“WORK!”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 18, 5 January 1920, Page 3

“WORK!”

M. CLEMENCEAU ON THE FUTURE. SPEECH ATSTRASBURG.

M. Clemenceau delivered his eagerly awaited speech at Strasburg last month (states a Reuter message to tot “Westminster Gazette”). “Everywhere all ever France, From the Pyrenees to the Bhine/ beg»n» “the French people are going to speak in a few days through their elections, which will decide French polities an the entry of tho civilised world >n»® peace. Some people seem to have thought that this election, coming after an interval of six years , war, might have for us some, danger or a surorise, but these tragic years .o be a sufficiently long preparation jf spirit and character for the new decisions which must fix the future for us. Gentlemen, it is not an candidate who presents h l “ Belf n b vou. It is tho Chief of the Government whose task it was to pursue *“® the war to a victorious close ana to conclude It is the.last survivor of the signatories of the Bordeaux p test, it is the son of the great _ rev ®“ iution of deliverance, whose first refunding note Rouget de Lisle launched icross the Rhine ab . St ”£ bU p?' nceau In eloquent words, M,noke of the spirit in which the firencn began the war. “Without ’reckoning the strength of tho enemy, w’tnout knowing Xt fortune luck would bring them, with or without the help of our future Allies, our men oroud serenity of ..W®® + Korid What they accomplished all the world knows.” OSLX ONE WAY: WORK. “The factors of peace,” M - 51 e “ds ceau went on, “are put into our hands.. iVhat are we going to do with them. iV’hat is the word ot command? What examples shall be given to our sons, ~nd, above all, what duties? To this enigma-of the Sphinx there is omy Premier said the heads of the Allied Governments had met in Pans to make the map of Europe. m Ae name of the right of peoples to dispose of th “With e t'he restitution of th . e ’ r , te . r ‘ ritories.” he continued, “we w.shed to make divisions in such a way a uivo them a favourable chance of re constructing their national life,.andnothing was spared m the regulation of frontiers to avoid all apparent c of future troubles. We wished toret tablish a peace of permanent justice under the auspices of the L ®?^ 3e ,?f Nations, which is charged with the maintenance and development ot an the claims of a new order of M- Clemenceau also mentioned how the Peace Conference had pushed its work further in its effort to Protect racial and religious minorities, who had too long been the victims of murderous intolerance, and how it had also organised an international conference for settling labour troubles. Th® least we can say,” lie observed, is that we have tried to do this and that without receiving much encouragement.” FINAL REPARATIONS NOT YET AWARDED. Speaking of the terrible devastation which had been spread in ten of the richest departments of France, M- Clemenceau said the reparations so far accorded to France were rather parsimoniously dealt out, but a final settlement had not yet been arrived at, and it would be unjust to the Allies to doubt their final success. “I have said nothing of Germany,” added the Premier. “When our guarantees have once been obtained we shall wait in the irm exercise of our right until she is converted to sentiments of civihsal°Speaking of the French constitution, M. Clemenceau remarked that he ooked forward not without apprehension, to long discussions, leading to nothing, regarding this in the next Pariatuent. It might spend months, he said, in talking, without discovering she ideal form of Government, which had been attained solely by Great Bri- i tain, whose fine history had been j built up without a constitution- He would like to see. in face of what he . called “invading revolutionary minorities,” a constitution of an irreducible majority under a chief capable of saying what he wanted and doing what he said. He saw only ruin in a dictatorship of anarchy, of which they had an example in Moscow. M. Clemenceau then spoke, of individual liberty, and said the citizen had no other sovereign but himself. There was no law but his law, and society, menaced in its conditions of existence, ought to count less on armed force than on itself; he quoted the recent strike in Great Britain, which had proved what free organisation of its citizens could accomplish. THE RAMPART AGAINST BOLSHEVISM. Bolshevism for M. Clemenceau was one of the grave dangers of the future. “Because they demand liberty for themselves,” he cried, “they pretefid to impose on us a dictatorship of absolutism by a system of . abominable crimes as seen in the delirious ferocity of the hardly emancipated‘serfs of Russia. A union of loyal Frenchmen should be sufficient to build an insurmountable rampart against such savage last part of the speech dealt with the financial and industrial problems with which France is confronted. MClemenceau laid stress on the urgent need of putting an end to the crisis in the transport service. His final words were an appeal to Frenchmen to work for the greatness and beauty of France “all united for the good of humanity.”