ON CLEMENCEAU

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 257, 26 July 1930, Page 30

ON CLEMENCEAU

Three New Books

FRANCE’S FORTUNES

No. 5.

The death of M. Georges Clemenceau, for many years one of the best abused men in France, but destined in his old age to become its hero, has given rise to the publication of some very notable books about “The Tiger,” as be was familiarly called. Of these three have reached us, each in its own way remarkable as a useful biography and indispensable to all students of modern European, and in particular modern French history. These three are Mr. George Adams’s “The Tiger Georges Clemenceau,” 1841-1929. (Jonathan Cape) ; “Grandeur and Misery of Victory,” by Georges Clemenceau (Harrap), which is by way of a rejoinder to the plaudits showered upon Marshal Foch; and “Clemenceau: The Events of His Life as told by Himself to his former secretary, Jean Martet”; translated by Milton Waldman (Longmans and Co., London, the T. C. Lothian Publishing Company, Melbourne). Mr. George Adams, the author of the first of these books, is specially well qualified to write Clemenceau’s biography. He has acted for some years as Paris correspondent of “The Times,” he has lived in Paris for many years, is a friend of M. Brland, and was present through all the protracted negotiations of the Peace Conference, and is an admitted authority on international affairs. Early Life. A perusal and study of the three books assist me greatly in analysing, ns it were, Clemenceau’s varied and eventful career, and in arriving at some fairly just estimate of the man’s great services to his country. Born in 1841, in La Vendee, Georges Clemenceau came of a long line of doctors, the first of whom was an apothecary In the seventeenth century. Although having first seen the light of day in a province famous as being a “royalist hotbed,” young Clemenceau, when a medical student in Paris, was arrested and sent to the Mazas prison for holding a meeting in favour of a Republic. Napoleon the Third, “the man of December,” had been proclaimed Emperor but five years previously, and it was a dangerous game for even medical students to have any political opinions at all. But after all Clemenceau, the son, was not treated so badly as Clemenceau the father. The father was a red-hot Radical and during the second Empire this, when openly avowed, was akin to positive crime. Dr. Benjamin Clemenceau was denounced as a. revolutionary, arrested and taken to the town gaol at Nantes. There was not even the semblance of a trial, but the .doctor was ordered transportation to ’Algeria. But this was too much for Nantes, and when his fellow citizens saw him depart to Marseilles, handcuffed and with a soldier on either side, even the Bonapartists were shocked, for whatever his political opinions, the old doctor was a much respected citizen. Pressure was brought to bear, and the doctor was released. It was when he left for Marseilles that his son, Georges, white with anger, slipped up to the father and whispered: “I’ll avenge you.” Clemenceau and Montmartre.

After his first fiery youth had passed Clemenceau thought more of his medical degree, walked his hospitals and was admitted. Suddenly, and against his' father’s will, he decided upon travel. First he went to England, where he sought out and met Stuart Mill, Frederic Harrison and Herbert Spencer. He did not, however stay long in England but went to America whence he sent letters to the “Temps.” The father did not like his going to America and stopped supplies. So the son taught French at a Seminary for Young Ladies in Connecticut. Clemenceau stopped some time in America, and then, the war with Prussia breaking out, he hurried home and soon after the war was elected Mayor of Montmartre and then, as Deputy for Paris, went to the National Assembly summoned to Bordeaux to decide whether to continue the struggle or agree to the enemy’s terms.

Then, as in 1917, he favoured a fight to the finish, but the country wanted peace, and peace obtained with the cession of Alsace and a large part of Lorraine. Now we come to the Commune and Clemenceau’s part therein as Mayor of Montmartre. He always blamed Thiers for breaking faith with the Montmartre people, for having promised not to Interfere with the artillery seized by the mob—nominally at least to prevent its being handed over to the Germans, Thiers sent troops to seize the guns. Then the Commune trouble began. Clemenceau, it has been proved, did his best to prevent rioting and as an ultra Radical became suspect at Montmartre, it being charged against him .that lie was a traitor, and he was within an ace of being shot when the two Thiersite generals, Lecomte and Thomas, were murdered.

