FRANCE AND BRITAIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1939, Page 9

FRANCE AND BRITAIN

WARS AND FRIENDSHIPS. German wonder at the closeness of Aceh French friendship— “all the more surprising as there arc perhaps few nations who differ more in temperament and style of living”—overlooks the established fact in human relations (says the Manchester Guardian), that it is not people who resemble each other who get on best together as a rule. Perhaps Philip Sidney hit off the fundamental relationship when he wrote of “that sweet enemy—France.” It is worth noting that though wc have so often been at war with France, there has never been any difficulty in resuming friendship after the war. Soult was cheered to the echo when he came over here for Queen Victoria’s Coronation. When the Duke of Wellington went to the theatre in Paris at the close of the Napoleonic wars lie was loudly cheered. “But why,” asked another visitor (German perhaps), “do you cheer that man wb<> has beaten you so often?" "Perhaps —but always as x ■'.'cntb-mr n." was Ihe answer.

Directb pfi-w the Poaco of Amiens Fren-h. fa sirens were- all the rag© ?~ain in England. The Entente itself came on the very heels of five years of superficial, unfriendliness. PerIm.p'- something must be allowed for the fact that we have never understood each other too well. The legend in England that the French are a volatile people who must not be taken too seriously, and the legend in France of the sad. phlegmatic English have had their uses.