—Driving the Driver.—

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 70

— Driving the Driver. —

Already Paris has grasped the mighty part which Clemencea.u is bound to play in the new Cabinet. M. Sarrien, they say, is the drivier, but M. Clemenceau drives -the driver. M. Clemenceau occupies to M. Sarrien something of the same position which Jlr 'Chamberlain is supposed in "our own politics to occupy, to Mr Balfour. The subordinate is known as the stronger character, the moro daring intelligence, the more enterprising politician. Mr "Chamberlain has had an interesting and chequered career, but if you compare it with that of M. Clemenceau it is like the difference not merely between two nations, but two epochs. X nere ' s scarcely an experience of stormy political life through which M. Clemenceau has flot passed. If he had belonged to an earlier time he would have been one of those who in the National Convention played the great game where the stakes were not merely portfolios, but heads under the knife of the guillotine. And if things had at the time turned out just a little differently, there is no saying that M. Clemenceau might not also have ended his career on the scaffold.