JEAN JAURES

Evening Star, Issue 18852, 29 January 1925, Page 9

JEAN JAURES

FRANCE'S LAST TRIBUTE. REMAINS IN THE PANTHEON. On November 9 the remain.' of Jean Jaures wore deposited in tho Pantheon. The, Government had asked for and obtained a vote of 650,000 francs for defraying tho cost of the ceremony, which was organised and conducted on a y a hiscale. .Such, pomp, in fact, was devised that even some of Janrcs’s strongest admirers declare that ft was out of keeping with what he himself would have wished. For instance, miners were brought for throe days to Paris from Carraaux, m Jaures’s Department of the Tarn, and from the. Pas dc Calais, at tho cost, of francs, and the couple, of miles of .streets from the Palais Bourbon to the .Pantheon were lined with soldiers and Kepublicau Guards. Exhumed from the little cemetery at. Albi, where Jaurcs had been buried after his murder on the, eve of the outbreak of war, his remains armed by special train in Paris the night before tho ceremony. They wore, met at the- station by a political delegation, and after having been visited at the Chamber of Deputies by M. Herriot towards midnight were watched there til! the morning by a delegation of miners. At 10 o’clock the coffin, covered with a plain black pall, was carried out and placed on the top of a colossal catafalque erected on the steps of the Palais Bouillon, facing tho Pont do la Concorde. It remained there for three hours (says tho Paris correspondent of the. ‘Daily 1 olegraph ’), guarded by miners in their miring dress, with the whole portico of the building behind it draped completely in a. lingo tricolor, while from two great flaming red-and-gold pylons below the catafalque rose funereal smoke. Ciy the Place do la Concorde gathered Socialist delegations, with their red flags, and tho merelv curious bourgeois out to see something new, while up the Champs Elyscos the. Communists collected for an independent demonstration of their own. A concert inside the Palais Bourbon, broadcast from the roof, was intended to beguile tho tirao of waiting. Soon after 1 o’clock the procession moved off to the Pantheon to the sound of drums and trumpets. From tho catafalque the coffin had been transferred to a mountainous and extraordinary bier some 30ft high and twice as long, covered in dull silver cloth, draped with a tricolor and propelled by seventy minors. As this colossal structure, which was followed immediately by M. Herriot and the members of the Government, including tho Minister of War in uniform, passed along the streets, the remains cf jean Jaures were saluted by the troop.s and greeted by the crowds with the rather anomalous cries of “'Long live Jaurcs!” and ‘‘Down with war!” In its wake came a long procession of red-ban-nerod Socialist delegations. Mr Ramsay MacDonald expressed his regret at being unable to bo present, but English Socialism was nevertheless represented by Mr Tom Shaw and Mr Lansburv. There were also Belgian and German delegations, tho latter headed by Breitscheidt.

It look the cortege a long time to roach tho Pantheon. So slowly did it. move that, instead of the ceremony beginning at 2 o’clock, it was half-past 2 before the coffin was borne into the national Valhalla. It had been preceded a few r minutes earlier by the President of the Republic. The ceremony was different from that which had been suggested by M. Francois Albert, Minister of Education. He had thought of a cortege of weeping women and of dances, but he changed his mind after certain representations were made to him. The, military display was also modified after General Saint dust hud announced that he would interpellate the Government on the subject. As it was, (he Rue Soufflot, leading to the. Pantheon, was lined with troops, who wore, however, withdrawal while (he ceremony was in progress, their [daces being taken by Municipal Guards. Ihe decorations of the Pantheon cost 250,000 francs, and the lighting and heating 60,000 francs—almost as much as the expenditure involved in transporting the body of the Unknown Puilu under the Arc do Triomphe.

The feature of the arrangemeuis in the Pantheon was the immense sarcophagus under tlic dome. It was of ancient. Greek design. Steps led up to it, and at the base was an aperture for the coliiu to be inserted, while at I lie apex the name of Jean Jaures, in large letters, was surmounted by a tricolor in broad stripes. On the sides were masses of greenery, and four pylons from whHi flames Dickered. The roliin was borne to the sarcophagus by miners from Carmaux, carrying their picks and lamps, who ranged themselves on either side after their harden had been deposited. Every inch of the building was occupied by Senators, Dignities, and delegates from representative bodies. The slow music having ceased, M. Henaot mounted the steps and read an address, which was heard by the vast crowd outside the. building by means of load speakers. Ho spoke of Jaures having been assassinated because ho had loved peace too much and had wished to servo his country, not according to ihe passions of fanatics, but according to the laves of Ids high and noble conscience. For the Premier he was a poet, philosopher, and educator, high above politics, and if it was just that he should receive the. homage of free peoples, it was not less just that maternal prance should receive him with affection into her Pantheon, sinco lie represented some of the highest qualities of her genius. SCENE IN STREETS. While the groat crowd inside the building was straining its ears to catch the Premier's words, tho human mass outside, anxious to see, the delegations of Socialists and Freemasons from the provinces pass in front of the replica of the statue of Jaures at Alla, broke the barrier. Them had been an open space in the Hue Soufflot kept by -Municipal Guards on either side arid by mounted Republican Guards at the end; but in a twiukl’ng it was invaded by the crowd, and for a few moments there was confusion, hut no disturbancc, ami its only effect was to hold up the delegations and the fores* of Socialist banners accompanying them. Jt hud been found necessary to detach a large force of polioto watch the Communists, who massed in tho Rue Cuias during the ceremony and sang the ' Internationale.’ M. Hcrriot's speech was followed by a recital by Madeleine Roche, of the Comedia Francaise, from the ‘ Contemplations,’ At the close the artists laid impalm on the coffin, and chants bv the choir brought the ceremony to an end. Earlier in the day a plaque, was fixed at the corner of the Rue Croissant and Rue Montmartre, with an inscription showing that Jaures was assassinated at that spot on July 31, 1814, and in tho afternoon Royalists organised a coun-ter-demonstration in '\ angirard cemetery, where Marius Plateau, assassinated by Germaine Berton, a girl anarchist, in tho office of the ‘ Action Francaise,’ is buried.