THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1899.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11199, 20 October 1899, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1899.

It was stated yesterday in one of our cable messages that the French nation had been profoundly touched by the Queen's kindly aotion in making a gift of money to the re- ' latives of the French fisherman who was killed by a shot from a British war vessel while the boat on which he was employed was attempting to avoid captivre for illegally fishing withiA British water!. In happier times, before the French had _ lost their former charm and sociability, and become sunk in savagery and moral callousness, the Queen's act would undoubtedly have created a friendly feeling towards England. j But nobody expects that it will have such a result to-day. A nation that can be moved by a charitable contribution to the relatives of a man who lost his life while engaged in an illegal act, ?nd which refused to b« moved by tlje unparalleled sufferings of a Dreyfus, sufferings that would have pelted the heart of a tiger, is not a nation whose transient emotiqtis count for much in promoting 'or cementing international relations. The irrational . hatred of Jngland which has lately been fannrf into a roaring flame in .France, if not likely to be extinguished n' even weakened by the Queen's 'humane and sympathetic ' act. Oi/y recently M. Charles Laurent wa/ permitted to declare in the column/ of the Paris Matin that " Quee> Victoria should be hung like Mary Ansell," while the whole gutter press of the French capital reekswith foul and violent abuse of Engltnd and the English. Anglopholia is at present rampant in FraAce. M. de Oassagnac, the Deputy and director of the Autorite, grices the leading columns of his ' joimal with articles on " The Nation r p.' Prey," in which he tells his lfeaders that " England is at this moment playing her part as the great freebooter more cynically than ever. ' / She is a real nation of prey, without / scruple, remorse, or conscience, j cowardly in the presence of the '. strong, truculent towards the weak, ' never hesitating to appropriate what ■ is within the range of her guns, and ' mocking in scandalous fashion at international rights, honesty, and justice. At no period, however, of her career of spoliation and brigandange 1 has she more thoroughly deserved ' to succumb before a coalition of out- ! raged Europe." The so-called " pa- , triotic press" teems with similar effu- : sions, in which the English are held ' lip to the scorn and contempt , of the ! French as highwaymen and pirates, j who have neither faith nor law, and are the scandal of mankind. Nor is I this Anglophobe crusade confined to the newspapers. It infests all classes, An influential member of the Chamber of Deputies not Jong ago demanded that quails sent from Italy to England should not be permitted to traverse French territory, exclaiming: " That England should be allowed: to appropriate territory acquired by the' valour, and heroism of our explorers is sufficiently intolerable, but that the Minister for Agriculture-should, carry his complaisance towards' the English so far as" to permit the transit over our A '' . . . " ' * .. ." " \ /:

railways of birds forbidden to ourselves surpasses all the bounds of humiliation." The youth of France i, being .taught to cherish the bitterest hatred of England. At the college of Lannion last July the professor selected to deliver the address at the distribution of prizes concluded his speech by reminding his " dear students" that since Waterloo the Bretons had had no opportunity to cross swords with the English. " But," he added, " a day will come, perhaps, when this long peace will be broken. Then the two peoples, impelled by their old but ever-vivid hatred, will fly at one another's throats," The clerical press contributes its quota to this muddy, frothy torrent by depicting the English as sunk in vices, a corrupt and barbarous people who put a halter round the necks of their wives and drag them to the marketplace, where they are put up to auction by their husbands in the middle of a mocking and insulting crowd.

In a remarkable and significant article in the National Review, by M. Urbain Gobier, author of "l'Armee contre la Nation," from which we take the! foregoing extracts, the writer attempts to offer an explanation of this outburst of Anglophobia. He attributes this portent to more deeper, and graver causes than the Machiavelian craft of diplomatists Qi' the international jealousy engendered by commercial rivalry. It is, he says, not merely territorial or mercantile interests that are' at stake, but the highest political and moral issues, for ;ve are in the midst of a struggle the result of which will decide the character of 'our common civilisation during the approaching century.- On the ofle side is liberty, justice, and progress; on the other, political servitude, oppression, and reaction. M. Gohier sees in the rapprochement between France and Germany, and the dying out of the policy of La Revanche, one of the primary causes of the Anglophobe craze. For three deoades French patriotism has been stirred by the foaming rhetoric of the orators of La Revanche, but this wine no longer stimulates. A war with Germany is ceasing to be an attractive prospect for the French. Such a war, as M. Gohier points out, would, under compulsory military service, summon to. the frontier all sound men.' between the ages of twenty and forty-five, and this knowledge has greatly abated the ardour of the French for such an adventure. People, he says, were bellicose in the days when war only devoured the sons of artisans and peasants too poor to buy their discharge, but since it has been realised thjt mobilisation would throw the entire manhood of the nation on the Rhine, the country has beCome pacific. But a colonial war, and even a war with England, would not have the name result. ■ In the former case the sons of the bourgeoisie would be exempted, and a struggle with England would be confined ta the navy. Hence the outburst against England, and the increased friendliness towards Germany, an outburst which is encouraged by the German and Russian press. It would be idle to deny,' M. Gohier says, that the movement has caught on among the French whose hatred of England frequently reaches unimaginable pitches of fury and imbecility. But there is another and even more powerful reason for this Anglophobe craze. It is found in the dangerous alliance between the military party in France and the clerical party. The former are sunk in corruption and look to a war with England as offering the only escape from the cesspool of crimes into which they have plunged. Instead of having to render an account of their treasons, forgeries, and conspiracies, they would become masters of the country, and would be free to wreak their vengeance on those who have exposed th'eir villainies. The French clerical party, supported by an immense army of dupes, desires a war with England in the hope of destroying that home of, free thought, free criticism and free discussion which they abhor. With them Anglophobia is not a prejudice but a policy, not a. sentiment but a religion. Such is the political situation in France to-day as it presents itself to the eyes of an observant Frenchman. But there is another danger lurking beneath the surface. M. Gohier hints at a "new St. Bartholomew. To the cry of " Mort aux Juifs" is to be added that of " Mort aux Protestants." In order to prepare the populace for Ottoman methods, M. Gohier says, the country "is being smeared with blood from north to south by horrible fights between animals, Cannibalism is stimulated by these cruel and barbarous butcheries. The Church and the generals are only waiting the moment to practice it on a much larger scale." We cannot believe that these terrible prognostications will be realised, but it is impossible to deny that the present situation is fraught with grave possibilities. And it would be folly for Englishmen to shut their eyes to the danger of Anglophobia rushing the French into enterprises which would bring them into conflict with British interests, and in ail probability lead to war. General de Gallifet, the present Minister for War in France, once remarked to a British military attache, " The dearest wish of my life is to command a French army corps on British soil." When such sentiments are openly expressed by the head of the French army, and when a powerf i] and unscrupulous agitation against England is being earned on in the Frenoh press, anything may happen.