IS THE PARIS EXHIBITION 'A' SUCCESS?

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 184, 4 August 1900, Page 3 (Supplement)

IS THE PARIS EXHIBITION 'A' SUCCESS?

A TRIUMPH WHICH MEANS PEACS TO FRANCE.

(By Henry Markham, in the

"Daily Mail.")

Is the Paris Exhibition a success? That i? the question which is asked on everj hand, and which can only receive one answer of truth.

Its success is certain and triumphant. Unfinished it may be, and is; but no accident has availed to check its progress and from whatever point of view the exhibition be regarded, we cannot but congratulate the enterprise of France.

Of its beauty little remains to be said. The splendour of its palaces glitters in th« eyes of all beholders. So fair an arrangement of buildings as may bo seen froir. the Champs-Elysees to the Invalides, or better still from the Trocadero to Champ de Mars, could only be achieved by on* country, and that country France. For the French architects understand th» value not only of pillars and pediments, but of space; and there is not a single pavilion whose beauty is not enhanced by its setting.

SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY, Nor need the most exotic taste laefc satisfaction. Within «ie walls of this vast exhibition there is interest and entertainment for all. By day you may study the arts and industries of all countries and of all time. By night you may wander iln arr enchanted garden of ths "Arabian Nights," in which no tree Is without its jewel of light, no pathway without its mysterious shadow.

But a country does not live by beauty alone, and the Paris Exhibition.might be brilliant as the sun, and not achieve its purpose, whiciT is to attract the sightseers of the world. However, there is aa little doubt that it has achieved this purpose, as that it has flashed forth a vision of loveliness. All day and every day the gardens and palaces are packed by a cosmopolitan and parti-coloured crowd. Kings and beggars, Frenchmen and Hindoos, Chinamen and Germans, are mingled in an indistinguishable mass, and on Sunday last almost four hundred thousand spectators passed the turnstiles.

Now and again you hear the complaint that England sulks like Achilles in her tent; yet even Frenchmen agree that she sulks with dignity and with justice. On the other hand, Germany has forgotten her ancient quarrel, and has proved to. France not only what her industry has accomplished, but that she is eager to inspect the industry of others. In a word, the exhibition is thronged by a money-spending crowd, and there is little doubt that many millions will be poured into the banks of France between this and the autumn.

WHAT FAILURE WOULD MEAN., Now, this result is completely satisfactory to France. But, it may be asked, what interest has Europe in the prosperity of the exhibition? Every interest, because rightly or wrongly the exhibition has acquired as it goes a political importance. The Nationalists, eager for their coun-. try's downfall, would miss it if they could. A mighty deficit in October would discredit the Republic as bitterly as a defeat at the hands of the, foreign foe, and the discredit of the Republic might prove a good chance for the aggrandiserrent of MM. Meline and Mercier.

Moreover, strange as it seems, the eternal, inextinguishable DreyfU3 Affair is mixed up in some recondite fashion with the exhibition. Such mobile "patriots'." as MM. de Castellane and Cassagriac are ruthless in attack and constant in evil prophecy. Because General de Galliffet, with a firm courage which has restored a temporary peace to France, roundly asserted that, so far as was concerned, the Dreyfus case is finished, precisely for this reason he was accused every day of a determined wish to re-open the discussion. But the boot is on'the other leg; it is the Nationalists who are. doinsj their utmost to thrust the affair once'more upon the attention of Europe, since they see very plainly that a ferment in Paris would straightway empty the hotels and ensure a'furious discontent. Yet the-mini istry of M. Waldeck-Rosseau is as firm as the number of tickets sold day by day, and it, is now evident that the present Government and the exhibition will stand or fall together. •

THE STABILITY OF THE GOVERN-

MOST ESSENTIAL.

As, therefore, .the exhibition ■ possesses all the qualities of success, the security of the Government becomes a vital matter to the peace of France. Will M. Wal-deck-Rousseau, even ■without M. de Galliffet be strong enough to withstand all the forces of Nationalist intrigue? We believe he will, and, so far, he has not shown signs of weakening. True, General de Galliffet has succumbed to illhealth, but he showed before he went what a resolute minister could do.

Again, the triumph which the Nationalists declare they have won in Paris is wholly illusory. Paris is but a1 political weathercock, which shifts with every shifting wind. Then; ' too, as M. Waldeck-Rousseau pointed out the 'other day, Nationalism has no following in the pirovlnces, and the merchants of the provinces have an even higher stake in the exhibition than the- shopkeepers of Paris). So, that, there should be no serious risk of obstruction or of ruin, and, as M. Comely is never tired ox pointing out in the "Figaro," the grea* exhibition can afford to laugh at tha folly of politicians.

It is not, perhaps, a lofty ideal of statesmanship—this determination to subordinate ah opinions to the success of a commercial and artistic project. But it is tha best ideal which the French Republic can set before herself just now, and it is an ideal which she can realise better than anybody else. Peace, also, has its victories, and the victories of France are more likely to be won on the Champ de Mars than on any more warlike field.

"BREAD AND THE CIRCUS." When the Romans were restive or rebellious, they got for their solace "panem et circenses," and it is bread and the circus which now tranquillise the1 excited Frenchman. The exhibition, to be sure, was designed long before the wickedness of the General Staff troubled tha country; but, strangely enough, it has arrived in time tosoothe the weary brains of intellectual ami patriotard alike. There is the circus, which may be enjoyed any day in the week, a circus which include? the spoils of the whole earth.and which isr never tired of disclosing new wonders. An<? there is the certainty of bread, which th* circus will yield a little later to ali classes, save' that which finds its profit In political •.. falsehood. Why, indeed, should the citizens, assured both of bread and circus, turn aside to read the platitudes of MM, Drumont and Roohefort? These gentlemen may cry louder than ever, but they cry in vain. Their. insolence is hushed in the clatter of the rolling footway, and presently a diminished circulation will persuade them to reflect.

Meanwhile, the exhibition is confident in its triumph, and as its triumph moans peace in France, so peace to France may mean, or possibly will mean, peace to Europe.