contracts to the detriment of the supply of ammunition. Engineering works were fulfilling private orders instead of filling shells. This was not the spirit that France was showing in the crisis, and it was a cause of irritation. Distress doubtless will exist for some time after victory has crowned the Allies' arms. The French centres of production will find difficulty in re-establish- ing themselves, and Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing will not resume their old industrial life in a day. German occupation has meant waste, and probably destruc- tion. Yet, even in the midst of war were there hopeful signs for French manufactures. South America asked for hats, dress fabrics, ironmongery and builders' materials ; North America still showed a taste for wines and feminine finery ; and from Russia and Northern Africa came an increasing demand for French goods to replace the German. English industry, on the other hand, has profited from the war quite apart from Government orders. The Flemish immigrants have given a fillip to the lace trade and brought to it new elements of refinement. The British Govern- ment has encouraged the manufacture of chemicals formerly in the hands of the Germans, and from this will result benefit after the war has become nothing but an ugly dream. Nor is France likely to lose the benefits of industrial organization, the direct outcome 224 FRANCE AT BAY of the munitions war. When shells and guns are no longer needed, engineers and the gigantic plant that called them into being will find employment in pro- ducing implements of labour, which will be exported to the four corners of the earth. On the other hand, it is obvious that Germany has roused great prejudice against herself in the world. Her commerce must suffer, and momentarily her factory output must be limited to her own population. What will the future bring forth ? It seems reason- able to suppose that France will continue to be the home of fashion. French taste is one of those products which resist German imitation. Sometimes, in bursts of confidence, New York or Chicago says that American women shall henceforth wear American fashions, which is generally another way of saying German fashions, since the Teuton has obtained a large place in the trade. But Columbia's daughters are not easy to convince that the native article pos- sesses the elegance and distinction that belong to Paris, where priestesses initiated in the mysteries of " the line " tend with unfailing zeal the sacred lamp of fashion. Again, Hamburg has pretentions, a little pathetic, may be, to lead the world in clothes; but Paris still reigns supreme. However, it is not easy to define exactly what is this subtle je ne sais quoi of French invention which gives it its distinctive style. Is it audacity? To a great extent I think it is. Paris is creative and original, because she is bold. She never thinks of suburban taste, which is as unattractive in France as elsewhere, notwith- standing assumptions to the contrary; the capital, alone, is the fount of inspiration, with its band of FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION 225 courageous innovators. What makes French conver- sation sprightly and its art convincing? Audacity. The dress designer does not ask "Is it nice ? Will it please Enghien-les-Bains ? " but "Is it artistic?" The mental climate of London, Hamburg or New York does not incite to creation, though there seems no reason why it should not — except for this native and intrinsic vitality responsible for those bold artistic touches and that particular " provocation " which are the secret of the Paris gown. The artist goes forward boldly, exulting a little in eccentricity, knowing that if he has gone too far to-day, he will strike the middle course to-morrow and thus the right style will be attained. The " line," of which we hear so much, is influenced by external circumstance. The conditions of a carriageless Paris produced a short, flowing skirt, giving freedom of move- ment in contrast with the Tango gown. The Paris couturiere feels, in some strange way, the ambient influence. Others less susceptible would be less capable of renewing inspiration, and therefore less successful in invoking the fresh unflagging note of novelty which is the sign of the creative brain. This sort of art grows only in the tiny country dominated by the Colonne Vendome. Thus, I think, we may rest assured that Paris will continue to be the centre whence radiates the sartorial decrees of earth. It is remarkable that neither Germany nor America has succeeded in wresting from her the sceptre of the modes. But can France hold her own in other ways ? Germany, it is said, had marked the champagne district for her own, and to this end spared Epernay before the Q 226 FRANCE AT BAY battle of the Marne. But the products of her sunny vineyards are as safe from successful imitation as the products of the busy brains of the Rue de la Paix : and in articles of taste and luxury, dresses and jewellery, automobiles, art objects, statuary and painting and in articles de Paris the City Beauti- ful doubtless will hold her own, aided by the British capital and enterprise which must flow to France from the comradeship in arms. France sends us foodstuffs ; in return we send her coal and raw materials and half- finished articles. French butter, eggs, fruit and cheese flood the English market. If Marianne does not send us wheat, it is because she does not grow enough of it for her own use ; but her sugar, doubt- less, will take the place of the Austro-German article. Lyons and St. Etienne stand for silk ; Lille, Roubaix and its neighbourhood for woollen and linen goods ; and articles de Paris are made in various