IS IT SUSPECT?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 50, 28 February 1935, Page 16

IS IT SUSPECT?

PRANCE'S RED RIBBON HELD BY 175,000 FRENCHMEN AI/LEGATIONS OF TRAFFIC. (By a Special Correspondent.) PARIS, February 2. The classic definition of a Frenchman— "a man who wears a ribbon in his buttonhole, is ignorant of geography, and always calls for more bread" —is not as true as it once was. The French are eating much less bread than tliey used to. And they are pretty familiar with geography nowadays, thanks to wars and war scares and colonial expansion. But in one respect the definition is truer than ever, for more and more Frenchmen wear ribbons in their buttonholes. The ribbons are of many different colours: green and red for the Croix de Guerre, purple for the Academic Palms, and plain red for the most coveted ribbon of all, that of the Legion of Honour. The startling fact has just been published that more than 175,000 Frenchmen are wearing the red ribbon in their buttonholes. What is moro alarming is that among the scores of swindlers who have been arrested during the last year in connection with the Stavisky scandal and others, a large percentage were proudly wearing this honorary decoration. The newspapers all have a department called "Legion of Honour," in which they list from week to week the names of those on whom the ribbon has been bestowed. A satirical paper runs a similar department in which it puts the names of legionaries who are cooling their heels in prison.

In the Ribbon Business. Investigation has shown that in frequent cases bribery was used to obtain the decoration. One bureau chief in a Government Department was proved not long ago to have carried on a regular traffic in decorations, charging as much as £SOO for obtaining the red ribbon for shady characters.

As far back as 1886 a President of the French Republic, Jules Grevy, was forced to resign his high ofiiee because it was disclosed that a relative was using his influence to obtain Legion of Honour decorations for cash.

Many hundreds of Americans, especially sinee the war, have received the red ribbon, and often it has cost them much money —not necessarily in the form of bribes, but more usually in contributions to French charities and causes. Scores of American writers and journalists, too, have been decorated, either because of their friendliness to France or because it was hoped that the distinction would incline them favourably to French policies. Sometimes the ignorance of French officials leads to amusing blunders, and the wrong man is decorated through a similarity in names. During the Versailles Peace Conference, for instance, the French Foreign Office decided to decorate all the most eminent American correspondents who were covering the proceedings. A list was drawn up and submitted to a high official for approval.

"This can't be right," said the official when he glanced at the list. "Here you lave 'Irwin' and immediately afterward 'Cobb.' They are the same man—lrwin Cobb." And the list was "corrected" accordingly. A Batch of Surprises. When it came out in the papers, Will Irwin and the late Frank Cobb, then editor of the "New York World," were perhaps surprised at being omitted, though probably not so much surprised as the genial American humorist was at being included. Later the mistake was rectified. by giving Irwin and Cobb their ribbons, but Irvin Cobb was allowed to keep his.

Besides the mere ribbon, there are higher grades in the Legion that entitle one to wear a red rosette and embellishments. An officer wears the rosette, a commander the rosette with a silver ribbon, and so on. The highest grade is Grand Croix, worn by General Pershing and by two eminent American philanthropists, Edward Tuck and James Hazen Hyde. It is the same decoration that Pierre Laval recently bestowed on Premier Mussolini. Its owner wears a broad red sash across, the shirt front. Many Americans living in Paris spend much of their time trying to get the red ribbon or promotions in grade. They give dinner parties to French officials, contribute to charities, and solicit their friends to write letters of recommendation on their behalf. In this, as in many human activities, persistence usually wins, and there are few Americans of any prominence at all in the French capital who don't sport a ribbon or rosette.

A tangible advantage of being a Grand Croix or a Grand Officer (the second class) is that such dignitaries cannot, be tried in • the police courts. Even if arrested for speeding, they are entitled to be judged by an assize court.