FRANCE AT BAY
MAKERS OF NEW FRANCE
By CHARLES DAWBARN
10s. 6d. net
With 16 Illustrations
PALL MALL GAZETTE : Well worth setting
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France from Bodley or the Philosophers, for the
book is imbued with a profound and instructive
sympathy expressed in admirable form."
MORNING POST: "A triumphant book
which ought to be read by everybody who
wishes to understand the new orientation of
French mentality."
STANDARD : " Brilliant in its character
sketches of the 'Makers of New France.'"
OBSERVER : " Mr. Dawbarn has all the
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indicative touch."
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FRANCE AT BAY
BY
CHARLES DAWBARN
k. 4
AUTHOR OF "MAKERS OF NEW FRANCE," ETC.
MILLS & BOON, LIMITED
49 RUPERT STREET
LONDON, W.
Publithed 191S
DEDICATED TO
PRINCESS NUSRAT ALI MIRZA
340815
PREFACE
THIS is not a war book in the ordinary sense. It
does not contain pictures of moonlit battles, or pages
saturated with blood. It seeks only to give some
account of France at work as well as at war, of efforts
to organize herself in the hour of agony. The first
exhaustion had passed, the first staggering shock of
battle, joined with a foe, relentless and prepared
for years. France, on the other hand, had other
thoughts than war; she had indulged a little her
love of reverie, her dreams of art and intellectual
conquest. The war had become an intellectual habit
against a background of terrific fact. " The only
casualty list allowed " the black of widows and
bereaved mothers told of the death-roll : how
voluminous and crushing it was. Yet, on the faces
of these women, as on the faces of the brave
mutiUs hobbling down the street, we read courage
and resolution. In answer to the talk of peace, a
stricken mother said : " Let there be no peace till
the victory is won. My son, killed in the trenches,
would have willed it so; my son who survives has
no other thought." It is the common feeling of the
country.
The civilian courage expresses itself in reorganiza-
vii
viii PREFACE
tion proof of vitality just as it is proof of resolution
and fixity of purpose. It means that a greater France,
more solid, united and secure, better educated, with
high principles, will arise from the turmoil of the
conflict. Just as new industries must result from
the foundries and the forges which have sprung up
from the war, so new virtues have blossomed in its
dread atmosphere. But, are we sure that these are
not the old virtues which have lain dormant in a soil
rendered sterile by luxury and egoism ? In any case,
the sacred union, that Palladium of France, has
intensified energies, and swept away the artificial
bounds of party. In so doing it has carried France
forward and backward forward to destinies of un-
known splendour and back to her own glorious past.
You can trace these historic virtues to the high
mountains of their origin, when Gaul met Roman,
and Vercingetorix, the first French generalissimo,
waved a triumphant sword in his wild country of
the Auvergne.
Brunetiere connected religion and morality with
the pessimism of man, which leads him to grave
reflections. And thus courage, under fierce trial, is
associated with thoughts of moral grandeur and a
desire to elevate and strengthen natures vitiated
by a hyper-civilization. Behind the glint of armies,
we behold the glint of the Cross : the soldier-priest
bending over the dying combatant and speaking to
his soul. And behind him, again, is the figure of a
woman, grande dame or simple peasant, solicitous for
the sick and suffering. Thus does gravity come
upon a nation reputed for its light character. From
the sodden field of battle has sprung the white flower
PREFACE ix
of spiritual life ; garlands of a pure fragrance wreathe
the statue of Joan of Arc, more than ever the
National Maid. Like Galatea, she has come to life,
and, under her rapt gaze turned to Heaven, the world
in fervent accents sings
Amour sacre de la Patrie,
Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs :
Liberte, Iibert6, cherie
Combats avec tes defenseurs !
Here is a strange " revenge " such as the prophetic
did not realize. Viviani, Premier of the Republic,
speaks the language of Deroulede in his perfervid
moments from the plinth of Strasburg. The Faubourg
St. Germain, Clerical and Reactionary, melts into the
Faubourg St. Antoine, foyer of the Revolutionary spirit.
They are one in singing the burning strophes of Rouget
de Lisle, now sleeping his last sleep in the bright com-
pany of the Invalides. And that first National Fete
of the war, which brought de Lisle from his suburban
grave to the gilded dome beneath which Napoleon
lies, found the President on a pinnacle of eloquence
such as even he rarely attains.
Thus, the Union Sacree has stilled the murmurs of
the Chamber as it has reconciled conflicting interests. 1
I have thought that a picture of France, " making
good," in the homely American phrase, and framed in
the unchanging metal of the Union and of the greater
Alliance, was a stimulating spectacle for gods and men.
For, in the midst of war, laboured the peasant and
1 Speaking in the Chamber on August 26, 1915, M. Viviani, the
Premier, said : " All the sons of France have become reconciled on
the day of danger under the high ideas without which there are, on
the battlefields, only mercenaries and no longer free men."
x PREFACE
artisan, the schoolmaster and politician, cultivating
the soil and sowing next year's crops, erecting fac-
tories and rebuilding villages, forming the mind and
character of youth and framing salutary laws. And
out of the sick wards of the hospital, as out of the in-
timacy of the trenches, arose a comradeship solid and
enduring because founded on mutual comprehension.
You may boggle at the word " virtue," fearing
some harsh and forbidding image, some ungracious,
moral pose. Yet the virtues are as transparent as
they are real. The first is courage in adversity, the
second discipline. " Ah," you say, " discipline is a
new quality to give the French." And yet it is quite
deserved. There is the discipline of Conscription, of
which I treat with as much impartiality as I can
bring to bear, and there is that larger discipline of
the nation as a whole. Such discipline is necessary
to salvation. It, and not the Terror, as some have
supposed, saved France from disruption. The religion
of sacrifice imposed a monstrous holocaust and yet
inspired a sublime heroism. The virtues which have
grown up in the atmosphere of the Great War, how-
ever, have not made France spiritually proud, but
they have caused her to reflect gravely upon her
shortcomings.
For France has many defects : happily, hypocrisy
is not one of them. Michelet said : "La France a
cela de grave qu'elle se montre nue aux nations. Les
autres, en quelque sorte, restent vetues, habillees."
And the Anglo-Saxon has the cold prudence to retain
his dress that he may the more comfortably perhaps
scrutinize the nakedness of others. Yes, France has
faults ; she is too vital not to have them ; she touches
PREFACE xi
life at too many points, not to feel sometimes the
contamination of earth. But if, as Michelet says,
she displays her blemishes to the world, at least she
does not hide them in the home. Purity and sound-
ness the union sacrde in the last resort, exist there.
But then you say : " Those books ! the Realist
writers who pictured a corrupt France and faithless
men and women ! Is not the indictment true, since
the prisoner has confessed ? Does not the ' school '
pique itself on fidelity to nature, on an exact paint-
ing of the milieu ? " Yes, in a measure, but the
French tendency is to exaggerate every ill that good
may come from the cry of " wolf." Latin ideality
means a disdain of compromise. " But the light-
mindedness of France," you ask, and proceed to
quote instances. Here the roman de mceurs may help
you, but hardly history. History says that France
held aloft the banner of freedom in Revolutionary
times against a Europe in arms, and that the power-
ful of the earth trembled at the thunder of shoeless
feet on the battle-ground. That does not look like
light-mindedness, nor could we give the name to
Hugo, Balzac, Renan, Pasteur, Berthelot, Rodin and
the rest.
But France needs no apology of mine. This book
has no other aim than to set down the thoughts and
some of the civic achievements of the country during
the Great War. Sometimes I touch upon controversial
points, but there is no desire to labour a Cause, be it
conscription or our time-honoured voluntary system :
my sole concern is to express the truth as I find it, on
the lips of politicians or peasants. And, again, I have
endeavoured, in that hard subject, " What France
xii PREFACE
thinks of us," to express what is passing in the mind
of the average Frenchman, setting down nought in
malice. For we must realize that in the mass the two
nations are driven to hearsay or to the newspaper for
their opinions of each other. And those flamboyant
paragraphs, which please the people's pride, have more
chance of remaining in the memory than colourless
official news, which says that England has doubled
her battle-line and organized munitions. These facts
are hidden away in inconspicuous type, and lack the
attraction of the other. So Jacques Bonhomme is
not always sure that England is serious in the war,
for his eye has caught the heading of his newspaper :
"Another Strike in Wales." And his fellow-man in
England goes to bed with the conviction that, but for
John Bull, France would not last a week. It is well
to say these things if they can be told in the spirit
of truth and with the desire that good may come of
them.
Finally, in writing about France, one has always
the solace of the thought that though she may be
swayed upon the branch in the oscillation of events,
she can always save herself, for she has wings. As
Victor Hugo says:
" Soyez comme Foiseau, pose pour un instant
Sur des rameaux trop freles,
Qui sent plier la branche et qui chante pourtant
Sachant qu'il a des ailes."
CHARLES DAWBARN.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
PREFACE ....... Vii
I IMAGINATION ...... 1
II STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS . . . .17
III FRENCH ARMY AND DISCIPLINE ... 31
IV ALSACE-LORRAINE ...... 41
V LA REVANCHE (DEROULEDE) . . . .53
VI PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY . . . .67
VII FRANCE AND HER NAVY . . . . .81
VIII PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES ... 91
IX CONSCRIPTION . . . . . .107
X ROLE OF THE PRESS . . . . .120
XI WOMEN AND THE WAR . . . . .131
XII WORK OF THE HOSPITALS . . . .144
XIII A YEAR AFTER . . . . . .156
XIV DRINK AND THE WAR . . . . .168
XV POLITICS AND PERSONAGES . . . .178
XVI LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS . . . .191
XVII WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND . . . 203
XVIII FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION . .216
XIX FRANCE ON THE MORROW OF VICTORY 227
Xlll
FRANCE AT BAY
CHAPTER I
THE NEED OF IMAGINATION
A PERFUNCTORY knowledge of the French, gleaned
from a few visits, will hardly help us to that
complete understanding of those temperamental
differences from ourselves which lie below the salients
of the common view. The circumstances of the Great
War have rendered such comprehension more than
ever necessary. How are we to work with our Allies,
to gain full advantage of co-operation, unless we
read their minds, learn their ways of life, and their
habit of thought? If, in the texture of this book,
some rays of light traverse its warp and woof and
reach the reader's eye, then is its mission fulfilled.
I wanted to present France as she is in the
throes of a great fight, at bay to her enemy,
struggling for existence, that she may be able to
breathe more freely on the morrow. I wanted to
present France as I see her, modestly proud and
immeasurably great. I should like English people
to perceive her greatness as well as to realize the
forces that have been at work to change and modify
her into what she is to-day. And, to do that, one
must not be content to repeat the phrases of the
B
2 FRANCE AT BAY
newspapers, x>uc exercise a little enterprise and
embark upon an imaginary journey across France.
Let us look out upon life from the train and
motor-car, rub shoulders with it in the market-
place, and not imagine that we see the whole of it
from a cafe window on the Paris Boulevard. This
has been a common error in the past so common
that it has exposed itself. The public of the Anglo-
Saxon world has at last realized that the true France
lies, not in cosmopolitan assemblages in great centres
of population, but in the hard-working, patiently-
enduring, thrifty, and scarcely articulate population
of the provinces. Where is this vain and frivolous
people, this decadent race of which we have heard so
much? I will tell you where it was in September
1914. It was on the banks of the Marne and the
Germans were on the other side. After a few days'
fighting, the Germans were still on the other side, but
much farther away nearer their " natural frontier " ;
they were fleeing, in fact, from the decadent French.
This was not a bad performance, when you think of
it, for a senile and out-worn people, admittedly ill-
prepared for war with the greatest military power.
The France with which we have to do in this
book is the France of the battlefield and the hospital,
the France behind-the-lines, of the militarized factories
and the farms and fields. The heroism of fighting
France has been revealed by the communiques; but
these rather inhuman documents do not speak of the
hospitals where the men lie dumb, uttering no cry
when wounds are probed, when surgeons perform
their harshly necessary work. And these victims
of the war merely say to the orderly who has been
THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 3
holding a wounded limb for the better part of an
hour : " Pardon, my corporal, for making you wait
so long ! " Incidents of the sort are too pathetically
common to be recorded. Nor can emphasis be laid
in official literature on woman's work in alleviating
distress new conquests for her graciousness and
beauty, new children for her yearning heart to
mother. Entire Yellow-books would fail adequately to
convey her service to the nation when quietly, without
the least fuss or parade no special uniforms, no
photographs in the journals she replaced man in a
hundred situations. And so modestly was it done
that scarcely did one perceive it. The feminine mobil-
ization was as orderly and complete as the masculine
mobilization. To the superficial, there was nothing
changed at all only the flutter of a simple dress, a
forage cap set on dark tresses, where formerly there
had been the uniform of the man.
These pages, written in the odd moments of a
busy life, are intended to provide a peep behind the
veil, which is often a veil of tears. Yet the vision
of the New France is comforting and uplifting. It
may serve a patriotic purpose, perhaps, for we have
need to know this inward France, for our own safety
and as a debt owed to valiant Allies. You will find
no bombs in this book, little of the shock and shudder
of battle, merely the smoke of monstrous cannonadings
shrouding laborious figures which bend to common
tasks. If the picture shows courage, if sympathy is
excited and stimulus given to greater effort, and if
a greater comprehension exists for the French in
their tasks of to-day or to-morrow, then is the writer
compensated.
4 FRANCE AT BAY
It is not for him to discuss how real was the desire
for revenge; whether the songs we heard and the
books we read were to be taken literally as signifying
that France was ready to fly at the throat of Germany,
if not to stab her in the back as the Germans them-
selves averred. By the force of events, such a question
has become academic. It is more pertinent to ask :
Did France do anything to provoke the war? Our
answer is clear, clear as the conscience of France.
She is innocent of any provocation. Her policy was
conciliatory to such a point that she could not have
proceeded farther without loss of dignity. She gave
up her Foreign Secretary for the sake of peace.
What further concession could have been asked, if
not the sacrifice of territory, which was also made ?
All observers have praised her calmness and courage
at the moment when they were most needed, and no
record of the country at war could neglect a pheno-
menon so powerfully interesting and elevating.
None who knew the France of a decade ago could fail
to make a comparison flattering to the France of
to-day. Some have suggested that this is no new
fact, but merely the old France renewed at the springs
of history; but such quibblers must confess what-
ever name they give to the transformation that here
is the country clothed again in the splendour of the
Golden Age and presenting a surpassing picture of
moral grandeur and beauty.
Not only must we understand that we may
appreciate all the nice gradations of the change, but
we must realize such facts as temperament and
ideals, which will help us to work harmoniously with
our Allies in the years to come. For only the super-
THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 5
ficial can suppose that our association will cease with
the war. Our isolation has departed and can never
be recovered; we must invent new safeguards for
our national continuance, and safeguards of an in-
tellectual sort are as imperative as those of a military
sort. Since we are partners in arms and partners for
a period to which no man can set limits, it behoves
us to learn not merely what the French are in them-
selves, but in what regard they hold us collectively
and individually. And it is certain that they prize
us principally because of our character, because of
our natural and moral distinction. If we lose these
characteristics, then shall we lose part of our prestige
and part of the esteem which is given generously
abroad to every self-respecting Englishman. Is it
possible to retain those qualities, which the foreigner
admires in us, and yet reach closer sympathy and
touch with France? It is, indeed, by remaining
true to our natures that we best serve and satisfy
the French. Our support is at once moral and
military, and the first is more precious than the
second.
Professor Albert Sorel, the historian, used to warn
his students never to forget that England was an
island. " Vous comprendrez ainsi ses navigateurs,
son absence d'armee, son commerce, la stabilite de ses
lois, ses mceurs, sa politique." And England herself
forgets that her insular position is undermined by
rapid steamships, by Zeppelins and aeroplanes, by
submarines. Stolidly unconscious of the change, she
seems to be exasperatingly inaccessible to new ideas.
Thus is she in danger of falling between two stools :
of failing to realize her new situation and of retaining,
6 FRANCE AT BAY
to an unconscionable degree, the mentality of the
islander whilst unconscious of his limitations. Never
has she received such a wealth of friendly and con-
structive criticism as to-day from observers who
neglect the fact that she has fulfilled her part of
the bargain in keeping clear the ocean ways, whilst
France was ill-prepared, even after repeated warn-
ings during the last forty years, for the gigantic
task which political necessity had thrust upon her.
At the same time, they have not made due
allowance for England's lack of resilience, for the
fact that her solid fabric does not vibrate easily to
new impressions. It takes time for the new idea to
germinate. Such lack of imagination is dangerous
in a European war, in its failure to grasp its extent
and real significance. For this reason, we may
suppose that there would have been a readier response
to reality if women, with their quicker intuition and
sympathetic insight, had been included in the councils
of the nation. John Bull is the one man who needs
the womanly adviser at his elbow, to temper his
granitic density. Such an innovation, alarming
though it might be to the conservative elements,
would go some way to attenuate the charge that,
in the second year of the war, we did not even then
sense its deadly peril to our existence. No men
have a quicker grasp of actual problems than many
of the voting sex, and I am presenting the average
French view in saying that we have shown an in-
credible slowness in mastering the meaning of the
conflict.
It is true that this result seemed partially to have
been reached at the end of the first year of war, but
THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 7
at the cost of what efforts ? At the cost of a strenuous
newspaper campaign, rebuked by all the respectable
and conventional elements in English life. It was the
truth perhaps ! but, was it not disgraceful to speak
so openly, with such brutal ungentlemanly frankness ?
Where were our manners ? Thus we continued to
think of pleasant speech and etiquette whilst Rome
burned. Wonderful detachment. Few realized that
England was being stifled, blinded, " doped " by her
respectability. The difference in her temperament
from that of the French is sufficiently revealed by
the Press. In England the casualties are published
so that he who runs may read. People at their
breakfast tables have the satisfaction, melancholy
though it be, of knowing the cost of victory or a
reverse. In France repeated efforts to induce the
War Minister to publish similar lists have always
failed. Yet every one knew that the death-roll was
tremendous. A tabulated return of the sacrificial
victims on the altar of the country was not necessary
to bring home its actuality to French sensitiveness ;
the mourning in the street spoke with a sad, sufficient
eloquence. The setting forth of names in print was
more than could be borne ; the popular sensibility
was too great, it would not have been proof against
this publication.
It is not necessary to argue whether this is the
right course or not, whether the French would have
lost heart and been filled with despair at seeing their
formidable list of dead ; but it is significant that the
English published their casualties, while concealing
in other ways the importance of the war. Nor,
when the Censor had been particularly busy, were
8 FRANCE AT BAY
there any signs of it. The blanks had been carefully
restored. The article read smoothly; the public
did not suspect that there had been omissions. But
in France the omissions were patent to every eye;
they cried from the house-tops. They were visible
even in such sober and reputable organs as the
Temps and the Debate. Whole articles sometimes
disappeared, leaving only the title. It is hardly
necessary to say that this energy in suppression was
particularly directed against the advanced and self-
assertive journals. But in monuments of pondera-
tion, how did it occur? What could have been
their " indiscretions " ? And tongues were set wag-
ging. People who were really interested, and had
the necessary influence, generally ended by discover-
ing the character of the offending statements. So
this obvious excision served the double purpose of
preventing certain facts from becoming known until
they were too old to matter, or certain views from
being expressed that would have weakened confidence
at a critical moment; and yet they informed the
public that the whole truth was not published and
stimulated a desire to know it. Thus readers were
not deluded into believing that everything was for
the best in all possible worlds and the secrets of the
War Office remained intact. The half-enlightenment
of the suggestive blanks was better than no bread
something, evidently, had been said that should not
have been said in the supposed interests of the
national defence, and the public was warned, through
its imagination, not to regard everything as couleur
de rose.
The strong nerves of the British people, on the
THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 9
other hand, could better have supported the truth
than the French it would scarcely have been worse
than heavy casualties but this privilege of hearing
unpleasant realities was denied them, and many
supposed that the cheery optimism of the Press
represented the exact state of affairs. They had
failed to visualize the war as the French had done;
they maintained, too well, the character of spectator.
Thus there is danger in the sweet illusions engendered
by such a system which bowdlerizes the strong
passages of generals' reports and gives a false fictitious
air of a happy ending to isolated acts in the world
drama. The sanguine speeches of Cabinet Ministers
in England seemed extraordinary to the French,
more especially when we were holding a length of
line ludicrously disproportionate to our population and
resources. Nor could the French, with their keen sense
of the ridiculous, quite reconcile themselves to the
notion of stolid Englishmen manning trenches round
London when Northern France and Belgium were
ablaze with cruel, savage war. No public man in
France with whom I have been privileged to talk
ever expressed to me other than astonishment at the
slowness of my countrymen in adopting conscription.
It seemed to each a self-evident proposition that
against as resolute a foe as the Germans, visibly
preparing for war without the least mystery for
many years, it was necessary to devote every ounce
of energy that our energetic nation possesses.
We must know the French to appreciate the
character and extent of their patriotism. I was struck
with the fact that on the first National Fete day,
after the declaration of war, there was a visible union
10 FRANCE AT BAY
amongst the classes to celebrate a date in the
Republican Calendar. Political divisions and class
distinctions were swept away. Camelots du Roy and
the Jeunesse Republicaine would have taken part
had they not been in the trenches side by side. But
Republicans, Bonapartists, Royalists, consorted in a
friendly spirit in memory of the Bastille, but the
" Bastille " had become the common foe. M. Poincare's
speech happily translated the " sacred unity." In
ringing phrases he declared that France would not
consent to a halting, defective peace. Patriotism
wears a different aspect in the two countries. In
France, certainly, the patriot-soldier is ill requited.
He gains but a halfpenny a day; the separation
allowance for his wife is a shilling a day and five-
pence for each child. This, certainly, is not a brilliant
affair for the skilled workman. In England the war
has not been unfavourable for the working-man. In
the midst of it he could find the heart to strike for
higher wages, even if his employers were as much
to blame as he. A formidable conflict arose in
Wales after eleven-and-a-half months of war. Even
the Socialists in France were inexpressibly shocked
not that the men protested against the huge profits of
the masters, but that such a war within a war should
have been possible.
Again, the proportion of married men in the army
was so high that it lent colour to the suggestion
that here again was " a good affair." The married
women, in encouraging their husbands to depart,
were not unmindful, it would seem, of the economic
side of the arrangement, whereby they obtained more
in his absence than if he had remained at home.
THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 11
And in restraining the son from enlisting, the women,
also, consulted their private feelings. There is, of
course, plenty of pure disinterested patriotism
amongst the working classes in England; but prima
facie, from the foreign point of view, the movement
was mixed with a good deal of self-interest. The
heart was only allowed to speak after the purse had
been satisfied. But this, of course, is one of the
inevitable disadvantages of a voluntary system
working in the midst of a national crisis.
Does the average Englishman always realize the
meaning of patriotism ? That it is a desperate, blind
falling in love with one's own country and has
nothing to do with " business as usual " or other-
wise. This again, of course, is the Continental view.
However inflated may seem the language in which a
Frenchman talks about his country, his patriotism
is a sacred and pure flame kept bright by the re-
membrance of 1870. At the back of his thoughts is
either the personal recollection of the invasion or a
transmitted feeling of horror. His brain teems with
mental pictures of the Debdcle. And this second
war in forty-four years has surpassed vastly in scale
and intensity the first (which, indeed, is dwarfed to
infinitesimal proportions), so that there is for ever
in his heart the fearful spectacle of rapine, pesti-
lence and murder, which is war without its epau-
lettes. To have one's soil invaded, one's property
destroyed, to be subjected to the ignominy of a
foreign domination that changes one's conception of
war quicker than anything else, and is responsible
for the difference in the French and English points
of view. No longer can one look upon war after
12 FRANCE AT BAY
such experience with the philosophic calm that dis-
tinguished some Englishmen at critical moments in
the campaign.
Patriotism is linked with imagination ; it is linked,
also, with knowledge knowledge of the political
map of Europe. Political geography has never been
a strong point with the English; it is indigenous to
the soil of France. Every barber's assistant can give
you excellent reasons why the Alliance with Russia
exists; he has likewise a clear notion of conflicting
tendencies in the Balkans. He has generally a grasp
of political definitions at home and abroad, which
would make his fame in England. The foreign policy
of France is closely watched and criticized by an
intelligent mass of citizens. If such is the case in
England, it is difficult to explain the zigzag course
of the good ship Foreign Office. The politician
having any understanding of foreign problems is
the exception in the House of Commons, and in
the provinces he scarcely exists at all. As a con-
sequence, the breath of sound discerning criticism
rarely blows upon the British Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs. Our party system has some
measure of responsibility for this immunity. The
ship of State is divided into watertight compart-
ments, labelled Radical and Conservative, in either
of which, as in a casemate, the Foreign Minister is
fairly safe from attack. In France the infinite sub-
division of the Ministerial Republicans and of the
nominal Opposition into warring and jealous groups,
however bad for the dignity of Parliament (if that is
aimed at), at least provides a constant fire of criticism
against the Quai d'Orsay. And that criticism is often
THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 13
the more effective for being secret in the Foreign
Relations Committee.
Since the Island Empire is called to play a vast
role on the Continent, its first concern should be to
adjust itself to the new conditions. A knowledge of
geography is imposed on our statesmen. It is not
sufficient for them to call for a map when they enter
Downing Street for the first time. We must expect
from them a technical knowledge not inferior to that
of foreign specialists. The Press, admirable in its
tribute to France and in rousing the country from its
lethargy, has succeeded, in spite of the popular
resentment shown in defence of sacred, if exploded
principles, in breaking down some of the barriers of
ignorance. But much remains to be done. Some of
the great provincial papers in England either neglect
foreign politics altogether or draw wholly false de-
ductions from the meagre details supplied by the
agencies. The result is that public opinion is in-
sufficiently prepared for any sudden development in
the foreign situation. The Channel rolls between, and
though at one point the shores approach each other,
at others, a vast sea stretches immeasurable in its
misunderstandings. In one part there are the shoals
marked " differences of temperament " ; in another
protrude the jagged rocks of sheer, black ignorance.
In these dangerous waters the barque Entente may
founder at any moment. But, happily, the light-
house of Caxton's invention exists to flash its friendly
beams over the sea with its lamp kept burning, a
sacred illuminant on the altar of Sympathy.
Many French people regard the Channel Tunnel
as the readiest means of developing and consolidating
14 FRANCE AT BAY
good relations. There is in the argument, of course,
something of that spirit of self-interest with which
they reproach us when considering some aspects of
British patriotism. There would be little room for
misunderstanding, they say, in an hourly train
service between Paris and London, with the two
capitals as closely linked, politically and economically,
as London and Manchester. On the other hand,
the obliteration of physical frontiers would be followed
by some weakening of racial frontiers. Should we
become Continental in ideas ? I have said that such
a result would be deplored by the French themselves,
who place us on a pinnacle apart from others because
of our qualities of truthfulness and good faith. On
the other side of the medal is our influence over the
French. If we abandon virtues, they may acquire
them or reproduce them in a distorted form. As in
Hichens' Flames, there may be an exchange of souls,
with disastrous results. But if some exclusiveness
and particularity are inevitably lost in our composi-
tion, new grace and lightness will be added, just as
the French will receive certain elements in which the
national crucible is supposed to be deficient.
It is essential that we should not give any im-
pression of making money out of the war. There
must be no crude appeals to the French public to
buy British coals or British beer because of the
brotherhood in arms. " Trade follows the flag,"
but goods should not be wrapped up in it, neither
should it trail over the cash register. By recognizing
French sensitiveness to the truckstering methods of
the merchant behind the army, we shall avoid the
appearance of offence. The flag is a sacred emblem
THE NEED OF IMAGINATION 15
not something to wave above an emporium. This
notion of patriotism is as distasteful to French senti-
ment as that a politician should criticize his country
when the battle is in progress. Sir Henry Campbell
Bannerman's attack on the English army in the
Boer War remains a startling example of inadvised-
ness, from which even the intransigeant Socialist in
France would shrink. If Jaures spoke for the Moors
when a French column was marching on Fez, his
habitual attitude as professional critic almost justified
it. It remained, none the less, exceptional and im-
possible in a responsible statesman. Having this
exalted conception of his country's cause, whatever
the circumstance in which she draws the sword,
Frenchmen find difficulty in appreciating English
reluctance to national service. Surely John Bull
realizes, say critics petulantly, that his own country
is aimed at, rather than ours ? England is Germany's
great rival, not France. The English " day " has suc-
ceeded to the French period of brilliance, and Germany
not unnaturally expected to succeed the British.
Had they shown the common qualities of savoir faire,
the world would be at their feet. But now ....
Only those who know the Germans, at first hand,
realize the strength of this argument. It came to
me with great force from a summer spent in Germany
in 1913. My companion was a young American,
graduate of our oldest university. Speaking German
as fluently as his native tongue, he made friends
with German naval officers when we stayed at Kiel.
As he mingled with them on the tennis-court and in
the club, he was amazed by the bellicosity of their
language, by their animosity towards England. She
16 FRANCE AT BAY
was the arch-enemy and must be brought low; the
sceptre of the sea must be wrested from her by the
strong hand of the German navy. Such conversation
was enlightening.
For the French, as for the English, closest union is
necessary that we may cultivate the sense of inter-
pretation, that we may understand the trend of
national politics, that we may mix with the spirit
of criticism a kindly understanding.