centres. Thus the two countries complete each other and do not compete, and development along these lines may be expected as the economic consequence of the war. One may anticipate also, I think, an enlargement of the permanent British colony in France as a result of the war, and with it will come doubtless a new appreciation of French wines and the other products of a generous soil. CHAPTER XIX FRANCE ON THE MORROW OF VICTORY There has been born out of the war, in much travail, a child fair amongst the daughters of earth; her name is " L'Union Sacree." She constitutes a bond supple and yet strong between her parents and binds all classes in a universal respect. This god- dess child is an enfant de la balle cradled in the crash of arms and in the promiscuity of the trenches. Wise men shook their heads over her and sceptics smiled wanly at her. How could so frail a creature survive the circumstances of her birth? And yet she did survive. And she has given such promise of life, not- withstanding the hidden attacks made upon her, principally in the guise of " politics in Paris," that she seems likely to carry on the happy legend of United France until long after the guns have died down to a whisper and man's arms have become again implements of productive labour instead of engines of blind slaughter. The Frenchman is essentially political. His opinions envelop him like a skin-tight garment; he finds difficulty in divesting himself of them. He is attached by the accident of birth to one camp or the other. Either he is true blue in the Republican sense, or red as the Socialist eglantine ; or he is white in his devotion to the lost cause of the House of 227 228 FRANCE AT BAY France — unless his political shoulders are draped with the purple of the Empire. Until the other day, he believed in the intrinsic wickedness of political opponents. As a devout and practising Catholic, he shunned the Radical as a man of no morals whose hostility towards the Church might at any moment break into violent monomania. Was he not a pro- fessed " eater of the priests " ? And, of course, the Republican, who did not go to church and who was supposed to have unholy converse with Freemasonry — anathema to the Catholic — could not possibly regard the Orthodox as otherwise than steeped in super- stition and retrograde in politics. As to the Socialist, he was the Prodigal of politics, playing, with ghastly lightness of heart, with vested interests. But occa- sionally he entered the bourgeois household a chastened sinner, trying to live down in a sedulous Ministerial career his Bohemian days when he was nothing but a rapin in a Latin Quarter of his own. But in his salad youth the Socialist feels contempt for the orthodox Republican, tied down, in his narrow little heart, to the sordid realities of life, as repre- sented by three meals a day and the tax-gatherer. Perhaps there was more sympathy between the Socialist and the Churchman because the latter, in the days of his adversity, flirted a little with advanced opinion and has stood the friend of the working-man against the capitalist on some conspicuous occasions. And so a thousand differences of opinion have sprung up, inseparable from a lively intellectuality, and due to diametrically opposed views of government. In England, where the monarchy is enthroned and established in the people's hearts, no one dreams of FRANCE ON MORROW OF VICTORY 229 a Republic with Mr. Lloyd George as President; but in France a not inconsiderable section of the people feels that, in the permanency of sovereignty, lies the only hope of the nation. A Frenchman's political opinions are to a great extent coloured by his school surroundings. If he goes to a Church school and afterwards to a college (or grammar school), where the influences are similar, he is almost certain to become hostile to the Re- public, unless, out of sheer contrariness, he forswears his early teaching; but such cases, if notorious, are comparatively rare. In the Communal or State school he may fall, on the other hand, under anti- clerical or even anti-Christian teaching. His young mind is warped against the Church, and he may become, in consequence, a sectary of the most rabid type. The war has resulted already in a series of discoveries. The Royalist has discovered the good in the Republican, the Republican is astonished at the loyalty of the other, and at the patriotic fibre of the Socialist, and this outcast has shaken hands in solemn cordiality with property and the Church. In Paris and the provinces the lion of the Confederation du Travail (a Revolutionary body) has lain down with the Clerical lamb ; labour leader and cure have worked together on the same committees. One cannot believe that this national union, so necessary to the working out of the many problems of the war, will disappear with the occasion which gave it birth. The Chamber has shown that it can throb with pure patriotism. At the famous sitting of August 4, 1914, it provided a remarkable example of solidarity. Listening in silence to the Premier's 230 FRANCE AT BAY speech, explaining the war, it voted the credits for its prosecution with cries of " Vive VArmee ! " Not- withstanding the liveliness of its temperament — and there is a touch of fever in the normal life of France (we have Michelet's authority for it) — the French Chamber knows, on occasion, how to be dignified and how to conceal its differences. None the less, intrigue lifted its head when the enemy was close to Paris. That is part of the penalty of French impulsiveness, which manifests itself in drastic remedies and violent changes of policy. But the men who have faced death in the trenches will demand greater steadfastness in their representatives. They