ARISTIDE BRIAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11609, 29 January 1916, Page 7

ARISTIDE BRIAND.

PREMIER OF FRANCE. In ail article in "T.IVs Weekly" Charles Daw barn, author of ''France at Bay," discusses tlio characteristics of the new French Premier, Aristido Briand, M. Briand, he declares, is a discovery of M. Ciemenccau s. It was through the latter's influence that he came to power. Nothing, however, could be in greater contrast than the character of the two. Clemenceau is the strenuous hard hitter, the remorseless adversary. Briand, on the other hand, is all suppleness and conciliation; lie has an extraordinary igift of disarming opposition, whilst C'lemenoeau revels in it, and, is as keen on throwing hand grenades as any trench fighter. Yet there is a certain quality of loneliness common to both. Neither inspires great friendships. Both inhabit a solitary hill from which they look down upon humanity; but there is no condescension in their gaze—merely an active, almost a passionate, interest in the problems which vex thoir fellows. OF NO PAR,IT. 31. Briand's cxchisivcness, the article continues, comes from the fact that he belongs to no party; he broke with the only party to which ho was joined temperamentally, the Unified

Socialists; They never forgave him in that, being of their number, and a most ardent advocate of the new heaven and new earth, he yet accepted office in a bourgeois Cabinet. It so happened that the country called him so insistently that there could hp no refusal. But for Aristido Briand, there would have been no separation, probably, between church and State, bound together by the concordat dating from Napoleon's time, and the result would have been perpetual irritation, for the spirit of union had departed, and it was fitting .therefore that each should go its way. > Briand's master diplomacy, the article adds, will be wanted for the final .settlement. Ho will prove a superb negotiator, firm and strong. Though he is no longer to bo counted amongst the official Socialists, he has remained a Socialist at heart, ana dreams of effecting those essential reforms which, shall bring happiness and plenty to the homes of the poor, and give to labour a. larger share of•the profits of industry. But he Knows the difficulties of such proposals. For he was a stump orator witli the best. He wrestled daily with political opponents in a small cafe at St ■ln azaire, the seaport in which his parents lived. That is how he learned to speak, and to speak so well that he came to Paris as a trade \imon secretary. In Parliament his maiden speech was violent, and in it he reproached the Government for having repressed a strike bloodily. Laitr the House came to know his dulcet tones; ho showed the other side of his character. all persuasion and light and shade. After discussing M. Briand's career, the article says: His methods of work are as original as his career. To the outward eye he does not work. You never see him surrounded by a mass, of papers covered with notes. He seems, never to take notes, and to depend exclusively upon a prodigious memory. He thinks out his speech beforehand, but never writes it; either partially or fully. He consults his political friends about the substance of it, and then ho delivers it with the freshness and spontaneity that belong to an impromptu oration. You may differ radically from his arguments, but you will bo forced to admit the persuasive character of his oratory.