Eventually, after conducting n propagandist tour in the provinces, he returned to Paris, and being convinced that he would be shot, either by the Communists or the Versailles troops, retired to Ln Vendee. But the extremists at Montmartre either forgave him, or were more appreciative of the man’s honesty than they had been, and Clemenceau was re-elected Mayor and was returned to the Chamber of Deputies in time to be a thorn in the side of Marshal MncMahou and the Conservative Government. As Parliamentarian. We can push on now to a period nearer to Clemenceau’s later times. It was during those first years of the Third French Republic that Clemenceau became “The Tiger” in the full power of his killing. First of all Tunis was the bugbear and Jules Ferry the victim. Next Clemenceau worked against Gambetta, and he too fell. Next it was the turn of De Freyeinet. Opposed to all projects of colonial empire and expansion, Clemenceau opposed Ton kin as he bad opposed French action in Tunis, and Tonkin put Jules Ferry finally out of office. There were yet to come the Boulanglst danger, the Panama scandal and the Dreyfus question. Clemeneeau at first appeared to favour Boulanger, but he soon discovered he was weak, vain, and a sham, and Boulanger committed suicide. Next came the Panama scandal. Curiously enough Clemenceau supported or seemed to support two Jews, 'Reinaeh and Herz, the latter being a partner in Clemenceau’s paper. “La Justice." That wild but ■ undoubted patriot. Paul Deroulede. openly attacked "The Tiger” in the Chamber o£ Deputies, accusing him of “betray-

ing French interests.” Clemenceau made a brief but emphatic reply: “M. Paul Deroulede,” said he, “you have lied.” But the “Temps,” “Debats,” and other papers published a British document with the Royal Arms at the top showing Clemenceau down for £20,000. Clemenceau, said one charge, had opposed Jules Ferry’s policy of colonial expansion in Tunis, Algeria, Indo-China and Egypt, because he was being “paid” by England. This charge is referred to thus by Mr. Adam: — “Wherever he went he was accompanied by swarms of jeering men, shouting “Aoh, yes,” and whenever he spoke it was under a running fire of “Spik Inglaish.” Cartoons showed him leading against France the cavalry of St. George, the name given in Franco to the golden sovereigns of the British Secret Service in allusion to the mounted figure of St. George. He was depicted juggling with bags of British money. He was made to fight the election under the sign of the £, and sterling was weak in French markets in those days. But “The Tiger” was patient, proved Herz to have no share in the direction of “La Justice’s” policy, and made much, too, of the fact that the charges were made by “La Petit Journal,” which had, itself blackmailed De Lesseps and the Panama scheme very heavily. He disposed of the charges of treachery to France. Still some of the mud stuck, and Clemenceau proudly refusing Socialist support on the’second ballot, was defeated. Still he was “the unconquerable.” He made bls new journal, “L’Homme Libre,” a great power, and he found in the Dreyfus ease a cause worthy of his pen. Let it not be forgotten that it was “The Tiger’s" pen which headed, in Clemenceau’s own handwriting, that memorable open letter of Emile Zola on the Dreyfus case, “J’Accuse”—“l accuse.” Clemenceau and the War. The feud between Clemenceau and Foch which occasioned so much stir in France in 1918 and 1919 finds reflection both in “The Grandeur and Misery of Victory,” which may be regarded as “The Tiger’s” last Parthian shot against Foch, and in M. Martet’s book. ■ But Clemenceau was not always on bad terms with the Mar--, shal. Prior to the Doullens Conference Clemenceau was Foch’s friend, though never a political sympathiser. It was Clemenceau who appointed Foch Commandant of the Ecole de Guerre, and he saved Foch from the anger of Parliament over the Chemin des Dames business. But Clemenceau could not forgive Foch for opposing the view he himself took of the Rhine frontier, annexation of the left bank of the Rhine. Foch, after all. was a French general, and Clemenceau, recognising the value of the British and American alliance, was a politician, and as such held himself, as French Prime Minister primarily responsible for international agreements. Clemenceau never underrated Foch’s achievements in the field, but he objected to the soldier attempting to pose as speaking for France at the Peace Conference. It was Clemenceau’s firm conviction that Germany will, sooner or inter, desire to revenge herself on France. Foch’s distrust and dislike of Clemenceau, which was presented In such detail in Mr. Raymond’s indiscreet book on the dead general, elicited Clemenceau’s retort in “The Grandeur and Misery of Victory.” But Clemenceau was right when for Foch’s “peace of force.” as a victorious soldier, lie. as a statesman, substituted a “pence of justice.” This latter was much more likely to find guarantees in Britain and America than that France should be exposed to the charge, of herself violating her cardinal principle of national freedom. Clemenceau and America. Clemenceau does not dispute the great services rendered by America, but time alone can prove that he is mistaken when he contends that annexation would have only had the eft'ect of making Germany resolved upon a policy of revenge coming sooner. Then to America ho says some hard words: You arc still in the bloom, and heyday of a young civilisation. You make us act the part of those greybeards that are the laughing-stocks of the stage, but who had their great days—without which you would never have been what you are. Do not despise Europe. Your judgments might prove double-edged. Do not treat us too badly. No one knows what fate history has in store for you. A weaker brother is often useful in time of need.

Give a man a pipe he can smoke, Give a man a book he can read'. And his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed. —James Thomaon.