EIGHT TIMES PREMIER

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12394, 13 March 1926, Page 11

EIGHT TIMES PREMIER

The Romantic Career of M. Briand

M Aristide Briand, who has become Prime Minister of Franoe * for the eighth time, and, has just oeeu deposed, has had many vicissitudes in bis long political career. But one ancient friend has stuck to him through adversity and prosperity. On many an occasion bis other “cronies” have twitted him about his attachment for this rather shabbygenteel survival of his younger days, and have urged him to sever the connection- once and for all. But despite their counsel and cajolery he still persists in being seen even at the most stately of functions in company with the old silk top-hat which he bought in the year 1900 in connection with the opening of the Paris Exposition. From this it may be surmised that M. Briand makes no pretence of being a Beau Brummel. Indeed, not so long ago, while he was strolling along a country road in Normandy, a gendarme who disliked his Bohemian appearance placed him under arrest as a vagabond. The charge was disposed of • with more ease and speed than it might have been had it been laid in day* of his youth. Once the Larbour Party of Rennes invited him to address them, but received' the laconic reply by telegraph: “Can’t come. No boots.” Whereupon his admirers in Rennes sent him a new pair of shoes, and later had the privilege of listening to the future statesman. THE FALL OF JERICHO M. Briand came of humble parents, who stinted and scraped to make their son a lawyer. After he had graduated he returned to his native town of Nantes, in Brittany, and loungecl around in cafes and estaminets, talking politics and waiting for the briefs that did not come. Then one day a. peasant murdered an agent do police in a particularly brutal manner. Aristide Briand went to the cell ,pf the slayer and offered to act as counsel. But the peasant, already resigned to, atoning on the guillotine for his crime, replied “M’sieu, there is no defence.” Despite that fact, young Briand took up the case. When it came to trial the witnesses for the prosecution built up brick by brick an insurmountable wall of. evidence around the prisoner. The self-appointed counsel for the defence, saiy the imnossibility of . trying to hatter down this death-dun-geon of evidSnoe, and so called not a single witness. What he did do, how-

.evejr, was to metaphorically march, around Jericho with fanfares of trumpets! The agent de police bo branded, as the personification of brutal bureaucracy and the minion of ruthless tyranny. • Under the magic of his advocates’ oratory the besotted and ignorant peasant: who had struck down this oppressor became first a helpless victim of overpowering circumstances and then a type of all those weary, toiling peasants upon whom has been built up the greatness of France. As the trial progressed, all France rocked with excitement. The hard-headed jurymen even were moved to'tears. Finally the prisoner was acquitted “without a stain on his character.’* And young Briand’s reputation was made. So the young lawyer went off to Paris and obtained from Jean Jaures a position on the newspaper “L’Hnmanite.” As a journalist he wrote scathing attacks upon the Government. As a politician he made inflammatory speeches and became known as a revolutionary. Finally he worked out: plans for a generals trike which would tie up all France. Then came the break with his syndicalist friends, when the Government offered him office and he accepted. BREAKING A GENERAL STRIKE But the Socialists had their revenge. They used the weapon which Briand had forged and put in their hands—the general strike. Not a train “marched.” Not a wheel turned. Paris was cut off from the nation and in danger of starvation. France was paralysed. Red revolution loomed. Briand as Premier countered by snm- ■ moning the railway workers to the • colours. It was death to disobey. Would they dare? Upon the• answer to that question depended not only the political life of Briand but also of France. The railway reservists answered the call. The strike’s back was broken. So may it be seen that beneath a suave . and almost feline exterior, Aristide Briand conceals the steel muscles of decision and determination. It wag the Tiger of France, the veteran Clcmencean, who neatly summed up M. Briand’s character in an epigrammatic comparison with M. Poincare at the time the last-named was Premier of France: “Poincare knows everything and understands nothing. Briand knows nothing hut understands everything.”