will not tolerate the old levity. Their daily touch with danger and their long reflections in lonely vigils have given them a new conception of national life. The old shibboleths have ceased to mean any- thing. " Radical," " Socialist," " Royalist," it is all the same. By one standard alone is a man judged : by his quality as patriot. In the army are no politics; M. Viviani, the Premier, declared it, just as Maeter- linck in The Blue Bird says : " There are no dead." The one is as comforting as the other, for politics are dead and only patriotism remains. Republican or Anti-Republican, each has done his duty in the trenches, and therefore deserves well of the country. When, on August 26, 1915, M. Viviani in the Chamber affirmed that France, without forgetting anything, had carried in her side for five-and-forty years the weight of a horrible wound — they were words that Paul Deroulede, bearer of the Fiery Cross of La Revanche, might have uttered. Indeed, the language of President Poincare\ of the Ministers, of Maurice FRANCE ON MORROW OF VICTORY 231 Barres, the Nationalist deputy, is identical. The war is common ground for all to stand upon. France is living her own motto : " L' Union fait la Force," and great results may be expected from it. Young Frenchmen will insist on respect being shown to the army, which has saved the country, and on toler- ance towards the Church, which has given its blood on the battlefield. This of itself marks a momentous change. " The Republic," said General Joffre (and M. Viviani after him), " may be proud of its heroic armies." More than ever the soldier will be con- sidered. The era of the fiche is dead; there will be no more enquiries into the private opinions of officers as in the days of General Andre. If the Republic cannot afford to run risks in the loyalty of its com- manders, it will insure it, at least, by worthier means than spying and delation. Officers no longer will be condemned unheard by Masonic Lodges in the exercise of their occult power, but every soldier of the Republic will be assumed to be a faithful son until proved the contrary. " On the day of danger all the children of France are reconciled," was a glowing phrase in the great speech already quoted. We have no time to linger over the mistakes of yesterday, which are as dry bones. The present is with us and the morrow which is to-day. It is certain that Catholicism will gain from the heroism of its priests ; it will gain also from the spiritual renaissance which preceded the war and filled the churches with earnest worshippers. The priests have shown bravery as combatants and as ghostly comforters. They have held daily Mass behind the lines; they have carried consolation to the dying under the storm of lead. 232 FRANCE AT BAY As officers or simple soldiers their example has been an inspiration. All the world has seen that, in the hour of trial, religion nerves the arm and strengthens the heart and envelops the padre with the shining armour of the perfect knight. At Rive- saltes, the birthplace of General Joffre, a priestly officer who had lost an eye in the battle was decorated by the General Commanding with the Legion of Honour. Such incidents have not been uncommon and have their weight. They prevent a return to the policy of M. Combes, the famous executioner of the Orders. Even Anti-clericals petitioned the Govern- ment for chaplains when the war broke out, and these spiritual warriors were accredited to both regiments and battleships. The war, also, brought back the dispersed Orders from the ends of the earth. The Government cannot compensate them for their devotion in the trenches and in the hospitals by a new decree of banishment. Moreover, France has need of her repatriated sons and daughters — need of their teaching to mitigate the selfishness which is depopulating the country. How is the generation slain on the battlefield to be replaced, except by a change of heart ? whereby those who have economized in their children shall now, in cheerful sacrifice, rear up citizens for the State ? Already the downward tendency of population is terrifying in its impetus. It can be stayed only by a loftier sense of civic duty such as the Church inculcates. In that and the purer morals of a people willing to be great are the salvation of the race. The new conditions may bring about a resumption of official relations with Rome. Even Radicals, who FRANCE ON MORROW OF VICTORY 233 are anti-clerical on principle, recognize the necessity of such a step. The employment of the French bishops as intermediaries is inconvenient; an official spokesman is needed. The new Parliament may well be asked to re-establish an embassy to the Holy See. Nor does this imply the resumption of the Concordat with its state -paid clergy, for England and Holland have both appointed representatives as Protestant Powers. The Pope's attitude on the war, so dis- appointing to French Catholics, may be attributed to the absence of French influence behind St. Peter's chair. Sheer practical wisdom dictates the recon- ciliation of the Republic with Rome. The Protector- ship of the Christians in the Near East, which was part of the patrimony of France, was jeopardized by her home policy to the advantage of the Triple Alliance. There was evidence of this in the war as well as of the German sympathies of Spanish Catholics — for similar reasons. If, out of the hesitation of the Pope to condemn acts which raised a world-wide reprobation, there arose a demand for a French National Church, it had little substance in it. Such an experiment has failed in the past and will fail again for lack of authority. " The Pope's infallibility in dogma does not affect his personal opinions," is a sufficient answer to those who thought that he had ruined for ever his ecclesiastical power in France. The Church of Rome to-day has come to its own in the Republic if it will leave politics alone and devote itself to its spiritual functions. And a return to its former simplicity of ritual and practices might attract, perhaps, some of the older elements alienated by ultramontanism. 