PRESIDENT OF FRANCE

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6545, 18 November 1924, Page 3

PRESIDENT OF FRANCE

THE LUCK OF M. DOUMERGUE Of M. Doumergue, now President of the French Republic, 99 Englishmen out of 100 knew rather less than nothing till a day or two ago; but thosb who had had the good fortune to meet him (whites Cicely Hamilton in the Daily Chronicle) may guess that a certain cheery frankness of manner has had something to do with his winning of presidential votes. Also he has luck —undoubtedly; and luck—there is no use denying it—counts for just as much in politics as it does in other walks of life. If fate had not dealt kipdly with him ten years ago, his political career might have been badly checked, perhaps even broken for good; it was chance, and nothing but friendly chance, that intervened in the nick of time to save him from unexpected capture and the war-flong inaction of a prison.

This is the stqjy of his narrow escape as I heard it seven years ago. In the a summer of 1914, being then out of office, the fancy took M. Doumergue to idle in the Austrian Alps; not the Tyrol of hotels and conducted parties but a Tyrol out of the beaten track ih a quiet that recks not of, the tourist. There he idled pleasantly, without < news from the beyond, through .-the fateful month of, July—while Foreign Offices sent Note after -Note and the storm-cloud spread from Belgrade to Petersburg and Parvis. And; if he had idled for. a day, or two .more, his jolly summer sojourn in the Austrian Alps? would have, ended' in an Austrian prison.

"As it was he missed internment — by the miss that is as good as a mile. No man stayed-him when he walked to the railway station and asked for, his picket to Pdris; it was not "till he was safely in Switzerland that he learned of the storm-cloud and his luck At Lausanne the train that should have run through to Paris was greeted with shouts of “Tout de monde descend”; and when the future President of the French Republic emerged from his compartment and demanded, with pardonable annoyance the reason |or this unseemly interruption of ,the usual routine,. he received the astounding answer that the trouble was due to the war! ,:iyr 7 ' . ■«f •■■ ■•:. • BACK TO HARNESS

S' . ■ For war, when he crossed the Austrian frontier, though it had not yet': been declared in form, was. near enough and sure enough to be spoken :of as actual fact; and “all the world” descended on the platform of Lausanne because the French railway companies were too busy; with needs of mobilising troop's to spare much energy for ordinary passenger traffic. Raiiwajr communication between Franco and Switzerland was, for the time being, at ari end; an omnibus' train from Lausanne took passengers only as far as the Swiss‘frontier — which those who would go farther had to traverse on their o^n; two feet. And from Pontarlier, On the French side, of the frontier, a long; very long crawl to Paris—where the German Ambassador was taking' his leave—and the post of Colonial Minister was awaiting\Doumergue’s acceptance!'