Royalists in France

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 1, 2 January 1941, Page 9

Royalists in France

History is repeating itself curiously in the movement in France for a restoration by Marshal Petain of the monarchy," says the Manchester Guardian. It was the other Marshal, MacMahon, who was expected to be the General Monk of 1871 by restoring a king to France and making, as it was said, his term of office as President a bridge between republic and monarchy. For some Time there was speculation whether Mac Mahon would be the Washington or the Monk of his period, but the .Royalists of 1873 threw away all kheir chances. "You will not in-

I augurate the Republic and you cannot found the Monarchy," was the taunt hurled at the strong royalist party by Grevy and Simon. The deciding factor was the folly of the Comte do Chambord, who announced that he would never accept the crown unless with the white fla.g which, said Bodley, became the "shroud of the Royalist Party." A satirist compared it with the garment which Virginia would not shed even to save her life. The substitution of the white flag for the Tricolour was too much even for Mac Mahon; "The rifles would go off of themselves," he declared, "if the army were despoiled of their glorious Tricolour."