CHAPTER II
STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS
I HAD the good fortune to be passing the Prefecture
of Police at the very moment when the notice of
mobilization was posted up. This was at four o'clock
on Saturday afternoon, August 1, 1914. The docu-
ment was a half sheet of paper upon which was written,
in the somewhat florid hand of the French civil servant,
" Mobilisation Generale." It appeared on the southern
door of the building, facing the river, which is marked
" Sapeurs Pompiers." Invisible hands seemed to
have placed it there; I saw no agency at work,
Amazing that this simple line of writing should mean
so much ! It glowed from the dark oak door, a
seal set upon human destiny, the destiny of a nation.
A few passers-by stopped to gaze at it ; then others
arrived. There was no word said. Every one looked
deeply interested and grave.
Round at the front of the building, to which I
passed, another paper fluttered, starring the grey
stones with a patch of white. People ran. Something
in the air told them this was no common announce-
ment. There were presently fifty, then a hundred,
then several hundred, round that innocent -looking
scrap of paper. The effect was magical. The whole
street seemed to be running. Other bits of white
c 17
18 FRANCE AT BAY
paper appeared on other doors of the great building,
which is the centre of the police life of Paris, and on
the walls of an adjacent post-office. A man, brawny
looking in his working clothes, questioned the authen-
ticity of the notice. It must be a joke, " Ca Jest la
blague!" he said scornfully; "there are no crossed
flags on it ; it can't be real." But a young lieutenant
standing by rebuked him gravely. Yes, it was
perfectly correct; it was the mobilization.
On my way by omnibus to the Boulevards I passed
through streets in which life seemed to flow much as
before, yet with a subtle something hard to define,
a feeling of electricity in the air. But the aspect
of the Boulevards was that of any other Saturday
afternoon in midsummer. There was an immense
number of people walking along the pavements and
sitting at little tables in front of the cafes. Although
the vehicular traffic had suddenly dwindled, as if the
drivers had received secret information, these big
arteries had not yet begun to throb with the tre-
mendous news. We still continued to roll rapidly
along the Boulevards and then, suddenly, one was
conscious that the news was known that it had
penetrated the mesh of streets from the Bourse.
The word "mobilization," uttered in scarcely more
than a whisper, had sped like the wind through the
air, alighting here and there amongst the groups,
making little eddies of excitement and profoundly
stirring the pulse of the people.
With remarkable speed, processions formed them-
selves and marched, swaying with irresistible eager-
ness, down the Boulevards. Cook's tourists passed
in a char-a-banc, waving little flags, English and
STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS 19
French, procured heaven knows where, and cheering
madly. Later, a numerous group passed, preceded
by a large English flag, the origin of which was still
more mysterious. What subtle knowledge of the
secrets of the political universe had induced them to
drag it from its hiding-place at this moment and
wave it, as it were, in the face of two nations, a
symbol of collaboration, of that blessed word " inter-
vention " ? And the crowd, with that peculiar instinct
that belongs to Latin crowds, of all others, cheered
heartily this mark of English sympathy, this na'ive
expression of popular conviction that England must
come in. It was clear that the whole town saw the
inevitableness of it. How could it be otherwise ?
reasoned the man-in-the-street. His faith reposed on
no formal contract, but on the readings of his own
heart the heart and understanding of the people.
And yet, suppose England refused to stand by the
side of France and left her to her fate, as she had
done forty-four years before. What then ?
When darkness came, there was a strange move-
ment of suppressed excitement in the street. Many
of the inhabitants, especially the younger gener-
ation, never went to bed that night, but stood in
groups about the public squares, discussing quietly,
and yet with obvious earnestness, the great fact of
the war. They were looking at the soldiers passing
in the streets that seemed already darkened. Through
the night, beneath my windows, was the steady tramp
of soldiers, marching to the war.
The next day, Sunday, was more definitely military
the first day of mobilization. Officers sat out in
the street at little tables at the Ministry of Marine in
20 FRANCE AT BAY
the Rue Royale and beneath the trees of the Esplanade
des Invalides, checking off names and giving their
owners quiet instructions. There were order and
method in the arrangements and confidence in the
public mien. None the less, people spoke in low
tones, as if fearing that the Fates should overhear
those relentless Fates of the Debacle. " This time we
are prepared," they agreed. 4 Yes, we are prepared.
We have a man in Joffre. II est quelqu'un ! " And
yet Paris had no illusions ; she knew what war was
and even what was defeat.
As if by enchantment, the 'buses had disappeared
from the old routes. From my window I could see
transport officers commandeering horsed vehicles :
butchers' and bakers' carts, drays and lorries. " Cest
la guerre qui commence ! " The streets wore an utterly
strange air of busy emptiness not the emptiness of
death, but the clearing of decks for action. One
marvelled at the fervent quietude of it all, at the total
absence of "nerves." Where were these hysterical
French of whom we had heard so much? In this
expectant hush, the flags that appeared along the
facades of the buildings spoke in the fluttering
accents of a fete. Now and again a long low auto-
mobile, containing officers in uniform, raced through
the street, stammering in a high explosive way, as if
its urgent speed had rendered it inarticulate. But its
very incoherency told of great affairs. Silent deter-
mination was written in the faces of men, especially
in the troops that passed, bound for some point along
the battle-line and swept from yesterday's dreams
and occupations by this swift current of mobilization.
There was no hilarity, no cocksureness that was not
STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS 21
the characteristic, nor, in the ordinary way, keenness
and enthusiasm; it was not a picnic, a glorious
adventure, but a sacrament, the solemn hour of
sacrifice and consecration. And in that spirit officers
were saluted by soldiers and civilians as if they were
priests engaged in holy service.
Sometimes thoughtless demonstrators, youths
below the military age or members of a foreign colony
resident in the city and anxious to curry favour with
the French, shouted " A Berlin ! " but the cry awakened
no response in the popular breast. It was ill-fated,
" A Berlin ! " There was something sinister about
that. It struck mournfully upon sensitive ears, like
the wail of drowning men. " A Berlin ! " What
memories it conjured up of the blind folly of un-
preparedness ending in disaster and despair.
The Press carefully refrained absit omen from
noticing the cry this strange Press that was reduced
to quite extraordinary proportions : a single sheet
with scarcely any news in it, instead of the plethoric
columns given gaily to the chronicles of Paris, its
political intrigues, its fashions and its plays, its
crimes passionels. Gone, all gone, all the glow and
glitter of la ville lumiere ! disappeared in the gulf
of a European war. And rumour stalked abroad,
rumour in its most fantastic guise, rumour goblin-
shaped, monstrous, ill-formed. I had not realized
before the true office of the Press to give consistency
to wild imaginings, to bestow human face and figure
on the twilight gnome, to apply some common test
to emanations from the cave of wonders, to draw
from the vast cauldron at least some bone of fact.
But the Press was perforce silent and spoke no word
22 FRANCE AT BAY
of rumours only the merest details of things that
had little or nothing to do with our haunting fears
and suspicions. And what rumours existed in these
early days ! The concierge avers and some one is
equally emphatic that : " So-and-so has been shot
as a spy . . . and a general has proved a traitor
I am sure of it ! My cousin's fiance has seen a letter,
which was written by a Minister. . . . There is no
doubt about it; it is clear enough. ..."
The Cabinet meeting prolongs itself late into the
night. The Government is making its momentous
decision. Whilst waiting for the final word in a
little room at the Ministry of the Interior, opposite
the Palace of the President, where the Ministers are
gathered, I am bombarded with questions from
members of the Paris Press. " Surely England can
see what would be the consequences of abstention?
She would sign her own death-warrant." In the
Metropolitain, a moment before, I had met a dis-
tinguished writer on foreign affairs, who was hurrying
to rejoin his regiment as officer of reserve. He was
just as emphatic. " Let not England hesitate,"
he said; " it will be fatal if she does. Imagine her
position if Germany defeats us : German ships at
Calais, policing the Channel, watching the coming and
going of English trade ; England stifled with German
hands at her throat." In the street, amongst friends,
one could not escape the same questions. A French
diplomat button-holed me upon the Quays. " Surely
England will not leave us in the lurch, she under-
stands her own interests better than that?" And
another said, with a touch of menace in his voice,
" If England abandons us now, the Entente is over
STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS 23
for ever. It will have a terribly discouraging effect
upon our troops and will cause deep depression in
Paris." One's replies were unsatisfactory enough,
and yet it was impossible to be affirmative without
creating what might be a dangerous illusion : " You
know England's hands are absolutely free; she has
always refused to bind herself. Whatever the sym-
pathies of her Government, she can only act in ac-
cordance with public opinion and after mature
reflection." " Yes," we are impatiently told, " that,
of course, is true enough. There is no formal agree-
ment, no bond or signed pact; yet the flowers, the
cordial and manifest meaning of the speeches when
the King and Queen came, do they count for nothing ?
Surely, after such a demonstration, you will not leave
France to her fate ? That would be monstrous ..."
until one did not know where to turn to hide from
the " indiscretions " of those " who wanted to know."
What would happen to British diplomacy and British
prestige on the Continent if England adopted the
Manchester School view of her responsibilities and
reverted to an isolation which would be anything but
splendid ? These thoughts troubled one immensely
as various processions loomed into view on the
Boulevards, carrying the flag which has stood for
right and justice throughout the world. Was it
really possible there could be a betrayal ? and yet the
fevered hours went by and there was no declaration
by the British Government.
These doubts were particularly poignant on the
night when the mob wrecked the German shops along
the Boulevards and the main avenues of the capital.
It was an object lesspn in what a crowd could do
24 FRANCE AT BAY
when really roused, and it was small wonder that
Englishmen, looking doubtfully across the Channel,
said to each other : " It is our turn next." And
then, to add to our confusion, came leading articles
in some English papers. Hastily summoned to
high places, I was asked whether these outpourings
represented the true spirit of England. Happily,
my answer received its confirmation in the change
of tone of the papers themselves and in the mag-
nificent response of the whole nation. No longer
Pharisaical counsels were heard; they were utterly
lost in the decision to adopt the only possible and
honourable course. The oracle of Downing Street
had spoken, and spoken to such splendid purpose
that every one was satisfied and cried with the
Figaro, " La Loyale Angleierre ! "
And Paris settled down to the sensation of being
really at war. Except for the absence of vehicles
in the streets, life seemed to be following normal
lines ; but in certain of the business quarters a Sabbath
calm had descended in closed shops and deserted foot-
ways. Everywhere was the notice : " Ferine* e a cause
de la Mobilisation." At night came dark thorough-
fares, and a silence broken only by the passage of
troops marching to the depots or of heavy motor
wagons bearing stores to the Front. The great white
beams of the searchlights on the Eiffel Tower and the
Automobile Club of the Place de la Concorde stabbed
the soft poetic darkness in search of Zeppelins. They
swung a weird light over the river, gliding blackly
beneath the bridges, and the red eyes of the little
steamers shone dully in the gloom. This quiet Pro-
vincial Paris was not without its charm. And yet
STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS 25
how docile it was. It allowed itself to be packed
off to bed at ten o'clock; it took no stock in its
drinks ; it allowed absinthe to be suppressed without
a murmur ; it expressed an equal indifference to
aperitifs.
The sole amusement was to watch the arrival of
the Taubes ; they came every evening at six o'clock
with a touching regularity. The stout heart of Paris
was not to be reduced by such paltry means and
people stood in careless expectation of the visitors.
How admirable the people were, during these days
of trial, as admirable as in the siege of Paris, so
picturesquely described by Francisque Sarcey. The
people are always admirable perhaps it is only
the governors who are wanting. Our governors
departed when the battle of the Marne had just begun,
and there were some extraordinary scenes at the
railway stations. They were crowded to excess
with passengers, fighting and scrambling for the
trains. Many waited hours, even days, for the chance
of leaving. And the trains themselves were jambed,
even to the horse-boxes and guards' vans, in which
people stood for many hours on the way down
to the south and safety. Sometimes through the
windows of the trains one caught sight of grinning
lunatics the asylums were being removed, a sign
of the humanitarian instincts of the French even
at this hour. And from other windows looked out
orphans and old men and women, the habitual guests
of charitable institutions. The sight affected one,
but in a different way from those other scenes I had
witnessed at the railway station, when the troops
left for the Front. Then men, women and children
26 FRANCE AT BAY
mingled their tears, but there was a strain of courage
and devotion through it all. Women gave up their
men bravely, even though they wept; the men
quickly recovered their spirits, momentarily dashed
by the thought of leaving their dear ones, for their
resolution was firm. They knew that the supreme
hour had come, the hour in the Garden of Gethsemane,
and they steeled their soul to be equal to it.
Paris, I think, was much relieved when the politi-
cians left, leaving the coast clear for the serious defence
of the town. General Gallieni's proclamation flamed
from the walls and gave courage to those who re-
mained. " I have received a mandate to defend
Paris, and I shall defend it to the end," was the proud
signal of faith and valour. The air seemed less lurid
after the departure of the rulers. It put an end
to intrigue, which had begun to raise its head and
imagine vain things. There was a plot, said some,
to deliver Paris to the enemy : were not negotiations
already going on ? In any case, the fearful at a
safe distance in the Provinces were convinced that
the city could not be defended. But that was not
the opinion of Gallieni, or of those who remained :
that is to say, the majority of the Parisians. The
new military Governor went at it with a will, and it
was part of the pleasure of Parisians to inspect the
chevaux de frise, the deep trenches, stone walls, and
barricades of fallen trees constructed at the city
gates to hamper the march of the enemy. Even if
they could not have stood a moment before modern
armament, there was a suggestion of resistance about
them of " doing something," which went straight
to the heart of Paris. But outside the city, yet
STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS 27
within the entrenched camp, were other and more
serious signs of opposition : kilometres of barbed wire,
endless lines of deep trenches wherein lay monstrous
guns, and other guns protruded their black forbidding
nozzles from rose-gardens as one whirled by in a
motor-car for which, after infinite formalities, a laisser
passer had been obtained. Forts, said the popular
tongue, had been abolished there were no more
of such constructions since Liege and Namur; but,
in the black earth, all sorts of terrible engines lay
perdus ready to belch death. And there was
certainly a visible activity in General Gallieni's
preparations which bespoke the born leader, the
man of energy and resource. And though there
was a baffling lack of news, and none save those
who had got into actual touch with the army at
all realized the position, the natural optimism of the
Parisian prevailed. He would have illuminated the
darkened city and hung out additional flags for
the battle of the Marne had not Joffre declared in
answer to the demand : " No, there are too many
dead."
Then hospitals were opened and women displayed
immense devotion in nursing the sick. All the great
hotels in the Champs Elysees, which had resonated
before the war to the sounds of the Tango and the
swish of skirts, were now converted into hospitals,
French and English, Russian and Japanese. And
these institutions sprang up in all parts of the city
wherever a large house could be obtained and a staff
of doctors and nurses be recruited. Every society
woman transformed herself into a charitable worker.
And I think many who had danced the Tango in the
28 FRANCE AT BAY
old days with untiring zeal were not displeased to
escape from the thraldom of the social round : the
tea and Bridge parties, Bergson's lectures at the
College de France, the concerts and theatrical enter-
tainments, the Persian balls and the other sumptuous
inventions of cosmopolitan society.
And rare civic courage and abnegation revealed
itself during those fateful days. It is true that some
retired precipitately to their chateaux when the
Germans were advancing, but there was present in
all classes a great spirit of sacrifice, a desire, ardent
and continuous, to help those who had suffered from
the war. The poorest were fed by canteens, and
elaborate measures were taken by allocations and
grants of food and clothing to alleviate distress. In
Montmartre, the night haunts, which used to attract
the gay, careless money -spenders of the world, were
converted into centres of an exquisite charity, where
those who had ministered to our entertainment in
times past, by song and dance or by the pictorial
arts, were made to feel that artist and bourgeois
were one. La Cigale had found a shelter from the
storms of a terrible winter.
And mingled with this sweet work of charity and
brotherliness was talk of the situation, military and
political. One did not get much enlightenment about
either from the newspapers, comic little productions
which strove to subsist, as in the old time, upon the
news of the day before yesterday. Yet you knew
that a war was in progress : the eloquent blanks
told you that so eloquent were they that one won-
dered whether they were always real. Were they not
invented sometimes to whet our curiosity at a low
STIRRING DAYS IN PARIS 29
price ? Occasionally there was news from Bordeaux
of daily meetings at the Chapon Fin, and Cafe de
Bordeaux, of deputies and senators who did not
seem to mourn too deeply over their separation from
Paris and her anxieties; and there were rumours
of suppressions of newspapers owned by outspoken
politicians ; M. Clemenceau's Homme Libre became the
Homme Enchaine (" the Man-in-chains "). Yet, in
this posture, so unfavourable, one would think, for
literary effort, he managed to rattle his chains to a
tune of protest with his accustomed perversity.
The Press in Paris gained its chief nutriment from
the communiques meagre fare tricked out with a
little academic prose from members of the old grey
Institute by the Seine. But though it was stately,
it was seldom inspiring. One came reluctantly to
the conclusion that an immortal on daily tap becomes
very mortal. The official information given to the
Press was served out in a species of coach-house,
fitted with a long table and chairs, at the Ministry
of War. Here, from time to time, an attache
made declarations concerning military or political
events and policy. Yes, a Taube had come to-day,
but one need not insist upon it. The loss of life was
insignificant, the damage very slight. And when,
later, the Government departed, we were warned that
if we heard in the night the rumble of furniture vans
containing the Government archives, we were to
take no notice. It was a strategical move to leave
the hands of the military free for energetic defence.
And Gallieni probably suffered gladly the departure of
Messieurs les Deputes at least, now there could be no
divided counsels to weaken the arm of the defender.
30 FRANCE AT BAY
Paris without theatres or music-halls, without its
evening " distractions," silent, deserted, as sober in
the night-hours as a small provincial city, extraordin-
arily calm and composed in the daytime these are
the impressions that linger in the mind of the great
days in la ville lumiere.
CHAPTER 111
THE FRENCH ARMY AND DISCIPLINE
FRENCH people have a peculiar faculty for being
misrepresented, and in no direction is this more
apparent than in the army. Obviously it is no pipe-
clayed institution and yet one was constantly amazed
at the laisser-aller of the pioupiou. This was before
the war. English people, accustomed to the perfec-
tion of their own soldiers, whose buttons shone in the
sun and whose boots reflected the crease of impeccable
trousers, had rarely a flattering opinion of Dumanet.
The tunic and red trousers generally showed a dis-
position to fall apart and the nether garments were
either too short or too long. In the former case, they
gave prominence to the immense boots, which were
made for the march and not for the parade ground.
Dumanet seemed to carry his linen in his pocket,
which bulged ominously. Added to the neglect of
his uniform was his slouch. Even on the march he
did not keep step always with the neighbour. How
could this careless-hearted soul be compared either
with the drilled machine of Germany or with Mr.
Tommy Atkins beautifully groomed and shimmering
with bear's grease ? Evidently it was quite impossible.
The casual observer forgot many things ; one of them
was to look into the face of the little French soldier.
31
32 FRANCE AT BAY
He would have read there intelligence and vivacity.
Had he followed Dumanet on manoeuvres, he would
have learned his good humour and his gay unbreakable
spirit. He comes up smiling after a march of fifty
kilometres, with a heavy pack on his back which con-
tains his extra clothes, spare boots, pannikins and
kindling for the fire which is to boil his soup. He
breaks into song again after the weary tramp in the
sun along dusty routes nationales lined with straight
poplars and planes, across woods and stubbled fields,
whence rise the frightened partridges and hares to the
delight of men bred up to la chasse a song that ac-
companies the simmering of the pot on the camp-fire,
a song that breathes the joys of peace rather than the
austerities of war, that expresses the red blood of the
race with no refinement of tongue.
And Dumanet's adaptability is discovered in the
field. He takes advantage of each depression of the
ground to build his fire or prepare his couch. He is
the handy man. He is full of initiative, of intuition,
of resource. His quick brains interpret orders and
even discuss them in a spirit which would be fatal to
a system more rigid and less human in its application.
This is the man upon whom in the last resort depends
the safety of France.
I have said that appearances are deceptive. The
French soldier wastes no time in considering the cut
of his coat. He is not unhappy because his boots do
not shine. He does not seem to be seriously dis-
tressed when he is dirty. Nor do his commanders
give him fancy drill even in the piping times of peace.
He has not to stand, for hours at a time, with his
thumbs to his trousers' seams. That kind of drill was
THE FRENCH ARMY AND DISCIPLINE 33
abolished long ago in the French army if it ever
really existed abolished when the army was re-
modelled after the disasters of 1870. Then the mot
d'ordre ordained simplicity, and uniforms were the
first to feel the influence of it. Many of the gilded
reminders of the Imperial regime were swept away.
The Higher Command began to take its duties seri-
ously. Staff men ceased to be drawing-room soldiers
to become students of war. Gradually there was
formed a brilliant General Staff composed of the best
brains in the army. It did not talk about itself or
get itself talked about ; it was content to do its work
without advertisement.
If politics had left the army alone, all would have
been well ; there would have resulted a cohesive mass
welded together in the national defence. But an
evil genius pursued France, implacably, for a number
of years. Political friends, rather than his own merits,
advanced the officer. In an attempt to correct the
abuses of a Clerical authority, the Republican sec-
taries had gone too far and the Dreyfus affair was
their excuse. Happily the extreme danger of a policy
which divided the military house against itself
was brought home to the consciousness of the nation.
Vive Varmee became a popular cry after having
shared the suspicion of Vive le roi. Workmen, fresh
from anti-militarist talk overpetits verres, stood in the
street to see the regiment go by and uncovered to the
flag. The full danger of the old indifference became
apparent when the Panther anchored off Agadir.
France began to realize that she had given an im-
pression of weakness and division to the enemy.
" Stop the Rot " articles began to appear in the
34 FRANCE AT BAY
Press, particularly in the Echo de Paris, which, though
wedded to reaction, has written some admirable
reforms in the chapter of its changes. About this
time, Joffre was appointed to the chief command
of the army ; the reign of politics was over, the reign
of efficiency commenced.
From that moment the patient began to mend, and,
like a self-respecting convalescent, he thought of his
toilet. It was simple enough in all conscience
the frills had been suppressed, but was it quite suitable
to modern war? He had serious doubts about it as
he looked at himself in the mirror. Mon Dieu, he was
not smart, certainly. And he summoned the tailor
to put touches to his raiment. The tailor, who was
also an artist, was called Edouard Detaille. That
battle-painter designed a picturesque new uniform
which Parisians found opera bouffe, but Detaille
himself said was confused with bastard imitations
put forth by the War Office. In any case, all that
remained of the efforts of the reformers were the
puttees. But they were important. They represented
the 20th century in a uniform too voyant to be
practical. It was the point de depart for a radical
change. Parliament intervened to substitute for the
traditional blue and red of the infantry a new and
" invisible " cloth after the English and German
model. It was not without a pang that the army bid
adieu to the red trousers, which had played their
gallant part in history. That the blue adopted showed
white under the searchlight, soiled easily and was a
colour difficult to reproduce did not detract from the
essential character of the change. It meant that the
French army was designed for business and intended
THE FRENCH ARMY AND DISCIPLINE 35
to justify that high opinion that experts had formed
of it. It had become a modern fighting machine.
When war broke out, people had almost forgotten
what Dumanet was like in the unreformed days. It
is true that you still saw men with ill-fitting uniforms
and unshaven chins miles from the Front ; but they
were the old generation fathers of the young men
in the line. In an army of four to five millions,
some allowance must be made for the difficulties
of equipment. And the Territorial army was forced
to content itself with the old uniforms, when it
had any at all beyond the kepi and the fustian
jacket marked with the regimental number. But at
the breath of war the conscript soldier had auto-
matically changed into the first-class fighting man.
His slackness had disappeared with the slack of his
trousers into his top-boots and his puttees. And
the First Reserve, after contact with the trenches,
became so adapted to its work that Joffre suppressed
the special designation and incorporated it with the
active army. In like manner, of course, the English
Territorials caught up the life and spirit of the
Regulars. Nor was the transformation of the casual
pioupiou into the serious soldier in the least sur-
prising to those who saw the real man behind the
vague exterior.
Even in peace time he becomes a different person
when on the march. The slouch disappears under
the general impulse. In immediate response to
duty, to the necessity of the hour, is found the key-
note to his character. It lies at the base of French
discipline. Here, again, the casual observer often
draws a wrong conclusion. He is convinced that
36 FRANCE AT BAY
discipline is frayed like the clothes of the Territorial.
" It simply does not exist," he will tell you confidently.
"The army is scarcely more than an armed mob;
discipline, as we English understand it, is totally
wanting." There is some excuse for this hasty judg-
ment, just as there is some excuse for other current
opinions on France. The subordination of the ranks
to the command appears to be very doubtful at times.
If you draw near, you will surprise an argument
between a lieutenant and a corporal, perhaps in some
spot behind the lines. In the end, the officer yields
on a small point of discipline, and the men go down
into the village to buy their tobacco the subject of
the argument shouting : " He is a good officer ; he
is a good officer ! " The spectacle is disconcerting to
British minds. The principle of the thing is surely
bad, is a natural reflection. To an Englishman
trained in the strict letter of the law it seems
dangerous and disintegrating. Not so to the French,
however. They will tell you that in important mat-
ters their discipline is adamant. If in time of danger a
man were to desert his post, death would be his punish-
ment. Below the apparent looseness is a rock which
cannot be pierced by any personal considerations.
Under an unrepealed law the penalty for striking a
superior officer, even in peace time, is execution. It
is easy to suppose, therefore, that military justice
is unrelenting in time of war.
There is, indeed, no misconception in the mind of the
French soldier. He knows how far he may go. He
knows that, when the affair is urgent, he must obey
promptly and exactly. But how is he to know the
essential from the unessential? By the manner of
THE FRENCH ARMY AND DISCIPLINE 37
the officer. There is no mistaking gravity, a matter
of life and death, from the merely formal or trivial.
It is felt in the voice as in the manner. A French-
man disguises his feelings with difficulty, whether
officer or private. He conveys his meaning un-
mistakably to his fellow-man. He is always vivid
and descriptive, and the other understands that to be
inattentive is to court disaster. Again, there is a
vast difference between discipline in the " line " and
discipline in the Territorial Army, which is rarely
required to man the trenches. In the former case it
is much stricter. But mutual sympathy and compre-
hension are at the bottom of the French system. A
man obeys, not because he must, but because he
realizes the necessity of the order. His reason has
been appealed to ; and yet the voice of the command
can be stern on occasion. " No weakness will be
tolerated. Die where you stand rather than yield
ground," wrote Joffre in the Orders of the Day before
the battle of the Marne. But the Generalissimo owes
his influence with the rank and file not merely to his
great position and indefatigable zeal, but because he
knows how to inspire affection. His very titles,
"Grand-pere Joffre," "Pere Joffre," "Notre Joffre,"
betoken that.
There is nothing irritates the French mind and
disposes it to revolt like injustice. And thus the
French officer gains his greatest hold over his men by
being scrupulously just. In nine times out of ten,
he is no aristocrat. His origin is as plebeian as that
of the men he commands. He is a peasant, perhaps,
or the son of an artisan, like Col. Marchand (whose
father was a carpenter). Whatever his family or
38 FRANCE AT BAY
lack of it, he has gained his authority by study and
hard work. The fact that there is no organized
officers' mess in the French army says a good deal.
It means that the social life of the regiment in times
of peace has not received the same development as
in England. Where, obviously, a large number of
officers are living on their pay, expensive social pur-
suits are out of the question. The fortune-less man of
studious habits can and often does lead an existence
of great simplicity and austerity entirely wrapped up
in his profession. He is as little seen in the drawing-
rooms of society as in the card-room of expensive
clubs. He has " no use for " one or the other. His
sole indulgence is an occasional evening at the Cercle
Militaire with his comrades. If married, he leads the
quietest of lives with his wife and baby ; the theatre
once a week constitutes his modest pleasure.
In garrison towns there is a certain formality ; the
colonel and the general commanding have to be
propitiated, and likewise la Colonelle and la Generale ;
but even those social obligations are designed to be
as little irksome and as inexpensive as possible.
Generally they consist in attending certain stately
receptions once or twice a year, at which everybody
is stiffly uncomfortable and wholly official. But
morgue is conspicuously absent from the French
officer. The distinguished chief, like the undistin-
guished subaltern, has no " side." Perhaps the only
exception is the cavalry regiments, where commissions
are held by men of family, but there it is rare to
find any undue insistence on rank and social position.
This curious attitude towards the inferior is not one
of the faults of the Latin temperament. The notion
THE FRENCH ARMY AND DISCIPLINE 39
of a colonel making sartorial suggestions to his officers
would not occur to the head of a French regiment.
The events of forty-four years ago have had a profound
influence upon the army ; it is infused with a sincere
and earnest patriotism and a desire to adapt dis-
cipline to democracy. Hence the man who rises
from the ranks, who has received his commission on
the field, finds no hostility, secret or avowed, amongst
those who have entered by the habitual gates of the
Poly technique and St. Cyr (the Woolwich and Sand-
hurst of the French army). There may be sometimes
a little display of intellectual superiority, but the
atmosphere is breathable and generally stimulating.
Outside the service the army is frankly bourgeois
and unostentatious ; inside, it is frankly utilitarian.
