FRENCH PREMIER AND ANTI-CLERICALS

New Zealand Tablet, 8 June 1916, Page 13

FRENCH PREMIER AND ANTI-CLERICALS

In the name of the groups of the Liberal Action, of the Independents, and of the Right MM. Jacques Piou, de Gailhard-Baucel, Groussau, Joseph Denais, V. Rochereau, Admiral Bienaime, Galpin, Ferdinand Bongere, de Baudry d'Asson, Jules Delahaye, and de Kernier, French Deputies, waited on M. Briand, the French Premier, to call the Government's attention to the odious campaign carried on by the Depeche de Toulouse and other journals against the Catholics and their clergy. M. Briand said that he shared the indignation of the members of the deputation and that as the head of the Government he intended to condemn formally every attack directed by ' the Bodies of the Interior/ against the Catholics who were nobly doing their duty, being well able to bear comparison with any others. The Premier, in order that there might be no mistake as to what he said to the members of the deputation, put his statements in the following letter which he has addressed to them. Paris, the 29th March, 1916. Gentlemen and dear Colleagues,—You have called my attention to ' the campaign carried on against both the clergy and certain classes of good Frenchmen,' and whilst informing me that an infamous rumor, circulated sometimes imperceptibly and sometimes in the most open manner, accuses them of having pushed the country into the war and then shrunk from dangerous duties and even become ' the accomplices of the enemy,' you have asked the Government to do justice in the matter. - Complaints have also reached me of imputations of the same kind which have been made against citizens belonging to other classes of society or other parties, and notably against the members of certain groups, whose patriotism has been called in question because of their advanced ideas on social or political affairs. Up to the present these attacks have remained isolated and have taken no effective hold of public opinion; without overlooking them, we must not exaggerate their importance. In any case, from whatever quarter they come and against whatever class of citizens they are aimed, they must be severely reprobated. Most frequently they proceed from ulterior motives and from a controversial spirit altogether out of place in face of the enemy. Moreover, they are entirely unjustifiable. The truth, of which we have reason to be proud, is that all Frenchmen, without distinction of social condition or of religious or political opinion, are doing their duty in the war. The Government accordingly intends to oppose any attempt to set up between them, on any pretext, differences in this respect, at the risk of making them suspect one to the other and of thus violating the sacred union which is the essential condition of victory. .v - Already it has given orders to the civil and military authorities to search out actively and hesitate not to deliver up to justice those who may endeavor to cause trouble in the country by campaigns of calumny which can only serve the interests of the enemy. _ You may be certain that it will take care the instruction it has given on this subject shall be executed with the necessary vigilance and firmness. But I am convinced that it will not be absolutely necessary to resort to repression and that in order

to put an, end to such campaigns it will suffice that the Government attestand for this your visit presents the occasion—the baselessness of the accusations inconsiderately launched against - certain classes of citizens who, like the others, have not ceased to deserve well of tfie fatherland. • "."„.'.• J 1 Accept, gentlemen and dear colleagues, the assurance of my high esteem. .. Aristide Briand.