LOVED BY FRANCE

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 32, 6 August 1921, Page 9

LOVED BY FRANCE

A WELCOME AMBASSADOR

MYRON T. HERRICK'S WORK.

Explosive sheik from German Taube planes were falling on Paris in 1914. The invading armies were approaching, the French defenders were retreating. Soon the terrific German howitzers would be in range of Paris! Crash! a Taube shell fell beside the American Embassy. Ambassador Herrick, busy with the proofs of a poster, came near to being blown up. "You might have been killed!" said Poincare. Then Herrick gave his answer, sublime in 1914, plain American in 1918, rococo during the Peace Conference, and embalmed in all French hearts in 1921:— '

" There are situations," said Herrick, "in which a dead ambassador might be worth more than a live one!" « In this true anecdote (writes Sterlings Heilig in the Springfield Republican) is summed, up all the intense French popularity of Myron T. Herrick, who is about to return again to France as American Ambassador—in 1921. It is a rare thing, probably without precedent, for any foreign nation ardently to desire, in advance, that any particular American be sent to it as ambassador—yet silently, without particular hope of ever seeing him again. Mr. Herrick has this proud, emotional, and . . . difficult position. He is a legendary figure of 1914. Half the people of France, perhaps, know who he is, and have a feeling for him; yet. they .could scarcely believe their eyes when he bobbed up on a short vacation visit to the front, last July. "C'EST HER-RIC!" I wae in Rheims, and saw the effect of his appearance. We were a couple of hundred newspaper men in Rheims, that day, by special invitation,, to view the ruins which remained, in July, 1920, practically total, in spite \ of the new city plan of Rheims drawn up by the American architect, George Ford, and accepted by municipality and State--for Germany had then, as now, paid nothing. Through hundreds of . streets whose houses all were blown into their neighbour*' cellars, our long string of motorcars wound from this makeshift factory to that, to have it pathetically pointed out to us that Rhsims wa.s working in her ruins. Before the strafed Cathedral, Cardinal-Archbishop Lucon had begun his explanations. Suddenly there was a hush. Tho Cardinal himself stopped short. A smile of charmed surprise transfigured the sour and worried features of Senator Leon Bourgeois. The Marquis de Polignac pushed frantically to.' the open, where a, solitary figure) stood—and pulled the solitary figure, with love and laughter, to the circle of his colleagues of Rheims and Paris. It. was Mr. Herrick, unannounced, un-' dreamed of. He had come, practically alone,. to make a tour of the devastated regions, on the short summer trip to France already referred to. The two hundred newspeper men from all the world were quite forgotten. "O'est Her-ric!" intoned Senator Bourgeois. "It is Herrick!" criedHhe Marquis. "Her-ric!" echoed Mayor Roche, while the municipal councillors of Rheims murmured "Her-ric!" to each other. Did you ever take out four girls in a motorcar, and after sweating over sparkplugs and magneto in the dusty road, meet a cool lad concerning whom the four, girls were just crazy and couldn't conceal it? It was like that, for the gallant two hundred. .... Cardinal Lucon began his explanation of the Cathedral all over again, with his hand on Mr. Herrick's arm. The photographers stopped taking shots at us. The French public fawned on Mr. Herrick, touched his' coat-tails reverently. They drew him gently to the' banquet hall. And, blushing, laughing-, inarticulate with real emotion, he went —the great, the honoured,' the chief guest of a banquet made for others! The thing was big enough to upset any man; yet nobody was jealous. Mr. Herrick has a wonderful possession— grace. Such a man can take a horse, where another dare not look over a wall. I remember the gist of his impromptu speech at that newspaper lunch in the devastated Hotel de Ville: — "My God!" he exclaimed, in deep emotion, "let us waste no time in asking by what fault these delays have happened, but let's get_towork and stop them!" Mr. Herrick also has sincerity. MR. .HERRICK'S POSTER. At that moment Mr. Herrick was a private American citizen, completely, on a personal tourist trip to France. It was July, 1920. The presidential candidates were not yet chosen; and no-' body in France could guess how the elections would go in the coming November. Simply it was Mr. Herrick's first return to France, who had been American Ambassador «in the dark days of August and September, .1914. What I of Mr. Herrick's acts had so endeared him to the French? One of them will ■be remembered as long as poster collecting endures in the world. Mr. Herrick made a large poster, to be pasted on Paris houses. It is the one solitary poster of the war which no collector can buy in France, because no Frenchman , who possesses a copy would part with it for any money—he would consider himBelf dishonoured to do so! The poster was prepared against the arrival of the Germans in Paris. Quoting from it by memory, it declared that "in this house live American citizens, with their furniture and belongings." All persons were requested to respect the same, and warned that tie American Government would seek responsibilities in case of violations, or words to that effect. By announcement these posters were ready for distribution at the American Embassy to such American householders of Paris as might require them. Quantities of Americans obtained them. But, in ' firmest French belief, the story does not end here. Not only Americans, they say, ran to the embassy in those bad days for the protective posters. Quantities of' French i stood in the line, and each obtained a poster. Did they claim to be Americans? Who knows. In the French thought it is firmly fixed that the American. Ambassador, o{ tender heart and pitiful, gave out a hint to the distributors to waste no time in inquisitorial investigations. This, they think, is why bo many French families in Paris at this moment hold the poster in their reverent care. It was never posted. It was never needed. But they held it, a Palladium for their household and their neighbours, in those days when frightful need, approached before the miraculous victory of the Marne. And they thank Mr. Herrick for it.