The Dominion MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1929. CLEMENCEAU

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 52, 25 November 1929, Page 10

The Dominion MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1929. CLEMENCEAU

The spirit that reanimated enfeebled France late in 1917 and inspired her to win victory within twelve months has passed with the passing of Georges Clemenceau, journalist, and politician. What Lloyd George was to Britain when war weariness began to appear, that was Clemenceau to France. He was the War Minister, le will to victory. For the stern fight he fought to save his country s -soul,' he will have a place with the immortals. „ c The leadership of France came to him when he was /o years of age. He had already been for 48 years a Radical and aggressive figure in French politics. He was a man to be, reckoned with so early as 1871, when France was suffering humiliation at the hands of Germany. A political wrecker then and for 35 years thereafter, his whole outlook was nevertheless coloured by the bitterness of his country’s defeat. . ' The iron that entered his soul at that time was tempered by his fiery spirit into fine steel. From it, when he first came to office as Premier in 1906, he began to shape the weapon? that were finally to defeat Germany’s mighty armament. In particular, during the two following years, he worked to cement the new entente wita Britain. He was forced from office in 1909—a defeat that his own intransigeancc helped to bring about- —but he continued his work of preparing and nerving France for the terrible conflict he recognised as inevitable. . . This idea became Clemenceau’s obsession. Like Lord Roberts in Britain, he was importunate that France should be preparedreal preparedness, not paper. Confirmation that his dominant concern was no fancy came on August 1, 1914. But the septuagenarian did not waste time on “I-told-you-so’s.” Instead he bent his energies still more ruthlessly to the mobilising of all his country’s resources and marshalling all her men. He was not a popular figure at this time, with Government or people, but his voice or his pen never faltered. . In 1917 the “defeatists” were having their way in France.. Bled white at Verdun in the previous year and disheartened by Nivelle’s disastrous failure in early April, with disaffection on both war and home fronts, France was forced to her knees. In his despair, Poincare sent for the “Tiger.” And it was Clemenceau’s handfirm and strong at 76 years—that raised France to her feet again and lifted her head to look the foe between the eyes so that she took her part in the victory won within the year. That was Clemenceau’s great role in the greatest, of all world dramas. There is much more that could be told of him. His too successful struggle to preserve France’s interests in the peace negotiations, his crusade in the United States when he was 81 years old, and the vigour of his youthful old age. But he will be remembered chiefly and blessed most as France’s will to victory, her War Minister, and her saviour. He goes from among us at 88 years of age “full of years and honour” to fill his niche in the Hall of Fame.