FRANCE TO AMERICA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2961, 31 March 1919, Page 3

FRANCE TO AMERICA.

WHY FULL REPARATION IS WANTED. If at this hour, when the dreadful nightmare is passing away, mutilated France could make another appeal to unerica, her sister and friend, she would ; uy , to her; “Don’t be too geneious wrote Stephane Lauzanne, editor-m-chiet of Le Matin.” . . . Everyone wiU admit that throughout For long and troublous history France has always been the land of chivalry, generosity, and humanity. Even in this atrocious war, when it came to hand-10-han lighting in the trenches, she still ten

pity. I shall never Target, on the battlefield of the Marne, at the village of Etrepily, plundered, sacked, and burned down by the Huns, those Zouaves who were sitting beside some German wounded on a smau square. In their own glasses_they_ poure out a little cordial for their prisoners; thev gave them their last cigarettes. One of them had even taken, as if he were his brother, the head pf a Gernian in his left hand to support_ it. With his rignt hand, very careftMy, he was gi mg him a drink. I pointed the scene out to a German major and said to him : “See! That is war—at least it s war us we understand it.” At Rheims, while the Cathedral was on five —the work of German shells—French Sisters of Charity threw themselves into the 'flames to save German wounded, lhat also was war as we understand it. Ana to-day, after four years of a horrible struggle, we can face the entire world and say that if there is blood on our hands there is none on our conscience. And yet we call out to America: Don tbe too generous, inexorable duties are before us: France must have reparation ; France must have guarantees. France must have reparation, for seven of her departments—equal in area and wealth to the State of New York—have been laid waste, burned down, and razed Three hundred and fifty thousand houses have been broken into, pulled down, and shattered into bits, and it has been computed that merely to rebuild-themi it would require an army of mra working lor twenty years/ Who is to furnish that army? France? No, but the destroyers and incendiaries. Of co “™ e they will protest, and implore, and complain that it is sentencing German youth to hard labour. They will try to soften the hearts of neutral countries to the name of common fairness, should they

listened to ? Those 350,000 houses contained some 500 000 beds, which were either stolen or destroyed, and 1,000,000 Frenchmen at present have no roof over their heads, not even a pallet on which to sleep, bo we shall have to go to the thieves and plunderers and take the 500,000 beds and bedding we need. More cries more complaints; more lamentations. The women of Germany will say it is inhuman, that war is being continued after war is over; they will cable to the women of America. (And even as I write these lines the news comes that they have done so.) In the name of common fairness, should they be listened to? _ , The mines of Northern France have been scientifically and cleverly tampered with, filled with water, or destroyed. Not a ton of coal can be extracted from Lens for another two years. The normal output of these mines cannot be restored for another five years. Meanwhile who will supply France with the coal she so badly needs; England? No, why should it be England? It will be Germany, who should have left those mines alone. And of course Germany will protest that she is being deprived of her fuel, and that after having been starved she is being frozen. She will appeal to the world and to humanity. In the name of common fairness, should she be listened to? There is one thing France cannot do, and that is to distinguish between the German Government and the German people. In 1914, it was undoubtedly the German Government that hurled itself at the throats of France and Belgium, and humanity and democracy, but it was also the German people. And when, on August 3, 1914, speaking before the Reichstag, that is, before the people of Germany, Bethmann-Hollweg made his abominable tatement: “Yes, we have invaded Belgium, and this is against international aw, 'but we are in a state of necessity, uid necessity knows no law,” not a shudler, not a tremor shook that people; not i, cry of indignation was raised. In 1915? .t was undoubtedly the Kaiser and Tirpitz who ordered the sinking of the Lusitania, hut when that crime became known, it was the people of Germany who howled with joy and shouted with enthusiasm in every corner of the empire. For four years, it was undoubtedly the military caste of Germany and the German General Staff who allowed thieving and plundering, and authorised their men to remove everything they could from Belgium and France, but the robbery and plunder profited the German people. When in July, 1918, the American boys entered Chateau-Thierry, they found stacks of parcels ready for shipment containing all the linen, silver, and jewellery of the unfortunate inhabitants. To whom were those parcels addressed? Not to the Kaiser, but to the women of Germany, to the old men of Germany, who wore the accomplices and beneficiaries of all this systematic house-breaking. And here is an example of how the German people appreciated these robberies. Here is a letter recently forwarded to me, and which was found on a German officer made prisoner ny the French troops : Mansbach, 3rd July. I have safely received the twenty-one parcels, and many thanks for them i

wish vou could have been there on Saturday j at the unpacking of the five parcels, which I received together to hear the remarks made at the sight of the prettv drawers, the petticoat, the shut, the little bonnet, and the shirtwaist. One could see that they came from well-to-do people It would be best if you could fr o back to such places; you might hnd more things. Even thing is useful to us. Your Mother. Such a letter, which no American woman, no French woman would have i ver written or signed, gives a little idea ot the character of the people we are dealing with. There must be reparation, or it would be enough to make one despair of justice on earth. There must be punishment, or it will all begin over again. Franc) must have guarantees, and m all organised societies guarantee against the repetition of a crime is obtained by punishing the culprit. The German people have committed a senes ct crimes: the German people must pay the price. The lightest punishment that can be inflicted is to allow them ,to suffer some of the evils they have inflicted on others. And that is why, speaking to America, for whom we have a deep and abiding affection, America to whom wo are henceforth bound by ties of eterna friendship, America with whom we have twice fought side by side for the noblest of ideals, to say to her. “For Cod s sake don’t be too generous.” What America wants we want as badly as she does. We want this horror to be the last, we want free people to live free under the flag of liberty, we want our children and the children of our children to live proudly and happily and to enjoy the fruits of this earth without fearing a return of such abominations. But for this justice is needed, and there is no justice when the guilty go unpunished.

The spirit of revenge must find no en trance to our hearts. There is no room tui hatred. No revenge and no hatred —but neither must there be weakness. Wt have no right to be weak. Our dead forbid it. And the voice of our dead should be heard above all others From their graves, over which the earth have barely closed, we can hear them say, ‘ Justice! Don’t be too generous."