THE WAR SPIRIT OF FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 137, 5 March 1940, Page 6

THE WAR SPIRIT OF FRANCE

Since the war began France has not bulked very largely in the ■news from overseas published in New Zealand. The French official communiques from the Western Front make occasional laconic references to patrol activities and air reconnaissances. Little is heard of the French Navy. Even French statesmen, the Premier included, apparently prefer to maintain a pregnant silence. True, M. Daladier told a party of Japanese journalists at the weekend that ‘Trance will carry through the war to the end,” and remarked in passing.that the only difference he could see between Nazism and Bolshevism was something like the difference between the plague and cholera. But up to the time, of writing, ihere has been nothing from France, as far as reports to New Zealand go, like the comprehensive survey of the progress of the war given at periodical intervals by British statesmen, such as the stocktaking by Sir John Simon published yesterday. Yet behind the veil our French ally is exerting her full strength in every sphere of war activity. According to an informative supplement in the K-H News-Letter of January 19 last, the French war effort is on the same “all in” scale as in 1918. It is stated as the opinion of neutral observers that if a plebiscite were taken in France today on any peace proposal which left Germany in possession of the gains of aggression, and the means of aggression in the future, there would be an 80 per cent, vote for fighting on till the German will-to-war is smashed. “France still has the best army in the world—the one mass army which has suffered no break in its tradition through revolution, disarmament, or otherwise.” There is said to be some impatience in certain quarters concerning the appearance of stalemate on the Western Front. A big French or Franco-British offensive this year, however, is considered improbable unless a major German offensive is launched, and fails. Both M. Daladier and Marshal Gamelin, the Allied Commander-in-Chief, are at one on the point that needless sacrifice of life is to be avoided.

The predominant note of the French war spirit is expressed in the remark frequently heard, “We must make an end of it this time." This determination, goes considerably beyond the will to win the war. The French are a realistic and logical people, and their realism has induced the conviction throughout France that Germany must not only be beaten, but that Europe must be guaranteed complete and absolute immunity for all time from any threat of future aggressive activities. In studying the French point of view, it has to be remembered that France is now engaged in a war with Germany for the third time within living memory: in each of the two previous conflicts a large part of her territory was invaded and devastated. The anxiety of the French people that there should be no possibility of a recurrence after the present war is quite understandable. From this state of mind observers incline to the view that France may not be prepared to deal as leniently and indulgently with Germany as some British sentimentalists would have it. According to the Paris Figaro, the French peace aims include: (1) No negotiations with a Nazi Government; (2) the restoration of Poland and Czechoslovakia, and (3) material and positive guarantees. It is with regard to the third of these conditions that the French, it is considered, are likely to present a very stiff front. To quote the K-H News-Letter on this point:

They refuse to trust the word of a German again, and they refuse to believe that once Hitler is out of the way all will automatically be for the best in the best of all Worlds. They see in the Nazis merely the reflection of the spirit which Germany has repeatedly shown down the centuries, and they consider that the means Of aggression must be taken out of the hands of the entire German race.

It may be taken for granted, however, that before the final defeat of Germany, the Allied Governments will have reached agreement on the principles upon which peace is to be founded, and on the basis upon which the new world order is to be created. The foregoing is interesting, and also encouraging, as indicative of the determined spirit ■which is animating the French nation in the present war. It is pointed out that, with 5,000,000 men mobilized, the war is affecting practically every household in France. Men who held good positions are serving in the ranks at francs (roughly, about 6d. on present basis of valuation) a day. Their wives receive an allowance of 8 francs a day (1/4). if they have no income in cash in hand, The French people, in fact, are making sacrifices unknown even in Britain, and it is the style of living they have accepted, and flic sacrifices and economics involved, that has hardened their feeling against overgenerous treatment and misplaced sentiment in dealing with their archenemy across the Rhine.