GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

Evening Star, Issue 16990, 12 March 1919, Page 5

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

MAN OF ACTION.

A STORY Or THE "WOUNDED %. TIGER."

DoctoT of medicine, school teacher in America, journalist, anther, swordsman, doeliist, politician, hater of Germany, lover of England, orator, anti-clerical Socaalist, maker and smasher of Ministries, critic, strong man to the care, a patriot Frenchman, Georges Benjamin Clemenceau remains cme of tho great men of the world and one oi the two great men of France. He is now 77 years old; and he has lived even' day of them. Not for nothing was 3ve termed "'The Tiger." He is a Blretoa, born in 1841. He studied rn.«dkan'B in Noates and Paris, where ho gained his degree- of Doctor of Medicine, and; practised in Moniroartre. He spent four years in America, where he became a school teacher in Connecticut, and married an. American, girl isince separated!. After the Revolution; he was appointed Mayor of the 18th arrondiffisemeut of Paris; and in 1871 ho was elected a. reiirw»euU.tiv& in the National Assembly, where he voted against the preliminaries In 1871 he fought his first duel, wounding his opponent, and subsequently was fined and imprisoned for a fortnight tor his part in the affair. However, tho fine was a mere 25 francs, and doubtless taemenccau regarded the dud as quite worth the money. AH hi» life he has been retiring into private-life for intervals; but invariably he is soon again drawn into the QUAKER OP MINISTRIES. Sirco 1877 he has generally been re-gard-id as the leader of tho Advanced 1 eft • and as such his chief business was to 'make- and unmake Governments. Whom the Tiger opposed fell; whom he supnorted became Premier. When approarhed to form a Government of his own, he declared that that was none of his business, probably because'his own business, that of a critic, with the power to enforce his critic-s-ms, was much more excitin™. He lived in crises. It "was aa a journalist that he made his name. He ia a man of many papers—■ 'La Justice,' 'Le Bloc,' ' L'Aurore,' 'L'Horome iibre,' -which, owing to the r.nmber of articles suppressed by the censor during the war, neatly changed its name to ' L'Homme Enchaine.' 'He needed them all. His leadinc articles were as swift in attack and in defence as his sword in a duel. It mav be said! that he was always duelling, for hb pen was as mighty as his sword. PREMIER AND CRITIC. In 1886 he acted as second to M. Fioquet in his duel with General Boulanger, for ho had pierced the pretence of that- gallant adventurer. Bui his reputation as a swoidsman was not- a reputation that he could let rust During- the- Panama scandals he was persistently attacked by opponents who accused liim of selling his country ; but it was discovered that -the** attacks were founded on forgeries. And he was one of Dreyfus's greatest champions. Always the weak or the persecuted found tho tiger at their side, ready with pointed pen or sharper sword to win them justice. The keenest critio, however, carmot go on criticising for ever; and Clemenceau found himself Premier in 1905. His memorable Ministry fell after a dramatic verbal duel between himself and M. Del- • asse in the Chamber. He could not fall except dramatically. Then, once again, he took up his role of y, critic. The war came, and found the Tiger dissatisfied with its conduct bv the Government. He opposed the War Ministries on the ground that they vrere open to suspicion of weakness or temporising, for always he has been tho most fearless and most audacious critic of anybody or anything_ suspected by him of 'timidity or of indecision in the conduct of the war. Clemenceau was for fichtinir to the bitter end. ** Tf everybody else in Franco gave in to 5 «verwhelming force the Tiger would be ; found fighting to the death. SAVING FRANCE. So he waited and watched, and grew despondent. France seemed to him to be losing heart; the pacifists seemed to be raising their heads; the nation seemed to be wearied out. The terrible sacrifice the French had made almost gave to him an illusion of national despair; but he never despaired of the soldiers or the peasants. Tt was the Ministries that seemed to lack confidence and decision. The time had come for the old Tiger to emerge once again from his lair. Dramatically he forced the Painleve Ministry to resign in November, 1916, and since then he ha-B carried the burden of the war on his bowed but yaliant old shoulders. And carried his people to victory. The colleagues he chose for his Ministry were all regarded, like himself, as uncompromising fignters. HIS CREED. Thus he refuted all slanders against hi 3 name in a splendid speech against the pacifists. " When I accepted the Premiership," he declared, in tho Chamber of Deputies", in June, 1918, "I knew that I waa called -upon to bear the burden of the most critical period of the war. ... I have come here in the desire to find simple, brief, and measured terms to express the sentiment of the French people, both at the front and in the rear, and- to show the world a state of mind which I cannot analyse, but which is the admiration of all. . . . We have yielded ground, much more ground than we should have wished. . . . You have before you a Government which did not enter into power ever to surrender. We will never yield. That is the word of command of our Government. We will never yield at any moment. . . . 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." WHAT HE THINKS OF THE DIGGER. England knows Clemenceau as her firm friend. Australians know him, too: and he knows the Digger. | For Rfter the battle of Hamel, when he heard what the Australians had done, he turned to his secretary and said: "Telegraph them my warmest congratulations. Then: "No: T '.rill go and see them, and congratulate them myself!" And the old man motored to Hamel, formed the Diggers in a circlo about him, and looked on the men and found them good. The Australians saw an old man, with an inner fire burning brightly in those humorous, kindly eyes, a genial, laughing face, and a chin firmer than steel. And thus he spoke, in English : "The French expected a good deal of you, because they had heard what you accomplished in the development and creation of your own country. When you came we knew that you would fight a real fight, but did not know that from tho very beginning you would astonish the whole Continent with your valor. I have come here for the simple purpose of seeing the Australians and telling them thi.o."