The fact that it is shaped to a definite end, the
business of war, does not exclude from it the grander
qualities of heart and head, which run through it from
top to bottom and inspire its noblest actions. This
summary sketch may show how readily the army has
adjusted itself to the conditions of universal service
under a Republican regime. It explains why Social-
ists can serve, as well as Royalists, with no greater
hurt to their feelings and convictions. The flag is
a great healer of divisions. Once it is engaged, mere
labels disappear. That is what France has found in
the present war. Conscription has enabled her to
rally all her sons to her defence, and conscription has
this amazing effect of abolishing barriers. It is a
bond of union between the Duke and the dustman,
the anti-clerical and the devout Catholic, the priest
and the apache. The regiment has made the New
France largely what it is. It has taught the Bourgeois,
40 FRANCE AT BAY
gun-shy when Socialists are shooting in the Parlia-
mentary preserves, that even the advanced reformer
may be an honest man, and the Republican learns
for the first time that the Churchman with leanings
towards Bonapartism is yet a most excellent French-
man. Astonishing discovery ! Similar revelations
may be expected in England in the wake of the war.
The middle-class does duty with the poor in the
trenches and each gets to realize the other's point
of view. And it is well to know what the window-
cleaner thinks ; so many of us go through life as if he
never existed, thereby depriving ourselves of a fund
of useful knowledge. But the shouldering of the
common burden is not the unique advantage of
universal service. It brings home to each the mean-
ing of war. It is not merely a tax on the courageous
which can be shirked by the Bob Acres, each must
bear a part, unless he is physically exempt. The
theory that one section of the male population may
fight for another section of the male population is
contrary to the French conception of equality.
Patriotism becomes a different matter when it means
personal service. And since each citizen must serve,
he must be convinced of the justice of the cause,
for on one side lies duty and on the other the
unjustifiable killing of one's fellow-man.
CHAPTER IV
THE QUESTION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE
THE fate of Alsace-Lorraine has been the fate of
all weak provinces which fall into the hands of con-
querors. The struggle has been constant to preserve
individuality. And individuality, under the iron
heel of Prussia, is notoriously difficult to preserve.
This torn fragment of France has been the battle
ground of contending influences, French and Teutonic,
of contending ideals, Liberty and Kultur. Standing
midway between two peoples, the Alsatians and
Lorrainers have not been quite understood by either.
That has been their misfortune. The fact that they
speak a patois which sounds like German, though
the syntax is French and there are many French words
in it, has given rise to the idea that their sympathies
lie that way. But this is not so. Even Abbe Wet-
terle, the well-known Alsatian priest, has had to plead
with Parisians not to misjudge his countrymen by
reason of their speech. If they did not speak French
any better, he said, it was because they had not been
allowed to learn it. This simple explanation throws
a lurid light upon the sufferings of Alsace-Lorraine
during forty years.
Again, the French have failed to understand the
complexity of the problem. They have not realized
41
42 FRANCE AT BAY
that there are two Alsatias; the one native, the
other immigrant. One speaks of Alsace rather than
of Lorraine, for it has remained more distinctive
in character. The immigrants are, of course, the
Germans, who number three hundred thousand in a
total population of one million eight hundred thou-
sand. They form the privileged and dominating
caste. In their comfortable innocence, they imagined
that, like certain animals, they had taken the colour
of their surroundings and were indistinguishable from
them. Were they not pure Alsatians ? Had they not
founded businesses and families in the country, and
did not their children speak the patois ? Soon they
ceased to regard themselves as other than Alsatians,
and this self-awarded certificate of origin led to
more confusion. The intelligent traveller who over-
came passport difficulties and penetrated into Alsace,
found it easier to believe that the provinces wanted
autonomy rather than anything else. The sentiments
he heard expressed were German rather than French
like the language; he did not realize that he had
been confounding the imported Alsatian with the
genuine article.
The very silence of the native and his reluctance
to express opinion reluctance which extends even
to the Alsatians who live in Paris aided in his error.
The naturally taciturn peasant is rendered suspicious
by the regime under which he lives. Oppression has
made him shy of confidences. Alsace is not a country
in which you can interview the corner grocer and
cobbler on local opinion with any chance of success.
Inquiries meet with vague answers. This attitude
of detachment led to misconception when the French
THE QUESTION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 43
crossed the frontier at the commencement of the war.
They were amazed to find hesitancy in the welcome,
and, in some cases, positive treachery. How to
explain it? This was the country between silent
Vosges and rushing Rhine over which the heart of
France had yearned since '70. Soldiers, as well as
civilians, made the mistake of confusing the divergent
strains, French and German, in the country. The
peasant's timid smile and reluctant hand were the
sign of his terror of reprisals. Nor were these fears
exaggerated, for those who cried, " Vive la France ! "
when the French entered their territory, were dealt
with after the German code when the enemy resumed
his occupation.
Again, when the French were led into ambush (and
this happened more than once), their guides were
not Alsatians except in name; they represented the
conqueror with Teutonic thoroughness. In many
villages, the mayor, the school and post-masters acted
as Government agents even if they were not always
conscious of their character. And the French en-
countered these officials in their first entry into the
country. The military adventure none the less
aroused enthusiasm and a realization that la revanche
had now begun, that the Provinces torn from France
forty-four years before, against the wishes and in
spite of the protests of the inhabitants, were being
recovered. It is impossible to exaggerate the emotion
that a Frenchman feels at the word " Alsace." It
has a soft caressing sound like that of " mother," and
suggests the continuation of his personality like that
of " son." It conjures up for him the vision of
high-pitched houses and timbered house-fronts,
44 FRANCE AT BAY
lighted by windows with tiny panes. He thinks
of the elders of the village in their picturesque cos-
tumes, the voluminous frock-coats, furnished with
immense pockets, coming down to the heels, the red
waistcoats and broad-brimmed hats. The multitu-
dinous petticoats of the country women have their
special significance according to their shape and colour.
A long red petticoat means a Catholic village, a
short green one tied with ribbon a Protestant one.
Perched upon the roofs are the red-legged storks,
legendary guardians of Alsace. The children sing
a roundel on the return of the birds in spring, while
the German policeman casts a disapproving eye upon
both birds and children. Is there not something
seditious in the stork with its contemplative air and
indifference to authority ? Alsace means all this and
more to the French, though perhaps they may know
the country only through Hansi's drawings. The
patriot understands its sorrow at being parted from
France that intolerable divorce and its constant
suffering is to him a personal affront. Joffre well
interpreted the sentiment of these citizens of France
when he said, with the brevity that is characteristic
of him : " Your return is definite ; you are French
for all time. ... I am France, you are Alsace ; je vous
apporte le baiser de la France" This was the language
that all could understand and appreciate.
It is the real Alsace. The tears and cheers, flags
and flowers, which greeted the President of the Repub-
lic and the Generalissimo when they arrived in the
country, were from its heart. Though narrow in
geographical limits, the provinces are deep in their
emotional experience. They were profoundly stirred
THE QUESTION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 45
when the first bit of territory was opened to France.
Behind the line drawn and doubly locked by trenches
and troops, natural feelings found their expression.
Fear, not lack of sympathy, had checked their ut-
terance before. When the President came among
them, it seemed as if they had never ceased to be a
part of France. Those two hundred years, from the
days of the Sun King to the Franco-Prussian War,
resumed their sway over them ; they recognized them
as the most fruitful in their history. Their industries
had prospered, and from the soil, thickly set with
villages, had sprung philosophers, savants, soldiers.
Some of the best of Napoleon's generals were Alsatian.
It is not true that Alsace and Lorraine have lost
their allegiance to France. The Abbe Wetteiie*
declares that they are more anti-German than ever,
and none can say that they have not had justification.
" Remember you are in the enemy's country," said
the Kaiser's officers to their troops, when they stood
in the market-square of Mulhausen. They divined
the real feeling of the inhabitants. And if Alsace
has not been won to German rule in four-and-forty
years, it must be confessed that the wooing has been
clumsy. It lacked the psychology which has been
wanting in all German policy. The conqueror's
method savoured of the footpad's alternative : " Your
money or your life." The " inferior race," as the
Germans, in their delicious complacency, called the
Alsatians, were asked to love the " superior " or be
bludgeoned for their recalcitrancy.
Such summary methods do not suit the free and
rugged temperament of a Border people, who enjoyed
great liberty before coming under the mild rule of
46 FRANCE AT BAY
France. Many of their cities were virtual Republics,
and a long tradition of freedom has given them a
taste for independence and democracy which assorts
ill with Imperial notions of government. It explains
also the demand for autonomy, which has been part
of the election platform of all parties in Alsace-Lor-
raine. Even those who favoured union with France
found it a convenient screen for their real propaganda,
and the German Socialists knew it to be potent with
the native voter. In both cases it successfully masked
ulterior aims and avoided trouble from the police
reporters who attended the meetings. But, since the
war began, the cry for autonomy has ceased in the
general anxiety as to the issue of the conflict. In any
case, Berlin could hardly have objected to it when, in
the mouth of its own agents, it took the form of
Imperium in Imperio merely another autonomous
State within the Empire. The German Socialists
have adopted the programme with great success ; it
brought them nearer the working-man, who is par-
ticularly accessible to the German s)^stem of state
insurance, a practical Socialism that has implanted
itself in the hard ground of -autocracy. The con-
version of the working-man represents one of the
greatest achievements of the French in Alsace. The
over-playing of the German role, here as elsewhere,
has been one of its causes. Under the influence of
eloquent speakers, the artisan has looked on the
liberty offered by France and contrasted it with the
drill-sergeant methods of the Germans. He has
chosen, instinctively, the freer institutions.
As was natural in the circumstances, there was a
little vacillation in the middle-classes amongst those
THE QUESTION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 47
born just before or after the war. They seemed to
have inherited the depression of their progenitors
and never to have recovered the good spirits habitual
to Frenchmen. They were inclined to accept the
inevitable, as they regarded it, as the best way of
saving trouble. Why quarrel with a fait accompli?
Why not submit to the iron yoke ? Was it not better
to live harmoniously with the Germans, since they
were there ? The same low vitality existed in France
itself ; the country was asked to forget its humiliation
in 1870. It was so much easier to accept one's fate
than to struggle against it. Such a doctrine found
favour even in official eyes. Alsace was told that if
she would renounce her birthright for a mess of
pottage, that dish would be made very appetizing.
But in her stiff-neckedness, Alsace preferred peace
with honour to the peace that was no peace, and
continued to hanker after the free existence that had
been hers under the Republic.
It is true that Bismarck gave a constitution, which
established a species of Parliament with two Chambers
and a Statthalter ; but the Imperial veto as well as
the Imperial appointments to the Upper Chamber
quashed real initiative and left merely the semblance
of local government. All the while the country was
being ruled by exceptional laws, the more odious in
their irony because drawn from old French laws
unrepealed, which gave them a false colour of legality.
It was under their authority that German officials
insisted on the substitution of German signs for
French ones. Many are the incidents, highly humorous
if they were not vexatious, which have resulted from
this policy. Coiffeur became " friseur," restaurant
48 FRANCE AT BAY
" restauration," liquidation totale " total liquidation."
Even burial inscriptions had to be changed. One
innkeeper, forced to alter his sign, asked permission
to add an old French picture to it; it was granted.
The next day the inhabitants were delighted to
see the sign, which represented a French regiment
marching through the village with band playing
and colours flying. Underneath, in large letters,
appeared the word, significant in the circumstances :
" Restauration."
The embargo on French has become a byword in
Europe for its absurd ferocity. School-children have
been punished for conversing in the forbidden lan-
guage in their play-hours. A German school was
foisted on a French community on the least pretext.
It sufficed for a small minority to say that it did
not understand the lessons given in French for the
change to be made. The result has been what any
but a German administrator would have expected :
an eager cult of French. No social advantage
attached in Alsace to a knowledge of German, but
every family which wished to be considered chic sent
its girls for a year to Paris or Brussels to perfect their
accent, though it rendered itself as suspect as if
Madame wore Paris dresses and Monsieur had frequent
business engagements which took him into France.
Everywhere the native found himself at a dis-
advantage. In law or business, he was predestined to
failure if his opponent were a German. Germans
held the best places and took care to show their
superiority by an utter contempt for local customs.
Thus the German official called between twelve and
one his own appointed time just when the Alsatian
THE QUESTION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 49
family were sitting down to lunch and his siesta
prolonged itself until past three, during which time
he was invisible to the citizens. On waking in the
middle of the afternoon, he would drink coffee and
milk ! These things, says Hansi, the most spirited
of cartoonists, divide a people more profoundly than
proportional representation ! In any case, they
effectually divided the Alsatian from his German
neighbour.
Racial differences account for much in life, par-
ticularly when they mark the governor from the
governed. From their youngest years, the German
and Autochtone are widely apart. The young Ger-
man begins to wear top-boots as a small boy going
to school ; he lives in an imitation Gothic house with
ornamental iron edging on the roof; the other is a
picturesque little fellow in a beaver bonnet, living
with his family in a charming atmosphere of tradition.
In the cafe you may remark the two : the one noisy,
gulping beer and sauerkraut, the other reflective,
conversing in low tones, and sipping from his glass.
This divergence extends to all the affairs of life, and
presents the unbridgeable chasm. In Strasburg, where
the German element outnumbers the native by three
to one, the two live side by side, but never mingle,
like the two rivers, the Rhone and Saone, the clear
and dark waters of which flow abreast but keep to
their respective channels. The two races have their
churches, their clubs and institutions and even their
shops, which they patronize to the exclusion of others.
It shows that even after forty-five years a basis of
entente has not been found.
Though not the pretext of the present war, Alsace-
50 FRANCE AT BAY
Lorraine is one of its underlying causes. Had there
been no cession of metropolitan territory in 1871,
there would have been, probably, no revanche, no
rankling feeling, which, sooner or later, renders in-
evitable conflicts between nations. Alsace has been
graven on the heart of France ever since the day when,
as Louis Blanc said at Bordeaux, it served as a ransom
for the rest of the country. The Alsatians protested,
their protest remains a monument to the injustice
from which they have suffered. " Pensons-y tou jours,
rfen parlous jamais" advised Gambetta. This was
the attitude of most Frenchmen except those who
followed Deroulede in his eager quest of recovery,
or that other section which professed to have forgotten
in the interest of international commerce. For
the rest of the country, there was an uneasy feeling
that the hostages for France were being harshly
treated. Behind the veil, arose from time to time
their cry of suffering. For forty years they have
wandered in the desert with no Moses to lead them
to the Promised Land. This period of struggle has
had its phases, like the Thirty Years War, at the end
of which Alsace came under the crown of France.
In the first period there was a distinct effort after
conciliation. The Statthalter Baron von Manteuffel,
who had distinguished himself in the war, was clearly
anxious, as he expressed it, to heal old wounds and
avoid creating new ones. He called the notables
of the district to him and some of the younger proved
amenable. Municipalities were bidden to Government
receptions and there was an appearance of calm.
It ceased under the obvious ill-will of functionaries,
who thwarted the statthalter's policy. Nor when
THE QUESTION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 51
they were revoked by his orders, did it make matters
better, for the new arrivals were more rabid than the
others. Functionaries and " colonists " poured their
grievances into the ready ear of Berlin and the
statthalter was openly disavowed. Complications
would certainly have ensued, had not the statthalter
had the good grace to die after having opposed a
popular celebration in Strasburg on Bismarck's birth-
day. The next period was dominated by the unbend-
ing will of Bismarck, who sent Prince von Hohenlohe
Schillingsfurst to rule the country. The latter soon
discovered the real character of his mandate and has
left it on record in his Memoirs that Bismarck tried
to foment trouble in order to repress it by armed force.
Then came the close season, when Alsace and Lorraine
were shut up by a passport system, designed against
the foreigner. Though German officers went freely
about France, French officers were practically debarred
from entering the two lost provinces. Alsatians were
arrested on the frontier some even who had come
to smooth the pillow of dying parents. It was the
regime of oppression in full sway only modified by
various efforts, more or less patently insincere, of
giving Home Rule to the country.
The present war has demonstrated the true inward-
ness of German rule. Alsatians were hurried away
at the opening of the campaign to German regiments,
and those who resisted were placed in the forefront
of the fight, where they were speedily shot. The
Germans treat Alsace as they have treated all their
colonies, they oppress them with vexatious measures.
France and England at least try to raise their de-
pendencies to their own level. The one is a little
52 FRANCE AT BAY
too precipitate, perhaps, to please the judicious, the
other lags a little behind the idealist; but in both
cases there is an evident intention to elevate. But
the German endeavours to depress, to depreciate, to
give excuse for more " authority." He has blundered
in Alsace as he has blundered elsewhere. None but
a temperament of stone could fail to be aroused by
a policy so brutal and gratuitously insulting.
Finally, the regulation of this question of Alsace-
Lorraine must form part of the Treaty of Peace, for
it is a question essential to the existence of France.
She has need of this border country which was hers
in the days of Gaul, as Caesar and Tacitus testify.
Richelieu, Danton and Napoleon have each realized
that the Rhine is one of the natural boundaries of
his country. Had, indeed, Napoleon kept to this
line, he would have avoided much trouble. It is
impossible to think that the claim of the Socialists
to leave Germany in possession of the two provinces
will ever obtain the sanction of the mass of the French
public.
CHAPTER V
DE*ROULEDE AND " LA REVANCHE "
THE banner of Deroulede is the banner of the
nation. His very language, which evoked the smiles
of those who called him an exalte, is employed even by
Socialists in the great cause, which has linked all
parties in the State. A prophet and a scourge, crying
against lethargy and pusillanimity and satisfaction in
an illusory peace, unwise in some of his methods and
often exaggerated in his metaphors, he had yet the
truth of the matter in him. Dying on the threshold
of the Great conflagration, which he saw afar off as
a thin shaft of smoke on the horizon, he did nothing
to provoke it, but everything to warn his countrymen
against it. This tribute to him may serve to show
that the New France is but the outcome of the Old.
Out of the tribulation of 1870 have sprung faith and
strength and a desire for life; out of Alsace and
Lorraine, the symbolic land of Deroulede, have come
the passion and fire of France at Bay.
Deroulede is one of those admirable figures which
appear rarely in the life of a nation. His outstanding
merit was to love France, and to him who loveth much
is much forgiven. It was his excuse and justification
for actions that sometimes appeared eccentric and
were always romantic. He was of the race of Don
53
54 FRANCE AT BAY
Quixote, generous, courageous, chivalresque, ready
to draw his sword for a righteous cause, specially if
that cause were France. Then it became sacred,
inviolable, immutable. Deroulede represented La
Revanche; he incarnated it. For this reason he
seemed to live in the lost provinces ; it was the great
Cause to which he devoted himself. The words
Alsace-Lorraine were graven on his heart as was
Calais on the heart of Queen Mary. To him the
delivery of the country to Germany was a supreme
humiliation. He suffered with it in its distresses
and experienced disgust and grief at its treatment
from Prussia. The iron entered into his soul. The
shutting up of the territory by means of passport
regulations, the constant annoyance and persecution
of the population supposedly hostile to the conquerors,
were as keenly felt as if they were a personal insult.
To him no rest was possible until the provinces had
been restored by force of arms and the insult of dis-
ruption for ever effaced. It inspired his life, it
haunted his dreams day and night. With him, com-
pliance with the statu quo argued a man of mean
spirit, almost a traitor to his country.
How well I remember his tall, commanding figure,
which caricaturists made longer still, tightly buttoned
in a frock-coat until he looked, as Madame Severine
said, " like an animated flagstaff." The simile was
happy, for he bore the banner of Irredentism. And
his burning eyes, his big resonant voice, his emphatic
gestures, as if he were lunging at an enemy with a
sword, all conveyed the impression of the ardent
fighter. To him the sanctity of the soil was more
than life itself. " Appear or disappear," he cried
AND c LA REVANCHE' 55
to Boulanger at the critical moment when personal
and aggressive action was needed to betoken the
leadership. The downfall of the wax Caesar was
Deroulede's great political disappointment. Another
was the death of Gambetta before he had definitely
pledged himself to the great reform which was at the
back of all Deroulede's tempestuous politics. This
was none other than a reform of the Constitution.
To advance this he seized General Roget's horse by
the bridle at Carnot's funeral and endeavoured to
get his rider to follow him to the Ely see. " Suivez-
moi, mon General," he said. " Friends await us at
the Bastille, at the Hotel de Ville, at the Elysee. It
will be a fourth of September without effusion of
blood." (The fourth of September was the date upon
which was proclaimed the Third Republic.)
These were stormy times during which the Republic
seemed to rock upon its base. It had survived Wilson
and Panama, was it going to succumb to Dreyfus and,
incidentally, to Deroulede ? Au fond Deroulede and
his friends wanted not to establish a monarchy or
even a dictatorship except as a means of bringing
about another form of Government, but a plebiscitary
movement. Though at the trial attempt was made
to inculpate him in a Royalist plot, Deroulede was
really anti-royalist, holding that kings were not
sufficiently national. Were not kings by their
marriage with princesses of other countries members
of one large ruling family? How, then, could they
take a definitely patriotic line when a struggle took
place between nations ? This view is curiously at
variance with that expressed by French people to
whom the Republic is not the chosen form of Govern-
56 FRANCE AT BAY
merit and who argue in this fashion : " Que voulez-vous ?
Ministers come and go, the President is only elected
for seven years, et apres, what interest has he in the
State ? whereas a king remains and is permanently
identified with it." No; Deroulede's remedy for
the ills of the body politic was a division of authority :
Parliament to confine itself to legislation, the President
of the Republic to be the Executive, not dependent
upon Parliament. Deroulede attributed the abuses
that had grown up since '70 to the admixture of the
two functions. How could there be direction and
control or a real reflection of the will of the people
in a magistrate who owed his place and power not
to the popular vote, but to the vote of a body of his
fellow-politicians ?
Deroulede's point was that the great republics of
antiquity, Rome and Athens, as well as the two modern
examples, the United States and Switzerland, were
not parliamentary republics. He expressed great
fondness for the American type, with its autocratic
President and its Cabinet of personal nominees.
There was no democracy, he said, unaccompanied
by a plebiscite or referendum. Only if his powers
came from the people could the elected head of the
nation accomplish anything; otherwise, he was the
creature of the oligarchy, to whom he owed his exist-
ence. A democrat who was injudicious enough to
say that the President of the Republic belonged to
the people certainly would be shouted down : his
tenets were impossible. But this was not the type
of Government for which Danton and Robespierre
fought. Deroulede said these things in a remarkable
speech to the jury of the Assize Court to which he was.
DEROULfcDE AND 4 LA REVANCHE' 57
committed for his attempted coup d'etat rather
contemptuously, no doubt, since the proper tribunal
seems to have been the High Court. " It is a king-
dom without a king," cried the prisoner with great
truth, for in the shadow of the disaster of 1870 arose
a Republic which was a truncated monarchy. Appeal
had been made to the Royalists because they alone
of the parties in the State had stood aside from events.
The Imperialists were considerably compromised
the false dispatch of Ems, which was really responsible
for the war, was not then known; the Republicans
had strenuously endeavoured to save the country,
but had met the fate of people who are too late in
their enterprise, and so the way was clear for the con-
stitutional monarchists. The country proved itself
conservative in its instincts; a "safe" constitution
was planned; the Elysee was to be kept warm for
a King.
The Republic was indeed a low-spirited makeshift.
Deroulede insisted that those who drew up the Con-
stitution of 1875 had no real mandate from the people.
Such a reform as he proposed would establish and fix
responsibility, he claimed. The weakness of it was
that it involved the destruction of the fabric that had
been painfully erected and which, later, received a
definite Republican tinge, when the country had
sufficient composure to express its real opinion. With
scorn, Deroulede repudiated connection with the
Royalist plot, for which, none the less, he was
sentenced to banishment, after the Assize Court had
acquitted him for practically the same charge. The
prisoner revealed no names, but, for his pains,
he earned the reputation of a hot -head who had
58 FRANCE AT BAY
attempted single-handed to ride down the Con-
stitution. At the last minute his supporters failed
him ; the General at the head of the troops was not
" his " General ; the coup d'etat was a miserable
fiasco; but Deroulede and his faithful henchman
Marcel Habert, who went with him into exile, kept
the secret of complicities locked in their bosoms. The
list was burned in the grate when Deroulede was
awaiting at the Reuilly barracks his transference to
the Conciergerie. He was as clearly disappointed
here as when he tried to induce Felix Faure to make
a move. But Faure, though he had known the
reformer for many years, and was one of the founders
of the League of Patriots, wisely declined to commit
himself to the course proposed. It was characteristic
of the patriot that he went boldly to the attack with-
out ever thinking of expediency. There was no
temporization in this headlong character. It repre-
sented his strength and his weakness. If his plans
failed for want of co-ordination, from timidity in
others, or some vice in the initial project, they bore
witness to the candour of his soul, his utter refusal of
half-measures.
If Deroulede's new Republic possessed the grave
disadvantage of requiring the sudden death of the
old one and thus seemed to be removed from
the field of practical politics, one must recognize the
generosity and justice of many of his views, and the
clearness of his vision, especially in foreign affairs.
He saw that France could not stand alone after the
defeats of the Terrible Year, and was one of the first
to realize and to work for the Russian Alliance. It
is not surprising, however, that he did not foresee,
DEROULEDE AND 'LA REVANCHE' 59
at that moment, any possibility of an alliance with
England. Had he done so, he would have given
proof of almost supernatural prescience and per-
spicacity. On the contrary, suspicions were aroused
by the role which we seemed to be playing in France.
An intelligent man is largely influenced by his environ-
ment, and Deroulede belonged to the generation for
whom England was, with some justification, no doubt,
per fide Albion. It seemed to him that she was at the
bottom of many of the troubles from which France
suffered. There was the celebrated Norton affair, in
which a mulatto interpreter at the British Embassy
sold documents to M. Millevoye, Nationalist deputy
and writer in La Patrie. They purported to be
copies of letters passing between the Embassy and
the Foreign Office, and incriminated, amongst others,
Clemenceau and Rochefort. Deroulede was sceptical,
and said so, but Millevoye resolved to bring the affair
before the Chamber. The understanding was that he
should ask simply for a Committee of Inquiry to
examine the papers, which had been bought for 8000.
Instead of that, in the sensation caused, he lost his
head and his case by assuming the authenticity of
the letters. M. Deville, the Foreign Minister of the
day, denounced the documents as an imposture, and
exonerated Clemenceau. The latter's obvious satis-
faction at such a vindication exasperated Deroulede.
Disgust at Millevoye's poor tactics and at the attitude
of Parliament caused him to retire from his seat to
the calm of the Charente, in which was his constituency
of Angouleme.
On the eve of the Norton affair occurred his great
battle with Clemenceau, one of the sensational
60 FRANCE AT BAY
episodes in his stirring career. He began by de-
nouncing Cornelius Herz, which was another reason
for not liking England, for was she not harbouring this
German Jew whom he stigmatized the corrupter of
Parliament ? and when he had finished with Herz, he
said suddenly : " Who is the man who introduced this
agent ? You all know him ; his name is on all your
lips, but you dare not pronounce it, for you fear his
sword, his pistol and his tongue. Well, I brave all
three, and I name him : * C'est Clemenceau.' ' A
thunder-bolt had fallen. Somebody whispered in
Deroulede's ear as he descended from the tribune,
" He will kill you." But Deroulede, flushed with his
success, returned : " What I have done is worth it."
However, Clemenceau, famous duellist though he
was, did not kill his man, and Deroulede continued
his meteoric career. Even if he suffered exile, he
had the satisfaction of knowing that Clemenceau, also,
was temporarily eclipsed, though, in reality, quite
undeservedly. Deroulede did not understand, like
many of his countrymen at that moment, that Eng-
land does not bribe foreign politicians to sell their
country, and indeed has no secret diplomatic funds
to dispose of. Later, when he understood the English
better, he counselled his League of Patriots to refrain
from any demonstration against Edward VII when
His Majesty visited Paris in 1903. 1 This letter was
written from his exile in St. Sebastien, which he
refused to leave until he was granted a dignified
1 " Whether it be desired or not, every hostile cry against the
King of England is the equivalent of a cheer for the German
Emperor.' 8 Deroulede's letter to the League of Patriots, April
1903.
DfiROULfeDE AND ' LA REVANCHE ' 61
amnesty. It was typical of Deroulede, who was
always a gentleman. It is clear also that he did
not approve of the Nationalist attack on M. Loubet
when the President's hat was struck at Auteuil.
Yet Deroulede trying to convince Rochefort of the
necessity of a Russian alliance must have been
amusing enough. " What ! " exclaimed the old Com-
munard, "you want me to advocate an alliance with
the autocrat ? " But Deroulede's persuasiveness pre-
vailed, and Rochefort astonished the world by ad-
vocating the alliance and blasting away difficulties
by a daily discharge of dynamite.
On the other hand, Deroulede's policy seemed to
centre in the recovery of the lost provinces. It was
said ironically that every July 14 the national Fete
day he recaptured Alsace-Lorraine on the Place de
la Concorde with his burning speeches before the
Statue of Strasburg. But Deroulede never wantonly
preached war. It is true that his language was full
of martial imagery, that he brandished the sword,
but his real object was to awaken his countrymen to
the danger of illusion. He saw the folly of crying
Peace when there was no peace ; but being conscious
of the horror of war, he could not lightly advocate
it. Nevertheless, he said, death was better than
dishonour.
"En avant, tant pis pour ceux qui tombent,
La mort n'est rien, vive la tombe,
Quand le pays en sort vivant.
