THE FIERY CROSS

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 November 1934, Page 3

THE FIERY CROSS

BLAZING IN FRANCE A large hall. It is filled with men and women who are unusually animated. Awaiting the entrance of the new champion of the public, they engage in brisk conversation. Electricity in the air, writes Sisley Huddleston in the “Christian Science Monitor.” \ The hero of the evening—Colonel Francois de la Rocque—cannot be there at the beginning of the meeting. For it is his business to carry the “fiery cross” to another gathering. At this moment he is stirring to enthusiasm a crowd of citizens, and when he had stirred us to enthusiasm he will hurry off to a third assembly. Everybody wants to hear him. Everybody wants to judge him. Is he indeed the Chief whom we expect—the French Fuhrer, the French Duce? Time will show. There are other candidates. The circumstances are changing rapidly. But in the meantime, it can be said that he is the most striking personality among those who denounce the incompetence and the cor : ruption of the existing Parliamentary regime.

The Colonel has troops. How many, it would be hard to estimate. They are increasing daily. But the nucleus of the organisation, known as the Croix de Feu, is a band of veterans of the Great War who were actually under fire, and who received honours and citations for courageous conduct. They are, as it were, the elite of the Ancieris COmbattants. Anybodj r of a certain age could be, and was compelled to be, a soldier. But these men are the pick of the ex-soldiers. To bring them together and to command them is a special distinction. Let us put these valiant followers of Colonel de la Rocque at 50,000 men. They are merely the core of the Crox de Feu.There are tens of thousands of more youthful adherents, who will be called upon, if France is drawn into another war by the diplomacy of its elder Statesmen, to emulate the preceding generation. There are civilian adherents whom it would be difficult to number but who certainly form a sufficiently considerable body to influence— perhaps to direct —the course of events. The sympathisers with the Croix de Feu are of all ages and of all classes.

“Nothing is more foolish,” remarked iny neighbour, “than this modern method of counting heads. I have a profound contempt for statistics which try to measure a vital impulse. The bulk of the people is always somewhat apathetic until the time for action arrives. What it requires is a leader.” After the tragic happenings of February 6, the Croix de Feu, which had attracted only the mildest attention, suddenly came into prominence. It was regarded as the spearhead of the opposition to the party system which has brought France to its present pass There are plenty of rivals of the Croix de Feu, especially on the Left, where the sentiment in favour of dictatorial measures, though of a more political character, is probably stronger than it is on the Right.

Looking round this meeting, one is bound to confess that the middle classes predominate. The workers are doubtless drawn by the professing Socialists and Communists. The old-

fashioned aristocracy, greatly depleted and submerged by the new-fashioned plutocracy, is doubtless taken over by the Royalists. Yet after alb—the peasants apart—it is the bourgeoisie which constitutes the backbone of France. There is nothing particularly soldierlike in this assembly. Well-dressed women make up a good proportion of the audience. They are by no means the least zealous. As for the men, they appear to belong to every grade. There are those whom one would take to be foremen in the factories, employees in the bureaux, shopkeepers, manufacturers, intellectuals. They have become aware of maladministration. Their proverbial indifference to public affairs has not resisted the revelations and the intolerable conditions of these times. They represent an immense force. How ready they are to applaud! They are hot the ordinary frequenters of public meetings. It is obvious that the proceedings are unfamiliar to them, and that they are prepared to listen with unusual respect. On the platform itself the politicians were conspicuous by their absence. One deputy, blinded in the war, who is particularly popular among the exservicemen, was invited to sit on the platform. But he decided to remain in the audience.

“The Colonel would not wish to have a Parliamentarian by his side,” he explained. THE COLONEL The speeches succeeded each other, winning applause. Yet everybody was impatient for the arrival of the Colonel. At last a rumour swept the hall. And the cry came: “Here he is!” As the audience rose spontaneously, like a single person, to its feet, the Colonel appeared. Astonishingly young he seemed to be, for one who had held the rank of captain in the war which already is remote. Young, slender, quick in his movements, an impressive personality. “Vive la Rocque!” was shouted and repeated and echoed in the hall as he .advanced to his place. No military parade. He was clad in black. His .clean-shaven face was as expressive as that of an actor. In his small pierc'ing eyes there flashed strange flames. His square chin suggested energy, determination. He spoke simply, clearly, decisively.

Certainly he knows how to impose himself, but it is not by exciting the crowd to action. On the contrary, he insisted on the necessity of calm and discipline. Nothing was to be gained by inconsiderate action. He made an appeal to the idea of self-sacrifice in the interest of France. He exalted the bourgeoisie, which knows also how to do its duty. Then amid a storm of applause he vanished. He was already on his way to another meeting. There are those who are puzzled by the ascendancy he has acquired without vain rhetoric, without wild prophecies. But his manner is the temperament of the French middle classes which are simple, slow-moving, but obstinate when they have made up their minds. The politicians are calling for the dissolution of “leagues,” by which, is meant these organisations which are held to have a Fascist character. The “leagues” on the Left, which have a Socialist character, and may have a revolutionary purpose, are more ac-

ceptable, and they too, demand the dissolution of their adversaries.

A POSTER WAR At present there is a battle of posters. When the Croix de Feu revivified the flame which burns Under the Arc de Triomphe, it was accused of playing a provocative role. To which it responded, on the walls of Paris, that those who so accused it were the real provocateurs. It called bn Frenchmen, whether of the .Right or of the Left, ,who would serve under the tricolor flag, and who repudiated “Marxist slavery,” to join the movement. What is the programme? The bills which are to be read all over Paris and in the provincial towns declare that it stands for the public welfare. It demands the punishment of those responsible for disorder, however high they may be placed; the suppression of secret organisations; the separation of powers; the silence of parties. It denounces speculation and dear living. There should be no deflation without a lowering of prices. It does not believe in constitutional reform in con dltions of trouble. The country wants a' truce, it’ wants peace, not for the politicians, but against them. It opposes corruption and government by committees.

In the “Figaro,” which is not the organ of the Croix de Feu, but is sympathetic to the “patriotic associations,” General Niessel significantly defines the role of these associations in the event of disorder. He says the Socialists and the Communists proclaim, their intention of seizing power by. violence. They have formed a common front. If there is an uprising, will the Government act resolutely? Will the police and the gendarmerie suffice? The army, he intimates, may have to intervene. But the army is composed of vouiig conscripts. “it is, then, indispensable, he continues, “that the patriotic associations should be ready to put at the disposal of the Government the effectives necessary to guard public buildings, to aid the police, and to reinforce, voluntarily and legally, the troops employed in the maintenance of public orddr . . Each of these associations have a -list of good citizens ready to mdreh. There should be a framework of men offering every guarantee of sangfroid and of moral authority, and the means of convoking arid grouping them raprdjy at the demand of the public authority.” ~ A feeble government would render such co-ordination still more necessary. There should therefore be an understanding in advance. It is to be doubted whether that understanding is reached. The Croix de Feu insists on its complete independence.