WAR SPIRIT IN FRANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15901, 12 April 1912, Page 11

WAR SPIRIT IN FRANCE.

Paris January 10.—For their etrennes or’ New Year's gift the French neoole had tho romantic, dramatic elcapa or a French officer, Captain I from a German fortress, and the delicht which is being manifested on even’ side over his safe return is but one of tho many signs of the remarkable renaissance of tho military spirit all over France. Never were officers moro popular, more acclaimed in the streets while the aeroplane corps is the idol of Fans. ■The glorification of military exploits is to-day so openly encouraged bv tho present Government that a semi-official paper calls upon parents to place in the hands of every child m Franco the account of Captain Lux s escape as an example of courago and the other MANLY QUALITIES OP TIIE FRENCH RACE. The once persecuted, much decried “ grando muette,” a l'rench characterisation of what the army should be, a great silent body is enjoying a renewal of popularity such as even its most ardent supporters never daied hope for, at least so soon. , Tho military spirit lias gained tho children. Tho long nocdected toy soldiers, tho diminutive uniforms, swords, and pistols, forts and cannon, have replaced tho ingenious mechanical novelties, and tho toy stores have been sacked of everything of a military character. Never in the experience of the toy trade has there been such a run on soldiers in every form, and factories have worked day and night to supply the demand. Interest in army matters has been rife and the most indifferent _ rentier has wakened into a militant militarist, simply spoiling for a fight under the cover of a so called desire for peace. Forty thousand women, for the most part of tho better classes, have asked to bo and have been enrolled in the military hospital corps, and ,as many moro are taking the course in the hospitals which will give them

the right to follow the army. Round tho “ Reveliion tables” the talk was hot of the latest play, not the newest 1 scandal, nor even of la petito femme,” but of the possibilities of aeroplane scouting, cannon values, cavalry superiority. “ Have you been enrolled P asked the women of one another as of yore they demanded. “Have you seen Repine or Granier in her new play r For years officers avoided being noticed on the streets. To-day they arc everywhere ill evidence, and even “he workingmen have ceased crying a bas I’armeel” Hardly a dozen years ago the cry ot “Vivo i’armee ” if uttered in the streets of Paris within-the hearing of tho police, sufficed as a motive for the immediate arrest of the imprudent army enthusiast. “A bas 1 armee (down with the army) became almost a declaration of good republicanism and served as an open sesame into tne political raliks of the Left. No one was spared. Army officers were hissed in the streets, and they avoided discussions in ■ which they were always put m the wrong by their superiors at the NV ar Offices, after Labori— only, it is true, a half-blooded Frenchman—had led Zola and later the Dreyfus, partisans into one of the fiercest general attacks upon the military forces of a nation that tho world has yet witnessed. . Thanks to Labori, a large proportion of the French populace •

REGARDED the army as a hideous monster.

Politicians of tho worst type hoisted themselves into power upon the antiarmy platform. In the Lycees, or French Colleges, the Herves invited the boys to “plant tho national flag in the ash heap, and the men of the Thalamas type devoted themselves to destroying tho respect for popular . military heroes and heroines, among whom Napoleon and Jeanno d’Arc were particularly slandered. Such acts were, only half-heartedly disapproved, and made political heroes of tho two-anti-patriotic professors, Hervo and Thalamas, both of whom appealed to the rabble, and “ The International, ’ an anti-military song inviting tho soldiers to shoot at their officers instead of tho enemy in case of war, became the workingman’s anthem, intoned whenever there was an occasion for a street manifestation , . .

■ So rapidly did the anti-military spirit develop that politicians made a successful platform of the reduction of the ol>-. ligatory threo years’ service in tho army and even promised a gradual conversion of the national defence into a kind of a militia.

Officers were tracked down by tho lowest class of petty spies armed with instructions to report on their smallest doings as well as on those of their wives and families.

