King Country Chronicle. Thursday, March 10, 1932. A GREAT STATESMAN PASSES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3441, 10 March 1932, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Thursday, March 10, 1932. A GREAT STATESMAN PASSES.

By the death of M. Briand, not only France, but the whole world loses a great statesman whose name will go down in history as a patriot whose one objective in life was to insure international peace. It might be said that M. Briand' was more appreciated by the other European countries than France. After the Great War he proved himself to be broadminded and tolerant, virtues to which his own country as a whole can scarcely lay claim. On eleven occasions he was Prime Minister of France and was a member of over twenty French Cabinets. With an intense love of his own country, his open and unbiased mind and generous disposition, enabled him to realise the point of view of other countries. M. Briand started his political career as a Socialist, but later realised that this policy was not the ideal way towards the emancipation of mankind, though he was always a strong champion of the worker. On many occasions Mr. Briand was chairman of the Council of the League of Nations, and it was his tact and splendid reasoning that solved many a problem that came before the League. This fine statesman has been charged by his own people to be too ready to compromise on any matter affecting France, but this is not true. M. Briand could be firm and implacable when the interests of his country was at stake, but there was nothing petty or narrow in his nature. It was M. Briand who sponsored Germany as a member of the League of Nations. His simple but dramatic speech on that occasion will go down in history as an honest attempt to heal the breach between two countries which for nearly a century had been deadly enemies. Aristide Briand did not live to see his life’s ambition fulfilled —that of a mutual and lasting understanding between the nations of Europe, and before he finally retired from the political arena he said he was going back to private life a disappointed man. The life of M. Briand has been a stormy one, but it has been a life well worth living. He was a statesman who lived for his country and for the good of humanity in general.