En avant ! "
It is right, however, that his memory should be
cleared from an aspersion. He was a torch, not a
firebrand ; if he was an incendiary, he wished merely
62 FRANCE AT BAY
to burn up falsehood and shame ; he did not set a light
to homes and suffuse the country with a blood-red
glow. Let us be prepared for war, he said. His
speeches always recalled the annee terrible. He was
the poet of La Revanche, and his heart bled for the
provinces under the Prussian heel ; none the less he
was convinced that there was no greatness possible
for those who were content to remain defeated, and
that what had been lost by arms must be regained
by arms. And yet he knew what war meant in
sacrifice and heroism, in sorrow and suffering, specially
for the poor, who are doubly afflicted by the loss
of their dear ones and by the economic disturbance
which results from war. Yet there was something
greater than all that : it was principle, it was char-
acter, it was the greatness of a people whose heart
is in the right place, whose ideals are high, whose
politicians are disinterested. Here was a sufficiently
large programme for any country, especially for
France, which was passing through a period of acute
and dangerous depression.
In a remarkable speech at Buzenval, near Paris, the
site of a battle in '71, he said that nothing rendered
war more imminent than the declarations of Pacifists,
and detractors of the army with their counsels of
desertion. " To say that the nation is resolved
not to defend itself when attacked, and to allow
Europe to think that there are Frenchmen who
would rather make civil war than foreign war, is to
invite the Prussian ... to slash in the face a people
without heart or sword. To affirm, on the other
hand, that France intends to be respected, that
she is ready to maintain her rights if violated, to
DfiROULfcDE AND 'LA REVANCHE' 63
march to battle if attacked, to defend foot by foot
her territory, her fortune, her liberty, to reply by
cannon to cannon, by bullets to bullets, by the sword
to the sword, is first of all to put an end to German
rhodomontades and, afterwards, to assure the proud
peace which alone is worthy of a free nation. Finally,
this would render victory possible if some imperial
fantasy or some Teutonic duplicity were to make war
inevitable."
Happily Deroulede was not exclusively the warrior
in instinct. He was a charming conversationalist, an
accomplished Parisian, and could turn a compliment
to a woman with great skill and gallantry. He had
descriptive power and could paint a portrait or a
scene with something of the happiness of phrase and
economy of words of Guy de Maupassant. His
gaiety and good-humour in private life made one
forget his fierce denunciations in public; under an
exquisite social veneer, he hid the political leader.
To hear him describe his interview with Boulanger,
in which he urged him to become the saviour of
the country, his parleyings with his followers on the
Place de la Concorde in feverish moments when they
were ready to invade the Chamber, his talks with
Boulanger in Jersey, with Victor Hugo and Augier,
with Alfred de Musset and Tolstoi, was to receive
most interesting impressions, and of his exile he had
personal touches to present of the young King and
Queen of Spain. Deroulede was poet as well as
propagandist, and will be known for ever for his
soldiers' songs. The style suited the subject. The
verse was often faulty in form and rhythm, but it
was always inspired by lofty thought and a vibrant
64 FRANCE AT BAY
patriotism. It went straight to the heart, and it
thrilled like the sound of a bugle. It expressed every
emotion except fear, and despair which he did not
know.
Deroulede, himself, was a most courageous soldier.
Even when wounded on the battlefield of Sedan, he was
humming an old war-song with a red rose between
his teeth. " It must be Deroulede," said some one
far off who had caught sight of the rose. To get more
quickly to the frontier, he explained, he gave up his
commission in the Mobiles an auxiliary force in
which Kitchener served in 1870 to enlist in the
Zouaves. There is a picture of him, in his sister's
house in the Boulevard Malesherbes, carrying his
wounded brother out of fire. Later, when he had
escaped from Germany, after some perilous adventures,
he became an officer in the Turcos and gained a great
reputation for valour, and the Arabs even credited
him with a charmed life, so often did he escape from
death. A fall from his horse cut short his military
career and he re-entered civil life to write patriotic
plays. Here, as in his poetry, words were but the
medium for his political ideas. The stage was the
pulpit from which he could thunder out his dis-
gust at French complacency in defeat, his disgust at
French politicians, whose real fear was that war would
give popularity to the successful general.
You could scarcely have pictured the mature De*-
roulede from his youth. He grew up suddenly
in the war of 1870. The horror and humiliation of
it sank into his sensitive nature. He abandoned
the dilettantism which had been the despair of his
bourgeois father, who wanted him to enter his own
DEROUL^DE AND 'LA REVANCHE' 65
profession of the law, and he became the ardent,
untiring patriot and drum-beater to the nation. In
season and out of season he preached the necessity
of a strong France, able to hold her own, able to win
back what she had lost. Though Deroulede for a
time was convinced of the perfidy of England he held
out his hand, above the chasm of parliamentary
differences, to Delcasse, who, on the morrow of
Fashoda, strove to forget the old antagonism and
forge new ties. His ideas on this subject are best
expressed in a personal letter to me from his sister, in
which she says : " M. Deroulede found that a conquered
and mutilated country could not and ought not to
seek for territorial compensation otherwise than on
its own territory. The reproach made to Clemenceau
was not of loving England, but of seeking her orders."
With what joy Deroulede would have seen the pro-
cession of May 16 to the statue of Joan of Arc on the
Place des Pyramides, on the very site of the fosse in
which she was wounded in her attack on Paris. And
in this procession marched Mile. Jeanne Deroulede,
thus emphasizing her brother's part in this happy
tribute to the Maid. He would have rejoiced ex-
ceedingly in the homage of the English chaplain,
who made a speech and laid a trophy of flowers
on the statue in the name of the British Colony,
and in the bouquet placed by English officers on the
market-place at Rouen on the site where Joan suffered
her terrible death.
The valorous figure who is the subject of this
article is best limned by his last speech at Cham-
pigny on a battlefield where sleep three thousand
five hundred French and eight hundred Germans.
66 FRANCE AT BAY
The condemnation of patriots at Metz, Strasburg
and Colmar moved him to intense indignation, and
he finished his vibrant discourse, delivered in the
dramatic circumstances of a last illness so weak that
he had to support himself on crutches on a ringing
note of patriotism. His long, haggard, suffering face
gave immense emphasis to the words, which were
delivered with much of the old timbre : " Vive a jamais
notre bien-aimee France." This was his last ap-
pearance to Parisians; he died in Carnival time at
Nice.
To-day France presents the image of a country such
as he dreamed of and prayed for, a country at grips
with a relentless enemy, a country emerging from the
long sleep of indolence and despair, a country deter-
mined now and for ever to be the mistress of her
destiny. This was the France that Deroulede loved
to evoke, this was the France he considered worth
dying for.
CHAPTER VI
PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY
THE war has brought into prominence the person-
ality of French leaders. When Joffre took command,
as the " first mobilizable man " in France, his name
meant very little to the public, but that little was all
in his favour. The better informed knew him for
a quiet, laborious man, with a massive, dominating
personality, who disciplined fearlessly, with a single
eye to the service. And somehow, from the very
first, his name, even to those who only knew it by
the merest hearsay, inspired confidence. His por-
traits gave the impression of a real leader, not of the
beau sabreur, of whom France has had dangerous and
regretful experience. At last, the country had got
a soldier upon whom it might rely. A provincial
paper of repute, after the battle of the Marne, reported
a conversation with him, which, whether inspired or
not, enhanced the prestige of the man and made the
public feel more firmly than ever that here was the
needed army chief. " We should have won at
Charleroi," was the refrain of the article, " We should
have won." And why did " we " not win ? Because
of the insufficiency of generals, whom, according to
popular report, Joffre remorselessly cashiered. He
declared that he had brought up the troops necessary
67
68 FRANCE AT BAY
to meet the Germans, but that some commanders
had failed at the critical hour. And people knew, by
this same organ, that he had insisted, more or less in
vain, on the rejuvenation of the higher commands.
Another cause of satisfaction was his victory of the
Marne, through his assemblage of an army at Amiens,
all unknown to the Germans, which elbowed the
enemy away from Paris, exposed his flank, and
brought him to disaster.
Joffre's strength and purpose were revealed by
his treatment of defaulters. That was firmly fixed
in the public mind; but there leaked out the
further fact, still more appealing to the critic in the
cafe, that, ten days before the culminating phase of
the battle of the Marne, he had advised the Ministry
of War of the likely course of events, had foretold
his victory, in explaining that the Germans would
retreat too far, and had likewise foreseen their adop-
tion of a new line of trenches on the Aisne. These
new positions, he said, they would occupy for months
all words that came literally true. The mathemati-
cal brain of Joffre had worked out the problem to
a stalemate. To force the game, new factors must
come into play, of which the chief were guns, more
guns, and still more guns bigger and more powerful
guns. Calm prevision, indeed, is one of the chief
qualities of the generalissimo. He sees the problem,
learns everything that can be learned about it, and
then decides. Critics declare that he does not act
with sufficient swiftness when once a solution is
clear; and that his economy of men at critical
moments, his reluctance to risk lives, entails sacrifice
at other times, but these are questions that we may
PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY 69
leave to the few who are competent to deal with them.
Yet it is possible that over-reflection and precaution
rob him of the full effect of his vision, which power
he shares with Napoleon ; but, in the case of the
Corsican, there was added a swift and amazing faculty
for action. His battles were won by the rapidity
with which he delivered crushing blows upon the
weakest link in the opposing chain.
One gets an illuminating glimpse of Joffre and his
character from his own country, the French Catalan,
on the northern side of the Pyrenees. It was here
that Joffre's youth was passed, and it is here that he
first impressed contemporaries with his pertinacity,
and even with his pugnacity, for he fought with
other boys that he might be left in peace to work at
his favourite mathematics. In the French Catalan
one realizes how different the people are from other
Frenchmen. The type is Spanish or Moorish : the
swarthy complexion, the flashing eye and high cheek-
bone, bespeak a race which is that of early settlers
in France. Pride and independence belong to the
Catalan, and he has some other characteristics, such
as industry and sobriety, which he shares with the
other Southern populations of France. Yet Joffre,
possessing, as he does, many of the attributes of the
south, stands apart in other of his qualities. Light-
haired, until the silver came into his locks, and light-
coloured for a southerner, he presents an unusual
type. He, himself, declares laughingly that he is
a Wisigoth, one of the hardy race of warriors which
over-ran the south-east corner of France. When
M. Messimy, the then Minister of War, saw Joffre for
the first time on his appointment to the supreme
70 FRANCE AT BAY
command, he asked whether he was not a Norman
or perhaps a Flamand. " No," said Joffre in his
decisive way, "je suis Catalan." A Catalan never
thinks of himself as French, but always as of a special
race divided by the Pyrenees from his brethren in
Spain. At Barcelona, the centre of the Spanish
Catalan, is a daily paper in the tongue, which is not
a mixture of French and Spanish, but a language of
its own. " Now we have left France," say the
Catalans one meets in the train, as the Eastern Pyre-
nees is entered. They do not mean to suggest a want
of French sentiment by this geographical exclusive-
ness, but merely to express their own individuality.
They are extremely loyal, on the contrary, to their
French mother, and though their "nation " exists on
both sides of the Pyrenees, their true country and
faith are France and her cause.
Rivesaltes, where Joffre was born, is a small, rather
unkempt-looking town of Spanish aspect, close to
Perpignan, the centre of the French Catalan. Im-
mense lagoons, representing an overflow from the
Mediterranean, which is only a few kilometres away,
reflect the sky and give a characteristic charm and
colour to the district. You have thus the sea and
the mountain, for the lofty mass of the Canigou, the
chief height of the eastern chain, is not far away.
From its summit on a clear day one may descry the
high-perched Notre Dame de la Garde of Marseilles as
a white spot shining in the distance. If the large
shallow lakes, dotted with the sails of fisher craft,
give a certain triste and wild beauty to the scene,
they add also a fear of fever. A project to convert
them into dry land has ended in discussion ; but
PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY 71
the district has lost at least its evil reputation for
unhealthiness. One is struck, at Rivesaltes, with the
quantity of wine-casks upon the platform and in
trucks upon the railway : hogsheads of the good
wine which grows in this plain of Roussillon, stretch-
ing between the General's town and Perpignan.
" I am a Catalan of the Roussillon," wrote Joffre
proudly at the foot of a photograph now in possession
of M. Delcasse, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. And
this rich plain, with its ferruginous clay soil, grows
men of iron as well as grapes, which have in them
something of the body of Spanish wines.
In a narrow little street, the Rue des Grangers, in
the oldest part of Rivesaltes, was born the future
commander-in-chief, in a house of insignificant
appearance. A dark little antechamber, behind
paradoxically " genteel " doors, leads one to the stair-
case and the upper room, where Joffre was born
a singularly unpretentious-looking apartment, low-
browed, with a bed in the alcove, lighted by a tiny
window giving on to a courtyard. Kitchen and dining-
room are close together, with the bedroom in between ;
upstairs are other bedrooms, a store-room for winter's
fuel, which is raised by a pulley protruding from the
window. This is the birthplace of the great man, and
is as modest as he has always remained, in keeping
with his utter democracy and simplicity. He is the
type of the modern Republican general. In Rivesaltes
they rejoice in his accessibility and urbanity. When
he stays in the town he has a plain and com-
modious house here (the legacy of a relative) and
occasionally spends a summer in it he fascinates the
townspeople by doing his own marketing. Joffre's
72 FRANCE AT BAY
father was a working cooper, owning a little land on
the Roussillon. Of his children, three only now
survive : the General, a married sister, and a brother
who is a Government functionary. An uncle took
charge of Joffre and saw to his education. Pleased
by his progress, he sent him to the Lycee at Perpignan,
and afterwards to Paris, where he entered the Poly-
technique a year earlier than is usual. It was here
that the war of 1870 surprised him, as a youth of
seventeen, and gave him his first taste of arms.
A local admirer, a Mile. Clara, has formed a Joffre
album. Here is Joffre in various stages of his
existence, as well as an old uncle who was quite a
character, and given, they say, to poaching but one
is particularly impressed by the little faded photograph
of the General in the dress of a Lyceen. One remarks
the clear, steady gaze, the firm, calm, self-reliant air
of the youth. The child is father to the man.
The General retains a homely " tang " in his speech,
which is not the least of his claims to popularity in
the south. In the early days, when he was engaged
on fortifications, he spent a holiday in mufti in the
Pyrenees. He was particularly interested in a fort
guarding one of the Passes, and drew near to examine
it. He was arrested suddenly by a detective and
carried before the commissaire de police. " Are you
a German ? " asked the latter. " A German of the
Roussillon," returned the young officer, in the broadest
Catalan. The magistrate, who knew enough of the
tongue to recognize the purity of the accent, laughed
and let the prisoner go with apologies for the mistake.
With his speech, too, Joffre has retained, what is
also inherent in the Catalan, fidelity in friendship.
PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY 73
When I was at Toulouse, some six months after
the war had broken out, M. Hue, the editor of La
Depeche, told me that Joffre used to visit him at
Tours, when he was a soldier in garrison there ; the
future general was then a captain building forts round
Paris. He was not deterred by the journey from the
capital from visiting his friend every Sunday. Just
as he is faithful in his private relationships, so he
is immutable in his allegiance to duty. He was
asked to recommend a friend for an army corps.
" No, no," he said, " leave him where he is, at the
head of a division." The friend came to urge his
claim personally. " I like you very much," said
the General-in-Chief, "but I like France better."
If he does not encourage overweening ambition in
others, to the detriment of the service, he is innocent
of it himself. " The war found me in my position ;
I did not seek it," he says ; " if I fail, let them send
me away."
Unlike men of meaner mould, Joffre surrounds
himself with brilliant collaborators ; he does not feel
the necessity of shining through the inferiority of
others. He is admirably supported by General Foch,
who is the Second in Command and chief of five
armies in the north. When war broke out, Foch
was at the head of the 20th Army Corps at Nancy,
the capital of French Lorraine. He was approaching
retirement when his great chance came, for he was
sixty-three. The battles of the Marne and Yser,
where he was in charge of the centre, revealed him
as a tactician. Sir John French, in an official dis-
patch, gratefully recognized the support he had
given him in Flanders. The south is surely the
74 FRANCE AT BAY
country of generals, for Foch was born there, in the
Pyrenees, at the village of Valentine ; Gallieni at
St. Bea, close to the Spanish frontier; de Castelnau
in a village in old Languedoc, and Sarrail at Carcas-
sonne a remarkable proportion of leaders in the
present war.
Foch is of the older school who has yet known how
to adapt himself to the most recent developments
of scientific warfare. Before he commanded at
Bourges, and, subsequently, at Nancy, he professed
strategy and general tactics at the War School. His
post brought him into contact with the rising gener-
ation of staff officers. If the French Etat-Major is
soundly versed in history and the general science of
war, it is greatly owing to General Foch and the keen
interest he took in his work. Nor has he allowed
the past and its lessons to weigh too heavily upon
him. When history does not square with modern
trench fighting, so much the worse for history. Foch
used to analyze the causes of failure or success in his
lectures at the War School. Very interesting were
his conclusions on the Franco-German War. He
showed how inferior was von Moltke to Napoleon ;
he had no " vision " like the Great Captain, and,
consequently, lacked the intense impulse necessary
to act in war. Von Moltke brought his troops to
the battle and let them fight it out for themselves.
It was not his directing brain that really secured
victory, but a certain firmness in the command profit-
ing by accident and the weakness of the foe. The
French were beaten principally because of their errors ;
it is only now by their magnificent conduct that they
have retrieved the deplorable mistakes of 1870. " The
PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY 75
Germans have been forced to fight underground,"
said M. Paul Deschanel, in the Chamber, and the fine
expression will serve as an illustration of the new
conditions, as of the new temper of the French, who
failed in the other war because they were wanting
in the will to conquer. Nor had they always the
will to obey, for de Failly and Garibaldi both
brought disaster on their armies in the east because
of failure to follow orders. And then Foch explained
that discipline and obedience were not blind and
unreasoning things, but living and intelligent, a
species of co-operation, requiring the spirit as well
as the letter of the order to be comprehended and
assimilated. Foch taught these things brilliantly
in his lectures and in a book called The Conduct
of War, which gave him first place among military
thinkers. And in the field he has shown not only
the knowledge of a commander versed in the lessons
of the past, but the swift decision of one able to
adapt himself instantaneously to the tactical evolution
of to-day. He has known how to handle these new
forces, to " realize " new conceptions of war.
After Foch comes in general esteem, perhaps,
Gallieni, the " Defender of Paris." His popularity
with Parisians is not unconnected with his courageous
defiance of the Germans when they were advancing
upon the city. " J'ai requ mandat de defendre Paris
contre Venvahisseur. Ce mandat, je le remplirai
jusqu'au bout." The historic placard assured the
city that it had a champion in the General, though
one may doubt whether the fortifications which
stretched out far into the country could long have
resisted an enemy attack. In any case, they pro-
76 FRANCE AT BAY
vided the Parisians with a Sunday spectacle and the
sensations of war. The stone walls at the Paris gates,
the barricades of felled trees and the chevaux de frise
profoundly moved the popular imagination par-
ticularly the Bois, which was turned into a vast
victualling centre, with its herds of cattle and its
stacks of fodder.
Destined from the cradle for the profession of arms,
this green old warrior of to-day, whose tall spare
form, large osseous face and sharp eyes behind the
pince-nez express energy in every line, is chiefly
celebrated for his rule over Madagascar. He is of
the type of colonial soldier which has sprung from
the loins of France over-seas, when a lust of land
came upon her and she added to her possessions
in Asia and Africa. Gallieni was captured in the
Sudan by Ahmadou, a fanatical chief, and each
morning of his captivity, which lasted seven long
months, he was pleasantly reminded that his end
had come, and that he would die that day. Happily,
Fate had other destinies in store for him, and he re-
venged himself on his captor by taking his country
in the name of France. Gallieni was in Madagascar
when Joffre was there as an engineer-officer building
the defences of Diego Suarez. That was the begin-
ning of their friendship. The Gallieni regime coin-
cided, also, with the Boer War, and the General has
expressed to me his admiration, almost his reverence,
for Lord Roberts' conduct of the campaign. Though
utterly opposed in temperament, the two men had
in common an alert energy that would not shame
Mr. Roosevelt, the Apostle of the strenuous life. The
Governor's rule over the island was highly successful.
PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY 77
When he arrived, French rights were shadowy, and
Queen Ranavalo intended to make them more shad-
owy still; but Gallieni was not to be denied, and
presently the titular sovereign of the island was
speeding to Algeria, where she remained as permanent
guest of the French nation. Once in formal posses-
sion, Gallieni began in earnest the work of organiza-
tion, and the result was good order in the island and
the commencement of a number of interesting under-
takings. Experience in parts of Africa followed, and
Gallieni returned to France with a great reputation,
which he enhanced by the clever handling of his army
at manoeuvres in Touraine. As Governor of Paris
during the days of trepidation, he showed a perfect
sang-froid. His action, too, against " the Germans
of the Interior " (M. Finot's name for the drink
traffic) bore witness to his moral energy. His sense
of discipline bade him remove temptation from the
uniform, and Paris and the surrounding districts have
profited by an enforced abstinence from absinthe, and,
in the case of soldiers, from all spirituous liquors.
Picturesqueness of appearance is a passport to
popularity when accompanied, as in General Pau's
case, with a picturesque personality. He is open
and free in manner and chevaleresque. His General's
cap, worn jauntily on the side of his head, suggests
the panache ; his single arm the other was lost in
the war of '70 symbolizes the mutilated country,
and thus is created an ensemble lovable and adored
by the crowd. To the General were confided the
first operations in Alsace, and his return to Paris,
after his success at Mulhausen, had almost the charac-
ter of a triumph. When Alsace became of secondary
78 FRANCE AT BAY
importance, in the general battle -line, the one-armed
hero suffered an eclipse, for he was sent to the Balkans
on a politico-military mission. A superb leader of
men, his courage and elan electrify his soldiers.
Somewhere exists the letter he wrote to his mother
when he lost his arm as a young man at the age of
twenty -two in the struggle of five -and -forty years ago.
It is a delightful piece of gaiety, good humour and
gentle irony. These characteristics have carried him
through life until he came within grasp of the
supreme command. But he refused to put out his
hand to take it, because, he said, " I have but two
years in which to do my work; it is insufficient for
such responsibility," and with a gesture, as charming
as it was disinterested, he proposed that Joseph
Joffre should be Generalissimo of France. His fine
energetic face is a true index of his character.
One of the best-known generals after Joffre is
Sarrail, who distinguished himself in the Argonne
in command of an army. His conduct at the
Retreat was soldierly and full of resource, and he
certainly contributed to the success on the Marne. He
wears a greyish beard which, with his clear, rather
prophetic eyes and forehead, give him a striking
resemblance to Henri Quatre, the Bearnais. But his
physical resemblance has not reacted on his character ;
il rfest pas plus monarchiste pour cela in fact, he is a
good Republican, one of the few Republicans, so
rumour says, in the French higher command. In the
course of his career, he was orderly officer to General
Andre, the inventor of the fiches, or secret notes on
officers' opinions. But that was long ago, and if
Sarrail ever sympathized with these unsportsmanlike
PERSONALITIES IN THE ARMY 79
proceedings, he has long since learnt the better part
of wisdom and tolerance.
His predecessor at the Dardanelles, that " unroofed
charnel-house," was the gallant Gouraud, the " lion
of the Argonne," the youngest officer of his rank in
the French army, for he is not yet fifty. Gouraud
is as youthful in ideas as in face and figure, and that
quality is as precious as it is rare. Badly wounded
on the rocky slopes of the Turkish shores, he, like
General Pau, has lost his arm. After the Sudan,
the Tchad, Morocco and the Argonne, it is not sur-
prising to find him in the Dardanelles. He is a
magnificent-looking man, blue-eyed and stalwart,
and commanded, with the prestige of great personal
courage, his heterogeneous army of the " line,"
colonial infantry, brown-faced zouaves and tirailleurs,
and black-faced Senegalese.
Amongst the generals who remain are de Castelnau,
Dubail and Manoury. The first is one of the seniors
whose name is familiar to every reader of the Press ;
after a year of war he was given a group of armies in
the centre. In the early days of the campaign, when
he was fighting in the east, an officer of the staff
announced the death in action of his son, Xavier de
Castelnau. The General remained for a moment
silent, as if communing with himself, and then said,
in a calm, steady voice : " Continuous, Messieurs"
It was typical of his quiet heroism. Dubail is one of
the Republican generals who distinguished himself in
the Vosges, receiving his Grand Cross on the battlefield.
He has the fine and thoughtful air of the intellectual
soldier and is as humanitarian as Joffre himself.
Manoury, who was severely wounded in the trenches
80 FRANCE AT BAY
at Soissons, whilst reconnoitring the enemy's position,
and was made K.C.M.G. by the King, came from his
farming and rose-growing in the country to command
an army corps and then an army in the centre. His
notable performance was his attack in the battle of
the Ourcq. Maud'huy, victor at Metzeral, is one of
the most popular chiefs, who uttered to the Creusot
hands this famous mot : " Work hard and we will
strike hard " a species of Nelson signal which
flashed through France.
The vicissitudes of war make it difficult to draw
a list of generals, for, in the supreme test of battle,
reputations wither and die or blossom like aloes in the
thunder of the guns. Yet of those whose portraits
adorn the windows of the town, or hang as pendants
from feminine necklaces : Joffre, Foch, Manoury,
Franchet d'Esperey, Sarrail, de Langle, de Gary, are
men not merely to lead soldiers to victory, but to
scheme to save their lives. The spirit of France is not
militarist for all its devotion to military leaders ; the
fighting spirit is not a desire to fight but a desire to
be rid of fighting. There is no joy in the killing, no
fierce pleasure in the trade of arms, but a deep and
ardent resolution to do one's duty that the country
may be saved from the invader. And this is the
great distinction between France and Prussia; this
implies a military physiognomy different from the
German militarist. The brutal martinet of the school
of blood and iron is not the French conception of the
military chief, but a patriot trained in the science of
arms that he may the better, and with all honour and
with all humanity possible, serve the sacred cause of
the country.
CHAPTER VII
FRANCE AND HER NAVY
NOTWITHSTANDING a splendid line of seaboard
along the Channel, the Atlantic and the Mediterra-
nean, the French are not, instinctively, a sea-faring
folk. The old jokes about their reluctance to cross
the sea and their fear of mal de mer are generally
true : the average Frenchman has no enjoyment
of the water. And his poor navy was for long a
prey to the idea that it was a costly and well-nigh
useless institution. Doctrinaires obtained posses-
sion of it, and great was the joy of an admiral and
a journalist when they were able to show (before
Sir Percy Scott) that the age of the mastodon had
passed and that of the microbe had arrived. Within
certain limitations they were right. The guerre de
course is deadly against commerce, and may place
the merchant marine of a country at the mercy of
an enemy, and submarines and torpedoes can bar
out, certainly, the stronger Power from ports and
harbours and prevent a close investment of a coast.
Some specialists hold that with 200 submarines you
could blockade England but they are assuming
that human ingenuity works only one way, the
way of destruction. Experience has shown that
there are means of dealing with the peril ; and even
G 81
82 FRANCE AT BAY
the toll paid by English shipping during the acute
phases of submarine warfare was small compared
with the bulk of it. Yet the theory, as first pro-
pounded, had the fascination of economy to a thrifty
people and meant that the French, by building under-
water craft, scouts and torpedo boats, could save
millions on their marine insurance. But the notion
had the disadvantage of being born too soon. Camille
Pelletan, its brilliant advocate (and alas ! judge and
jury as well, since he was Minister of Marine), preached
none the less a gospel grateful to the Chamber. For
once, a popular policy meant retrenchment, and not
a still greater army of officials. It meant that big
ships had seen their day and that little ships, which
destroyed commerce and harried the enemy, were
to have theirs. And so captivating was this to every
earnest amateur, though horrifying to every expert,
that the shipbuilding programme of the country
was hung up for a decade. From being the second
navy in the world, France became the fifth, behind
Germany, America and Japan.
And yet the theories of the Pelletan school had
more than the average amount of truth in them
for we are told that no dreams are wholly divorced
from fact. Their disadvantage was not merely their
revolutionary character, but the indifferent fashion
in which they had been thought out. The under-
water craft popularized by M. Pelletan were too small
for their work, and they had not yet reached their
present state of perfection. Again, M. Pelletan's method
of conducting his State department was scarcely re-
assuring. A doctrinaire, unfortified by professional
experience, he permitted disorder to reign at head-
FRANCE AND HER NAVY 83
quarters and seemed to take a boyish delight in
putting spokes into the administrative wheel.
Arsenal hands and lower deck ratings were encouraged
to bring their grievances to the Rue Royale, over the
heads of authority. People, who remembered their
history, thought that revolutionary days had come
again, when the lower deck discussed orders with the
captain, and this anarchy, they recalled, was re-
sponsible, in part, for Nelson's victories. Even to-
day, discipline in the French navy does not present
the stone-wall of the English and German systems.
It is paternal, like the discipline in the army ; officers
fraternize with their men. Except in war-time, and
on actual service, sailors do not salute their chiefs
on board, much less ashore. This apparent laxity
has led to allegations of ill-discipline which are really
unfounded; sometimes they can be attributed to
political prejudice. Thus, Louis Jaures, captain of
the ill-fated Liberte, which blew up in Toulon harbour,
was accused of permitting slackness on board, but
the charge (which was never substantiated) probably
arose because the sailor was the brother of the
Socialist, whom, by the way, he resembled only in
physique.
