Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1918. THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 164, 9 July 1918, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1918. THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE.

FRANCE is without doubt one of [the mo-**. m.Wmdersitood of nations. To j the avcrasro New Zealand er we think ! wo are not far out in statins; that gay | iifo at Parte, fashionable costumes. » j diet of froes. or never ending ;• lation is what, before the war at any i rate, came to the mind when atj tention turned to Franco. But the war ! has revealed something of the I nature of the people. Tt was an English I po-etes-. who wrote. "F.<ven- _ so direct, '?n sternlv nndivertihle of aim. is Mis ! French people. Thev threaten co-nfla- ! cratinn to the world!, and rush, with ! most utvcru-minus losic. on impossible 'practice." Such, savs the Artrupi. hfv JFrnvre been for over twelve centuries I—the most, cultured and civilised wa-it-inn in all the word, the most _lon;ienl ' and determined people, the brightest !n7->d mo'tt active and. most intellectual of ', all the leader-, in the van of civihVitiou. A wv'tfv in The Times puts' his ! impression thn'? : "Tlie immense vitalij tv." intellectual and physical, of thej Oall'c rnce. its awimilative power, and j ;», a-tontehiiT? facnlfrv of cmerginia-. (modified, hut essentially Tt.nchaniced. l from cataclysm* whieh would over and over aorain have naralvsed a penrtle ! loss viv-il" and individual :" _ This iis whv France, above all others. is= a ! nation or a, nationality. For nationalii tv. d°prnd ! s neither on religion nor on i neilhor on cr ror traphy nor ! Vond. "Pt depends on history.. "A nation." said Penan., "is- a soul and a spiritual principle, the resultant of a lnn.tr historic r>a«t :' of sacrifices and efforts made in common. and of a united will and as:mration- in the present. To have done together crreat things in the pa.-t. to he minded to do il'-eat thiues in t.he present, that te- th" essential condition for the existence of a nation." Tried bv that text. France is the most distinctive nationality in Europe, and perhaps in the world. Franco ha.s b°en described as. a deI cade.nt nation. Yet France i- the soul !of Europe. The French are the peo- | pie of an a.dmini's.tratite-n. of a puh-l'V service, while in England the public service ha = been merelv a fa.-hionahlc ! club. " What, wonder, then, that should net und'erstn-nd earb ot.b«*v ' The j ■nevmnn has been a. ma.n of obedience ; and of a machine, the Frenchman has j been «. frondeur, an 'individualist, a i man of ideas. PV>w could f.hey see \ eahc other's strength' But it was the I horrid intensity with which Zola deJ scribed the decadence of Parte- in the 1 Third Empire' which led ordinarv men astrav. All mm beaan to think that Fra.n'-e was Paris, and that the Paris of IRSQ—IS7O was the 'true meaning of Fren-ch history. But that was a.bont as- big a blunder as it was possible to make. Zola's Paris was no home of •ideas, of culture, or of action. It was' \ the home, of a distrusting indulgence in j the makinrr and spending of money. It j Tieedied the of 18 7 0 to produce j such a. startling: Tjer.sonali-ty as G-am- ! betta. and the rebirth of a nation.. The j result i.o that the French army of to- | day Is probably the best army in the f world : the French generals the ones who have won the Greatest, victoriesand the French people the most patient and united, the most determined and •self-sacrificing ameng all who are suffering from the wa.r. Most observers have realised an the pn.s-t something of the versatility, the lmcidity, the intellectual activitv, the social eqnalitv. the ki'nd'fnes-s and chivalry of the French .people; but what this war ha« revealed is their strength and sa.m'ty, their tiemsndous power of resistance and effort. Tf France is decadent, then there is no nation-'that is strong. If France be a negligible quantity, then, there is no nation that counts. In an article in the 'Century Magazine, John N. And'erfon eays it i's the 1' patience of the Parisians that has surprised everybody. Reputed _ the most unstable, crrnitic, and volatile population of any city on the earth, one that star-ted ■ a revolution on the provocation, it has been the most tractable, the calmest, the mo*t orderly, the most enduring and long-suffering. It is now supporting the fourth winter of the war with the same stoicism that it did the first. In this respect it is onlv | the image of the rest of France. It fo j one thing to bo heroic before a great I emergency, and another to endure day I after day. week after week, month afj ter month, and year after year of -rworry, sorrow, and apprehension, of i disaster. At no time for nearly four I years, have the Germans been far from ! Paris. Never hnis there been a night 1 when they could not havp ccm-e over {the city to drop bombs. There is not a, i f eason' when the Germans might not j beain another drive for the French capital;. But. aceordiing to Mr Ander- | son, the real key .to French charai ter ; i<s not merriment; it is patience. The i French people do not themselves feww i what resources of- -strength and patience | they possess, within themselves. "Thev lake to have some other idol on which jto pom' their faith. It used to be the ! Russian Bear. Now it is ">Oncl'e ( Sam."