234 FRANCE AT BAY The Army and Church, then, are again where they ought to be. The one will save the country from re-invasion and the other from materialism no less dangerous than the second and not, perhaps, un- connected with it. There is no denying the new impulses in the domain of art and letters. One may expect a greater life and joyousness in books. The pessimist declares that literature is dead in France. If there is visible no school of outstanding talent, there are many signs of an active, intellectual force, representing the new aspirations and vigour of the people. The old perfection of form, which is a dis- tinguishing mark of French litterateurs, is often a dead thing responding to no movement or hint of spiritual development. In its calm and pose it is as lifeless as the Sphinx. The generation of the last war produced the literature one would have expected of it : spiritless and bookish, for it had taken to its studies in a despairing effort to forget the past. Now that the reaction has come, it will show itself in the printing press. " The new brood," as Marcel Prevost calls it, is scarcely likely, however, to equal the brilliant pleiades of Hugo, Balzac, Dumas and Alfred de Musset, born in the glow of revolution and empire. But the gigan- tic struggle of to-day, unlike the war of '70, which produced no new literary name, may yet bring forth a group of writers whose imagination, working upon nerves braced and invigorated by exercise and self- control, may be led to translate new emotions with the help of unwonted imagery. The new generation combines with a taste for mechanics a refreshing love of out-of-doors, as is proved by its successes in the FRANCE ON MORROW OF VICTORY 235 French inventions of the bicycle, the motor-car and the aeroplane. Sport has taught discipline, patience and tenacity, where there was little of them before, and it is recreating the French nation with astonishing speed. These fine young men, head and shoulders taller than their fathers, with straight bodies and muscles of steel, may be expected to produce a different sort of in- tellectual output from their bookish forbears suffering from intellectual forced-feeding, with playless play- grounds, and prison-like lyc^es, wherein they took a monthly bath as variant from the deadly round of lessons. No wonder school to them was " the railway station, from which they were only too anxious to depart." It is true that the school curriculum continues to be overcharged and that the intense democracy of France, where birth is no passport to office, aids in this excessive system. But there are greater forces than personal ambition at work to change France, and the principal is patriotism. Patriotism decrees the sound mind in the sound body, a robust national health. Thus the cult of sport and manly exercise must stay and profoundly influence the mental calibre of the generation as well as the ideals of its thinkers and statesmen. In the arts, too, one may expect something of the fresh-flowing spring note that Lucien Simon introduces so happily into his salon pictures. Art, no doubt, will pique itself on interpreting the love of action of the age. In the theatre, also, the menage a trois and its infinite variations must give way surely to wide subjects of popular appeal. The petites histoires, pathological as much as psychological, become an 236 FRANCE AT BAY insult to the intelligence when grave themes are in the air and the world is pulsing with new problems. And so this France of to-morrow will be a glad new France, sane and strong in its civilization and refusing to weaken its panoply either by internecine politics or by equivocal art. 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Altogether * Tramps through Tyrol ' is an alluring book. ' Try,' we say, therefore, ■ Tyrol,' and take Mr. Stoddard's delightful ' Tramps' with you." From Halifax to Vancouver. By B. pullen- BURRY. With 40 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12*. 6i.net. Daily Chronicle. — "Well written, well arranged, full and complete." Switzerland in Winter. By WILL and carine CADBY. With 40 Illustrations. \>own 8vo. 5*. net. This is a lightly written and entertaining description of all that has to do with the life led by Winter visitors to Switzerland. It treats in a comprehensive way of such varied subjects as journeys, sports, indoor life, expenses, and climate, and has two carefully written chapters on the important subject of where to go. To those who know Switzerland in Winter this book will be welcome, and to all those who are contemplating their first visit it will be indis- pensable, as it contains the condensed essence of the writers' fourteen years' experience. From the study of its pages the intending traveller may easily decide which is the Winter centre best suited to his individual taste and pocket. 28 BOOKS FOR CHILDREN The Doll's Day. By CARINE and WILL CADBY. With 30 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. Is. (id. net. "The Doll's Day" is a book for children telling a pretty and attractive story of how a little girl had a dream that her dolls were living, and is chiefly concerned with adventuies during "The Doll's Day." It contains 30 delightful illustrations from photographs which will be simply fascinating to children. The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey. By G. E. TRODTBECK, Author of " Westminster Abbey " (Little Guides). With 4 Photogravure Plates and 21 Illustrations from Photographs. