Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 44 Years.] FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1919. M. CLEMENCEAU.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 45, Issue 13750, 31 January 1919, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 44 Years.] FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1919. M. CLEMENCEAU.

M. Clemenceau's position as President of the Peace Conference is an honour which is appropriate to him personally as well as to the office of Prime Minister of the French. Bepublic. At the historic meeting of the French Senate which followed the signature of the armistice he aaid, after reading the convention, that his task seemed at last to have come to an end. His life's work has been commensurate with the whole of the history of the Third Bepublic He was a member of the Assembly which said farewell to the representatives of Alsace and Lorraine, and he joined with Victor Hugo and Gambetta in protesting against their exclusion. In the ensuing forty-seven years he has taken an active part either as critic or Minister in the many diplomatic changes which preceded the present war. France, as recently-published documents have shown, was at one time isolated in Europe. Before the Franco-Eussian Al- j liance was formed the armies of Germany, Italy and Austria could be counted against her, and a naval convention between Italy and Great Britain had been concluded for the purpose of controlling the waters of the Mediterranean. M. Clemenceau has followed the patient diplomacy by which subjects of dispute have been removed, and has taken an active share in tho policy whih has attracted to France the support of

all the free peoples of the world. His part in the war. might well be regarded as the crown of a life devoted to the service of his country. The fortune of the Allies was never more clearly demonstrated" than by hie recovery from illness and active participation in the work of government at an. hour when decision and energy and determination were fully as necessary as the patriotism of former Ministers. In his year of office M. Clemenceau showed the spirit which had gained him many enemies but left him tho most powerful man in France. Hβ was possessed by the belief that this was a life and death, struggle for France. He believed that it could be won nowhere else but in France, and by no one else but Frenchmen. His enemies found his spirit unbreakable, and his terms undiminished although the French armies had been severely defeated and he himself had been prevented from speaking by his opponents in the Chamber of Deputies. Even his Allies found him a difficult man to reason with on any question relating to the conduct of the war, as Mr Lloyd George confessed in his famous speech. But when victory was assured, M. Clemenceau proved that the typical French quality of hospitality of mind was as strong in him as his nationalism had been in the day.of adversity. He generously acknowledged the help of each of the Allies, and especially of the British. He called on the French people to use their victory generously and preserve in peace the unity which they had shown throughout the war. If victory had been the only aim worth considering while the issue was doubtful, he was as urgent as any other Minister to find a means of keeping the peace as soon as the armistice was signed. M. Clemenceau eannoj; be expected to take part in the adjustment of the many social and political problems which will follow the conference. His vigour has lasted long enough for the safety of his country; other tasks must fall to a later generation. But his career is fittingly crowned at a peace conference in whih France is formally restored to her rightful place in Europe, in which a policy of aggression and domination is adequately punished, and a settlement is effected under which, each nation may for the future pursue its own development in peace.