That discipline existed at all, during the Pelletan
regime, is proof of the resistance of the Breton sailor
to insidious influence. Catholic Brittany, with its
over-flowing families, has always given France her
seamen. Even though the drinking, favoured by
private distilling (in this country of orchards), has
caused a loss of stamina, the State has invariably
obtained its supply of handy men. But one must
take into account the latter's mentality. The
84 FRANCE AT BAY
peculiar quality of French discipline is due to an
attempt to adapt itself to peasant idiosyncrasies.
There is a custom on board ship of hoisting the flag
each morning to the sound of music. The men are
lined up on the deck, facing the stern. As the flag
is broken from the staff, each one bares his head.
In former times, when tobacco was chewed the
practice is now rare old sailors removed their quid
when this ceremony was taking place, but retained it
when speaking to their officers. This subtle differ-
ence, trivial in itself, typifies the spirit of the French
fighting man, on land or sea. He uncovers to the
flag because it symbolizes France. In both services
the motive power of discipline is love of country and
the assumption that each man will do his best because
he is a patriot.
Every part of the long coast-line of France is
represented in the navy. The ship's company con-
tains the unemotional Breton, the exuberant
Meridional, men from the Dunkirk and Calais region,
men from Bordeaux and Bayonne. These varied
races real nations within a nation live in perfect
harmony despite their mutual jealousies, because
they feel an equal call to serve. The inscription
maritime has provided the French navy with
excellent material in the coast populations ; but the
modern battleship is a complicated machine, re-
quiring trained intelligence and technical skill,
rather than the ruder qualities of fisher folk. For
this reason the townsman, with his quick brains and
energies, is encouraged, more and more, to adopt
the sea. The artisan is needed aboard, and he, of
course, is not a product of the fishing hamlet, within
FRANCE AND HER NAVY 85
sight and sound of the sea, but of the towns with
their tall chimneys, and the clatter of machinery.
Thus, a new type has come into the navy, leavening
the old lump and introducing changes, intimate,
but not less real, in the character of the seafarer.
M. Gaston Thomson and M. Alfred Picard ruled
over the navy for a time after M. Pelletan's meteoric
career had subsided in general dismay; but the
real period of reform began with Admiral Boue de
Lapeyrere. It was an innovation to confide the
Ministry of Marine to one who knew the service
professionally, but success was the outcome of it.
The patient began to mend from the very first The
sailor-Minister worked miracles, both inside and out
of the Rue Royale, in the name of reform. Great
changes were effected during the eighteen months of
his reign. He reorganized the squadrons and he
reorganized his Ministry. He effected the latter by
forming a Navy Board on the lines of the British
Admiralty, giving departmental responsibility to
experts, instead of continuing the autocracy of the
Minister without real oversight and control a
battered legacy from Colbert. The Admiral brought
the country to see the folly of a policy which had
lost France her naval rank in the world. He imposed
a regular programme upon Parliament, instead of
haphazard construction, which had made the squad-
rons a collection of samples. He gave the country
homogeneous fleets, constantly renewed by the most
perfect types. The Great War modified the output
from the naval yards and interfered with the ship-
building plan, but the principle remained; nor is
there likely to be any return to the laisser-aller of
86 FRANCE AT BAY
other days. When Admiral Boue de Lapeyrere
hoisted his flag on the Courbet, on the day of
mobilization, he found himself in possession of an
efficient machine manned by zealous and well-trained
men.
Concentration in the Mediterranean resulted from
changed political circumstance. England was no
longer the enemy to be feared, but the friend to be
trusted to defend both sides of the Channel in the
event of attack. Thus the naval problem was
simplified for France; her beat became the Midland
sea. The change came about gradually, when
Admiral de Lapeyrere was at the Ministry, sitting at
Colbert's gilded table and overlooking the wide
prospect of the Place de la Concorde. The inevit-
able political crisis sent M. Delcasse to the Minister's
cabinet to continue the good work and the Admiral
to his quarter-deck. The ex-occupant of the Quai
d'Orsay brought his tremendous energy to bear on the
problem. His great authority in Parliament gave
him the ear of the Chamber, and obtained its votes,
and the majority soon supported him in his laudable
ambition to make France supreme in the southern sea.
Austria was " indicated " as the enemy in the event
of hostilities Italy was already known for her sym-
pathies with the Latin sister ; and it broke upon the
consciousness of the public that under-water craft
could not win battles, whatever its moral effect
and whatever its influence on naval construction.
With the quickness of Gallic intellect, the nation
realized that the future of the navy was as much
below water as above it ; but, unhappily, she did not
profit by her discovery, but let others take the lead,
FRANCE AND HER NAVY 87
despite the brilliant " realizations " of Jules Verne.
However this may be, French naval yards began
hammering rivets again and bending plates, even if
the first start was not altogether satisfactory, for
44 Dantons " were born instead of Dreadnoughts,
though the latter's period had come. Still, it was
better than nothing; the germ of renaissance was
there ; it needed, merely, careful cultivation.
M. Pierre Baudin, who succeeded M. Delcasse* at
the helm, almost contemporaneously with Mr. Winston
Churchill at the British Admiralty, used his best en-
deavours to secure greater rapidity of output from the
naval yards. This of itself meant a fight with routine
and inertia, for arsenal workmen had been taught to
regard themselves as a class apart. Pampered by
the politicians, some adopted, even, the pose of anti-
militarism, ridiculous in the light of their employ-
ment. That period has passed; it need trouble us
no more. There are no longer anti-militarists in
France; they have become fused into the patriot
by the scorching flame of war.
To Admiral Boue de Lapeyrere belongs the credit
of restoring discipline and mutual confidence to
officers and men. The senior French Admiral is a
typical sea-dog, a vieux loup de mer, in the French
phrase. He is never happier than when pacing his
quarter-deck, and has few pleasures away from it.
He prefers the starlit sky to any painted ceiling,
and the rude breath of the sea to the well-bred tones
of the drawing-room. His experience and attain-
ments make him the technical guide as well as the
spiritual confessor of his fleet. Simple in manner,
he is adored by his sailors and addresses them in the
88 FRANCE AT BAY
language they can understand and appreciate. His
active temperament would have desired some brilliant
engagement as apotheosis to his career; if that is
denied him, he accepts it as a sailor should. Years
ago, as a young lieutenant, he made his name on the
little gunboat Vipere, which took an active part in
operations against the Chinese; and he waited only
eight years for his ship, instead of the usual fourteen.
He had the advantage of a double training under
Fournier, whose flag-captain he was, and under
Courbet. Both were excellent masters : the former,
still green at seventy-two (nine years senior to
Lapeyrere), recalls with pleasure his talks with King
Edward, just as the "Father of the Fleet," to-day,
counts amongst his pleasant memories the presence
of the Prince of Wales on his flagship during man-
oeuvres in the Mediterranean.
Though of aristocratic family, he is persona grata
with Republicans, a fact that has its importance in a
service said to be " honeycombed with Reaction."
His tact and knowledge of economic conditions stood
him in good stead as director of the naval yards of
Rochelle and Brest excellent preparation for his
work in Paris, whither he came with the reputation
of a man able to handle the State workman.
The French, like the British, fleet suffered months
of inactivity, looking for a foe that always hid itself;
nor did Jacques get those brilliant glimpses of war
which relieved the monotony for his English confreres.
If the losses were inconsiderable, except for battle-
ships sunk in the Dardanelles, the services rendered
were quite important in commerce-raiding, in the
bombardment of the Belgian coast and in the convoy
FRANCE AND HER NAVY 89
of troops. Africans and Indians were safely landed in
Marseilles, thanks to the French fleet, and despite
the activity of the Goeben and Breslau, which prowled
the seas. Brest, Cherbourg, le Havre, and Dunkerque
were protected, and on land the sailor played his
part. He worked searchlights on the outer rim
of Paris, looking into the night for hostile craft, and
at Dixmude, Ypres, Furnes, he and his brother, the
marine, acted like the heroes they are. Thrown
into the trenches for twenty-four hours at Dix-
mude, the marine fusiliers remained thirty-six days.
Paris remembers that, for its marsouins are dear to
its heart.
Nor must the service of the fleet to commerce be
overlooked, though no glamour or newspaper reclame
attaches to it. It kept open the trade routes of
the south, and, in conjunction with the British ships,
gave commerce its free access to the northern and
western ports. Invisible danger haunted the French
squadrons as it haunted the English, but in a less
degree, for the Austrian fleet, bottled in the Adriatic,
was powerless for ill. In his great command the
admiralissimo was seconded by Vice-Admiral Charles
Chocheprat and Rear-Admiral Le Bris, the gunnery
expert of the navy. At the outbreak of war, France
had 23 battleships, 10 being of the Dreadnought
class, 24 cruisers, 8 light cruisers, 80 destroyers,
140 torpedo boats and over 50 submarines. " Do
you consider," I asked M. Augagneur, the Minister
of the Marine, " that the days of the big ship are
numbered?" "Oh, no, I do not say that," he
replied, " but the big unit can no longer play the
exclusive part that was formerly assigned to her,
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though she is still capable of rendering great service.
The submarine cannot ensure victory, but it might
ward off defeat." " Armour," he said, commenting
on a recent action, " has shown its inferiority to
cannon." Here, perhaps, is some indication of future
naval policy in France; in any case, French people
appreciate their fleet as never before. Critics may
complain of early inactivity in the Adriatic, but this
has little to do with appreciation of a splendid service
which has exerted continuous and almost invisible
pressure upon the enemy under conditions which are
not as " fair-weather " as some suppose. The winter
Mediterranean gives mountainous seas, astonishing
to those who know only its unruffled calm.
CHAPTER VIII
PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES
COMPIEGNE was full of life and gaiety the night
before the Germans arrived. If the inhabitants
realized that the enemy was so close, they gave,
certainly, no sign of it. A notice, boldly displayed
on the front of the Renaissance Town-hall, stated
that a certain individual had been fined for spread-
ing the report that the enemy was coming; so one
had to be careful. Besides, no one knew exactly,
except the soldiers, and they did not cry their inform-
ation from the house-tops. A few of the citizens,
indeed, seemed to have guessed the meaning of events.
Doubtless, the worst phases of the retreat had not
been revealed to us ; we could only surmise what
had happened, what would happen. Meanwhile,
the town was filled with soldiers ; the English had
taken possession. English motor-cars were parked
in the Town-hall square; the Provost-Marshal was
round the corner, dealing out discipline and good
order, and English officers were everywhere. The
French marvelled at the youth and gaiety of their
friendly invaders. It comforted them not a little
to see their radiant faces, to hear their boyish
laughter. There was no hint of demoralization,
nothing but confidence and disdain of danger in an
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army that had retreated with amazing rapidity for
a fortnight past. Officers and men showed equal
calm and a certain hope of victory that conveyed a
subtle sense of security to the civilian. We had
come suddenly upon Compiegne in our search for
" the contemptible little army," and were astonished
and not a little touched by the tranquillity of the
town. Of course, Paris was brave too, but in another
sense ; people there knew, at least, something or
imagined they did, and shook their heads gravely
over the turn of affairs. But here in Compiegne,
upon which the Germans were descending swiftly,
there was no tremor, no halt in the normal life of
the town.
I mixed with some of the soldiers who were talking
of the great fight at Mons, of the subsequent retreat,
of the possibilities of to-morrow. Their experiences
had been awful. One man was certain that he was
the only unit of his battalion left ; afterwards, I met
other men, who were equally certain of being the
only units left. Such exaggeration was pardonable
in a fight against overwhelming odds. Alas ! the
published lists showed how grave the losses had
been. These survivors described, with many a
vivacious expression, the battle in which they had
taken part, the dreadful racket of the guns, the
murderous effect of the fire men dropping fast
around them. And, then, the retreat. " But, Lord
bless you, sir, we're a-leadin' of 'em on. We shall
catch 'em soon in a three-cornered bit of country,
and there we shall have 'em, for they'll stick fast and
leave their guns behind 'em." Prophetic words, as
the event proved.
PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 93
A man from a decimated regiment described
graphically how he had shot a spy that afternoon.
" I seed him a dodgin' about and I ses to meself :
What ho ! what sort of a blighter is this ? He was
runnin' in a field behind a hedge, and every time I
stopped, he pretended to be gatherin' turnips. I
seed 'im gettin' up suddenly, so I let fly and knocked
'im over. 'E was a German spy right enough."
In the absence of the Engineers, a young subaltern
of a Line regiment, who seemed to have a consider-
able experience in that sort of thing, was putting in
a charge which was to blow up the bridge at the
proper moment. Meanwhile, the air was full of
rumours. The enemy was advancing, the cyclist
scouts reported; but it was difficult to imagine it
amid the cheerfulness prevailing. The bars were
filled to overflowing; at a little cafe officers sat
cross-legged, jauntily discussing events. A stalwart
Highland officer pressed me into the service as inter-
preter. His men wanted tea ; could I arrange about
that? and there were some few purchases to be
made.
The town, which had been bright enough up to
nine o'clock, suddenly quieted down. But our night
in the big hotel was not tranquil. Officers of the
staff, and correspondents a mere handful in the
desolate-looking dining-room were the only guests.
A knock at the door came in the midst of our
slumbers ; it was the voice of the chauffeur. " Open,
please." "What is it?" "If you please, the
military want our car and say they will commandeer
it ! " " Oh, impossible ! " we exclaimed with sleepy
deprecation, and lost touch again with cold realities.
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But it was not for long. A young orderly arrived in
the dress of a private, a very distinguished orderly,
bearing one of the best-known names in France.
"I must take your car," he said authoritatively;
" I must get into Paris." There was nothing to be
done. "Will you wait a little?" we asked; "we
are rather tired." " Not a moment after seven."
"Very well, then; we will be ready." It was then
five. After a hurried breakfast in the big dining-
room, resonating with the voices of two or three
officers discussing anything but the war, we took
the road again in the grey morning. Mounted troops
were already filing out through the avenues. Immense
lines of convoy were passing, the young men on the
service waggons looking the picture of good spirits
and good health. As we traversed the forest of
Compiegne, we passed a regiment which was bivou-
acking there. Camp fires were alight; the men
were making tea and coffee. Later on, we learned
that they had engaged the enemy and captured nine
guns.
As we continued towards Paris, pathos was added
to interest in a series of wayside scenes. Village
folk were leaving their homes and tramping into
Paris. Some carts were piled high with household
goods, but this was the exception; the majority
took very little with them, evidently thinking that
the occasion demanded the lightest equipment
possible. Some pushed a perambulator in front of
them, packed with eatables and bottles of wine ; at
least they would not starve for a few days. Long
rolls of bread obtruded from the little vehicles,
crowded with packages of all sorts, and sometimes
PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 95
Baby sat aloft, crowing with excitement over this
unusual kind of picnic. The characteristic of the
procession was its courage and its calm. None
seemed to take his position tragically, and that was
comforting to see. Even the old people, who leave
familiar scenes with great reluctance, smiled and
joked with the passer-by. Their demeanour showed
as plain as words that the real heart of the country
was stoutly optimistic. It was as if each had said :
" Of course, we have to go away ; it is a nuisance ;
but to-morrow we shall come back." And this
cheerfulness, happily, was not misplaced.
Nevertheless, there were sharp reminders of the
war; troops were everywhere. Our car came to a
sudden stop in answer to a sentry's challenge. Whilst
he examined our papers, a French Territorial, "bearded
like the pard," tired and dusty, accosted us. " You
are going to Senlis? " "Yes." "Well, then, take
me ! " And he flung himself in, with his rifle. He
was still suffering from shock; his nerve was gone.
Huskily, he told us his experiences. He had been
at St. Quentin, with other elderly soldiers of his
classe. They were marching towards a wood, when
suddenly they were attacked by the Germans with
machine-guns, and well, there he was. Approach-
ing nearer the outskirts of Paris, we remarked great
gangs of men who were digging trenches in a field
eleventh-hour preparations to check the advance
and as we entered the city fortifications, my com-
panion remarked, pointing to the flags on the fayades
of the houses : " They will soon have to take those
in. The people know nothing, nothing at all, or
they would have taken them in of their own accord."
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Fortunately, in this case, the lugubrious prophecy
was not fulfilled.
Just a year after, I was in Compiegne again. Nine
shells from German long-range cannon had fallen
and demolished houses in the town. Happily, no
one had been killed, but the experience was a little
disconcerting. No harm, however, had befallen the
Hotel de Ville, or the Palace with its treasures, its
memories of the marriage fetes of Louis XVI with
Marie Antoinette, of Napoleon and Marie Louise of
Austria, of brilliant routs and hunting parties under
the Second Empire. And it escaped also without
serious damage from the fortnight's occupation of
the town by the Germans. A certain anxiety, none
the less, wrinkled the brows of the Municipality
one never knew what Fate had in store for the
historic monuments of which it is so proud and six
thousand of the inhabitants had left their erstwhile
peaceful and prosperous town as a personal protest
against the German attentions.
It was after the great battle of the Marne, and
some kind of train service had been established with
Esternay. On the way thither we noted the marks
of war, the scarified countryside. Passengers in
the train talked of that and of little else, if it were not
of the good behaviour and bravery of the English.
They were the popular idols, it was gratifying to hear.
To their kindliness and joy of life was joined that
supreme merit in the eyes of the peasant of paying
well for what they took. There was a soldier in
the train, whose happy smile betokened that he, too,
was basking in the sun of popularity. He had lost
PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 97
his way, he said, and was now engaged in finding it,
with the aid of a pretty peasant girl, who had invited
him home to tea. His only regret was that " mother,"
who smiled approval on the rapid courtship, failed to
grasp the full meaning of his eulogium of her daughter,
owing to her deplorable ignorance of the idiom. It
was astonishing how the education of foreigners had
been neglected. Yet they were very kind, as the
frequent passage of the wine bottle testified. His
praise of the French army was not as hearty as his
praise of the other sex; but this sprung, perhaps,
from limited experience, since he confounded " line "
with " Territorial." We passed a sentry on guard.
" Sloppy lot," he said, looking dreamily out of the
window with the eye of the expert " rather like our
Territorials, ain't they ? Good enough for amateurs,
what? " When finally I left this jovial son of Mars,
he was declaring solemnly that he would never, never
return to England. It was his homage to the Ally
possibly a little overdone.
Everywhere the countryside was torn and twisted
by the force of battle. The wires were down, lying
in tangled masses by the side of the railway, which,
also, had suffered from the tide of war. Portions
of the permanent way had been torn up and relaid ;
the ballast had been ploughed by shells ; shell cases
lay about the fields ; there was evidence of deadly
work in gaping holes in houses, in scorched and
broken trees. After infinite delays we crawled into
Esternay. The village had been brutalized by war,
and one was conscious of the moral damage that
attends a hostile army on the march. At a cafe
near the station I heard a story comparable with the
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worst sufferings of Belgium. A deep bullet mark on
a house -front betokened the place of execution of a
German commandant, who paid with his life for the
crimes he had committed. He and drunken fellow-
officers outraged and then murdered a girl, who had
waited on them in a cafe opposite, now half ruined
by shot and shell. She had refused to listen to their
propositions worthy of a Roman orgy : the result
was outrage and death. I had the story from the
sister-in-law of the murdered girl, whose courage in the
face of death and insult had won for her an army
medal. The village walls whispered of other tales
of cruelty and licence. The drawn blinds of a shop
hid the pitiful tragedy of a young and comely wife
shamefully ill-used by the exponents of Kultur. In
the old grey church the Germans had placed their
wounded, and upon the tower a machine-gun peeped
from beneath the folds of a Red Cross flag a typical
instance of their perfidy.
Premises had been stupidly gutted by the invaders,
the furniture or goods piled up and broken, without
rhyme or reason, except the lust of destruction. But
most of the serious damage to houses had been caused
by the fire of the French 75 mm. in an effort to dislodge
the Germans. An ancient man mumbled out the story
of his capture and retention as a hostage. He and
his companions had been conveyed to a neighbouring
village, where they were immured in a wine-shop.
Such an arrangement had had its compensation ; there
had been always plenty to drink, if nothing to eat.
He was wearisomely insistent on the point nothing
to eat until one felt that the fate of the village was
as nothing compared with the loss of his meals.
PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 99
Our way through the village was marked by an
unending succession of broken bottles. They lay
everywhere, behind the hedges in the fields, behind
the walls in the gardens. The Germans had rifled
the cellars in a search for wine. Their success in this
direction accounted, not a little, for their failure in
the battle which raged with such fury round the
chateau. The 75 mm. had driven great holes into the
wall an invitation to depart to the German staff,
which was feasting under the shadow of family por-
traits with the aid of family plate. Standing well-
placed in spreading fields upon a slight eminence
above the Little Morin, which winds among the trees
a few hundred yards away, the pleasant-looking
manor-house was a position of importance, as the
signs of battle showed. The fight had been terrible
over the gentle slopes, commanded by a road which
passed by the chateau, from which the Germans had
poured in a deadly fire from their machine-guns. The
ground was still strewn with broken rifles, with over-
coats and kepis, belonging to a battered French
regiment, which had come under the withering fire.
But victory had gone to the Allies none the less. The
Germans were driven from the village on their great
trek to the Aisne, and left their dead to be buried in
the fields over which elderly labourers were now
driving nonchalant ploughs.
In a trench lay dead Germans, in their top-boots
and green-grey uniforms. They had the patrician
look of the Prussian Guard. In the lane, as we
moved past a wood, we smelt the nauseating stink
of decomposing bodies. They were lying in ditches,
thinly covered with straw, awaiting interment in the
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battle-ridden fields, already marked with mounds of
earth. In the woods was the intolerable reek of
dead horses. Mounted gendarmes and Territorials
passed, under the charge of a captain holding his
loaded revolver; they were searching for " Bosches "
still hiding in the woods.
At Sezanne, a few miles away, we snatched a little
sleep in a bed, from the dampness of which we were
glad to be protected by our mackintoshes. Close
by are the marshes of the Gond, where the Germans
left guns and immense quantities of stores in their
retreat to the Aisne. Under the chill, rainy sky, the
sullen treacherous soil, with a swollen river flowing
between reed-edged banks, looked the fit grave of an
army; and just as melancholy as this expanse of
flat, drab country were the villages which surround
it. A vision of destruction was presented, a hideously
tangled mass of ruin. We entered a village church,
standing roof-less and window-less to the rain and wind.
Pews and church ornaments were broken and over-
turned, and the fire of inflammatory bombs had
completed the ruin. Only a statue of the Virgin
remained, smiling benignly, as if miraculously saved
amongst the wreckage. The bells had fallen, half
melted by the fire. On the walls a hand had written :
" Cursed be the Germans for their work here." That
imprecation in chalk, glaring on the grey-black
scorched stones in the glowing dusk, an island in a
sea of wantonness and malignity, seemed, in a
scriptural sense, to be the writing on the wall, a
warning to those who had provoked it. We passed
a farm in which the Germans had burned their
dead, and, incidentally, the charnel-house ; and then
PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 101
came villages in which there was a germ of life.
The women and children peeped out timidly from
half -ruined houses ; here and there, attempts had been
made at reconstruction, some effort to obliterate the
path of the tornado. The regenerating influence had
been at work.
In other of the villages, certainly, there was a
wonderful recuperation. Around Meaux, where the
battle of the Marne raged in all its madness, the
villages have resumed their normal life. Barns are
neatly thatched, cottages are mended, everywhere
the ravages of war are disappearing. Bridges that
were blown up by the French and English to stop
the Germans have been rebuilt with speed. In some
storm-centres, little remains to tell the tale, save
the graves in the corner of a field, with their little
wooden crosses surmounted by a sodden and dis-
coloured soldier's cap. Flowers of a tender re-
membrance bloom here : the proud red rose, the
humble violet. The peasants in their quick recovering
to a normal existence give proof of an unquenchable
vitality.
Farther still, in the region of Vitry-le-Francois,
the Quakers have devoted large resources and much
time and ingenuity to the succour of our Allies.
Ploughs have been lent to mayors of communes for the
peasants who have lost their stock, houses have been
built for the homeless amongst the stony wastes.
Sanitary work has been accomplished, bodies re -buried
which had been over-hastily interred, ponds and wells
drained and cleaned wherever there was danger of
spreading infection. The sect, so charmingly named
the Society of Friends, distinguished itself in 1870
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in the same sort of Christian enterprise. Then, as
now, a corps of young men turned themselves into
engineers, plumbers, carpenters and bricklayers.
The grey uniform with a tricolor star again became
the badge of brotherly love and compassion through
the devastated areas, a friendly light shining in the
wilderness. Seed for new crops, clothing and money,
have also been distributed God's work of building
up, where others have destroyed. " We cannot be
soldiers," they say, "because of the words of Christ;
we serve, therefore, humanity instead of the trade
of arms." Noble inspiration, noble mission when the
world reeks with slaughter and destruction !
At Lourdes I found saints of another communion,
admirable men and women, labouring to comfort
soldiers. It was a new Lourdes to me, far removed
from the scenes of religious fervour that I had wit-
nessed a year or two before : a great multitude of
pilgrims surging over the bridge of the Church of the
Rosary, bearing candles in their hands, and singing
hymns; scenes of great spiritual force and emotion,
when some poor cripple, gaining new force, rose from
his bed and began to walk. " A miracle ! " shouted
the people. The crowds at the Grotto, kneeling or
singing in ecstasy ; priests breaking in upon the hymns
with exhortations to prayer and with the fervent
ejaculations of the Revivalist, made an ineffaceable
picture upon the mind. But to-day the sick were
there in the hospitals, so were the priests, sometimes
doing duty as orderlies ; but the crowd was wanting.
And yet a miracle had happened, the miracle of
regenerated France.
Weeks later I was on the road to Rheims ; it was
PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 103
here that one obtained a glimpse of war. As we sped
by in an official car, sentries sprang out menacingly
from the side of the road, to examine our papers and
to know the reason why ; a general's chauffeur hooted
angrily at us to clear the road. The great mass of
the cathedral loomed large above the martyred city ;
from a distance it seemed scarcely to have been
touched. Nor did we gain much impression of the
bombardment from traversing the streets of the
lower part of the city. But in the Rue de 1'Universite,
once bustling with activity, now a heap of ruins, we
come suddenly upon the centre of destruction. The
business part of the city had been torn to shreds.
The archbishop's house was utterly destroyed. We
approached the cathedral with fear and questionings
in our heart. Had the priceless work of the master
builders of the centuries been entirely lost ? Happily,
though the damage was bad enough, our worst
apprehensions were not realized. A bruised and
sombre face, still human in its outlines, raised itself
to heaven in the dull and murky atmosphere.
Statues had been mutilated and tracery defaced by
fire of the scaffolding rather than by the direct action
of the shells. The attitude of suffering and sorrow
suggested a crucified Christ. This tragedy of beauty
and splendour was as affecting as if a living, sentient
thing had been stricken down and lay bleeding at our
feet. It was still a wonderful evocation of the Gothic,
one of the splendid monuments on earth. Within
was ruin. Not one bit of the precious fourteenth-
century glass remained in its place. As one picked
up a fragment from the floor, one was struck with the
exquisite colouring of the blue. Outside, Joan of Arc,
104 FRANCE AT BAY
proudly seated on her horse, still raised a triumph-
ant sword as if undismayed by this savagery against
the House in which her King was crowned and
her life seemed to have come to its great fulfilment.
She seemed, then as now, to be the symbol of France
valiant and defiant in the midst of ruin. To the
superstitious, her safety seemed a miracle, for near
by a huge German shell had raised a mound big
enough to have proved her sepulchre.
The spirit of Joan of Arc seemed to have entered
into the inhabitants of the city. One shell fell a
few yards from our motor-car ; the " tang " of the gun
was like a hammer beating upon iron. Then another
projectile fell almost on the same spot, raising a cloud
of dust. " Is anybody killed? " asked an old man
chaffingly of two girls who passed; they answered
with a nervous little laugh. A boy in carpet-slippers
climbed a rubbish heap, to look down upon the engine
with an academic interest. The white starched cap
of a nun shone like an aureole in the dusky perspective
of the street as she walked rapidly by, not even turning
her head when the premonitory cloud appeared
heralding the explosion. Both shells fortunately did
no harm amongst the rubbish.
Being the hour of the aperitif, the little wine -shops
in this desolated district were crowded with men and
women of the working class, who gathered as if glad
to find solace in each other's company in this city
where Death waited for them at every corner. It
was in a spirit of oblivion that they drank their beer
and talked the gossip of the day; but the bombard-
ment would obtrude itself : a well-known townsman
had been killed that day, just as townsmen were
PARIS AND PROVINCIAL SCENES 105
killed every day. An Englishman, I gathered, had
had a particularly trying time of it. As the guardian
of great interests and the employer of a large staff,
he could not leave the city, and thrice had been taken
hostage by the Germans. On one occasion he thought
his hour had come when a cyclist messenger declared
that he had been shot at on the city boundary. The
lie was so clumsy that even the German officer per-
ceived it otherwise, the penalty was the hanging of
the hostages.
But even painful experiences become tempered by
time. In a hotel where we stayed awhile, the
energetic little manageress had not moved since the
hour when the first shell fell. " And are you not
afraid for your house ? " I asked. " Oh, no." " But
the bombs have fallen next door?" "Yes, it is
partially destroyed but not here, nothing here."
And that was all, no complaint, no quarrel with the
dull monotony of danger, but just a courageous
waiting for the happy time when the city would be
free from the invader. For the moment, she spoke
as quietly as if the Germans were bombarding the
town with peas.