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 5*. net. Popular Edition, 1*. net. Stories from Italian History Re-told for Children. By G. E. TROUTBECK, Author of "The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey." With 22 Illus- trations from Photographs. Crown 8vo. 5*. net. Tatler. — "These stories are so vivid and so interesting that they shonld be in every schoolroom." Kings and Queens of France. A Concise History of France. By MILDRED CAKNEGY. With a Preface by the BISHOP OF HEREFORD. With a Map and 4 Full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 3*. Gd. Queery Leary Nonsense. Being a Lear Nonsense Book, with a long Introduction and Notes bv the EARL OF CROMER, and edited by LADY STRACHIE of Sutton Court. With about 50 Illustrations in colour and line. Crown 4to. 3*. %d. net. Daily Telegraph. — "A book full of fascinating absurdity, and the true spirit of the King of Nonsense." Science and Magic. By F. w. SHOOSMITH, B.Sc. With 54 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 2s. Gd. Also School Edition. 1*. A unique science book for boys on uncommonly interesting lines, con- taining a clearly written account of some of the many ways in which a knowledge of scientific principles have been utilised by magicians of all ages to deceive and astonish others. Magnetism and Electricity, Chemistry, Sound, Light, Pneumatics, and .Surface Tension are laid under contribution, and the author, after carefully describing the tricks and the means by which they are performed, utilises them as so many illustrations of scientific laws and principles. The language employed throughout is a.s simple and nntechnical as |>oa8ible, and the interested reader — and what boy is not interested in conjuring?— is put in possession of the secrets of a number of capital tricks and astonishing feats, while absorbing a very considerable amount of scientific knowledge. Mills & Boon's Catalogue The Lear Coloured Bird Book for Children. By EDWARD LEAR. With a Foreword by J. ST. LOE STRACHEY. 2*. 64. net. Francis Chantrey : Donkey Boy and Sculptor. By HAROLD ARMITAGE, Author of "Chantrey Land," " Sorrelsykes," etc. Illustrated by CHARLES ASHMORE. 2*. Gd. Also School Edition, 1*. A wholly delightful book, giving a sketch of the life and work of Sii Francis Chantrey, the milk boy who modelled the statue of the Duke of Wellington opposite the Royal Exchange, and the Sleeping Children in Lichfield Cathedral. He gives niarjy romantic details about Chantrey's boyhood, and tales about him and his donkey that are particularly attractive to children. Scott, Wordsworth, and most of the famous men of his time, were modelled by Chantrey, and monuments by him are to be seen in London, Liverpool, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, etc. The clever pen-and-ink illustrations by Mr. Charles Asbmore are exactly in tune with their subjects. The Duke of Wellington. By harold armitage. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 2x. tid. Also School Edition, 1*. A book for boys of from 12 to 14. Mr. Armitage writes with spirit, and he is a master of vigorous phrase-making. The book will be of special interest in view of the Centenary of the Battle of Waterloo. The author's description of Wellington's amazing industry, of his unswerving loyalty, of Lis unbending devotion to duty cannot fuil to impress ail those who read this biography of Britain's hero. A Little Girl's Cookery Book. By c. F. benton and MARY F. HODGE. Crown 8 vo. 2s. 6d.net. Taper, It. net. Daily Telepraph. — "A capital idea. Hitherto the manufacture of toffy has represented the limit of nursery art in the direction indicated, but this vulume contains excellent recipes tor dishe:; which children will find quite easy to make, and their elders to cat without misgivings. Every father, mother, rmcle, and aunt should make a point or presenting their child friends with a copy of this useful and practical book." A Little Girl's Gardening Book. By SELINA RANDOLPH. Crown Svo. Cloth, 2*. Qd. net. Paper, Is, net. Alcrdfen Free Prest. — "A first-rate book." Manchester Courier.—' 1 All children lovo gardens. This book will make them genuine gardeners." Letters to Children about Drawing, Painting, and Something More. By JOHN MEADE. Crown Bra. 2$. Gd. net. A charming book which will fulfil a long-felt want. 24 ON MATTERS THEATRICAL A Century of Great Actors (1750-1850). By CECIL FERARD ARMSTRONG, Author of "The Dramatic Author's Companion," etc. With 16 Illustra- tions. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d net. Standard. — "An interesting series of pithy biographies — concise and entertaining." World. — " An interesting and useful book." Bookman.—" Very alert, very scholarly, and entirely readable." A Century of Famous Actresses (1750-1850). By HAROLD SIMPSON, Author of " Yvette Guilbert," "A Century of Ballads," etc., and Mbs. CHARLES BSAUN. With 18 Illustrations, Demy 8vo. 10.?. 6d. net Illustrated London News. — " We have seen no book of bygone aotora giving a better idea of their acting." A Century of Ballads (1810-1910), Their Composers and Singers. By HAROLD SIMP- SON. With 49 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net. Popular Edition. Large Crown 8vo. 6*. Daily Express.—" Deals brightJy with a most fascinating subject." The Garden of Song. Edited by HAROLD SIMPSON. Fcap. 8vo. 2*. tid. net. Scotsman.