STUBBORN NATIONALISM.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14406, 13 July 1912, Page 14

STUBBORN NATIONALISM.

ALSACK-LORIIAIXK REMAINS FRENCH.

GERMAN POLICY INEFFECTIVE.

(KKOM A c'OERKSI'OXWEXT.) STRAcBURG, June 1. Kaber Wilhelm wants to annex Alsace-Lorraine to Prussia. The whirligig of time brings its revenges. Barely a year ago the .Kaiser was signing a brand-new Constitution for AlsaceLorraino which gavo the provinces complete Home Rulp, three votes in the Bundesrath, and everything but the namo of an independent State of the German Empire. The Constitution of May 31st, 1911, was the last triumphal titage of the policy of "killing French memories with kindness," which has been going on steadily since 1574. Everyone, except the stiff-necked, incredulous Prussian Conservatives, hoped that the love of Alsace-Lorraine was won at last. And now not only does the Kaiser want to take back the brand-new Constitution, but ho wants to take back the half-constitution which preceded it, to abolish every shred of Alsatian independence, and exile the provinces to Prussia —the rough, tough, disciplinary Prussia which a Reichstag deputy calls "The German Siberia."

Alsace-Lorraine's obduracy against letting its Francophilism be killed with kindness is one of the puzzles of that immemorial miracle, Nationalism. It proves that deep-rooted national sentiment can no moro be killed with kindness than it can be killed with kicks. After forty-one years of just, efficient, and fairly liberal and sympathetic rule, Alsace-Lorraine, is as separatist and as Francophil as ever. Years have counted for nought. Elderly men who remember the rule of Napoleon 111. are dying out, and are being replaced by young men who were never French. But though most of these young men have German names, and cannot speak any French, they are more Francophil than their fathers and grandfathers. Indeed, it is precisely the young man, the growing lad, the "Schangels," us local Germans derisively call him, who is the bitterest enemy of German rule to-day.

Alsace-Lorraine is now, as it was under France, mainly German in race, language, and civilisation. There is Frankish blood —also originally German —in Lorraine, but Alsace belongs to the "Alemanni" branch of the Teutons. All Alsace, except a few communes near the Swiss frontier, speaks GerJman. Lorraine has a strong French minority. But the last census snowed that only 200,000 persons oui of 1,800,000 in both provinces regard French as their mother-tongue. Kven in Francophil Metz, which, is within a few miles of the French, frontier, German is the mother-tongue of fourfifths of tho people. German is the language of all schools and colleges, and of Strasburg University. It is more useful tor business than French. Largo numbers of the real French of Alsace-Xorraine annually emigrate to France; and the young Alsatian Frenchman enlists in the French army; and Jiever comes home again. In short, every material factor seems to make for the complete GermanLsation •of the conquered provinces. Yet a!t heart the majority of men and women remain "Nationalists," that is, Francophil; they lpok to France for politics, law, literature, and art. They protest with tongues in cheeks, that all they want is Home Rule and freedom within the German Empire; but when they say this, three out of four mean that they want the German Empire cut to pieces, and their owh. provinces happily re-annexed to France. Alsatians are welcomed in Paris. In the French active army serve 398 officers from Alsace-Lorraine- The number of Alsatians who enlisted in the French Foreign Legion grew from 316 in 1906 to 117 in 1911. Germans complain that these soldiers bring over to Franco information about the frontier fortifications. Germany's Government is helpless against the French agitation. It cannot effectively suppress what is in theory a French literary and artistic movement. Occasionally it expels a French agent, and three years ago it forbade the import of French or'dors and decorations, also tho playing of the "Marseillaise"' at concerts over which the local authorities had control. Tho present Viceroy lias not got sufficient legal powers to act effectively.