On the next day we were rolling back to Paris over
country roads, barred by sentries who demanded
ferociously our laissez-passer. As night closed in,
lanterns were swung in our faces before we were
allowed to proceed and the chain was dropped that
hung across the road. Through a sparse forest of
twinkling lights we arrived in Paris, threading dim
avenues to the central quarters. Restaurants were
closed it was ten o'clock but with a little man-
oeuvring one heard that it was possible to relieve one's
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thirst. Irreconcilable Parisians, who disliked being
sent to bed at ten o'clock and who stayed up till
twelve out of sheer habit, frequented one of the cafes
which, during the day, drove an honest and open
trade. At night, the shutters went up with sub-
missive alacrity, but behind them gathered a little
assembly of habitues animated by a fearful joy, for
were they not breaking the law ? They discussed the
situation with the air of conspirators. An elderly
gentleman who had fled the capital at least three
times, because he was told the Germans were coming,
proved a very lion in breaking regulations. But he
made such a noise that the proprietor asked him to
leave. He declined flatly, and the order was repeated
with such loud insistence that the customers them-
selves called for silence with a vociferous " sh ! " At
any moment the police might enter and place the
after-hours cafe under their formal ban. On the
whole, the customers seemed to me rather more de-
pressed than the inhabitants of Rheims, under the
shadow of their daily bombardment. I thought that
in the two pictures was much of the essence of life in
France.
CHAPTER IX
CONSCRIPTION : A CONTRASTED VIEW
THE view of conscription in the two countries is
eminently characteristic. The Englishman's objec-
tion to it may be traditional (that is, political), or it
may be technical. He may object that it interferes
with his personal liberty, and subjects a man, until
past the military age, to irksome obligations ; or he
may feel that it is impossible to apply conscription
to England for lack of space to train, say, another
three or four million men, and that it is now too late
in the day to institute an elaborate scheme for the
education of officers. For modern warfare is an
affair of science, and those who lead in it must be
scientifically trained by a professional course which
is a matter of years. But whatever ground he takes,
his main objection is probably to compulsion ; other-
wise it is difficult to see how he has resisted the thrust
of events until this hour. The question has been
raised, certainly, in an acute form by active -minded
and public-spirited newspapers ; but they have suf-
fered in the popularity of the unthoughtful for their
pains.
The Englishman, then, has a strongly rooted
objection to compulsion. He is an amateur by tradi-
tion and by inclination. It is only reluctantly that
107
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he admits the professional or even the expert in
politics ; it is only reluctantly, too, that he admits
the principle of professionalism in his games : his
cricket and his football. He feels it is not quite the
thing. Bishops and other excellent persons write
mournful letters to the Press about the gladiators
who are paid to amuse the crowd. In cricket the
" Mr." is carefully inserted before the amateur that
the public may know that, in applauding him, they
are encouraging a gentleman. The spirit of the
country is amateurish. High competence, it is true,
is allowed in the law, but that is the fetish of the
English people. Yet the specialist in theology is a
little suspect unless he stops short at the common
acceptances. ... It is so easy to run off the rails of
orthodoxy. The spirit, if it exists in other countries,
takes a different form. If you get friendly with an
American, an enthusiastic " Fan," he is likely enough
to tell you, with undisguised delight, how much his
club pays its professional baseball players. He is
not in the least shocked at the principle.
The Englishman likes as little the notion of paying
his Parliamentarians as he does his sport exponents.
Alone amongst the nations he was convinced that
his interests were better represented by the amateur
than the professional, and he did not shrink from the
idea of his shores and national existence being de-
fended by the amateur soldier. Until quite recently
professional keenness in the junior service was looked
down upon as an affair of " swots," scarcely for the
sportsmen who had adopted the King's uniform in
the spirit with which they donned the " pink " in
the shires. This did not prevent them from being
CONSCRIPTION: A CONTRASTED VIEW 109
courageous as lions in the fight, the fine flower of
chivalry in their conduct before the foe.
There is nobility in the posture of a man giving
freely and spontaneously his youth and strength for
the country. It is a magnificent conception, in con-
sonance with our history and the genius of the race.
The voluntary system sounds sweetly in our ears.
John Bull does not like to be compelled to do any-
thing. Naturally disciplined and law-abiding, he has
no particular love either of the policeman or the drill
sergeant. So many institutions are voluntary in
England which in other countries are supported by
a rate. The Englishman prefers to give of his own
free will. He does not like to be compelled to bear
arms even in the defence of his own land.
The Englishman's objection to compulsion is so
strong upon him that even the exigencies of a great
war can scarcely shake it or change his faith in the
civilian soldier, splendid type that he is, who came
into being through Napoleon's threat of invasion
a hundred years ago. Pacifists declare that any
other system is a menace and a provocation. A
large standing army, they say, provokes war because
of the spirit it engenders. And extremists protest
that it is not England's interest to fight, which is true
enough. Her prosperity is bound up with Free
Trade and her great carrying system, which puts her
in touch with all the world. Her commerce stretches
out its delicate tentacles in all directions. The fact
that she is an entrepot and international clearing-
house for the exporting nations makes it desirable
and even necessary that she should maintain un-
broken the cords that unite her to her neighbour.
110 FRANCE AT BAY
War is bad for trade, as Norman Angell cogently
proves in The Great Illusion. A leading article or
two in the London Press maintaining the same thesis
obtained notoriety on both sides of the Channel, and
gave Frenchmen a disagreeable impression of Eng-
land's material view of her international obligations.
England fights shy of the professional when he is
on his hobby-horse. The incontrovertible character
of Lord Roberts' propaganda did not gain him his
cause. People were fascinated but only half con-
vinced. " An amiable crank," they said, " warding
off old age by an active hobby." The idea of com-
pulsory military service is as repellent to English
sentimentality as the Channel Tunnel, which destroys
the illusion of " the tight little island " as completely
as the " splendid isolation " theory, which is still one
of the cherished idols of the Englishman's Home.
Nor has he grasped entirely that the progress of
artillery has brought one point, at least, of his
shores under the nozzles of foreign guns. His roman-
tic attachment to the notion of England sheltering
behind her own bulwarks is as much part of his
insular character as the compartment system in
English railway travelling, or those repellent stone
walls round English property. Though the fact is
unsuspected by many of his foreign critics, John
Bull is a confirmed sentimentalist. Dear to him (and
excusably so) is the notion of the inviolate isle, girt
about by the eternal sea even though the island
has ceased to exist except geographically. Sub-
marines have not undermined the spirit of his seclu-
sion. Not only is he cut off physically from the
Continent of Europe by the surrounding waters, but
CONSCRIPTION: A CONTRASTED VIEW 111
he is cut off more effectually still by the growth of
centuries of character. His separation has given
him sturdiness, independence and originality. But
we may suppose that, if the Tunnel had been in exist-
ence, as well as the system of universal training
with its corollary of a large staff of scientific specialists,
Germany would have hesitated before taking the
short cut through Belgium, which was the long way
round to Paris. And it is at least conceivable that,
if England had definitely stated her intention to
defend the neutrality of the little Kingdom, Germany
would have hesitated a little longer before running
the risk of meeting three Powers in the field.
In the matter of the Tunnel, England chose for
once to believe the experts General Wolseley and
the rest perhaps because their judgment coincided
with her own preconceived ideas. She saw danger
from a sudden act of treachery, or whatever the parti-
cular bogey was. Opinion was definitely set against
the Tunnel on general grounds of prudence, not un-
connected, perhaps, with a care for the coasting trade.
Great Britain's attitude with regard to the Tunnel is
much that of her view of conscription, and that is
why I insist upon it here. But the public in the latter
case heard the appeal of Lord Roberts, read some
popular books, which admirably expressed the aims
of Germany, and then turned to its golf and said, half
seriously, half with its tongue in its cheek : " Dreadful,
isn't it ? But, you know, we have lived so long with-
out it." One party in the State gave heed, and began
timidly to canvass opinion on the subject of con-
scription, or at least some system of school-boy
training, such as the cadet corps proposed by Sir
112 FRANCE AT BAY
Ian Hamilton ; but nothing was done beyond news-
paper talk.
In France the question has long since emerged
from the political stage. It is true that in the early
days of the Republic, the party of La Revanche, that
is, the military party, was associated with one type of
politician. It is true, also, that a certain ardour in
military affairs, and a certain desire for adventure,
seems to belong to the school, but every one, duke or
concierge, recognizes the urgent need of protecting
frontiers, and has adopted the only possible method :
compulsory military service. And the burden is borne
cheerfully in spite of the weight. And when the Three
Years system was voted, the country adopted that
in a similar spirit. It recognized the necessity. It
saw in it the irreducible minimum against the growing
legions of Germany, and M. Barthou's achievement
was to get that view acknowledged by a Socialist-
Radical Chamber. French statesmen, understand-
ing the ultimate designs of Germany, realizing that
if they were themselves crushed it would be the end
of England, with German ships comfortably moored
at Calais, Dunkirk, Brest and Marseilles every
French port, in fact with British shipping closely
watched realizing these things, marvelled at the
tranquillity of England. Surely she must understand,
they said, that only by conscription can she hope to
exist, to play her part, to render effective the Entente ?
How, indeed, could the Entente come to full fruition
unless there were large military forces behind it to
keep the peace and play the policeman? England
had signed no contract, and left herself free to act as
she desired, but it was felt that she would realize
CONSCRIPTION: A CONTRASTED VIEW 113
inevitably where her interests lay. Mere fleet action
obviously would not win battles on land. England
had recognized that in the past by sending troops to
the Peninsula and to Belgium. In Belgium itself,
where, a few months before the war, I was asked
anxiously what would be the attitude of England in
certain eventualities, leading statesmen declared that
the moral effect of sending quickly only twenty
thousand men into the country would be tremendous.
It would show Germany that neutrality must be re-
spected or one would risk a rupture with England.
It would be tantamount to a profession of faith, to
the caution gravely uttered : " Hands off at your
peril ! " Thus a compulsory system existing in
England would have had a vast steadying influence,
in Continental opinion, upon Germany's military
ambition. Force thus employed has a pacific
influence.
The pacific value of conscription is often dis-
regarded in England. For conscription is pacific, not
provocative ; it is civilian in its prudence and preserv-
ation, not military. The fact that every one has to
be a soldier is an immense deterrent from jingoism,
from clap-trap in music-halls, from absurd and un-
dignified manifestations. And it will be a deterrent
in proportion to the manner in which conscription is
carried out. If it is thorough, if it is logical, if the
politician's son is as little likely to be exempt as the
son of the labourer and the artisan, then conscrip-
tion becomes a real instrument of peace. And again,
it is scarcely to be imagined that France would go to
war " with light heart " to use the historic phrase
of Emile Ollivier on the eve of 1870 when it means
i
114 FRANCE AT BAY
sending her own sons into the battle. It is clear that
even if democracies like England and America become
bellicose as the result of a violent Press propaganda,
the fact that every man has to fight has a great re-
straining influence, even upon those whose weapons
are habitually paper and printer's ink. Though, at
the commencement, the unthinking population wel-
comed the war, there was not amongst the mass,
deeply conscious of its meaning, any jubilation, but
merely a quiet determination to defend the soil.
Such an attitude is as dignified as it is intelligible.
A British Minister of the Crown insisted that en-
thusiasm was one of the advantages of voluntary
enlistment. Enthusiasm for what? For the killing
of one's fellow-man ? Enthusiasm for such a war as
that which has brought all the young men of the nation
into the firing line, and a large proportion of them
into the cemeteries and hospitals, and brought suffer-
ing and degradation upon the most prosperous little
country in the world and upon the richest and most
industrialized parts of France ? Enthusiasm, if it
means holy anger and a desire for chastisement, yes ;
but not enthusiasm in any other sense for killing.
This war, above all modern wars, is shown to be
bestial and brutal to a degree shocking to all right-
thinking people. Few are enthusiastic in France for
war, but all are ready to do their duty as citizens.
This attitude is noble, too, the attitude of obedience,
quand mme in spite perhaps of quivering flesh and
of a sensitive artistic imagination, which perceives to
the full the horror of war, and by its intelligence
pierces its false glory. The picture of France mobil-
ized for war is the picture of a nation rising as one
CONSCRIPTION: A CONTRASTED VIEW 115
man, each man a part of a great machine, exclusively
concerned with the business of making war.
A professional army can be used purely for police
work in colonial wars, but when the metropolis is
attacked each able-bodied son should rise to defend
it. This is the theory of conscription, and it is sound
and human. " Enthusiasm " in continental ears seems
to suggest a sort of glorious sport not surely the
sport of asphyxiating gases ! Duty is the key-stone
to the arch of conscription ; we must cultivate the
virtue of patriotism. The whole nation is thus knit
together in a common suffering, in common anxieties
of a common lot. That is better than the gladiatdr
class, the class set apart for fighting. Looked at
logically, should one able-bodied class be required to
protect another able-bodied class ? Youth, courage,
enterprise, all the manly virtues are penalized by
the voluntary system, which leaves the least interest-
ing portion of the community safely at home. It is
true there are Chauvinists in France, but at least their
" enthusiasm " is tempered by the knowledge that
they and their sons are of those who must support
that policy in their own persons. Thus is brought
home to each man political responsibility.
The fact that the lower classes in France are better
informed on foreign politics than many of the middle
classes in England is largely due to the circum-
stance that the subject is painfully interesting to them.
Behind their frontiers, a few hours away from Paris,
flash perpetually hostile bayonets. If the foe were
permanently encamped four hours from London (the
distance between Paris and Alsace), you would find
a different pose in England in regard to conscription
116 FRANCE AT BAY
and in regard to foreign questions. The security of
the sea has bred indifference, and indifference has
induced ignorance. French people have a profounder
sense of foreign politics than the English ; they under-
stand more readily than we the real meaning, the
underlying obligation of the Entente. Their leading
statesmen realized, years ago, that England must
establish a large army, which, making use of the
Channel Tunnel, could operate with speed and effi-
cacy on the Continent. And France comprehended
more readily than we the role of the under-water
fleet, and the future of the guerre de course. She saw
that the exclusive reign of the armoured leviathan
was over.
So many of the working-class in England said,
after the war had been in existence some months :
" Had I only known the need of men, the need of shells,
I should have offered myself as soldier or artisan."
This was the spirit of the nation inadequately repre-
sented by the hesitations of the Government. But the
Government had the excuse that the splendid response
of the country rendered compulsion unnecessary;
which of course is good reasoning. And such an argu-
ment can only be successfully challenged by showing
enforced service to be right (as equitable and just),
or as necessary for the national defence. Conscrip-
tion, of course, is the scientific base for making war.
By its means the skilled workman is mobilized in the
factory or workshop, the miner in his pit, the railway-
man on his system, just as another category of the
male population takes its place automatically in the
trenches. It means the systematic organization of
the country for war.
CONSCRIPTION: A CONTRASTED VIEW 117
The menace of future wars will cause us certainly
to organize the women of the country, that they may
take their part in the scheme of things. When war
breaks out, they will be able to employ their trained
energies as nurses in base and field hospitals, and fill
positions in offices, shops and municipal adminis-
trations, thus liberating men for their work at the
Front. There will be a national register kept of
feminine competence. Each woman will have her
place in the military cosmos, and this applies to
France as much as to England. The result in its
moral and physical aspects will give satisfaction to
woman, who feels that, in the affairs of the nation,
she has been persistently neglected. We shall thus
expect to avoid many of the grotesque scenes which
held up English Ministers, and also to some extent
the Suffragette, to the laughter of the world. The
details of woman's exact part in the military machine
are being worked out in actual war conditions ; the
success of the French experiment is conclusive.
One of the English working-man's objections to
conscription is his fear of a military caste having a
perpetual sway over the more active years of his
manhood. And there is some justification for this
fear, for even a great European war has not changed
the almost fanatical regard for the universities and
public schools as the breeding-grounds of officers.
The working-man is a little fearful of the perpetual
dominance of Rugby and Oxford by virtue of the
military register. And here France, again, offers a
lesson. In a democratic national army, class distinc-
tions are moderated, if not abolished. An officer's
speech may often betray his humble origin, but
118 FRANCE AT BAY
Dumanet thinks no worse of him. More and more,
no doubt, commissions in England will be given to
likely rankers. Thus will the army-makers satisfy
the tendency of the age and remove from the working-
man his fear that he may be directed by an officer
with the minimum of professional competence and
the maximum of social influence. Tommy's love for
a gentleman has undergone modification in response
to the change in his mental if not social status; in
France it has never existed.
Another great advantage of conscription is that it
distributes the burden equally to town and country
dweller, for in France, as in other countries, the
peasant follows the trade of arms with great reluctance.
He is not naturally adventurous, and prefers to
remain within sight and sound of the familiar spire.
Had the French army depended on voluntary enlist-
ment when the call came to arms, the result in rural
France would have been very unsatisfactory.
Conscription being an acknowledged necessity in
France, is moved out of the region of controversy,
but, apart from that, it is the most democratic system
yet devised. The nation being at war, the whole
nation is engaged in it except those physically de-
barred. And as I have tried to show, it is a great
instrument for peace, when directed, not by an
autocrat (more or less gifted and subject to human
error), but by democratic Ministers. If you have
democratic control and responsibility combined, you
can scarcely have an aggressive policy. France has
been persistently pacific since national service was
instituted on a thorough basis by the Third Republic,
and this notwithstanding that she is historically and
CONSCRIPTION: A CONTRASTED VIEW 119
by temperament a warlike nation. The influence of
conscription, acting on a wide electoral basis, has
kept down the fighting spirit. Thus the tone and
temper of German diplomacy, which has really pro-
voked the great conflict, can only be modified by
modifying its source of inspiration. The moment
that it ceases to be esoteric and becomes popular, it
ceases to be menacing, particularly if the man-in-the-
street has to back it with his own right arm. And
doubtless its orientation will become even more pacific
when women are admitted to the vote.
CHAPTER X
THE R6LE OF THE PRESS
MOBILIZATION touched the newspapers, as it touched
other departments of human activity, and the effect
was instantaneous. The liveliness and spontaneity
for which French journals are famed were totally
wanting during the first year of the war. In ap-
pearance they became attenuated, with blotchy
countenances, and the tone and texture of their con-
tents were painfully uninspiring. Nor was the reason
far to seek, for the inexorable hand of national service
had seized the youth of the various offices and left
age and maturity alone with its wisdom and experi-
ence. If the papers took on an unaccustomed aspect
of gravity, it was not surprising it was their business
to be grave. Circumstances and, I confess, a certain
distaste for light literature at critical moments, pre-
vented me from following the vicissitudes of the more
amusing Boulevard publications, which flaunt their
gaiety from every kiosk; but even they, I am told,
adopted a certain seriousness in their comments on
the situation. As the war became a literary habit,
these flippant children of Parisian pavements babbled
in the nurseries of wit and badinage with precocious
gravity, posing as servants of public spirit and reform.
It was as if Lucifer, thrown from exalted spheres, had
120
THE R6LE OF THE PRESS 121
leapt back again to celestial place and power, and
lectured St. Peter on his duty.
Another effect of mobilization was to renew the
youth of venerable institutions upon which genera-
tions of Frenchmen had been nourished since, indeed,
Paris had become La Ville Lumiere and a foyer of
art and letters. Foremost amongst the rejuvenated
was the Journal des Debats, whose century had been
lately passed, but, like the celebrated British cricketer,
was still running. Napoleon, no doubt, read the
Debats on the eve of Waterloo. In any case, it had
kept the measure of the old journalism and wrote its
leaders, I am sure, in the flat-brimmed hat of other
days. People found its steps a little slow; it came
not swiftly with its news, like the Matin, sturdy
Mercury of thirty years of age, or as such frank demo-
crats as the Petit Parisien and Petit Journal, with their
million readers apiece ; yet it had its qualities of sound
and accurate information and judicious comment
upon affairs. There was no " intelligent anticipation
of events " as was fitting in a grave and reverend
signor of the Press ; but, in the war, it blossomed with
the unexpected freshness of a venerable aloe. It gave
us something to read, and not the mere dry bones
of the communique, which meant nothing to the un-
initiated. It talked with pleasant garrulity of Paris
life and touched, sometimes, the heroic note. In the
best style of flaneurs and chroniqueurs were revived
scenes of the war. The writing was polished and
scholarly, as if bombs and asphyxiating gases were
powerless against Virgil and Horace.
The Temps, also, if it missed the hand of Andre
Tardieu, its brilliant writer upon foreign affairs (en-
122 FRANCE AT BAY
gaged at that moment in recording history at the
Front), at least recovered, early in the course of the
war, its suave Olympian manner, its definite literary
cachet. Critiques of books and plays appeared
plays of a bygone theatre, of course, for the living
drama had ceased to be and charming evocations
of a Paris past or present, but always picturesque and
comforting in the sense of civic virtue. All this spoke
of calm and confidence in a city fifty miles from the
battle-line, which any day Zeppelins might bombard
and partially destroy, wiping out Opera and Elysee,
laying low the Eiffel Tower in the midst of crackling
speech with the Allies, or shattering the Ecole de Guerre
where theories were now being turned to practice.
All these things might have happened ; it was amaz-
ing that they did not happen. But the guardians
of the air were vigilant ; they were not reading news-
papers, but humming perpetually in the blue with
eagle eyes fixed on any cloud that might hide an
enemy. Sometimes the latter came, but rarely got
past the outer fringe of Paris, with its low crown
of hills, from which glitter at night a suburban con-
stellation. To the Parisian it seemed strange that
the Press should give him topics other than the
war to discuss over the bridge-table of an afternoon.
And the Temps earned his gratitude in another sense,
for it kept alive the trembling flame of the arts, and
fluttered a pennant for England when she was in need
of praise. Elsewhere, I have shown how French
people were irritated at the nonchalance of John Bull,
at his interminable discussions whether or no he
should remove his coat. The Temps was useful in
telling how England had employed her navy in clean-
THE R6LE OF THE PRESS 123
ing-up the seas, how no German flag flew upon it, how
France owed the continuance of her colonies to this
immunity from German ships, how French ports, by
this same means, were open to British and American
imports, how her own troops had been moved from
Algeria and Morocco to the motherland in perfect
safety because Jack Tar in the North Sea had his
eye upon Hermann in the harbour at Kiel. And
it said other things necessary to be said in the
interest of mutual faith. For, although those who
frequented official circles knew well what England
was doing : that her battle-line had been prolonged,
that every engineering shop in the country was red
hot with work, yet these things were not known to
the Frenchman in the mass simply because he had
not been told in language he could understand.
He saw only the reluctance to make sacrifices,
the greed of coal-owners, haggling with hard-
mouthed men and the common propensity to think
rather poorly of one's rich friends did the rest.
The Temps, therefore, was patriotic in holding the
scales against the ill-natured comment of the meaner
Press, which preached homilies on the strike in Wales.
Was it not proof of cold calculation, that England
was penetrated with the spirit of self ? And in setting
that right, the leading French paper performed its
part in the perfect understanding.
Gradually, as the war grew into a chronic fact and
the Parisian became acclimatized to his own strange
country and its " atmosphere," he noticed a trans-
formation in his favourite journal : it became more
voluminous. In the early days it was certainly a
shock to find organs, upon which one had leaned for
124 FRANCE AT BAY
guidance through the web of news, reduced to micro-
scopic size. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we
are influenced by bulk. The big book overawes us ; it
reproaches us in heavy accents with a misspent youth,
with neglected education; in the same w T ay, the
portly paper with a good round waist and mellow,
oracular voice impresses far more than the shrill treble
of a lively print which we can carry easily in our
pockets whereas the great newspaper refuses to get
folded and distends itself like a flag in the evening
breeze. The state of the Paris journals bespoke the
paucity of raw materials and of their ow r n " reduced
circumstances "they appeared, in fact, besmudged
and diminished editions of themselves.
Yet the owners of these papers had satisfaction in
the fact that they cost little to produce. And thus
it came to pass that organs which had languished in
the wan smile of party politics, now discovered there
was profit in multitudinous pence, and they became,
for the first time, income-bearing investments. Per-
haps the most amusing transformation was La Guerre
Sociale, now converted into a " Parisian " sheet, and
read even by the pretty woman over her chocolate in
the morning. It was conducted with great spright-
liness by Gustave Herve, the ex-anti-militarist. Now
it is notorious that the reclaimed sinner exceeds in
zeal those who have never wandered from the fold.
And Herve's sojourn in the wilderness, when the
State gave him husks to eat for his attempt to con-
vert conscripts into deserters in the name of pacific-
ism, had the startling effect of turning himself into a
patriot. His smiling gibes each morning at what he
regarded as Government inaction, his challenge to
THE R6LE OF THE PRESS 125
the high Heaven of the army to show cause why it did
not repeat the miracle of the Marne, refreshed us with
the dew of a lively temperament after the parched
summer of " official " news. Discontent disappeared
in the haze of this cheerful humour. Often just and
constructive, his criticisms were never the outcome
of a sour and carping disposition. Unhappily, some
of his best efforts were read only in the dim light of
early day, for they were seized at birth and hurried
to the awful oubliette where lay the rebellious and
unlicensed offspring of the Press. Of course, Herve
had the calm confidence of the armchair strategist
and let us know how much better he could do it than
those benighted professionals of the general staff;
but, beyond this light assurance was sound common
sense, a charm of writing amounting to real talent,
and the sunny smile and habitual gaiety of a French-
man with a good digestion. He was one of the literary
surprises of the war and, malgre lui, an odd corrobora-
tion of the old-fashioned notion of prison as a remedy
for ill-regulated reformers. He is a good soldier spoiled,
for, though he hurried to the trenches, his eyesight
did not equal his will to shoot the invader, and a
sympathetic commandant sent him back to teach the
Socialists persistence in the good cause, a duty which
he performed well.
In the same breath with Herve one should men-
tion Clemenceau. With Joffre, the veteran polemist
might have said that the war found him at his post;
he did not seek it. But there the resemblance ends.
Notwithstanding his seventy-four years, M. Clemen-
ceau has the vigour of ideas, the energy, the verve of
a young man. Though forty-five years have passed
126 FRANCE AT BAY
since he was Mayor of Montmartre, he has the same
intrepid spirit, the same juvenile iconoclastic taste.
He still wrecks idols with his editorial sword-stick
idols of smugness and mediocrity. He had certain
betes noires in the war, which he took no pains to con-
ceal ; it was the Censor who took pains to prevent us
from reading about them with the desired frequency.
History has recorded the septuagenarian's suspension
at Bordeaux, whither the Government had gone during
the battle of the Marne; but VHomme Libre (the
original title of his paper) was equal to the Censor and
appeared next day under the name of VHomme
Enchaine (" the Man in chains "). Even manacled,
the incorrigible editor continued to wield a picturesque
and powerful pen. Like Herve, Clemenceau pleaded
for activity in the long entr'acte after the victory of
the Marne, and when his remarks were too pointed,
the Censor refused his Imprimatur. Yet, such is the
suggestion of a powerful mind, that the article, even
whited out, seemed to tremble with pale anger. One
felt the criticism behind the blank space, the more
so that the rest of the paper managed to convey the
sensation of stifled speech.
Another figure which sprang into prominence these
days was Charles Humbert, senator of the invaded
Meuse and editor of the Journal. This famous paper,
which has achieved the apparent impossibility of a
million circulation on its neutral politics, and on the
strength, probably, of the short story, was acquired by
the senator and his syndicate in the second year of
the war. The interval had been filled with an active
propaganda by M. Humbert, who fired round after
round from his journalistic trenches in the good cause
THE R6LE OF THE PRESS 127
of " more munitions." He believes, as ardently as
M. Roosevelt, in the strenuous life, and there never
was a Frenchman who had more the temperament of
an American hustler. Secretaries wait on him in the
night hours and transcribe his thoughts, and only a
modicum of sleep stands between him and his readers,
or his fellow committee-men at the Senate, or the
affairs of his once devastated department. His pro-
paganda of the guns was reinforced by M. Henri
Berenger, in the Matin, who insisted that the organ-
ization of the factories should be as formidable as the
organization of the army. Thus all the leaders of
French opinion performed their duty in inculcating
heroism and in insisting on efficiency in high places.
M. Arthur Meyer, veteran spokesman of the Faubourg,
champion of throne and altar in the Gaulois, proved
by his commendatory tone that even Republican
France was better, in his Royalist eyes, than Imperial
Germany. He summoned the authority of the ancienne
noblesse, with its dim coronets and diadems, to the
support of democracy in its struggle against invasion.
And M. Charles Maurras, another Nationalist writer,
showed that the Union Sacree was no vain word
amongst the writers of the newspapers. He had
nothing but praise to give to M. Viviani's speech, in
which he destroyed Parliamentary intrigue by arous-
ing Parliamentary enthusiasm. Academicians and
men of letters, like Maurice Barres and Rene Bazin,
recounted glorious episodes of the war, and, by their
articles in the Echo de Paris, elevated hearts and
crowned military and civic courage. Yet the prose of
leisured writers is scarcely suited to the daily Press.
President Poincare's advice to his fellow Academicians
128 FRANCE AT BAY
to be "militants in the cause," was interpreted literally,
and delicate and reflective pens tried to become rude
implements of war. It is not given to every man to
leap the barriers and plunge into the melee without
losing his own soul, and when culture descends the
ladder, axe in hand, he does more damage to his own
sensibility than harm to the enemy. Sometimes this
propaganda, in the name of belles lettres, was as
dangerous as it was futile. The efforts to minimize
reverses to the Russians in Poland induced a wrong
state of mind, for they were narcotic in their effects.