— " An excellent anthology of lyrice that have been sot to music. They are, for the most part, songs that have enjoyed a wide popularity, and this collection of lyrical gems forms a very desirable little volume." Shakespeare to Shaw. By CECIL ferard arm- strong, Author of "The Dramatic Author's Com- panion." Crown 8vo. 6s. Athenaeum. — " The dramatists — Shakespeare, Congreve, Sheridan, Robert- aon, Sir A. W. Pinero, and Mr. Shaw — have been selected as landmarks of English drama. The method adopted by the author is the separate examination of every play of his subjects with criticism of the qnalities erf each.." 26 Mills & Boon's Catalogue An Actor's Hamlet. With full notes by LOUIS CALVERT. Crown 8vo. 2s. Gd. net. Daily Chronicle.—" Full of illuminating insight." The Dramatic Author's Companion. By CECIL F. ARMSTRONG. With an Introduction bv ARTHUR BOURCHIER, M.A. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 2*. 6d. net. Times.—" This is a very useful book, and there seems little omitted which will he of practical service to an aspiring playwright. All about different kinds of plays and their prod\iction, contracts, placing M:SS. (with an excellent covering letter), facsimile MS., copyrights, etc." Pall Mall Gazette. — "The best book of its kind we have seen. Its author has not only a wide knowledpe of plays, but a sound judgment both from the artistic and popular standpoint. His advice is always practical." The Amateur Actor's Companion. By VIOLET M. METHLEY. With 8 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 2.v. Gd. net. The aim of this book is to be a more complet* and more up-to-date handbook upon Amateur Theatricals than has yet appeared. The Actor's Companion. By CECIL F. ARM- STRONG. With an Introduction by ARTHUR BOUR- CHIER, M.A. Crown Svo. 2*. Gd. net. Whilst having no pretensions to teaching the difficult art of acting, this book will be found to contain many practical and useful hint* to the young actor. The author, associated as he has been for many years with one of the larger West End theatres, has had exceptionally good opportunities of studying the inner workings of a theatre, the technical requirements of the actor, and the many considerations besides that of mere talent necessary to ensure success on the stage. Two special cbaptere, one dealing with Scientific Voice Production and the other with the Art of Gesture, are contributed by well-known experts. Peter Pan : The Fairy Story of the Play. By G. D. DRENXAN. With a Photogravure of Miss Pauline Chase as Peter Pan. Fcap. 8vo. Leather, 2s. Gd. net. Popular Edition, Crown 8vo. Paper, Gd. School Reader Edition, with an Introduction by A. R. PICKLES, M.A. Cloth, Gd. Santa-Claus : The Kinemacolour Fairy Play. By HAROLD SIMPSON. With 34 Illustrations. Crown 4 to. 1*. net. Votes for Women. A Play in Three Acts. By ELIZABETH ROBINS. Crown 8vo. U. 26 VOLUMES OF VERSE Deportmental Ditties. By harry graham. Profusely Illustrated by LEWIS BAUMER. Fcap. 8vo. Third Edition. 8*. 6d. net. Daily Graphic. — " Harry Graham certainly has the knack." Daily Chronicle. — "All clever, generally flippant, invariably amusing/' Canned Classics, and Other Verses. By HARRY GRAHAM, Author of " Deportmental Ditties," "The Bolster Book," etc., etc. Profusely Hlustrated by LEWIS BAUMER. Crown 4to. 3*. 6d. net. Also Fcap. 8vo. 3*. 6d. net. Times.—" As fresh as ever." Evening Standard.—" One long delight." Founded on Fiction. By LADY SYBIL GRANT. With 50 niustrations and a Cover Design by GEORGE MORROW. Crown 4to. 3s. §d. net. T. P.'s Weekly.—" A book of chuckles." Daily Chronicle. — " The vivacious offspring of a witty mind." Times.— " Mr. Morrow's pictures fit the verses like a glove." Ships and Sealing Wax. By HANSARD watt. With 40 Illustrations by L. R. BRIGHT WELL. Crown 4to. 3s. 6d. net. Daily Mail.—"Yerj clever and amusing, the humour enhanced by quaint illustrations." Through the Loopholes of Retreat. By han. SARD WATT. With a Portrait of Cowper in Photo- gravure. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. Qd. net. Daily Chronicle. — " Mr. Hansard Watt has hit upon the happy plan of placing poet and letter-writer side hy Bide, so that the two voices may blend in unison. The volume has a select passage of prose and verse for every day in the year, and the whole is a pleasant and surpriseful store* house of good things. Mr. Watt print* for the first time a letter from Cowper to his friend Joseph Hill : it is txxU of interest, and lends an additional charm to the volume." *7 FOR THE CONTEMPLATIVE MIND Involution. By LORD ERNEST HAMILTON. Demy Svo. 7s. Ed. net. Daily Graphic.—" Extremely interesting, an hone6t and lofty endeavour to seek the troth." St. Clare and Her Order : A Story of Seven Centuries. By the Author of "The Enclosed Nun." With 20 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 7s. Gd. net. Catholic Times.—" Fills a gap in our religious literature." The Town of Morality : or, the Narrative of One who Lived Here for a Time. By C. H. R. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6*. Daily Graphic. — " In short, C. H. R. has written a new ' Pilgrim's Progress,' a passionate, a profound, and stirring satire on the self-satisfied morality of Church and of Chapel." The Book of This and That. By ROBERT LYND. Crown Svo. 4s. Gd. net. A collection of brilliant Essays by a talented Irishman. Pall Mall Gazette.— "This delightful book. Mr. Lynd writes so wittily and pleasantly." Manchester Guardian.—" His cleverness is amazing ; fresh, amuaing, suirpestive." EwjUsIl Review. — •• An elegant writer ; jocund and attractive." The Enclosed Nun. Fcap. 8vo. New Edition. Cloth, 2s. Gd. net ; Paper, 1*. net. Pall Mall Gazette.— "A remarkably beautiful piece of devotional writing." Unposted Letters. Crown 8vo. 6*. Daily Express. — " Full of tender memories. There is something about them peculiarly touching and vary human." Morning Post. — "They have a style of their own which must attract every reader of taste." Out of the Ivory Palaces. By P. H. ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A., F.R.S.L., F.R.Hist.S., Author of "The Parson's Pleasance." With 12 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6s. Globe. — " The author gives much curious and out-of-the-way information In these very readable pages." S8 FOR POLITICIANS AND OTHER READERS Makers of New France. By Charles dawbarn. With 16 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. Kd. net. Pall Mall Gazette: — "Well worth setting alongside the best literature that we have on France from Bodley or the Philosophers, for the book is imbued with a profound and instructive sympathy expressed in admirable form." Morning Post :— " A triumphant book which ought to be read by every- body who wishes to understand the new orientation of French mentality." Liverpool Post; — "Mr. Dawbarn is a literary ambassador of the Entente." Romany Life. By FRANK CUTTRISS. With an Illustration in 4 Colours and 46 in Monotone. Is. Gd. net. A charming book on Gipsy life, beautifully illustrated and quite the best thing of its kind that has been published. It is written by an expert whose knowledge of Gypsies is beyond question, and whose photographs are the real thing. The Kaiser'8 Heir. With 12 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6*. Times. — " Shows a minute knowledge both of the Prince's career and of German conditions generally, which makes it a really valuable contributiop to current history." Home Life in Ireland. By ROBERT LYND. Who 18 Illustrations. Third and Popular Edition, with a New Preface. Crown 8vo. 6*. Spectator.— "An entertaining and informing book, the work of a close and interested observer." Captive of the Kaiser in Belgium. By GEORGES LA BARRE. With 7 Illustrations by the Author. Paper Cover. 1*. net. Military Mail. — " One of the best and most reliable personal narratives of the state of Belgium at the time of the German invasion." Physical Training for Boy Scouts. By LIEUT. A. G. A. STREET, R.N., Superintendent of Physical Training to the School Board of Glasgow, with a Foreword by SIR R. S. S. BADEN-POWELL, K.C.B. With 29 Diagrams. Paper Cover. Id. net. Morning Post.— "An excellent little Manual, it should be invaluable to Scout Masters." 29 FOR THE CONTEMPLATIVE MIND Involution. By LORD ERNEST HAMILTON. Demy Svo. Is. Gd. net. Daily Graphic— "Extremely interesting, an honest and lofty endeavour to seek the truth." St. Clare and Her Order : A Story of Seven Centuries. By the Author of "The Enclosed Nun." With 20 Illustrations. Demy Svo. Is. tid. net. Catholic Times.— "Fills a gap in our religious literature." The Town of Morality : or, the Narrative of One who Lived Here for a Time. By C. H. R. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6*. Daily Graphic. — " In short, C. H. R. has written a new ' Pilgrim's Pro<»rees,' a passionate, a profound, and stirring satire on the self-satisfied morality of Church and of Chapel." The Book of This and That. By ROBERT LYND. Crown Svo. 4s. Gd. net. A collection of brilliant Essays by a talented Irishman. Pall Mall Gazette.— " This delightful book. Mr. Lynd writes so wittily and pleasantly." Manchester Guardian.—" His cleverness is amaxing ; fresh, amusing, suL'peative." Mgiitk Review.—" An elegant writer ; jocund and attractive." The Enclosed Nun. Fcap. 8vo. New Edition. Cloth, 2v. (id. net ; Paper, 1*. net. Pall Mall Gazette. — "A remarkably beautiful piece of devotional writing." Unposted Letters. Crown 8vo. 6*. Daily Express. — " Full of tender memories. There is something about them peculiarly touching and very human." Mowing Post. — "They have a style of their own which must attract every reader of taste." Out of the Ivory Palaces. By P. H. DITCHFIELD, M.A., F.S.A., F.R.S.L., F.R.Hist.S., Author of "The Parson's Pleasance." With 12 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6*. Gtobe. — " The author gives much curious and out-of-the-way information In these very readable pages." FOR POLITICIANS AND OTHER READERS Makers of New France. By Charles dawbarn. With 16 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10*. 6rf. net. Pall Mall Gazette: — "Well worth setting alongside the best literature that we have on France from Bodley or the Philosophers, for the book is imbued with a profound and instructive sympathy expressed in admirable form." Morning Pott : — "A triumphant book which ought to be read by every- body who wishes to understand the new orientation of French mentality." Liverpool Post: — "Mr. Dawbarn is a literary ambassador of the Entente." Romany Life. By FRANK CUTTRISS. With an Illustration in 4 Colours and 46 in Monotone. 7s. Gd. net. A charming book on Gipsy life, beautifully illustrated and quite the best thing of its kind that has been published. It is written by an expert whose knowledge of Gypsies is beyond question, and whose photographs are the real thing. The Kaiser's Heir. With 12 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6*. Times. — "Shows a minute knowledge both of the Prince's career and of German conditions generally, which makes it a really valuable contribution to current history." Home Life in Ireland. By ROBERT lynd. Witn 18 Illustrations. Third and Popular Edition, with a New Preface. Crown 8vo. 6*. Spectator.—" An entertaining and informing book, the work of a close and interested observer." Captive of the Kaiser in Belgium. By GEORGES LA BARRE. With 7 Illustrations by the Author. Paper Cover. 1*. net. Military Mail. — " One of the best and most reliable personal narratives of the state of Belgium at the time of the German invasion." Physical Training for Boy Scouts. By LIEUT. A. G. A. STREET, R.N., Superintendent of Physical Training to the School Board of Glasgow, with a Foreword by SIR R. S. S. BADEN- POWELL, K.C.B. With 29 Diagrams. Paper Cover. Id. net. Morning Post.