M. CLEMENCEAU DEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20421, 25 November 1929, Page 11

M. CLEMENCEAU DEAD.

NOTED FRENCH FIGURE

REALISES END WAS NEAR

RELATIVES AT BEDSIDE

FINAL HOURS OF LIFE.

DIRECTIONS FOR BURIAL

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received November 2<t, 11.5 p.m.) PARIS. Nov. 24. M. Georges Clemenceau, the noted French statesman, died early this morning, aged 88. The "Tiger" was prostrated yesterday by an attack of abdominal colic. He was given frequent injections of morphine in the night and his relatives were assembled at his bedside.

The doctors said M. Clemenceau's iron will was shaken and there was disquieting exhaustion, which made his condition serious.

The patient was not expected to last many hours. At midnight he sank into a torpor bordering on complete delirium. Only occasionally did he recognise his relatives.

Earlier in the evening the "Tiger" indicated that he realised the end was near by discussing his own burial. He said he resented the idea of a State funeral and he besought his relatives not to announce his death until two days after the event.

In the meanwhile they were to take his body to his country home at Vendee and bury it in an upright position beside his father's grave.

Devoted Sister's Last Services. In a lucid interval M. Clemoriceau characteristically said he did not want any women round his death-bed. He even asked that his sister, Thconeste, who nursed him in his illnesses, should not be allowed to be present in his last moments.

Nevertheless, the dying man murmured, when ho saw his sister kneeling at the bedside in tears, " I am not going to prevent you praying for me." There was no trace of sarcasm in his voice, only tenderness and respect for one so devoted to him.

In tho afternoon a priest, Monsignor de Lavatte, who, in spite of M. Clemenceau's anti-clericalism, was an old friend, called at the house. He said afterwards that he gave his blessing through the half-opened door. . The priest said he thought the fact that M. Clemenceau had his sister with him showed that although he had not retracted his radical views his sentiments were not opposed to religion. His anticlericalism was overlooked in tho contemplation of a great Frenchman and his immense services excused many things.

Book Finished Just Before Illness. M. Paul Boncour called bearing a tiny satchel of earth taken from the grave of Joan of Arc for burial in M. Clemenceau's grave. The "Tiger" had finished his book .replying to his critics only last Thursday. He laid down his pen in relief. Five

hours later he was seized with the abdominal pains which began his last illness. He commenced his book full of anger, but as ho progressed he became calmer and toned down certain passages he had written, saying that although he differed from his critics he had no enmity for them, but only wished to make his own position clear.

It will be a remarkable book written as it was when M. Clemenceau was a great age and on the v£rge of the grave. Homage of Parisian Crowds.

Tremendous crowds visited M. Clemenceau's houso in the Rue Franklin, to tender silent homage to the statesman who abovo all others personified the country's unconquerable spirit. Doctors camo and went, bub every time shook their heads mournfully, saying: "It is hopeless. He cannot live." The old " Tiger " seldom spoke. He endured his intense pain without complaint, though his suppressed groans were occasionally heard. One of the doctors asked if their patient felt any pain. He replied: "Yes, I feel it dreadfully." A drug was administered to relieve his suffering, and ho sank into a state of coma prior to his death.

Great French personages and the representatives of many foreign States called at the houso and left cards. Another caller was Colonel Alfred Dreyfuii, who when he was almost friendless during the celebrated case in which ho was the central figure found M. Clemenceau suddenly championing his innocence.

INTERESTING CAREER,

TENACITY OF PURPOSE.

STRONG MAN FOR HIS COUNTRY. M. Georges Clemenceau -was bom nt \louilleran-en-Pareds, Vendee, on Septcm. bcr 28, 1841. Having adopted medicine aa his profession lie settled in 1869 in Montmartre. On February 8, 1871, l.e was elected as a Radical to the National Assembly for the Department of the Seine, and voted against tho peace preliminaries. He was concerned in the turbulent times following tho revolution of 1870, and at one time coming into collision with the authorities was sentenced to a finu and a fortnight's imprisonment. From 1875 to 1885 he represented the Seine Department in tho Chamber of Deputies, and from 1885 to 1893 represented Var. In 1880 he started his newspaper La Justice, which became the principal organ of Parisian Radicalism; from this time on, his reputation as a political critic and as a destroyer of Ministries, who would not himself form one, rapidly grew. Defeated in the elections of 1893 ho devoted his time entirely to writing, taking an honourable part in tho long drawn-out controversy over tho Dreyfue case. In 1900 ho withdrew from La Jus-