" But the Germans do not exist any more ; I have the
authority of Monsieur X for it," was the natural con-
clusion from the arguments of the writer as foolishly
optimistic as that the abandonment of positions
gave positive advantage to the retreating army, and
hastened, in some strange way, the termination of
the war. Though no doubt the susceptibility of the
Censor needed careful management, a " moderate "
truth was better than the visionary's view, in which
moral forces were held to counterbalance the material
facts.
Another danger was the entry of politics into the
arena. Mrs. Partington's broom, which tried to keep
out the Atlantic, would have been just as ineffective
against French politics. They will enter through
every chink and crevice of the edifice. But the
Press wrestled bravely with the temptation to at-
tribute failure to an anti-Clerical general, and success
to a stout Republican, or vice versa, according to the
particular tenets of the writer. It was hard, too, for
Socialists not to discover that really the Reactionaries
were being favoured outrageously at the Front, whilst
THE R6LE OF THE PRESS 129
honourable Democrats were being sent about their
business for the least mistake. Nevertheless, it was
as refreshing as it was surprising to find politics fore-
sworn and a pure efficiency exalted in strongholds of
prejudice. And Gustave Herve proceeded to a
solemn declaration : that he would rather endure the
worst Reactionary, if he were competent, than suffer
the Republican fool remarkable admission, even in
France at bay. Yet it was too much to expect that
this apostle of Socialism would refrain from saying that
Jaures, the Great Tribune, had claimed with prophetic
force that France should build strategic railways to
the Belgian frontier instead of enlarging barracks,
should utilize her reserves as Germany did and should
constitute la Nation armee by giving each man a
six months' training and thus obviate the Three
Years law. There were joints in the armour of Jaures'
Nouvelle Armee, visible to the professional eye; but
it is a fine book and foretells, with rare intuition, the
course of the great war like Wells in his War of the
Worlds. Indeed, the outsider has seen most of the
game ; is it not the raison d'etre of the journalist ?
An organ that reared an irreverent head during
the war was the Bonnet Rouge. It showed a posi-
tive genius in getting itself suspended. Like the
traditional old offender, it spent a longer time in the
shades of retirement than in the light of day. Notices
appeared frequently upon the walls of Paris sealed with
the symbolical red cap and cockade, and stating that
the journal would reappear on a certain day ; an hour
after its " return to circulation," it would be seized
again by the police. Incorrigible Bonnet Rouge !
Its carping spirit extended to all mundane matters,
130 FRANCE AT BAY
so that one dined on hors d'ceuvre and sauce piquante
instead of the homely omelette of the habitual cuisine.
The Bonnet Rouge owed its notoriety, if not its exist-
ence, to the war, and there was a crop of papers that
sprang up, mushroom-like, in the shadow of the
national crisis organs that depended on the camera
for their food, and showed in its crude verities how
utterly the picturesque had escaped from the modern
battlefield. Only the artist with his eye for " types "
could evoke in U Illustration something of the old-
time poetry and romance of war. Sic transit . . .
applies as much to war as to peace. But the comfort-
ing reflection is that the Press of France, like the Press
of England, showed clear-sighted patriotism in its
writings on the war, and when it sinned, it sinned
in the interests of " More light ! " Perhaps some day
our rulers will realize that the truth, naked and un-
palatable, is best, even in war. It is part of the price
of progress that we should know all.
CHAPTER XI
WOMEN AND THE WAR
THE part played by women in these great events
is so important that it cannot be omitted without
penalty of incompleteness from any survey of France
in war time. How heroic that part has been is demon-
strated by many incidents, not the least being the
feminine resolution, in certain districts, not to shed
tears when the men departed for the Front. The wife
and mother determined to keep a brave face as if they
were dispatching husband and son on some banal
journey of pleasure or business. And such a resolu-
tion was the more courageous because those who
arrived at it were from the South, by nature expansive,
and moved easily to tears and laughter. But no;
the moment was too grave, either for tears or laughter ;
it was a moment consecrated to the country's need;
thus there was restraint, as well as dignity and con-
cealment of private feelings. To their honour women
dominated their emotions, their tendency to weep;
out of consideration for their men they steeled them-
selves against fear. They declared that the Cause
was worthy of the supreme sacrifice. Every woman
resolved to be a Joan of Arc in her measure, to be
valiant, to suffer without complaint for La France
bien-aimee. And so the brave set faces reflected
131
132 FRANCE AT BAY
none of the fears that trouble a woman's heart at
the critical moment when husband, son or brother
leave for the Front, for the great Unknown, for the
deathly enterprise.
It must be confessed that the women of Paris were
not quite as heroic. There were heart-rending scenes
at the railway termini. Women and children sobbed
and tears streamed down the cheeks even of the
men. This was not weakness; on the contrary it
showed a certain strength that, being conscious of
the danger, they did not recoil from it, but went
bravely forward, overcoming poor human weaknesses
and bracing the soul with ties of steel. To be in-
sensible to danger is to be easily brave. But even
whilst the women wept, they encouraged their men
to fight for France. And then, equally charming
and admirable was the behaviour of the sex which,
on the morrow of mobilization, took the places of the
men without the least ostentation, without the least
difficulty. It was a solemn and inconspicuous little
game of chasse-croise. The world swung a little on
its axis, but its customary revolutions were main-
tained. Men went to the Front to meet the foe,
women went to the counting-house, to the shop, the
bank, the post-office, the workshop and factory,
and the farm. They stepped quietly into the breach ;
there was no fuss; there were no speeches. They
became ticket collectors on the trams and on the
underground; they took a great part in the toilette
of the City; some young women delivered coal, and
carried out even this rude labour with a certain
feminine grace. Many stood beside the men in
arsenals and arms factories and helped in the muni-
WOMEN AND THE WAR 133
tions war. Whether the work was manual or whether
it was clerical they showed a perfect adaptability,
enabling the country to be run with great success in
the absence of its valid male population. Native
intelligence and talent aided woman in this work.
Indeed, one may say that mobilization was successful
in France largely because of the women. And if
universal service is adopted in England, one must
first work to bring women to that pitch of economic
efficiency for which Frenchwomen are famed.
It is a truism that women carry on a large part of
the commerce of the country, and especially the small
retail business. The man does the rough work, the
woman keeps the accounts, and comes into contact
with the customers and represents in fact the head of
the concern, whilst her husband is the hands. And
you may see each day what faculty for management
she has; with what ease and efficiency she directs
hotels and cafes and shops of the smaller sort, where
she sits enthroned at the pay-desk, with hair un-
ruffled and neatly drawn behind her ears, the corsage,
glistening in its blackness, fitting like a glove. This
impeccable figure, frigid in its calm, is an admirable
business woman. Order, method and suavity are
hers. Nothing escapes her. She follows all the
operations of the business with the eyes of a lynx.
And if I were writing a treatise on French economics
I should say that the defects of the French business
system are largely feminine defects, innate defects
of woman's nature, and are the outcome of a timid,
conscientious, over-careful and meticulous nature.
On the other hand, Madame Dupont is positive and
practical and less given to day-dreams than poor
134 FRANCE AT BAY
vague man. She has been trained in economy from
her cradle by her own excellent mother ; she has
learned by constant precept the value of a sou.
Descended from a long line of careful housewives, she
has become expert, and, like the cotton operatives
in Lancashire, is the product of atavism and inherited
skill.
Women in England, I have suggested, are less
adapted by their training and education to accept
sudden responsibility. Life is organized differently on
the English side of the Channel ; women are not
required either to possess a dowry or the equivalent
metier. Thus there is not a large mass of trained
women immediately available for work. One of the
phenomena of mobilization in France was the con-
tinuance of business after the first shock of a sudden
withdrawal of all the young men on very much the
normal lines. It is true that some of the business
streets in Paris presented a death-like stillness, for
on each premises was written : fermee a cause de la
mobilisation, but this condition of suspended anima-
tion was commoner to the towns than to the country.
Harvesting was completed in many cases before the
last contingents were called to join the colours ; but
women had to carry out many of the operations of
the farm, to care for the stock, to sow and tend the
growing crop. For the ploughing, they had generally
the assistance of a younger son or of youths from the
village ; or, perhaps, grandfather was drawn from his
quiet contemplation over the garden gate to resume
the occupation which had been laid aside for years
and there were always kind neighbours to fall back
upon.
WOMEN AND THE WAR 135
I have referred to the predominance of women
in rural retail trade. They are very successful in
this species of work, and their large sense of diplomacy
enables them to bridge difficulties and to placate the
angry customers with a skill and unruffled temper
that are not given to every one. In addition to
these arts of persuasion, the woman director pos-
sesses a moral courage and directness of thought
and speech which are infallible in extracting from
the hired help the best that he or she can give.
And the wonder of it is that this competence exists
without harshness and loss of charm. A woman does
not cease to be woman because she has become an
efficient partner in man's business. And no less a
tribute to her intelligence and feminine subtlety is
the fact that in this dominance she does not rob man
of his prestige. She conveys no sense of inferiority;
the fa$ade is there; man is still in possession of his
self-respect. Woman simply says : "I shall do
certain work because I can, and that leaves you free
to do your work." That work may be the general
oversight, or it may be mechanical, or it may be (and
often is) in the petite bourgeoisie mere waste of time
on the part of the man : days spent in fishing, hours
in games of dominoes with the crony at the corner
cafe. But charm and dignity remain with the woman.
And this is so when she follows some of the higher
occupations. She may, for instance, teach recondite
subjects in a secondary school. She may hold classes
in philosophy or higher mathematics, but, in the
interval her baby will be brought to her and she will
discuss with the bonne or with the country nounou
the questions of feeding and little details of the child's
136 FRANCE AT BAY
health. Momentarily she has ceased to be the has
bleu, to become the mother. And it is delightful
in France that woman, who has sought the larger
avenues of employment for her best powers, has not
turned herself into some ridiculous caricature of a
man. She is still a woman; the French Suffragette
rampant is impossible, because she would be out of
the picture.
The Frenchman on his part is generally a sym-
pathetic companion, rather than the distant and
strangely uncomprehending bread-winner of some
English households. " What can she want ? Has
she not a liberal allowance plenty of good food,
friends and pretty dresses ? " A Frenchman would
be less positive and more ingratiating. An English
lady, who went one day to the Chamber and lobbied
for votes for her French sisters, distributed roses with
her smiles to the Deputies ; it was the better part of
feminist propaganda. It is obvious that if woman
uses force, she can be beaten at her own game, and
force evokes force.
Amongst a certain class of Frenchwomen there is
a strong desire to be represented in Parliament ; but
they are the Intellectuals extreme in all their
views, particularly on questions of matrimony. They
contend that a woman can leave the upbringing of
her children to her grandmother, admirably adapted,
they say, to that function, whilst she herself pur-
sues some professional calling side by side with her
husband. And it must be remembered that in France
the majority of women work. In the working-classes
there is scarcely any exception, and the system is
extremely wide-spread amongst the petite bourgeoisie.
WOMEN AND THE WAR 137
And, though the long absence of the mother from the
home cannot be good for the child, it is as a rule
brought up in its infancy in the country, which is
excellent for its health, and the grandmother at this
stage, in reality, does act as the mother. And in
the result the poor children of France are not as
neglected as those of England, especially the waifs
and strays of London and the great cities.
Religion, of course, has a considerable bearing
upon the position of women in France. The Church
of Rome teaches the submission of the sex. Thus
a woman may feel that she is acting contrary to
traditional teaching when she strikes out a line for
herself. Woman's voice is not to be heard in the
Church according to the Apostolic teaching; she is
to efface herself. And the teaching generally of
Rome is that woman is the temptress, the danger to
be resisted. Youth is warned against her ; the Church
teaches her intrinsic sinfulness. And so women find
that the assertion of their " rights " is out of harmony
with the place assigned to them by Church and
Society. But to-day they are so occupied by their
duties that they have little time to consider their
rights. In Aix in Savoy, which I visited during the
war, I found a woman running the large hotel in which
I stayed, and next door, one of her sex was acting as
coiffeur and removing beards with delicate speed from
stubbly chins. Both admitted that they had no time
to think of their rights. They did what they could,
they said, and what they must, but as to voting, well,
that was men's affair, and this attitude of mind is
general enough amongst the shopkeeping and smaller
commercial class of France.
138 FRANCE AT BAY
Yet it seems inevitable that change must come
from women's enlarged activities. Certain new facts
have emerged from the turmoil of the war. One is
the official recognition that has been given to feminine
competence ; woman had been doing a vast amount
of work before, but it was unrecognized. The fact
that the work went on during the enemy occupation
of a large part of the territory is a tribute, more or
less satisfactory, as I have insisted, to feminine
courage, doigte and savoir faire. Will a development
of her position along the lines I have indicated
materially change her status in the country ? That
is a matter upon which it is difficult to pass an
opinion ; but some of the grievances that weigh upon
her, both legal and economic, and the inequality of
her pay as compared with man's will surely be
remedied.
Prophecy is proverbially dangerous and I shall not
adventure into these paths but at least the war has
left profound traces on feminine psychology. It does
seem as though there will be less frivolity than before.
We shall find fewer young and even elderly women
occupying a great part of the day in Bridge and
Tango. There will be ample employment for their
leisure in dealing with the misery created by the war,
enough for them to think about in devising remedies
for some of the distress. The Frenchwoman of fashion
has become serious ; the sight of suffering has effected
this. Mere questions of toilet or of household manage-
ment, even the rather exaggerated care of her children,
must recede a little before this absorbing problem
of dealing with the moral damage of the war, of
succouring the hearths left destitute, of showing
WOMEN AND THE WAR 139
sympathy with the young girls whose lovers have been
torn from them by the cruel war, with the children
left fatherless, and fortune-less. And the literature
she reads has taken already a graver turn ; the novels
are of a different atmosphere; they have ceased to
be erotic and perverse. And if you object that
human nature is always the same, that it may be
inspired by a temporary influence, but that it will
inevitably fall back to its dead level, that au fond
it is unchanged, then, I think, your pessimism will
be put to a rude proof before very long. The lesson
has been too terrible, too persistent, too close to
our own lives, ever to be neglected by the present
generation.
And yet, in another respect, I anticipate a consider-
able loosening of social customs, and the rigid eti-
quette which has bound women hitherto to a formal
line of conduct. They will be freer in their comings and
goings, and greater deference will be shown to them
in the street. This was one of the noticeable features
of the changed Paris upon which I have enlarged in
another place. And if the old frivolity has gone, the
exaggerated attention to dress and personal adorn-
ment, woman, I think, should be accessible to wider
interests and ideas. Will she take a greater part in
affairs ? Will she obtain the franchise, municipal and
parliamentary ? I do not know, but it is reasonable
to suppose so though I decline to dogmatize on the
subject. And undoubtedly woman's sense of economy
would be valuable in public management. Institu-
tions managed by women are notoriously efficient,
and Frenchwomen, presumedly, would not be behind
their English sisters in this respect.
140 FRANCE AT BAY
The girls' lycee has had a profound influence upon
the attitude of the young woman of to-day. This
has been due to two circumstances : first, her studies
have emancipated her to some extent from clerical
influence ; secondly, the young ladies go to the lycee
alone. Thus Frenchwomen begin to enjoy some of
the freedom of their British and American sisters;
the chaperon is no longer essential. Girls, indeed,
walk freely in the streets, and there will result from
the war, I feel sure, a more spiritual conception of
women, especially as one has seen her in hospitals
and in various charitable enterprises, absorbed in
her work, unconscious, devoted, entirely given to the
service of others. Again, I think she will be found
to attach less importance than before to money.
If not rejoicing in poverty, she will be willing to bear
it for the man she loves. A large number of persons
necessarily will have their fortunes affected; the
young father has been killed, there are no dowries
for the children. From this fact will result a marry-
ing for love. I think, also, that the war will bring
about greater sympathy between women; the rich
and the poor will be drawn together.
It has been a great opportunity for women, they
have won everywhere incontestable victories. In
filling the places of mobilized man, they contribute
to the safety of the country. And, not merely that,
they exhibit to the world, convinced almost against its
will, their own superior capacities. Have they not
the right to be proud of their success? Feminism
triumphs, everything that was refused yesterday is
being granted to-day. None suspected that this
would be the result of European war. In the tram-
WOMEN AND THE WAR 141
ways and underground they quit themselves, liter-
ally, like men ; in the cafes, women waiters bring the
beer which is from a French brewery. In the great
emporiums the mobilized employes are replaced by
women. It has needed a European war to show
that to measure muslin, to try on gloves, and sell
garters was women's work rather than man's. A
battalion of women has entered the War Office as
clerks and secretaries ; women teachers have taken
the place of men teachers in the schools; in certain
University towns, women professors, charged with
the Baccalaureat class, do their work to general satis-
faction. It is proved, now, that men may leave their
positions and that women can fill them. Besides
serving the country, they have the added satisfaction
of feeling that they are establishing the equality of
the sexes. But one may ask, with a certain appre-
hension, what will happen after the victory, when
the warrior returns, diminished in health and activity,
from his sufferings in the trenches ? He has grown
old and weary, from a year or more of war. A woman
occupies the position that once was his in the shop,
office or factory. She is fresh and unwearied and
has gained great competence in the metier; he, on
the other hand, finds he has left something of his
youth and enthusiasm for work on the battlefield.
Will the one yield gracefully to the other ? If so,
which one ? Will the woman say with deadly logic,
" J'y suis, fy reste," or will she turn, with the instinct
of domesticated woman, to household duties? Per-
haps the answer will be found in the graciousness
that often accompanies strength. In any case Parlia-
ment and Public Opinion will be on the side of the
142 FRANCE AT BAY
returned warrior. But what will be the attitude of
the employer faced with the alternative of dis-
charging the better and possibly cheaper worker?
Painful enigma to which, we suppose, special legisla-
tion will offer some solution.
But the morrow can take care of itself; sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof. And again, it may
be urged that man who has lived the larger life in the
open air, who, sleeping under the stars, has grown
active and vigorous in body, with nerves of steel,
is not going easily to adapt himself to cramped
civilian conditions. The little airless workshops will
prove stifling to him. He will feel that shackles
have been placed upon his limbs; he cannot move,
he cannot breathe. He will be glad perhaps to leave
woman where she is in a position which events and
her own industry have created for her.
The Frenchwoman has distinguished herself also
in war work. Though lacking the training of the
British nurse she has become highly useful in the
wards under the guidance of doctors. M. Millerand,
Minister of War, stimulated her enthusiasm with
great ingenuity. Without the least suggesting that
some had neglected their opportunities to become
efficient, he announced that the white veil would be
reserved for the trained nurse, the blue for the adminis-
trative department, and the grey for philanthropic
helpers without qualifications. M. Millerand was
Parisian enough to know that none would wish to
wear the grey veil, symbol of inferiority. Feminine
enthusiasm, you may observe, is adroitly handled
in Paris.
Then, too, women have worked admirably in look-
WOMEN AND THE WAR 143
ing after refugees and in making garments for soldiers,
in taking care of their dependents, in collecting an
immense amount of money for the wounded, in
promoting entertainments for their benefit, and, in
a dozen ways, in dealing with the exceptional position
created by the war. And the more robust type of
woman has found an outlet for her energies in the
war factories. Happily for her progress and material
happiness, there is a tendency to pay her at the same
rate for the same work as man.
Nevertheless, the Napoleonic Code continues to
say dispassionately : " The husband owes protection
to the wife, the wife obedience to her husband."
CHAPTER XII
THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS
THERE is no side of the war which appeals more
strongly to our sympathies than the care of the sick
and wounded. It is admitted that in the beginning
the French system was far from perfect; in fact its
many defects inspired severe criticism in and out of
Parliament. At a special sitting of the Chamber,
devoted to the Service de Sante, it was stated that
only one hundred and fifty doctors were mobilized
out of fifteen thousand, and that many trained
hospital attendants had gone to the Front as com-
batants instead of exercising their vocation in the
hospitals. There was, in fact, considerable confusion
and overlapping. It was evident that the Service
de Santa", depending upon the Ministry of War, had
not had the same care bestowed upon its organiza-
tion as the army under the powerful direction of
General Joffre and the General Staff. None had
realized, indeed, what would be the extent of the
demands made upon the service, on account of the
development of artillery fire and the masses of men
engaged. There was a great lack of motor ambulances,
and, in consequence, the wounded had to be evacuated
by slow and uncertain transport to distant hospitals,
as far as possible from the firing-line. No selection
of cases was possible, and this led to long unnecessary
144
THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS 145
journeys on the part of dangerously wounded men
whose condition became aggravated by septic infec-
tion of their wounds and by fatigue ; infection, also,
was rendered more likely from the fact that doctors
were forbidden to touch the bandages en route.
The wounded had thus to travel long distances in
hot, airless, uncomfortable trains, often composed of
horse-boxes hastily improvised, and when they arrived
at their destination, after three or four days' journey,
it was too late : the ill had been done. In this way
gangrene and other cases of infection occurred which
would have been avoided had there been earlier surgical
intervention. The Service de Sante of the Army
claimed that this disorder, produced for the most part
by the failure to foresee the magnitude of the task,
was limited to the time of the great retreat from the
Belgian frontier ; but Dr. Doyen, the famous surgeon,
in a confidential report to the Government, says this
was not so. The same state of affairs existed after
the battle of the Marne and continued in some dis-
tricts until the end of the first year of the war, when
public opinion insisted on remedial measures being
taken.
The condition in which these men, suffering perhaps
from compound fracture or severe head wounds,
arrived after having been travelling for three or four
days, was deplorable. As an instance of the lack of
supervision, Dr. Doyen alleges that men with bandages
smeared with blood, who were not wounded at all,
glided in amongst those who were and arrived at
hospital. In a communication to the Biological
Society of Paris, he has shown that most war wounds
contain microbes capable of producing erysipelas and
L
146 FRANCE AT BAY
septicaemia. Wounds from shrapnel and shell splinters,
into which particles of clothing have been carried,
nearly always contain the bacilli of gangrene and
sometimes of tetanus. In the greater number of the
wounded who had come under his observation, he could
trace, he said, the result of delay in their infected
condition.
Happily vast improvement has been effected since
those lines were written by a surgeon who, though one
of the most daring and gifted practitioners in Europe,
has not the good fortune to please his confreres ; but
his conclusions are not to be set aside on that account,
and, since they are now recognized as true and have
been remedied long since, there is no harm in referring
to them with the object of showing the difficulties
under which the department had to labour at the
commencement of the war. The gigantic demands
made on the medical service had not been anticipated ;
every expert was taken by surprise and none imagined
that the total of the wounded would reach its actual
stupendous figure. The French Service de Sante,
caught in a moment of reorganization, was tem-
porarily overwhelmed, like our own department ; but,
happily, has profited by experience.
One of the worst mistakes was to send the best
surgeons to field hospitals, where it was impossible to
operate in calmness and security owing to the con-
ditions, and where the best surgical skill was thrown
away in giving first-aid, whereas it was logical to send
the highest professional talent to the base hospital, em-
ploying the ordinary practitioner in preparation work.
Indeed, the conditions of modern battle are so terrific
that it is most difficult to provide against them. It is
THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS 147
notorious that many of the civilian doctors, who were
mobilized at the outbreak of war, were incompetent,
by reason of their training and experience, to deal with
the complicated wounds arising from battle. On the
other hand, the French, with their habitual quickness
and adaptability, effected great improvements in a
short space of time, and many of the delays in reach-
ing the base hospital, thereby giving the wound
every opportunity to become infected, were avoided
by a better organization and a larger utilization of
motor ambulances. Experience also enabled a better
calculation to be made of the hospital needs of
the army, and, happily, the wounded were rarely
refused admittance at their journey's end for want of
space.
The French Red Cross (the Union des Femmes de
France) did magnificent work, and kindred societies
also merit well of the country; but, human nature
being what it is, a certain friction arose between rival
societies. Nevertheless, one of the redeeming features
of the war has been the devotion of the women in the
cause of the sick and suffering. And this has been the
more admirable because there did not exist in France,
as in England and America, a large body of highly
trained nurses. The nuns who left the country as the
result of the Government legislation had not been
replaced by qualified lay sisters, and nursing was done
by rather haphazard methods. The devoted amateur
was instructed in an elementary course, which was in-
adequate to grave cases ; the permanent staff contained
women of inferior intelligence and character, and the
night nursing was in the hands of men. It was some-
thing of a revelation to the French to find that English
148 FRANCE AT BAY
nurses undertook the responsibility of the wards at
night. The want of efficiency in their own women-
nurses was partially explained by the superiority of
the surgeon, who rendered himself independent of
their help, by the part taken by students in the treat-
ment and by the existence of a dresser in each hospital.
Thus the rdle of the nurse was reduced to an irrespons-
ible minimum. One result of the war, however, will
be to induce French women with a vocation for hospital
work to continue their studies.
Hospitals sprang up all over the country. In every
health resort, particularly in the spas in the Auvergne
and in the Pyrenees, which, in ordinary years, resound
to the gaiety of a cosmopolitan host, hundreds, some-
times thousands, of men were nursed in the hospitals
improvised out of schools and hotels. At Vichy
alone were some fifteen or twenty thousand, according
to the exigencies of the Front, and, as the summer
advanced, they mingled with the ordinary patients
undergoing their " cure," and thus brought home to
them the meaning and the consequence of war.
Everywhere where one went, to the hospitals in
Paris, behind the lines in the north and centre, or in
the sunny south, so far geographically from the war
that it seemed but an ugly dream, there was the same
invincible gaiety, the same touching heroism. The
men whom mobilization had wrested from comfortable
and peaceful situations, had forged for themselves, in
a few weeks, the dme militaire and were anxious to
affront again the dangers and hairbreadth escapes of
the trenches.
It is now freely admitted that these hospital in-
stallations were far from perfect ; the great majority,
THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS 149
of course, came into being at the sudden call of war.
Before that they were schools or nunneries, or perhaps
barracks. Sometimes it was difficult to remove the
dirt, which clung closer than original sin. But microbes
show a greater discrimination than they are credited
with by cold medical science, and even in the most un-
likely surroundings, where apparently scrubbing had
yielded the least results, there the patient flourished,
by no means discouraged by a discoloured floor be-
neath his bed and by the none too spotless corridor
outside the ward. The food was good, his treatment
at the hands of clever surgeons and doctors generally
intelligent and scientific, and he grew well in an atmo-
sphere which, if it reeked with garlic, was also redolent
with the kindness, cheerfulness and good humour
which flourish in the south.
Much is done to cheer up the wounded, and, in every
hospital, entertainment was part of the cure. Perhaps
the most interesting and touching of all were the daily
concerts in the refectory of the Grand Palais, where,
in the days gone by, when Paris was simply a wile de
plaisir (or so it seemed), hung the pictures of the year.
Here the star was Eugenie Buffet. Every Parisian
knows this popular artiste, who has had an original
career, as original as her character. Tiring of the
ordinary conventional life, Mme. Buffet conceived the
notion of becoming a popular muse, of singing in the
courtyards of the houses with a troupe of artistes.
And the pockets of the blue apron she wore in those
days soon became filled with the coppers thrown by
midinettes to their favourite singer, who stirred their
sentimental hearts, as Fragson used to stir them, by
a frank appeal to the simple emotions. To hear
150 FRANCE AT BAY
Eugenie Buffet sing to her wounded soldiers from the
Front zouaves, chasseurs alpins, chasseurs a pied,
artillerymen, with here and there a black face under
the red fez of the Senegalian was to receive an educa-
tion in the art of moving crowds, of awakening echoes
in the human heart which vibrate eternally to stories
of love and sacrifice, of vengeance and despair, of hope
and heroism.
Eugenie Buffet sings in a rather hoarse voice, a voice
that has worn itself away in draughty courtyards, with
the rain coming down, yet there is something attractive
in her art. If the vocal medium is wanting in colour
and roundness, there are grace and charm in the manner ;
she has something of Yvette Guilbert's gift of charac-
terization she can interpret by a gesture. If she has
not the witchery of Yvette, her complete possession of
the roads to one's understanding, she addresses her mes-
sage to the heart and sets the pulse beating to a tune
of patriotism and glory. From singing in the streets of
Paris she has learned all the methods of popular appeal:
how to grip her public with a phrase, a telling intona-
tion. This other Yvette electrifies us with the fire and
emphasis of her song, not sung as an opera-singer
would sing it, but almost as a recitative, with a meaning,
a sentiment in every line.
(Alfresco concerts are one of the delights of residence
in Paris. A woman with a guitar and men with
violins accompany the singer, and the crowd, which
has bought from the lame boy selling the songs,
delightedly joins in the chorus.)
You should hear Mme. Buffet as she sings " Dans la
Tranchee," by Theodore Botrel, the Breton bard who
has carried courage in his songs to the soldiers, whose
THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS 151
thoughts and inmost feelings he knows how to
express
"Le sergent qu'est cure lui dit,
Repose en paix, heros beni
Sur qui la gloire s'est penchee
Dans la tranchee;
Nous te veng'rons, nous Pjurons tous,
Car la victoire est avec nous ;
Elle mont' la gard' pr&s d'nous couchee
Dans la tranchee ! "
It is given with wonderful power, with a true French
army blend of bonne camaraderie and virility, and a
tender appreciation not merely of the heros beni, but
of the sergeant who is a priest, and knows how to
face death as priests have faced death since the war
began. She has handed out little papers containing
the song, in the manner of the pavement artiste and
her success is instantaneous. Each man sings the song
intensely, as if performing a rite. And this figure
mounted on a chair, blue forage cap on her locks, her
full bust moulded in a species of hussar uniform, is as
inspiring a muse as ever populace had a real Patti
of the streets.