— " An excellent little Manual, it should be invaluable to Scout Masters." 28 Mills & Boon's Catalogue The Italians of To-day. By RICHARD bagot, Author of " My Italian Year." Crown Svo. Third Edition. 2s. &d. net. Popular and Revised Edition, 1*. net. Scotsman.—" Shows the same intimate knowledge of Italian life and character as ' My Italian Year.' " The German Spy System in France. Trans- lated from the French of PAUL LANOIR. Crown Svo. 5s. net. Paper Cover. Gd. net. T.P.'s Weekly.— "A book that should awaken the public and the authori- ties to a condition of things that can only cease to be alarming if prompt action is taken." The Pocket Gladstone : Selections from the Writings and Speeches of William Ewart Gladstone. Compiled by J. AUBREY REES, with an Introduction by the Rt. Hon. Sir ALGERNON WEST, P.C., G.C.B. leap. Svo. Cloth, 2s. net. Paper, 1*. net. The Pocket Disraeli. By J. B. lindenbaum, ma. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 2*. net. Paper, Is. net. The Pocket Asquith. By E. E. MORTON. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 2s. net. Paper, 1*. net. Spectator.—" Should be useful to the student of contemporary politics." The Bolster Book. A Book for the Bedside. By HARRY GRAHAM, Author of " Deportmental Ditties." Frontispiece by LEWIS BAUMER. Fourth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3*. Qd. net. Popular Edition, Is. net. Daily Chronicle.—" Humorists are our benefactors, and Captain Graham being not only a humorist, but an inventor of lmmour, is dearer to uie than that ' sweet Tuxedo Girl ' of a famous song, who, ' though fond of fun,' is 'never rude.' I boldly assume that Biffin, like 'the Poet Budge' and Ho3ea Biglow, is a ventriloquist's doll — a doll more amusing than any figure likely to appear in the dreams of such dull persons as could be put to sleep by articulate laughter." Daily Graphic— "Moat refreshingly and delightfully funny." SO EDUCATIONAL BOOKS Full particulars of these may be obtained from MILLS & BOON, LTD., 49, Rupert St., London, W. Heads of Schools are invited to torite for specimen copies of books likely to prove suitable for Introduction as class books. ENGLISH TEXTS As You Like It. Edited by C. It. Gilbert, M.A. With Notes. 1*. Henry V. Edited by C. R. Gilbert, M.A. Is. Plain text, Gd. net. The Tempest. Edited by Frank Jones, B.A. Is. Plain text, Gd. net. The Merchant of Venice. Edited by G. H. Ball and H. G. Smith. Is. Plain text, 6d. net. Maxwell's Poetry for Boys. Is. Gd. Smith & Ball's English Composition, la. English Grammar. Is. Gd. FRENCH Baron's Exercises in French Free Composition. Is. Gd. Barrere's Elementary French Course. Is. Barrere's Intermediate French Course. 2s. Barrere's Precis of Comparative French Grammar. 3s. Gd. Barrere's Recits Milltaires. 3s. Barrere's Short Passages for French Composition. 2s. Gd. Bossut's French Word Book. Is. Bossut's French Phrase Book. Gd. net. Shrive' s First French Unseen Book. Gd. net. Shrive' s Second French Unseen Book. Is. net. Walters' Reform First French Book. Illustrated. Is. DIRECT METHOD FRENCH TEXTS Edited by R. R. N. BARON, M.A., Cheltenham Grammar School. Claretie'sPierriile. Is. Gd. Daudet's La Belle Nivernaise. Is. Gd. Merimee's Tamango and Jose Maria Ie Brigand. I*. Hugo's Bug Jargal. 2s. MODERN FRENCH AUTHORS With Introductions, Notes, Exercises for Rctranslatlon, Vocabularies, etc. Balzac— Ursule Mirouet. Without vocabulary, 2s. Daudet. — La Belle Nivernaise. With vocabulary, Is. Gd. Greville. - Le Moulin Frappier. With vocabulary, 2s. Without, la. ou. de Nerval.— La Alain Enchantee. With vocabulary, Is. Toudouze.— Madame Lambelle. Without vocabulary, 2«. GEOGRAPHY Wetherill's New Preliminary Geography. Is. Gd. Bird's School Geography. It. Gd. GERMAN Walters' Reform First German Book. Illustrated. 3«. net. Lange's Advanced German Reader. 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MATHEMATICS Boon's Preparatory Arithmetic. With answers, 1*. 6d. Without, la. Answers only, fol. net. Boon's Arithmetic for Schools and Colleges. With answers, 4*. Without answers, 2s. M. Answers only, fd. net. Deakin's New School Geometry. 2s. 6d. Tart I, la.; Tart II, 1*. id. Deakin's Rural Arithmetic. With answers, Is. 6rf. Without, la Deakin's Household Accounts. With or without answers. 6u.net. Harrison's Practical Mathematics. With ana., la. 6d. Withonl Harrison's Practical Mathematics for Elementary Schools. fa. net. Stainer's Graphs in Arithmetic, Algebra, and Trigonometry Walker's Examples and Test Papers in Algebra. With oi answers, 2a. 6d. In 2 parts, each with answers, la. txi. Without, la. Sd. READERS Peter Pan : The Fairy Story of the Play. Illustrated. 6d\ Francis Chantry: Milkboy and Sculptor. Illustrated, la. Armitage's The Duke of Wellington. Illustrated, la. Cadbys* The Doll's Day. Illustrated. Shoosmith's Science and Magic. With 54 Illustrations, la. SCIENCE Goddard's First School Botanv. With 207 diagrams. 2a. 6d. Hood's Problems in Practical Chemistry. With 22 lllustrs. . r >a. Oldham's First School Chemistry. With 71 Illustrations, 2a. 6d. Oldham's Elementary Quantitative Analysis. With 11 diagrams, la. Cd. Bucknell's Practical Course in First Year Physics. Illustrated, la. IN orris' Experimental Mechanics and Physics. Illustrated, la. 6d\ Laws and Todd's Introduction to Heat. With 106 Illustration*. 2a. Gd. SCRIPTURE Gilbert's Notes on St. Matthew's Gospel, la. Baull, Walton * Fm«y, Ld., London and Ayksbwy— lb/ 41J0. AHI««AL»I«OJ«0M« ^ U :HD R « .^Vh-TH. SSV^H DAY OVERDUE. LD 21-100m-7/40 (69368) YB 21345 340815 IIVERS1TY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 1