M. CLEMENCEAU.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16038, 31 January 1920, Page 7

M. CLEMENCEAU.

Rarely have I encountered a man whose whole hearing, whose ..very features, reveals his character as do those of M. Clcmenoeau (writes Sidney Huddleston in Everyman). He seems a little susceptible to the suggestion that he is ugly; though ugliness is only relative and only implies something strange, something odd, to which our eyes do not take kindly. There may be much force, a profound significance, in the physically ugly. Caesar was ugly, Socrates was" ugly; yet they are two of the world’s greatest men, in thought and in action; and their ugliness was not accidental —it was an essential part of them. M. Clemenceau has a round skull, high cheek bones, small eyes, which give him a Mongolian aspect; and his drooping moustaches help the caricaturists who wish to represent him as a tiger. He is abnormally broad, squat, with long arms; and is a man of iron constitution. When Rodin made a bust of him, which certainly did not flatter him, he was angry. That is a weakness. It is as he is that history will paint M. Glemenoeau. She certainly will paint him. When all the other present-day political figures have faded, M. Clemenoeau’s will remain. The representation will not be .flattering; but justice must he done to the force of M. Clemenceau. He is an imperious master. It is just because the qualities of even brutality, of tyranny, were absolutely essential for the winning of the war, that M. Clemenceau found his moment; and the world owes him a great debt of gratitude. The world may presently forget, and may look at other consequences. She will be wrong. It is her business to use the right tools for the right things.