"ALSACE-LORRAINE WANTS HER FRANCE"

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1235, 26 January 1918, Page 4 (Supplement)

"ALSACE-LORRAINE WANTS HER FRANCE"

SroßSHrg DID not go to interview M. Daniel (FMMrVvI Blumenthal; because he has come to Washington as a member of the French High Commission. Heaven knows, and my wife is still better Uj Ty aW are, that I know nothing about finance, high or low; and had it been up to me I should have loaned the French Government, via M. Blumenthal, any l umber of billions right out of Mr McAdoo's Treasury. But it was as the ex-Mayor of Colmar (Ancien Marie de Colmar is the way it is expressed on the large, foreign-look-ing card he hands you) that I wished to see and talk to him, writes an American journalist. Now, Colmar isn't the largest nor yet the second largest city in Alsace. But it is in the heart of that freedom-loving little province which has been held by Germany like a caged eagle ever since 1871. The Hohenzollerns have held the bars across Alsace, but thev have never been able to clip her wings. And if you think they ever will, just talk with Daniel Blumenthal. A little man, with a greying beard, and round, black, humorous eyes, I found him in a hotel room packing for another flight with the commission. I told him that since I had heard of his famous escape from the Germans, invading Colmar, I imagined he would be a hard man to coerce into..an interview.

"To escape from America would be something," he assured me; talking with all the fingers on both his hands. "But the Germans! They are what vou call it—bone-in-the-head."

"IL would be doing us a service," I said, "to tell America what Alsace-Lorraine would prefer to be after peace is made—French or German." "Do you know," he replied, standing straight as a ramrod, "that the 'Marseillaise' was first sung at Slrassburg? Freedom has always been to us a passion, and from us the best blood of the French Revolution went out. Do you think, then, we would have any business with spiked helmets from Rerlin?"

I had heard talk in the newspapers of a plan to leave the nationality of the twin States to a plebiscite of Alsace-Lorrainers. "A German-made plebiscite would be pretty to see," he informed me with a smile. "Alsace could vote with scraps of paper, but never by fair election. Why? Because she is French to the heart to-day, and since 1871 she has never forgotten her loyalty to the free Republic to which her soul belongs. German editors write editorials full of learning to show that the children of AlsaceLorraine to-day are different from yesterday, because they speak the language which Berlin has forced upon them. Eh bienl Do you know how many Alsace-Lorrainers deserted from the German army when war broke out and are now fighting with France? Thirty thousand. It is an honour to say that they are the bravest among the French; but that is so. Because, if they are caught as prisoners, what then? Pouff! M. le Kaiser is not famous for his kindness to deserters. The population may change his name and pretend to be French. You can tell an Alsatian by the opening of the mouth when he speaks. It is different from French as the patois of the Scotch. No Love Lost. "Therefore you can see how much those 30,000 love the Germans. 'Stay in the rear where you

will be safe,' say the kind French commanders. 'No, Monsieur—put us in the front where we can shoot!' say the Alsace-Lorrainers. Perhaps that is loyalty to Berlin. "German papers will tell you that because we speak the language that has been forced clown our throats we are content. That is the thinking of Prussia. But can the Prussian tell us why while we were part of France we never spoke bitterly of the Government? Why, under that kind German rule we have protested by our representatives at the Reichstag? Why our young men have emigrated to escape military duty, while our citizens innumerable have gone to imprisonment for expressing their affection for France? "Despite the mills of industrious kultur, which strive forever to pour everything into a hideous German mould, Alsace-Lorraine is to-day overwhelmingly French. If vou wish, I will recite some figures. Our population is 1,900,000 altogether. Of- those 1,500,000 are natives, almost 1 POETISING FOOD § gl CONSERVATION 88 W Beef steak and buttered eggs, GO <*£> Well-devilled chicken legs, fIP GO Send to Gehenna. q< pO Furnish for hungry throats v£? GJ Nothing hut Quaker Oats: £j£> GO Action like this promotes fD £2 Peace, says McKenna. £s£ OO 8B GO Ascuiith and Edward Grey GO xx Eat only once a day W GO Just for the present. <*£> CO Last Monday night I"saw GO £& Balfour- and Bonar Law >6? GO Eating tomatoes raw OQ CO Bather than pheasant. GO CO Though Mr Walter Long <3B £Q - Welcomes the dinner gong, GO fry Salmon would pain him, Sx £a? For (as with democrats) GO igg Merely a pound of sprats OO GO (Heads saved to feed tha cats) W Serves to sustain him. GO GO <<yS qo And when the luncheon hell §§ GO Calls Herbert Samuel GO sss Up to the table, Q£> GQ Scorning the butler's grin £&> CO He wields a winkle-pin GO CD And takes as many in £Q GO As he is able. £y£ J>D J f tlien ou * rulers can Oft GO Vanquish the inner man 02 *}*s When food entices: GO £)s Follow their frugal lead, PA GO Grape-nuts are all you need; £YJ £0 Some critics hold, indeed, GO £J$ Water suffices. CQ €£> —An English Dean, in "Tho GO >fi Living Church." £2 g9&3^^^&303036969g388&58303g5g3gS

without exception totally French. There are 100,000 German immigrants or descendants of immigrants. There is no difference whatever between those Who speak French, in Lorraine, for instance, and those in Alsace who speak a patois mixed with German, but which the Germans cannot understand." "Germany cannot possibly substantiate her claims that your Provinces have been Germanised," I agreed. "German logic is able to think both ways, like a donkey with two heads. She has well learned the speech, 'What is yours belongs to me, and what is mine is my own.' Since the beginning of tthe present war the German generals have made no hesitation about declaring that they consider Alsace-Lorraine an enemy country. How much better than Belgians have we been in the sight of Prussia? Look at the thousands of Alsace-Lor-rainers who have been deported to slavery and answer for yourself. We have been told we speak the French language in a provoking manner. Therefore it is taken out of our mouths, so that we may worship the Kaiser in his own sweet words. The prisons are full of my own people who were arrested during those first awfid days of the war. "When they are candid-—which happens seldom—the Germans admit that they have no faith in the loyalty of Alsace-Lorraine. They mistrust us because we do not admire the goose step, do not regard the sign 'Verbaten' as more beautiful than our mountain scenery. Thus it is that Germany longs for der tag when we shall be dragged by the hair of our heads into further despotism. Endlessly her papers discuss our future and what they will do to dismember us and what constitution we shall have as a monarchic and autonomous State of the Empire. We are uncomfortable to her, like a little stcne in the big military boot. Loyalty Not Bought. "Monsieur, loyalty and love are not bought without price; that you know. The martial courts have sought to silence us with frightful grimaces. We have spoken our love for France,at the cost of our lives. Executions have been many, and thousands of years of imprisonment have been ordered by their councils of war. And it is not alone a matter of language, this loyalty, for the Alsatians of the upper Bhine, who speak the dialect, have suffered no less terribly than the others. "In the larger cities, particularly Metz and Strassburg, you will find the Germans concentrated most thickly. When Alsace-Lorraine becomes French again—and we are sure of it. Monsieur—there will be a scattering from those large citiies, because the German population is mostly of the garrison or the official life. And what shall we pare for those remaining? In power the German is rude and brutal, out of power he is dull and slavish." "France was wise to send you here on her high commission," I suggested. "France knows that I am like the heart of Alsace, all French," said M. Daniel Blumenthal. •'My own country must be returned to France or there can be no lasting peace. We will accept no sedatives from Germany, no hypocritical offers to become an autonomous State in the German Confederation. It is not alone that France wants her Alsace-Lorraine. Alsace-Lorraine wants her France."