THE PREMIER OF FRANCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18784, 18 May 1923, Page 9

THE PREMIER OF FRANCE

A PERSONAL SKETCH. Raymond Poincare is at present the most prominent man in France, even if he is not the most popular man outside of it. The nations watching his actions with pardonable apprehensions. But these grave matters ai’e the business of the statesmen. Ordinary mortals may be curious to know something of Poincare, the man, apart from Poincare, the Premier. A very remarkable man he is. The positions he has held and holds make that fact plain. Among a people in some respects the most brilliant in the world a man must have exceptional gifts to win his way to the most exalted positions. Poincare has done it. He has been an occupant of the highest post; he has been a recipient of the highest honours. After he had made what might have been considered his formal exit from the public life of the country ho found himself recalled in an hsur of supreme urgency. The call was proof of his count) , men’s faith in his ability; his acceptance of the call was proof of his courage. For, whether Poincare be right or wrong in his policy, there are few who would care 'to shoulder his re sponsibilitv.

He is now a man of 63. Most or Franco’s great men are little men; Poincare is no exception. Born at Bar le Due, in the Department of the Meuse, he is a true son of Lorraine. French mothers are alleged to be particularly line specimens of their class. Poincare was certainly lucky in his mother. She had two sons. Ray mond, the elder; Lucien, the younger. She reared them sensibly, she guided them wisely, and she lived to see them both do credit to her teaching. The one became Premier and President of his country, the other became General Director of his country’s education.

Mme. Poincare instilled into her two boys the habits of early rising aud systematic studying. She her self rose regularly at five in the mornings; she devoted her evenings to helping her boys with their lessons. Her life demonstrates the power of precept combined with examine. To this day Poincare keeps up the 5 a.m. habit.

His father was a civil engineer la the Government service. In. addition to his professional efficiency, he gave much of his leisure to the study of classical literature, and at an early age familiarised his boys with Homer and Horace, Thueydides and Virgil. There was an uncle who was a famous doctor at Nancy, a place associated with a famous doctor still. Then there is a cousin, Jules Henri Poincare, a distinguished physicist and one o£ the most brilliant mathematicians o£ the nineteenth century. All round, therefore, the Poincares are obviously a brainy family. General Raymond lived up to the family reputation. There is nothing apocbryphal about the stories that at school he was noted lor his insatiable desire for knowledge. On the other hand, he was no Sunday school prize-book hero. All his life his temper has been lively, and it began to display itself early. His old school mates recall that, for a long time, he came to school carrying the unmistakable family umbrella in case of rain. They chaffed him no end about it; but the umbrella may be regarded as a symbol of maternal solicitude and of Raymond’s loyalty to maternal authority. It is no token that he was a “muff.” He never shrank from taking risks in de fence of his rights. In his numerous schoolboy "scraps" he was mag nanimous when he won, he was brave when he was beaten.

As a schoolboy, too, he had a passion for speech making. He would make speeches on all subjects and to any audiences; often it was to no audience, and was just for the love of the thing. His schoolmates used to stick him up on a chair and bid him deliver an oration on a local fire, a national calamity, or a distant earthquake. Poincare would try to be eloquent on them all. It was a crude school of oratory, but its value was inestimable.

One day, as a small boy, he was sitting alone on a stone bench by the riverside, when he was startled to see a troop of Prussians ride proudly into his native town. It was the year 1871. Though young he stood clearly what it meant, and hr* secretly resolved that in the future year he would, as far as in him lay, help his country to afface the memory of such scenes. In due time he quitted the locut school and reached Paris university, via the college at Nancy. He found city life hateful after the free life of Lorraine. But he tried to forget he was homesick by indulging freely in hard work. He had a constant source of inspiration in the memory

of his simple, earnest parents, whose whole existence consisted of sacrifices for the advancement of their sons. Poincare’s first ambition was to be a literary man. But the careful parents pointed out the financial precariousness of the life, and advised law. In conformity with his commendable custom, he took his parents’ advice. As an undergraduate he scorned delights, lived laborious days, and lifted all the coveted prizes. He was an excellent scholar, he became an excellent lawyer; in between he was an excellent soldier. He began his term of military service when he was nineteen, and was private and corporal in the infantry. During his holidays at home be gave vent to his creative imagination and his literary ambition. After he was called to the bar he wrote law court reports for the Voltaire, of which he was for some time law editor. At the bar he found himself matched against some of the greatest lawyers France now has, including Millerand, the President, and Waldeck Rousseau. From the outset he held his own with the best of them. He began to figure in all the leading cases. One case had rather interesting consequences. He was fighting it on behalf of a decidedly pretty Italian lady, and he was so convinced of the justice of her case that he pled it with special earnestness. The lady was moved by his eloquence; he was even more moved by the lady’s charms. In the end he won the case, and the lady both. And he has been as happy in his wife as in his mother. Madame Poincare is her husband’s guardian angel, a functionary of whom he is occasionally in need. She is a lady of great tact and delicacy, qualities she sometimes finds it necessary to employ in order to soften her husband's impulsive asperities, for contact with the realities of life has impaired somewhat the native geniality of his nature.

Poincare early turned to politics. When twenty-seven he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies; before long he was made Minister of Public Instruction. In that capacity he was ex officio Chancellor of the University and titular chief of the Sorbonne. And in the matter of years he coul 1 have been the son of practically every one of the professors. In the Cabinet he moved rapidly from office to office. He established a great reputation as a financier, became one of the Budget Commissioners, then was elected Vice-President of the Chamber in the teeth of the bitter opposition of the Radicals, to whom, as leader of the moderate Republicans, he was particularly objectionable. In 1903 he became a Senator; in 1912 he became Premier and Foreign Minister. The qualities ho displayed as Premier marked him out as President; and in January, 1913, he was raised to that supreme dignity. The position is retainable for seven years; in January, 1920, therefore, he retired. What happened in January, 1922, everyon : knows. Poincare succeeded Briand as Premier of France.

Despite his abnormal activity Poincare has found leisure to turn to his first love—literature. He has written numerous essays on social and political subjects, a number of books on education, patriotism and The Soul of French Democracy. The French academy guards its portals jealously; but in 1909 these portals were opened to let Poincare in. He is now one of the company of France’s most brilliant sous. In the Law. Courts the Frenchman is allowed to be sentimental to a degree that would move the average Australian to shrieks of laughter. Poincare, however, is an English type of orator. For that reason he is considered cold and formal by his countrymen. He has singularly little gesticulation —for a French man. He has the rare merit of being eloquent succinctly. He is rarely spontaneous, he distrusts the impromptu, ho memorises elaborately. The care with which he has prepared is evident in the perfection of the

speech. The language is pure, the thought is clear.

In the temperament he is inclined to be masterful; but without that it Is unlikely he would have been successful. Just at present there are people who believe Poincare should bo an inmate of Bedlam rather than Prime Minister of France. But Poincare is a Lorrainer, and in France the Lorrainers are famous in their intense patriotism. Strangely enough they are even more famous for their extreme prudence, So, despite any seeming evidence which has latelv accumulated to the contrary, Frenchmen have some reason to trust the prudence of Poincare. In any event, whatever else may still be in doubt, no one needs to loofar for proofs of the ability, sincerity and high character of France’s present Prime Minister.