tice to found a weekly review, Le Bloc, which la6ted until March, 1902. In that year ho was elected senator for the Var, although he had previously demanded the suppression of the Senate. He sat with the Socialist Radicals. In June, 1903, he undertook tho direction of the paper L'Aurore, which ho had founded. In March, 1906, the fall of the Rouvier Ministry at laet brought Clemenceau to power as Minister for the Interior in the Barrien Cabinet. A etriko of miners and

a threat of disorder obliged him to employ the military almost immediately. Hi 6 attitude in the matter alienated the Socialist party, from which he definitely broke in June, 1906. His speech in his own defence marked him out as the strong man of the day in French politics; and when the Sarrien Ministry resigned in October he became Premier. During 1907 and 1908 M. Clemenceati'e premiership was notable for the way in which the new entente with Britain was cemented and for the successful part which Franco played in European politics. On July 20, 1909, he was defeated in a discussion in the Chamber of Deputies on the state of the navy. He resigned, being succeeded by M. Briand as Premier. In 1914 M. Clemenceau founded a new newspaper, L'Homme Libre (The Free Man), the name of which he changed to L'Homme Enchaine (The Man in Chains) at the beginning of the war, because of his conflicts with the censorship- At the end of 1915, when M. Briand was forming a Ministry, M. Clemenceau became President of the Army Commission and of the Commission on Foreign Affairs. He severed his connection with the executive later, and during the premiership "of M. Viviani, M. Painleve and M. Ribot was a vigorous and uncompromising advocate of the unrelaxed prosecution of the war.

The return of M. Clemenceau to office as premier on November 16, 1917, was at a time when Frence, hard pressed at tho front and shaken by crisis after crisis in the Cabinet, turned to look for a leader. Charges of espionage, defeatism, and plotting with the enemy had been hurled at Minister after Minister, M. Clemenceau himself being one of the most active agents of discovery and denunciation. With him at the helm the administration was purged, suspects faced their trial, and the initiative was regained at the front.

A commentator, discussing his part in the later stages of the war, says: The first, the impossible, task of Clemenceau, when he came, was to restore the home front,' shaken by defeat in the field and by defeatist propaganda behind the lines. France, after all the terrible sacrifices of past years, with the Russian revolution destroying her great Eastern ally, with a new invasion in sight, faced a crisis which had but two solutions—collapse or the discovery of a leader.

The defeats of the spring left him un-

shaken. He faced hostile critics in the Chamber with the dust and mud of the battlefields on his clothes. He left the tribune to reappear in the front line. He was as scornful of personal danger as he was impatient of petty intrigue. The armies knew him better than the politicians. His spirit was the spirit of his countrymen, but seeing it revealed in him, his countrymen acquired new confidenceWhen the line broko in Picardy he was almost the first on the scene, and brought back to Paris the first authentic news that the flood had been checked. It was the same in Flanders when Hair's army 6tood with its back lo tho wall. "Tho skies are already brightening," he told Paris, as he returned from Bethune: And when Clemenceau came France was again the cornerstone of the alliance, the foundation on which victory was built. He became, almost in ail hour, the embodiment of France; and before the end those who had opposed him shrank from challenging tho man .whose voice was the voice of tho nation. In defeat ho made tho nation believe victory possible, and when victory came it seemed by tho logical conclusion of his leadership. On of the most dramatic moments in the modern history of France, and in the great victory of the Allies, was when M. Clemenceau, as Premier, revisited the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, at last freed from German rule. As a member of tho revolutionary National Assembly in 1871 ho had voted against tho cession of tho provinces to Prussia. Tho dream of their restoration had lived with him through tho intervening years; and it was as tho cliosen leader and chief representative of tho nation that he saw that dream taking shape as a reality. M. Clemenceau was recently busily engaged in writing his autobiography. Guests who visitad him on his 88th birthday on September 28 wero asked to leave early, as ho wanted to get on with his book, which ho hoped to publish in October. He used to rise at 6 a.m., and wrote in a bold, firm hand.