THE FRENCH PREMIER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 1, 5 January 1910, Page 2

THE FRENCH PREMIER.

The First Socialist to Become the Head of a Government. The Socialist French Premier, Aristide Briand, teas prominent in last week’s cables, when it was reported he very deftly prevented a strike in Paris on Christmas Eve. “King” Pataud, the leader of several strikes in Paris recently, threatened to plunge the gay city in darkness by calling out the employees of a number of electric lighting stations, but the Premier defeated the project by secretly connect.ug the city stations with the main, generators driving the tube trains. Pataud called on If. Briand on Christmas Eve and threatened to throw the city into darkness unless the electricians were granted an increase in pay. M. Briand refused the request, and when Pataud discovered what had been done he was helpless. There is a curious parallel between the life of Hr. John Bums, President of the Local Government Board in the British Liberal Ministry, and that of the French Premier. Both men in their younger days were revolutionaries, and preached catastrophic creeds for social reform. Both have risen to high eminence, showing that singular combination of thought which distinguishes the great mind—“ Radicalism in thought with moderation in practice.”

U / -y SCULPTURALLY inspirational / I head, manifesting from brow J I to chin the Gallic and Norman ancestry of the man; features upon which the emotions play like the fingers of a virtuoso on a keyboard; fiery, scrutinising, hypnotic eyes; a stalwart, lithe, erect, mobile figure, embodying the physical strength for which he is famed—these are the

physical characteristics of Aristide Briand, that Socialist deputy for one of the most important working-class constituencies in France who has suddenly become renowned in the capacity of Premier of the third republic. “He has the combination, rare among his countrymen, of radicalism in thought with moderation in practice.” Beyond this suming-up by the “London Spectator,” no Press comment on the psychology of the new Premier has ventured. Should his ministry endure, predicts the "Temps,” nevertheless, the third French republic will shortly have to face its most exciting era since the commune. That passion for roses, orchids and

white lilies which prompts this sometime revolutionary Labour agitator to bury his desk under perfumed and blooming masses is portentous to the Paris “Gaulois.” It reflects that Robespierre was ravished by the odour of oranges and kept pyramids of them on his table night and day. Premier Briand, ■ furthermore, is devoted to cigarettes—exquisitely cork-tipped and scent-

ed cigarettes, which he puffs languidly in his official bureau. His somewhat classical university training and his love of verses by no means commend him to that stalwart among the Socialist dailies of Europe, the Paris “Humanite.” “Monsiejir Briand,” it observes, “still calls himself a Socialist. Let us hope his constituents can still apply the same term to him.” The grimy mine workers in the St. Etienne coal fields, who not so many years ago began sending Aristide Briand to the Chamber of Deputies, seem to be sutsaihing him. His recent appearance among his constituents won him a tribute of admiration and ap-

plause which taxed every resource « even his superbly musical and unpn cedently powerful voice. - - Tli is voice of Aristide Briand’s S sneeringly asserted, in the Pari “Figaro,” to have made hini what b is, the French daily going so far’a to insinuate that had the new Pr< liner's genius been directed in earl life to the scenes of the elder C< quelin’s triumphs, the stage Would nc have lost the grandest comedian tbs ever gesticulated before an audienci “Monsieur Briand,” we read, “is pei petually declaiming, forever exploitin the resources of that divine voice. Fortunately, the voice in quet tion has been the subject c countless eulogies of late, and one is a no loss for a friendlier impression of il “Next to his penetraing glance, the mos striking thing about Briand.” to quot the London “ Post,” “ is the sonorou metallic ring in- his voice, suggestive o the vibrations of a steal chord.” Only three years ago, Aristide Brianc although one of- the notable figures in ! Socialistic parliamentary group, wa quite unknown to the outside world. Hi renown was won in the long debate 01 the genera] policy of the Clemenceau Ministry, a debate concluded over tw years since. The “Figaro’ cites it stil as a classical example of misdirected elo quence. Mirabeau himself, immobile wit' crossed arms, pleading for free speech h the States-Genefal, could- not have beei or have seemed more inspired than Bri and, who combines all the merits and fey of the defects of every orator with i French genius. For Briand is the princ of the Parliamentary tribune, which hascends with head erect, his incomparabl eye flashing, as if conscious of his power “ Ile -is not only an orator through hi; passion and eloquence, but a musician b; his voice, a painter bv his eye, a poet b; the expression.” * ' Atheism has been alleged against Aris tide Briand. He has had attributed t< him a blasphemous statement alleged t< have been made at a meeting of teacher; and said to have been quoted by Cardina Gibbous in an interview reported in th< London organ, of Roman Catholicism “Tablet.” Briand not only emphatically denies ever having uttered the blasphemy attributed to- him, but declares it tc lx contrary to his views. He professes ful fatih in the wisdom of a divine provi dence—“ call it God, a heavenly father the ultimate reality,' what you will.”- H< was reared under the watchful care of 9 pious mother at whose knees he lispec the rosary. He never accepted the dog mas of religion, however. But he feels that Frame is Catholic in many ways. He calls himself a “free thinker,” meaning by that “ the consolation and guidance of the conscience, assisted by the reason." He denies that he has “ the pretension the tyrannical and intolerable determination to impose free-thinking views, free thinking metaphysical conceptions” upon the citizens of France. “Into the domain of conscience the State has no right tc penetrate,” to eite further this authorised expression of bis sentiments. “ Citizens must be free to ehoose the source of hope or of consolation which they think will soothe their distress.” This is as far a; his antielericalism has ever extended. In this spirit he drafted the measure which won him prestige-—the law of the separation of the Catholic Church and State. The theory of the bill had been put through Parliament in principle. It was the task of Briand tc draft the necessary bill and see that if had legal effect. In the inception and discushion of this measure at each stage to give the judgment of the 'Paris ■‘Temps,” he revealed inexhaustible energy and boundless fertility of resource. He knows when to yield and when to hold firm. No wiles of clericals of the right and no violence of anti-clericals of the extreme left entrap him Or seduce his judgment. "It may be eited as a unanb moms opinion in French political circles—and if matters not what may be their precise partisan complexion—that il separation of Church and State has been effected and tranquility prefectly realised at last in the religious sphere in France, it is al] the work of Aristide Briand.” No tinge of self-consciousness has marred the triumph of this feat. Of all the Socialist “pasts,” the past of Aristide Briand, in the language ol the London “Times,” has been most “characteristic and complicated.” Comparatively few years have come and gone eince at Nanites, the town in which he was born a. Ittle over forty-five summers back, he was haranguing disaffected wage earners on behalf of the general strike movement A little tempering of his

