A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 226, 20 June 1936, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

La Croix de Feu Lieutenant-Colonel de la Rocque, who has issued a manifesto declaring that the Croix de Feu is now a political body above parties and factions, was born in 1885, of a . distinguished French military family. His father, a count, was a general of artillery. The son left the military college of St Cyr with high honours, and began active service in Morocco, spending nine years there. He learned to speak Arabic perfectly, and was several times wounded in military sorties there, and decorated. From 1921 to 1923 he was on the staff of Marshal Foch, and went to Poland with General Weygand. He returned to Morocco in 1925, and became head of the military secret service. In 1928 he retired from the army to organise the Croix do Feu. He has frequently denied that he wants to be dictator of France, but has announced he wants order in France, nothing more. He has kept aloof from all political parties. In the title of his organisation “Croix” signifies decoration for war service, the Croix de Guerre, and “Feu” means the fire of the front-line trenches. “The Fiery Cross movement,” he says, “has laboured, not for itself alone, not for men or parties, but in the interests of the public service alone. When the necessary moment comes, it will consecrate itself to that end for the sole benefit of the nation.” The Jeunesses Patriotes.

The strike at Marseilles has taken an ugly turn owing to its having assumed a political complexion with the intervention of the Jeunesses Patriotes and other Right organisations. The Jeunesses Patriotes were formed immediately after the election of May, 1924, to combat the “revolutionary danger.” They are led by M. Pierre Taittinger, and have an effective strength of about 250,000. They are organised on military lines, and were the first league in France to start the formation of mobile groups for street fighting. They are said to be armed with bludgeons and revolvers. There are also university sections. The Jeunesse Patriotes are governed by military regulations. They are nationalist, anti-Communist, and on the extreme Right. “Righv” and “Left.”

In dealing with French political affairs, the terms “right” and “left”, are frequently used to describe the attitude of the particular political parties. The “right” is the comparatively conservative course which would retain the main forms of the present government, but which stresses nationality, patriotism, service, the importance of the State, the subjection of the individual to State service, the elimination of corruption. The “left” is rhe true revolutionary line of action which borrows most of its watchwords from Russia: Internationalism, the all-im-portance of the proletariat, the abolition of the capitalist system. It, too, stands for the elimination of corruption in the State. Front Populaire. Numerous clashes occurred at Marseilles between the Jeunesses Patriotes and the Front Populaire. The latter organisation is formed of a coalition of Socialist and Communist forces to combat all organisations in France that savour of Fascism. Its programme includes the effective disarmament and dissolution of semi-military formations, in accordance with the law; the cleansing of public life; repeal of laws against the freedom of the Press; trade union rights for all; educational reform to permit complete freedom of conscience; international collaboration within the framework of the League of Nations for collective security ; a ceaseless endeavour to pass from armed peace to disarmed peace; and reduced working hours without reduction of weekly wages. Heinrich Himmler.

Herr Hitler has appointed General Goering’s rival, Heinrich Himmler, to be General of the German police. Heinrich Himmler is Reich commander of what are called the Black Shirts, and head of the Gestapo, or secret State police. He was born in Munich, and is 36 years old. He was one of those who took part in the putsch in 1923, which resulted in the imprisonment of Herr Hitler. In 1933 Herr Himmler became police president of Munich, and in 1934 chief of the political police. The Black Shirts which he controls are the picked Nazi forces. The control of these and of the secret police gives him immense power. He is said also tio be very useful in that he can obey secret orders and fulfil them, while the Government officially disclaims knowledge of what he has done. The Mandate.

Until the close of the Great War Syria was part of the Turkish Empire. In asking for the mandate for Syria, Erance went against the known wishes of the natives. What the inhabitants of Syria wanted nobody really knew. Between Moslem peasants and landholders, Druse hillmen and Levantine traders there were racial, economic and religious barriers, which made general agreement on any form of government impossible. But it was known that they were opposed to a mandate, and that if a mandate was to be forced on them they would prefer to be under any Power rather than France. Therefore, the French had to inaugurate their mandatory regime by force and to maintain it by force. They partitioned the country into districts, and alarmed the Syrians by the favours they extended to Christian minorities. Isolated groups of Moslems rose in rebellion in district after district. At the height of the resistance the French bombarded Damascus, the oldest inhabited city in the world. France’s method of suppressing the rebellion aroused much resentment in the civilised world, to allay which the French announced that their aim was to replace the mandate by a perman ent treaty with the Syrian nation. This brought about a better understanding between rulers and ruled, but Syrian discontent has by no mean? ceased. The Syrians want to live under a constitution similar to that granted Iraq by the British Government; that is, in almost complete independence. Peace Society.

A message from the King was read at the International Peace Congress at Cardiff, which is organised in connection with the Peace Society. The Peace Society, an association for the preveu tion of war, was established in England in 1816. There are now some hundreds of similar societies in other parts of the world. In 1843 the various peace societies held an international congress at Brussels, this being the first o/ suvlt meetings.