"WE WILL NEVER YIELD"

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 44, 20 August 1918, Page 8

"WE WILL NEVER YIELD"

M. CLEMENCEAU'S THRILLING

ADDRESS

THE MEN WHO' MAKE THE

FATHERLAND,

On 20th June, the following statement by M. Clemenceau was issued in Paris:

When I accepted the Premiership I knew that I was called upon to bear the burden of the most critical period of the war. I have told you from the outset that we should pass together through difficult and exacting times and cruel hours. These times are coming, and the only question is whether we can stand them. ■

" When, the defection of Russia came about, when men who believed that it was only necessary to will peace in order to impose it upon the German Emperor had given up their country (unwittingly, I prefer to; think) to the invasion of the enemy, who could believe then that a million German soldiers who had become available would not turn against us? This and more is what happened. For.four years our effectives have beerf wearing themselves out, our front was held by a line of soldiers which was becoming thinner and thinner,' with our : allies, who had suffered "enormous losses, and now arrives a fresh mass of German divisions in good condition. Is there any fine who does not realise that under the weight of this tremendous wave our lines had to give way at some' points? The extent of their recoil became great and dangerous. , I say nothing more, and there is nothing in that to shake the confidence which we should have in our soldiers. To-day these men are engaged in the battle. Our men fought one against five, without sleep for three or four days together. These great soldiers have good leaders, great leaders who are worthy of them in every way. I have seen these leaders at work, and some of them struck me with admiration." Is that saying that there arc nowhere mistakes? I cannot maintain that.'

My business is precisely to -discover those mistakes and to punish them, and in this I am supported .by two great soldiers named Foch and Petain. General Foch enjoys to such a degree the confidence, of the Allies tliat they wished that their unanimous confidence in him should be expressed *m the communique. These men are at this moment fighting the hardest battle of the war -with a heroism which 1; can find no • words to express. It is my duty as leader of these men to punish them if they have not done their duty, but also to protect them if they are unjustly attacked. The- army is better than anything we could have expected from it—and when I speak of the army I speak of those who "compose it, of whatever rank and whatever grade they may be. But that is not- enough. The men must have faith and must die for their ideal if they wish to give us victory. Their leaders also have come from their tanks. Like them they come back covered with wounds, when thoy do not remain like them on the field of battle. „

We have yielded ground, much more ground than* we should have wished. There are men who have paid for this retreat with their blood. •* I know some; who have' accomplished' acts of heroism like those Bretons who -were surrounded in a wood all night and who next day found means of sending by carrier pigeon a, message to say: "You may come and find us. We shall hold out for half a day yet," ■ • .-'■.. "^Eheso men! make the fatherland, they continue it and. prolong it, that fatherland without which no reform is possible. They die for an ideal, for a history which is the foremost among all the his-

tories'of civilised-people. :r"<fi ;>yod'V Be calm, confident, and determined to hold on to the end in this hard battle. The victor/ is to you, because the Germans, who arc-not so intelligent as we are told, have only one method—namely, to throw their whole weight into the venture and to push it to the end. We saw them on the Yser, at Verdun, near Amiens, near Dunkirk and Calais, and then in Champagne. They broke our lines, but did you. think you were going to make a war in which you would never retreat? The only thing that matters is filial success.' .

You have before you a Government which, as it told you, did not enter into power ever to accept surrender. So long as we are here the fatherland will be defended to the death, and no force will.be spared to obtain success. We will never yield. That is the word of command of sbur Government. We will never yield a.t any moment.

The effectives of the belligerents are being exhausted,' those of the Germans as well aa oar own, but meanwhile the Americans are coining to play a hand in the deciding game. .Once more, the events in Russia gave our enemies a million additional.men on the Franco-British front,, but we have allies who represent the foremost nations of the world,, and who have pledged themselves to continue the war until the" attainment of the success which we hold within our grasp if we put forth the necessary energy. The .people of France have accomplished their task, and those who have fallen have not fallen in vain, since they have made French history great. It remains for the living to complete the magnificent work of the dead.