yfeira wO! not do them much' harm, fa the opinion of the London “News,” which judges from a delivered by Jtrixnd at one of the general congresses of the Socialist party. “A general strike is a conception to which Ji hare devotedly concentrated my efforts,”*hM the present Premier of the French repuSic. Again: “I firmly believe that a general strike is practical—it will be the social revolution.” Yet again: “Go forward with P words, pistols, and -rilles! Far from disapproving, I shall regard i; as a duty to take my place in the raijks if necessary.” This speech was made some eight years ago—Jong before there was the least prospect that the speaker, in the capacity of a responsible t abinet Minister, was fated to forbid combinations of Rtate employees. No sootier had liriand been given the portfolio of- instruction and public worship in the baief Sarriee Ministry preceding that of Clemenceau than the Socialist organisation excommunicated him. The anathema was pronounced at a meeting of t|ae national council of the party in ParL. attended iby the delegates of all thi- Socialist federations in the provinces and by the members of the permanent, managing committee. Jean Jaures, ojie of the ablest 'Socialist leaders in ajil Europe, laboured to defeat this campaign against liriand. However, this exclusion was merely a concession to Socialist orthodoxy and party discipline. It did not mean that Aristide Briand, as Minister, would not' be guided by Socialist views, or that he would not receive the support of Socialists in the chamber. A dialectic less subtle than that of Briand and an eloquence more destitute of fire might ibc embarrassed by his constant necessity for explaining that he is Socialist in soul while bourgeois in emergency. Were it not for his- experience as a journalist, Aristide Brian, says his critics, would never have conquered his* expanding vocabulary. Trained to the bur in his native Nantes, he soon plunged.into Socialist politics and was for a time general secretary of the party. Ilia polemic had so exacerbated a type of rhetoric, that he was invited to contribute to -the Paris “Lanterne,” famous as the fiercest enemy capitalism ever reckoned with. Throughout the fierce war between Paris and the Vatican that immediately preced’d the expulsion .of the papal nuncio from the home of the. eldest daughter of the church. Aristide Briand denounced the Pope in his vivid French, with much incidental reference, to the day of reckoning of the capitalists. Their turn, according to the '‘Lanterne,” of which 'Briand had by this time become editor, would not foe delayed. All this was in the Premier's unregenerate days. He has grown respectable, complains the sarcastic Rome “Avanti,” and instead of being ‘‘Comrade" to his friends has been transformed into “Monsieur." * “Monsieur, if you please—this one time Comrade,” proceeds the indignant correspondent of the Italian Socialist organ, who regards the metamorphosis of .the revolutionary Briand into the head of a responsible Government with something akin to panic. “Behold, coqirades, your brother of yesterday, he who so stoutly vowed to go behind the barricades with you! No blouse about his bosom in this his heyday of official favour, but the long-tailed coat of t'he bourgeois who robe you.”

Through the elevation of Aristide Briand to the post of Prime Minister of the French Republic, Paris sees at the head of the Government a Socialist who eight years ago was urging the working men to arm themselves and overthrow the capitalistic system by force.