An entire anti-military Press sprang into life. The army and its officers were held up. to public ridicule, and in the face of so much adverse criticism, seemingly encouraged by the Government in power,, the military forces of the country appeared to be hqpolossly discredited. From one end of France to the other the trend of public opinion seemed to have grown anti-military. While tho men were brawling in political reunions against tho evils of the army, while the peace prophets were banqueting in brotherly love, while the authorities were discouraging the initiative of officers and weakening the force of the army, tho women wore quietly teaching patriotism and

A LOVE FOR THE ARMY AROUND THE HEARTHSTONE.

A man may forget a loss, a defeat, may forgive an injury; a woman never forgets and rarely forgives. Mothers ana sisters, wives and sweethearts, in the gloomy chateaux, in the humble thatched cottages, one and all remembered the war of 1870. So while at school professors harangued the boys against the army and popular herd's and heroines and tried to teach them to scorn the defenders of their country, tho mothers taught patriotism and love of the ..army. In the streets, in the pews, in the schools children heard the cry “A bas l’armee,” at home the mother cried “ Vive I’armee,” and everyone knows the immense unquestioned authority of the French mother at home. The women replied to ajxtimilitarism by doctrines of patriotism and militarism. . Then came the first awakening. Deceived by the apparent decay of the French military spirit, conscious that tho army had been greatly weakened and discouraged by tlie Dreyfus case, Germanv precipitated action in Morocco and Franco and was only saved trom a war' for which she was ill prepared by the clover act of Premier Rouvier, who called the Algecir as conference a.nd leaned on Russia and England to ob-

;/un a peaceful decision. • And then a strange paradox, so Frequent in French politics, happenedMaurice Berteaux, the Minister War, whoso platform had been a reduction of tho military service and wno was a leader of the party which ban organised this anti-military c» m P ? and the tracking down of s?®°,-°Office tho secret police, once m tlie a ** became an ardent supporter army, devoting two millions of h F sonal fortune to repairing the gent faults which had led to COI ?}H _ disorganisation in the various I" 1 services. Disorder and \! CO A ftiment reigned. Berteaux, the P® cian, had been catalogued as an aiw militarist, Berteaux, the man, was patriot, and under his adiuimsti

THE ARMY COMMENCED TO AWAKES* Less vexatious measures were take against officers. Army parades ' again viewed with favour. Aola ■ , Labori sunk inj public esteem. ’ so unpopular was the latter that a y j ago ho did not dare present hirnsel general elections before the elec > who four years previously had se him to the Chamber on hw anti arW# fiW&jpSh

Over two hundred new young men were elected to the Chamber, manj °f them vigorous and. independent, differing totally from the typo who had preceded them—the “ under horso doctors of politics,” as Gambetta called them, who sat in smoke ridden taverns and were as celebrated for the quantity of absinthe they could consume as lor their speeches. While a few anti-pa-triotic army leaders dike Jaures and Thalamas were elected, they soon found themselves without influence and with no hold over their colleagues. The Marquis de Messiney, a former officer, brother of General veillaKj d’Ery, became Minister of War, and set to work to restore tho army s prestige. Dolcasse took the Marine m hand. Soon officers worked like Trojans to put their regiments in shape. Sailors gloried in the ships. And then came the second German alarm, the '! bateur Agadir,” the German boat ill Moroccan water". Nothing more was needed to fan tho flame of newborn militarism into a great blaze. The entire country forgot political division and madly applauded tho national fe J e army parade, while the enthusiasm during the naval review at Toulon v. as such that

MEN WEI’T AS THE SHIPS TASSED BY,

During all the long Franco-German negotiations Royalists and Imperalists, Republicans and Radicals, Socialists and Anarchists stood shoulder to shoulder, ready to fly to arms if the moment came. Target practice replaced sports. Every one looked to the army and looked up to the army. “ The Internationale” ceased to be intoned and war songs rang out from the workshops. “Vive 1 armee. ceased to be a seditious cry. The evolution from antbmilitansm to militarism is the most interesting symptoms of the dehut of 1912 in France. To what it may" lead no one can predict. Under the cover of the political declarations of a desire for peace writhes a fierce longing for a good fight. How long will the Governinont be able to resist tlie undercurrent of a desire for war is a question. The wave of militarism seems almost beyond control.