ENGLISHMEN

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 52, 2 March 1934, Page 3

ENGLISHMEN

AS SEEK BY FKAXCE

"WITH PARDONABLE EMOTION"

"Weedj- little men effervescing with excitement," used to be the generic British ' verdict on Frenchman. The prevalence of. duelling in France during the-nineteenth century had much to do with it. It was long customaiy for the ■challenger to a duel to hand over his card to the challenged one so that the latter.'.might send his seconds to the address for the purpose of settling procedure: So Barrie in one of his plays showed us a Frenchman challenging.:} round dozen persons to a fight, and in the- end throwing his visiting card at ■the-'spout of a large watering-can that -fie^ad just .knocked up against. The public rocked with laughter at the skit. The<Freneh stage itself and the literature.of France perpetuated the notion that-Gallic-hqroism is of the rather swaggering type, that of Corneillc's heroes v_mouthing their "gloiro" in perorations; in'our-own day Kostand's Cjsrano de JBergerac has won renown onHhe boards. • This common conception of ' the Trench :was proved false during the Great. War, writes L. A. Triebel in the "Sydney, Morning Herald." The French- soldier 'was patient and unemotional in the trenches. Witness how F.ejii de Grand' Combe, in real life Piofewor ■ Boillot, •of the University of Bristol, who. has lived his life "alternately in Trance and in England, and ■who- lovos. both countries. A French infantry captain, M.C., he has served both" countries in peace and in war. Of his-LiHois- battalion, ho says: "You "would not have found a Scottish regiuient more reserved and less 'nervy' or,/--with.'pluck more disdainful'of any 'panache.'._" But what can you say about it? Barrie was not there to see them! Boillot in. the lighter vein of his latest book, "Tv Viens en Angletem?," explodes a.mass of mutual fallacies^'including the old prejudice against-French books per se. -It*-'was my good fortune -to meet .Boillot"it' Paris soon after the war. Ever ready to help, he gave me- his card .(not as a challenge), and. expressed this -hope-' that my boys and I would turn :to- him for any assistance during our-stay. I had never met him before. 2C<jw he directs his imaginary young French friend arriving in England for - ihp first' time, and soon comes to advicer "In all-things, don't get excited. You are injhe country where indifference reigns." Indeed, how purely negativefthe national ideal of ever-watchful restraint must appear to' tho intellectual .Frenchman! Boillot' tells of a meeting with Sir Anthony Hope and his son. at .a French seaside resort. "I asked the- youngl man what his motto in!-life was. 'Cleanliness and self-re-straint' was the instant reply." Boillot picked up from the,.beach a clean, rounded, polished pebble, showing no visible trace of • emotion—"your mdtto?" A little more inspiration was surely needed to .pay the price of our civilisation.' But, then, the nicest people are always a little shy; the apparent timidity but practical self-con-trol 'of the Britisher is really an insur-ance-against the possible and harmful victory of the. emotions. H.E.H. the Prince of Wales, presiding at a dinner tbfholders, of the V.C., uttered- tho memorable, words: "I feel probably as" uncomfortable as you do, because it is not'our national habit to invite men to dinner in order to tell them how brave they are."- . ,r. .. i ,'CTJKIOTJS SELF-REVELATIONS." - .Mafoking days and Maurice Chevalier iec,eptions are uncommon within the Empire, yet some of Boillot's sallies against the English are lively enough tp'yplease the wildest, Anglophobe. He gives' the newspaper account of a "banquet in honour of the retirement of an'eniployee, who for sixty years served any important firm with the utmost devotion.. The distinguished chairman had eulogised the fidelity, and unwavering professional rectitude of the aged servant/who rose to reply, and, adds the reporter,' expressed-himself "with pardonable emotion." Forso.oth, "pardonable"! Of what crime was he guilty? Monstrous aberration', that you, merciful; scribbler of the Press, should condescend to pardon him! Again, Boillot's ironic -Gallic wit flashes forth when ho Teads -what, Harold E. Palmer says: '•^■The Japanese have adopted the artificial, metric system rather than the natural Anglo-Saxon system of weights an^'. measures." Does the worthy Palmer imagine that it is more natural for:a man.to measure with^his foot or his .'thumb than with his brain? And there not standing'*until recently ngty Jstatuo to another Palmer in Beading, to the worthy inventor of the "civilian"-biscuit, a bronze statue of hira.in a majestic "topper" and holding- arTenormous closed umbrella? How great.a dolt the worthy citizen appeared "when it Tamed in torrents! Boillot will .not have it that the Englishman is a "dull dog." " 'Punch' is the--centre of gravity of England" is ambiguous. Another French critic affirms that humour is bound up with the.latent philosophy of life that harmonises', -with tho compromises and voluntary adaptations of which the social "equilibrium of England con- • sists.-'Crossing'in a car, our observer reads a notice-board on a bridge: "This bridgelis dangerous for heavy traffic." "Underneath a friendly hand, full of solicitude, had added in large letters, '^Prepare to meet ttiy God." A driver who-has been warned is worth two. A foreigner would search the dictionaries in.vain."fbr the meaning of two national jokes in back numbers of "Punch," one a cartoon showing a traveller booking tickets at a station—"Two to Love," and being answered "Pip, pip"; the other a commentator's terse remark on the title of an article, "Society Girl Sells Winkles"—just "Pin money!" And did not Boillot himself lecture- on the war in Wales under the chairmanship of a V.C. lieu-tenant-general, and that in March, 1918, and find on arrival a huge notice outsi.de;the hall: "All those interested in th'e : 'war are cordially welcome"? •■ ■ REGULATED LIVES. -'-The Englishman's home is no longer his-castle. At -any time an inspector •of; the G.P.O. may come to make sure that' he has no wireless set without a licence^ 'and the police do not allow Jrimto leave open a basement window at\night. When he was in the army he ■was, forced to have a religion or be C. of'E. That is as incomprehensible to a Frenchman as are- the .hours when the Englishman can buy sweets and cigar-ettes-or,be thirsty; but his childhood is [preserved- fresh and sweet unto old age. because of his love of sport. During the''general strike of 1926, strikers and poli.ee played football to while away the.Vtime, .which may have seemed strange to the public of Radio-Paris, that5 laughed at the story of the British fisherman .who .threw back the.fish that did! not nave, the legal length. It was who thought that England "was, the' paradise' of horses when 'he read that someone had "put his last jfiirjt on a horse that had been scratched.-'' Felix de Grandcombe, as mentor, adyises :his youth to do as others do in England, • • People • judge by appearances—to begin with; it's easier- than thinking. So don't wear the wrong kit. .To be a complete exotic, you need only, not to shave, while a permanent "wave'would be almost as dangerous to one fs reputation ,as a permanent brain -

wave., If you part your hair in the middle, you may be thought a bounder. Never play tennis in braces or on Sundays. And should an urchin call you ','frog-eater" or""" 7"'snail-eater," '.consider that it is 1 "a'great'compliment to France to be able to reproach her only with a detail of her diet, whose co-efficient-of "frequency is l negligible. Re member, finally, that Britain's service to humanity is that she proved character, not intelligence, to be the most important human attribute. She tries to | put a little more into the common lot i than she takes out.