And to-day I have the pleasure of hearing another
artiste characteristic, too, in his way. His name is
France, predestined name for a popular singer. He
possesses an amazing trick of awakening enthusiasm,
of summoning sensation, of evoking the soul of his
hearers by rushing down the hall between the double
line of soldiers, gay and debonair, even if wounded
and weary (and some are still wearing their bandages),
just as if he were the villain in a Chinese play. He
is elderly, and his crown, innocent of hair, shines like
152 FRANCE AT BAY
a pale morning star. As he charges down the room,
with outstretched finger it might be a bayonet and
the enemy in front of him he rouses his hearers
to the highest pitch. He has fired the powder train,
and cheers and plaudits reverberate through the long
apartment with its roof of glass, like the rattle of
musketry.
This same Grand Palais is an admirable example of
the French spirit of improvisation. In the days, so
long ago now, when France was not at war, the build-
ing, glorious vestige of the Great Exhibition of 1900,
was the abiding-place of art. From May to July the
pictures hung there in endless rows, in a long suite of
rooms, upstairs and downstairs, and in interminable
corridors. Then the war came; there was no more
art, save the art of the battlefield. Painters, like
Georges Scott, drew the " types " at the Front land-
scapes, the nude, the other studies had ceased to mean
anything; and the Grand Palais, innocent of pictures
and statuary as it was innocent of the horses of the
Concours Hippique, was pressed into the military
service, first as a dep6t for the marine fusiliers, w r ho
policed the town, to the joy of the Parisians, in the
early days of the war, and secondly as a hospital and
convalescent home for the grands blesses. And the
hospital proved to be one of the best equipped in this
town of hospitals, where the Red Cross floated from
proud buildings, formerly the caravanserai of the rich
or their private residences. In the entrance hall of
the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts was a dentist's
department, devoted to the poilu's defective teeth.
In another department was an installation of radio-
graphy, resulting from a gift of ten thousand francs
THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS 153
(400) generously offered by a lady visitor on learning
that there were no X-rays to locate the shrapnel bullets
and splinters. A laboratory and an American oculist
shared a neighbouring space. In a studio, which
seems more in keeping with the old character of the
building, worked two sculptors one a Prix de Rome
and the other a Gold Medallist executing plaster casts
of feet, arms and legs, which hung from the walls as if
they formed an exhibition of Rodin's " work." These
casts are useful in the making of artificial limbs.
Downstairs, in a great hall of mechanical appliances,
soldiers exercised their stiffened muscles.
But a section of the hospital that saddened us most
was given to two thousand cripples, who sheltered
here whilst waiting for their fate in the world to be
determined. Such as were able played at tennis and
other ball-games, under the eyes of the monitors (them-
selves wounded in the trenches) who were employed
in what was once the Athletic College at Rheims.
Hortensias on waxed tables in the dining-room gave
an air of clean elegance to the place, which was very
refreshing.
It was a town of hospitals, and perhaps the most
curious examples of it were the Russian and the
Japanese hospitals side by side in the Champs Elysees,
once the highway of fashion and now the highway of
healing. The meticulous care of the wounded by the
Japanese is proverbial; their private opinion that
Western methods of bandaging are not equal to their
own is an amusing example of the pride of a new people
in its Occidental development.
Farther away was the American hospital at Neuilly,
of which French people speak with a certain awe and
154 FRANCE AT BAY
wonder. It was marvellous in the perfection of its
details. On the ground-floor they burned the poor
soiled clothes of the man from the trenches, there they
undertook the sterilizing processes. In an upstairs
room a dentist restored teeth to shattered mouths;
on the same floor were beautiful wards presided over
by well-known American women. They were gay
with flowers, and in the afternoon tea was served by
ladies bountiful. Beyond were the laboratories and
the operating theatre, through the door of which
could be seen white-robed surgeons at work. Miracles
of science were performed in this American hospital,
handsomely housed in a new lyce*e in suburban Paris :
torn and flattened faces reconstituted, jaws mended,
noses rebuilt, broken bones cunningly set a work of
moral and material rehabilitation upon which the
cleverest surgeons of New York had been engaged.
This was certainly the most perfect hospital in France,
and represented the gulf that stretched between an
institution endowed by money and science and some
hastily installed hospital in Brittany and the inaccess-
ible provinces. France, indeed, has not the money
to spend on State hospitals that can be lavished on a
private institution such as the Neuilly hospital, where
the expenditure per patient was said to be from nine to
eleven francs a day, as against a third of that amount
spent by the French Medical Department. But every-
where was the same good will, the same intense desire
to do the best one could. Paris and France owe a
debt to America for her unfailing generosity during the
war, and thousands of good American dollars have
been distributed in hospital and relief work.
Happily, after the first confusion resulting from a
THE WORK OF THE HOSPITALS 155
lack of motor ambulances, our own English hospitals
did excellent work in Paris before Boulogne became
the base; thereafter, the installations aroused the
admiration of everybody. Sir Almroth Wright's bac-
teriological laboratory and an admirably equipped
hospital train, steam-heated and fitted with spring
beds, were leading features of the base. At Versailles,
too, in the Trianon Hotel, close to the park gates, was
established a military hospital to which large numbers
of infectious cases were sent and were treated in isola-
tion tents in the grounds. Nor must one forget the
women's work, not only in nursing but in surgery.
The Women's Emergency Corps, under Dr. Garrett
Anderson, was specially commended for its work both
in Paris and in the north.
A new avocation for women has resulted from the
war. Nursing has become a recognized profession in
France. At the same time, great attention is now being
given to the equipment and sanitation of hospitals.
In advance of us in scientific treatment, the French
lag behind in their practical appreciation of hospital
hygiene. The war has awakened both patriotism and
pity ; the first has been called an instinct of race, the
second of humanity, and to humanity we make appeal
when we speak of the sick and wounded in the
" local " name of patriotism.
CHAPTER XIII
A YEAR AFTER
ONE year after the war found Paris a picture of
composure and self-mastery. The guns still thundered
sixty miles away, but the city's life ran on normal
lines. Parliament sat intermittently, every week or
so, during the hot weather, the business being chiefly
war business and the passing of rather drastic
measures, measures for dealing with shirkers, for the
registration of plant for manufacturing munitions, for
the expropriation of land for cemeteries for British
and Belgian soldiers, and for giving pow r ers to prefects
to abolish alcohol during the war, and in sweeping
away private stills in the country. This shows the
temper of the legislation twelve months after the
commencement of the war.
The city was engaged in its usual summer occupa-
tion of discussing where to go in August. Nor was
it a question quite easy to answer, for, obviously,
some of the chief touring -grounds were " out of
bounds." One could not go any longer to Bayreuth
to hear " Parsifal," or wander through old German
cities ; nor could one betake oneself to Austrian spas
in an effort to get thin; any chance of visiting
Constantinople was removed, for the Levant was
sown with mines ; Italy, too, classic land of art and
156
A YEAR AFTER 157
eternally attractive to the French, was engaged in
the tragic game of war and therefore closed to visitors.
Venice, the Incomparable, was sitting, not in the
majesty of her regal splendour, but in a tight corset
of bags of cement formed to protect her treasures
against bombardment. There remained Switzerland ;
but here again the Frenchman feared that he might
meet the foe; the German, on his part, probably
abstained for a similar reason, so that the poor
country of William Tell, already seriously harassed
by the question of foodstuffs for her population and
of raw material for her manufactures, felt herself
deeply injured by the war, more especially as she was
forced to keep on foot in her mountain passes half
her mobilized army.
The French, of course, have the resource of their
own resorts : the delightful Dauphin e (often called the
French Switzerland), the Auvergne, the Pyrenees and
the Jura : but the richer bourgeois seems to disdain
his own watering-places. In any case they are re-
markably little known, and the hotels are not, gener-
ally, the last word in comfort. The spas of France,
though extremely rich in curative waters, are less
well organized than the German, where science and
system have produced a state of perfection. The
best-equipped region is the Pyrenees, where exists
a remarkable gamut of healing waters as well as
exquisite scenery. Luchon, Bagneres-de-Bigorre,
Cauterets and a dozen others are enchanting spots.
. . . This problem of holidays is resolved in many
cases by staying at home or by taking up one's
quarters in a suburban town, a few miles from
Paris, such as St. Germain, Versailles, St. Cloud, or
158 FRANCE AT BAY
one of the little towns on the Marne, now happily
free from most traces of their tragic experiences,
though, alas ! the graves are there to point to their
reality. But Nature seems to conspire to make us
forget. She is perpetually covering up the traces
of the cataclysm that we may not remember. An
earthquake passes, a region is devastated; in a few
months, in a few years, all the ravages have been
repaired by the great healer.
Many elected to remain in Paris during the summer
months and to make the Bois their headquarters.
There is always a great crowd there on Saturdays and
Sundays, and there are such numbers of chairs spread
along the paths that one would imagine that the
season was still in progress and that the fashionable
world was going by in elegant insouciance in the
Alices des Acacias in its luxurious limousines and
beautifully appointed equipages. And the crowd
would, of course, pass judgment on the occupants,
remarking that the Grand Duke was certainly ageing,
that Mile. Polaire's costume in her brown upholstered
victoria was really more original than ever, that
Mile. Chenal was sculptural, that the American
millionairess so frequently seen on the racecourse
was a dreadful little flirt with her retinue of male
admirers. ... It is extraordinary to think that
Paris has had no season, no spring Salons, no early
Horse Show, no exhibition of aeroplanes or auto-
mobiles, no charming fetes in the Bois, no gala-
nights at the Opera with an attendance of kings
with brilliant suites, no sparkling Review at Long-
champ, no Grand Prix, or Journee des Drags.
Stupendous 1 How, then, do the wheels of life
A YEAR AFTER 159
revolve for that hardened routinarian, the Boule-
vardier? Mystery. Many have departed. There
are quarters of the town where the closed iron
shutters tell their own tale. The stream of vehicles
in the Champs Elysees is extremely thin true
barometer of the social world. There are vacant
spaces in many of the streets of Paris which make
it look like a provincial city. And, yet, in other
regions there is great activity, specially about the
big shops. The movement there is quite extra-
ordinary in the afternoon hours. Feminine Paris
evidently has not lost its fondness for shopping nor,
apparently, the means of gratifying it. And the
terraces of the cafes are just as crowded as ever they
were before the war, though the cosmopolitan
element is absent, and the summer millinery of the
women has turned them into a flower-garden. This
is a sign of calm and confidence and it gives a special
physiognomy to the town. One thinks inevitably
of the scenes immediately after the mobilization;
then the terraces were cleared away and the cafes
wore a singularly subdued and chastened air. To-
day, Paris is herself again, her restricted summer
self.
There is, however, no spirit of festival abroad.
The Reviews continue in the music-halls, either
broadly gay and steeped in the esprit parisien, or
spectacular and patriotic in tone. Beyond that
there is no entertainment except the cinemas or
an occasional performance at the Opera Comique.
Theatrical Paris sleeps its summer sleep with a
thoroughness that suggests the sleep of death. Will
this city of all the arts awaken again to its old
160 FRANCE AT BAY
activities, to its tremendous outpouring of nerves
and temperament, to its artistic creations, to evoca-
tions of its old genius ? One idly speculates on the
future, but not to doubt that the seed is there ready
to spring, in good time, to fruition. A fete day with-
out a fete seems to be an aberration singularly out
of keeping with the character of Paris. On July 14
there is no dancing in the street under swinging
paper lanterns to the blare of improvised orchestras.
It is a day consecrated to the wounded and to the
honour of Rouget de 1'Isle. His body is transported
from the suburban Choisy-le-Roi to the Invalides,
fit resting-place amongst the heroes of the revo-
lutionary wars for him who inspired them and their
ragged soldiery with the inflammatory eloquence of
the " Marseillaise." Even dead and turned to clay
he is still at the service of his tormented country ; his
body is carried on a revolutionary gun-carriage at the
front of troops and politicians with their scarves of
office shimmering on white shirt-fronts. His body lies
beneath the gilded dome, but his spirit goes march-
ing on, and represents, to-day, much of the sacred
fire that burns in the breasts of the people and
causes them to envisage another year of war, with
its attendant sufferings, with dauntless courage and
unquenched fervour. No, there are no fireworks
to-day, but the flame of an eternal faith shines in
the eyes of France, a faith which is proof, as it was
in Rouget de 1' Isle's case, against distress, against
moral and physical suffering, against long-deferred
hope, weighed down sometimes by a sickening sense
of human helplessness.
The grands blesses (as they are touchingly
A YEAR AFTER 161
called) those who have lost arms and legs in the
war are the heroes with Rouget de 1'Isle of the
Fourteenth. They are the new saints of the calendar ;
the day of the Bastille is consecrated to them. The
war-cross and the Legion of Honour gleam from
their chests. They are decorated with flowers and
the bright paper medals which were " struck " in
honour of the Journee de Paris. Paris has a
deep and reverent cult for her wounded. A leg-less
soldier passes in his little chair, propelled by a lame
comrade. A girl goes by, almost brushing with her
dress the wheels of the little vehicle. She turns her
head; a look of compassion, of maternal feeling
comes into her face. She takes the bunch of violets
from her bosom, stoops down to the mutilated figure
in the little carriage and pins them to his tunic.
Tears of commiseration have started to her eyes,
they match his which fall upon her hand tears of
tender gratitude. . . . Later in the day, heavy showers
fall. A soldier, deprived of one of his limbs, hails a
cab; he has not noticed that a young woman is
occupying it. She leaps to the ground, with a
charming gesture, and will not hear of his remon-
strances. " Je vous en prie," he repeats with the
gallantry of his race ; but she insists. A crowd has
gathered with the startling speed that crowds gather
in Paris ; but she has disappeared, leaving the wounded
knight in possession, malgre lui.
The same charming solicitude prevailed at an
entertainment given to wounded men at the Tro-
cadero. It was crowded with victims of the war,
men permanently disabled and dreadfully disfigured.
The national song had never been sung, perhaps, in
162 FRANCE AT BAY
more affecting conditions. Less -wounded comrades
helped the others to rise, and friendly crutches sup-
ported them whilst they sang the invigorating phrases
of the " Marseillaise." The public conspired to help
their chers blesses when they left the building a
procession of glorious cripples, maimed in defending
Paris and France from the foe. To his infinite joy,
the police carried a black soldier ; an arm was wound
round each " agent's " neck and he grinned recog-
nition of this signal honour with every one of his
shining teeth. A young lady distributed cigarettes.
Every one sought to do something for these poor,
dismembered sons of France, and that is the spirit
everywhere. It is seen in woman's constant de-
mand : " How can I honour the brave mutiUs, those
who have suffered in their persons from the war?
Am I to bow to them, regard them with a friendly
smile as they pass, or show in some way perhaps
by placing my hand upon my heart that I feel for
them in their ' diminished existence ' ? " This rather
naive anxiety admirably expresses a common senti-
ment. How is the civilian to show his admiration
for those who honour our common humanity?
Permissionaires throng the street and seat them-
selves joyously at the little tables of the restaurants,
radiant to find themselves again in Paris after nine
or ten months, or perhaps a year, of absence in the
trenches. They have no need of their war medals
to be identified. There is something not to be
confounded with the man who stayed at home, in
the mien of the combatant. His manner is that of
the militaire who has done something beyond wear
military clothes and drive a pen, or perhaps a motor-
A YEAR AFTER 163
car within the comfortable circle of the Paris camp.
He is the antithesis of the embusque, who passes
by, round-shouldered, white-faced, reminding us of
Shakespeare's description : "a lily-livered gentle-
man, a whey-faced loon." In the sparkle of the eye,
in the ruddy glow of the cheek, in the decided and
yet modest carriage there is the mark of the man.
There was no necessity to say that So-and-so had
been to the war, and that this other had found a
comfortable billet, thanks to his social relations ;
such a fact was apparent; it "leapt to the eyes."
None could doubt the pleasure with which they
tasted again the delights of civilian life. Ah ! how
good it was to be surrounded by one's loved ones, to
take the wife to one's arms, to embrace the children,
to hear again from sweet lips words of love, of con-
stancy and comfort. The happiness of the poilu
was evident enough as he sat in public places, the
centre of an admiring circle, or courting the girl of
his heart with an entire absence of embarrassment.
No Frenchman thinks an apology necessary for so
obvious a course of conduct as making love to the
preferred woman. Both sexes realize that tender
demonstrations and caresses are the fuel of love
not something to be ashamed of, to be suppressed
from some prudent spirit of forestalling matrimonial
disaster by economizing kisses.
But the poilu, though pleased with his first contact
with the old life, could scarcely habituate himself
to a permanent return to civilian conditions. The
narrow, unad venturous life had lost its salt. The
little bedroom, how cramped and confined it seemed
after the star-studded bivouac. The stifling factory,
164 FRANCE AT BAY
the tiny shop in which he worked a while ago, how
could he think, except with horror, of long hours in
that stifling atmosphere, bending over uncongenial
tasks ? It seemed incredible that he had ever sub-
mitted to such a thing. To-day, other ideas and the
stirring impulse of a new energy have come to France.
Another world has opened to her eyes. The blue
service uniform, washed by the rain to a whitey grey,
hides a quite different sort of temperament. The
war, the excitement and dangers of every day, have
bestowed a new nature. No longer is there content-
ment with the peaceful paths of an unemotional
occupation. The state of mind of the home-returning
soldier is that of the traveller arriving at an oasis
after a fatiguing and perilous journey across the
desert. He rests awhile, under the grateful shade
of the palms, listening to the tinkle of the water which
is music to his ears ; but after a few days he is
anxious to set out again on his conquest of space.
His appetite for the desert, for the great wide open
sand-plains, will not allow him to sit long at ease.
And to-day his country calls, an irresistible sound, a
magnet doubly strong to draw him from the sweet
fetters which bind him to his home. Back again in
civilian life after unutterable experiences, the soldier
finds a pleasurable emotion in renewed touch with
his own world ; then comes a longing to depart, for,
in the trenches, he has moved upon another plane,
in which sacrifice and spiritual sensations bear him
upwards to new heights of thought and action. What
is comfort, what is even human affection in the great
white light of duty which searches his very soul ?
French people mingle poetry with their admiration
A YEAR AFTER 165
for the soldier. It is, no doubt, a less practical and
more abstract instinct than that of the Englishman,
whose sympathy is far less a matter of ecstasy than
a reasoned desire to do good. The uniform in France
assumes the sacerdotal character of a vestment.
And the more bespattered it is, the more rain-soaked,
the more it speaks directly to the heart as the symbol
of devoted service. To the public it seems more
real, more in keeping with his divine mission to
defend the motherland that the poilu's uniform
should be weather-stained. The spotless tunic, the
perfect fitting riding-breeches, the belt shimmering
in its perfection, which accentuates the elegant
figure, these seem less interesting than that long
and often ill-cut overcoat which ordinarily clothes
the French pioupiou. But the exigencies of the
campaign have brought wild changes into military
costume. Khaki seems likely to assume a large
place in the army, perhaps because it is easier to
obtain. This change of raiment typifies, no doubt,
some change of heart, or at least a hankering after
English ways. Even the term poilu, held in high
honour when the war began, and signifying a warrior
of the purest water, is now resented by the younger
school as something slightly derogatory. It con-
jures up before the ardent eyes of youth the notion
of a hairy, rather dishevelled creature with the com-
plexion of an old red brick, to which absence of water
has contributed as much as exposure to the sun and
air. A well-trimmed beard and moustache give
character to the face, but the unkempt condition
suggests the wild-man-of-the-woods rather than the
military figure. However, Joffre's " shaving " order,
166 FRANCE AT BAY
issued with the new uniform, was not quite as drastic
as some artists, with an eye for the picturesque,
would have us believe. The commander-in-chief
merely recommended the troops to trim their beards
or shave their chins in the interest of personal clean-
liness ; he did not decree the suppression of the
moustache. None the less it is a fact that many
Frenchmen at the Front shave clean, and in their
case, at all events, the term poilu bears a suggestion
of irony. Thus contact with the British is effecting
a subtle change.
But the transformation in the habits of the people,
brought about by the war itself, is vastly more
radical than that. The French nature has been
shaken in its deep-rooted saving tendencies. Even
the bloodiest period of the Revolution failed to
disturb the peasant in some parts of the country
in his habitual routine. The diligence ran as in
ordinary times ; people went about buying and selling
as if there were no cutting off of heads in Paris,
and no uprooting of old ideas. And the peasant
is hard to move, as the present war has proved
by his reluctance to leave his native village or the
farm upon which he was born, even under the bom-
bardment of the enemy. The countryman, also,
has a profound distrust of everybody except perhaps
the smooth-tongued financier who wheedles money
out of him for working copper mines in the moon ;
but his attitude in general is one of deep suspicion.
Banks, oh no ! One remembers hearing of a scene
at Lyons, not so many years ago, when an enter-
prising firm tried to settle its land purchases from
peasants by cheque. The indignation was intense.
A YEAR AFTER 167
What were these thievish practices ? Inducing the
poor man to part with his possessions and then putting
him off with a pretence of payment with a piece of
paper not even signed by a State official ! This
extreme caution and overwhelming fear of change
are common to the smaller tradespeople even on the
fringe of Paris, who look askance at cheques and keep
their money in the house. But M. Ribot, the French
Chancellor of the Exchequer, succeeded in inducing
the petite bourgeoisie and the peasantry in the provinces
to yield up their gold to the Bank of France in ex-
change for notes. It was a triumph, and it was due
to M. Ribot 's talent for inspiring confidence, his
unblemished reputation, and his irresistible respect-
ability. This, certainly, was not the least miracle of
" the anniversary," that the " little world " of Paris
brought its gold, which it had hoarded for years, and
laid it at the feet of Marianne. Triumph indeed !
M. Ribot had known how to conquer timidity in a
patriotic appeal.
CHAPTER XIV
WAR AND THE DRINK QUESTION
AN unexpected result of the war has been to direct
people's minds to the drink question. They had
been aware, in a vague sort of way, of the dangers
arising from alcohol, but they had not realized its
true gravity and import. It came home to them
with a shock from evidence that could not be gain-
said, that the peril was real. In some districts,
notably in the Vosges, where the consumption of
alcohol is very high, men arrived drunk on the day
of mobilization. They had followed the local custom
and imbibed numerous petits verres before leaving
for the front. Henri Schmidt, a lieutenant in the
Medical Service, who is also a Deputy, struck with
the danger that such practices presented to the national
defence, wrote to the General commanding the
Eastern army. The latter immediately suppressed
absinthe within his military zone, and similar mea-
sures were taken in other quarters. One of the
earliest districts to be affected was Paris, where the
Prefect, acting under the military authority, took
the necessary steps to prohibit the sale. After a
disgraceful reign, full of danger to her " subjects "
as well as those dependent upon them, the green
Goddess was deposed. Parliament seized the occa-
sion to confirm the prohibition and made it a penal
168
WAR AND THE DRINK QUESTION 169
offence to manufacture or sell absinthe. M. Schmidt,
from his place in the Chamber, introduced the Bill
and it was triumphantly carried. The strange thing
was that it provoked little or no protest. Even the
trade accepted it after making a proviso that the
duty it had paid on accumulated stocks should be
refunded. Here, evidently, was a most important
step, which never would have been taken but for the
war. Out of the evil of a great conflict had arisen
the good of a great reform. One realized that there
was another military danger in alcohol. The soldier
whose system is saturated with it recovers but slowly
from wounds which heal much more rapidly when
the patient is abstemious. It was discovered also
that the districts most subject to alcoholism gave
the poorest results in recruits. There are whole
villages in Normandy in which none of the young
generation is fit for military service. The degeneracy
is the more remarkable, for Normandy was once
renowned for its tall strong men. In Brittany the
Conseils de Revision or recruiting-boards found a
similar state of affairs. Alcohol had done its work
with fatal thoroughness. The hardy and strong
population of seafaring folk had fallen victims to eau
de vie, which should be called eau de mort, for its
effects are deadly. In certain districts there is little
to choose between town and country worker, for both
are tainted with the vice. The artisan who prides
himself on his intelligence is just as wanting in control
as the illiterate peasant in backward Brittany.
But the evil that men do lives after them in their
children even if the good is oft interred with their
bones. Alcoholism has the most deplorable results
170 FRANCE AT BAY
on the second generation. The stature of the race
is affected and the number of physical and mental
weaklings is immeasurably increased. That drinking
and insanity go together is beyond doubt; the one
curve follows the other. Insanity had risen to such
a height in France before the war that new asylums
were planned. . . . But the connection between
absinthe and crime is such that a volume might be
written upon it. Had France been energetic enough
to eradicate the evil, her position would have been
infinitely stronger in the present war. In the last
fifty years she has spent upon spirits a sum equal,
probably, to that which she has spent upon wars.
Worse than that, she has positively welcomed the
enemy in her midst and encouraged him in his
depredations. " Alcohol is the Home Enemy," says
M. Jean Finot, editor of La Revue. Youth and energy
have been poured out uselessly, stupidly. The nation's
vitality has been sacrificed to the nation's ugly idol.
Alcohol in France always means spirit brandy,
liqueurs, the concentrated essences and never wine
or beer. This is quite understandable, and to deprive
a Frenchman of wine is a hardship as unthinkable
as to deprive an Englishwoman of her tea. The vine
represents a vast and honourable industry in France
which it would be madness to destroy. It seems to
incarnate the sun of France, its warmth and light and
the very genius of the people. A capital of four
hundred million pounds is engaged in wine-growing,
and the value of the yearly crop is about forty millions.
In any case, it would need an exhaustive argument to
convince a Frenchman of the harmfulness of wine,
especially drunk as the bourgeois classes drink it,
WAR AND THE DRINK QUESTION 171
diluted with water. But some wine-drinkers are far
from these sober practices ; they absorb three or four
quarts a day, and when, much to their surprise, they
find themselves in hospital, they can only ask in comic
despair : " What have I done to deserve this ? My
habits are so exemplary." Less harm is imputable
to the light beers which have replaced wine in the
north, when they have not been themselves replaced
by spirits. The Frenchman generally distrusts the
water-drinker. The conclusion of Henri Murger's
Buveurs d'eau was that they were ill-natured a
sentiment that has been elevated into a proverb.
Both Horace and Rabelais, we remember, came to
much the same conclusion.
But when France drank nothing but the product
of her own vineyards, which cover an area of 1,600,000
hectares, representing three-tenths of the world's
supply (though the vine area has been reduced of
late years and the figures do not include Corsica,
Tunis and Algeria), she was unquestionably a sober
country and was often quoted as an example to
intemperate England. The sight of a man drunk in
the streets is still rare, and rarer, perhaps, than a few
years ago, paradoxical as this may seem in face of the
statement that the evil has grown steadily for some
years. But the explanation is that spirit-drinking
does not produce the outward signs of inebriety that
wine- or beer-drinking does. But the saturation of
the system with alcohol is a far more dangerous
form of intoxication than the other, and more lasting
in its effects. It changes the character of the
drinker, who becomes sombre and irritable after the
first exhilaration has worn off. Depression, insanity,
172 FRANCE AT BAY
crime, suicide are some of the benefits that France
buys for sixty millions sterling, her yearly expenditure
on spirits. And for these gifts of demoralization,
each French citizen pays, on the average, thirty-six
francs. But this money expenditure, apart from
the crime and insanity to which I have referred, does
not represent the total loss. There is the time lost
from drunkenness and its resultant incapacity and loss
of energy due to tuberculosis; for the two are twin
sisters and the cost of their maintenance is a million
pounds a month. The death-rate is directly affected
by alcoholism. Calvados, Seine Inferieure, Eure and
Somme, the most alcoholized of the French depart-
ments, show the highest mortality. The deaths exceed
2 per cent, of the population. The Creuse has the
lowest death-rate and the lowest consumption of
alcohol, namely 1| litres per head yearly, against
twelve in some centres, though, as I shall show, these
cannot be complete figures, for a large pa,rt of the
consumption escapes the statistician.
The inferiority induced by drink extends to in-
dustrial production. French manufacturers con-
stantly complain that they are badly served by their
work-people owing to their inebriety. The output
is poor compared with the English worker, and this
common fact is more evident in the deep-drinking
departments than in the others. Alcohol produces
a poor type of factory-hand, incapable of prolonged
effort. In " killing the worm," as the artisan ex-
presses it, he kills his own chance of success in the
labour market. His habits, also, react upon his
offspring. " Bacchus is no enemy of Venus," we
are told, and some of the most drunken parts of
WAR AND THE DRINK QUESTION 173
the country, such as Brittany, are the most prolific.
But infantile mortality is relatively high and, of
those who live, many exhibit signs of degeneracy.
Alcohol produces a brutish kind of drunkenness as
opposed to the fictitious gaiety of wine. A long
course of spirits, particularly of absinthe, saps the
vigour of the mind. By its subtle essence, absinthe
acts directly upon the nerve centres ; in consequence,
it is more dangerous than whisky. It is true that
brandy has replaced to a great extent the deadlier
form of alcohol, and that certain substitutes, taken as
aperitifs on an empty stomach, are almost as bad :
but this does not detract from the importance of the
step taken by the French legislature.
Until the other day a great instrument for degrada-
tion existed in the bouilleurs de cru, whose power in
the electorate was extraordinary. The bouilleur de cru
(or private distiller) is an anomalous person who has
been improved away by the legislature on more than
one occasion, only to be re-established just before the
General Elections. However, at the end of the first
year of the war the Government suppressed him.
His position was analogous with that of the old farmer
in England who brewed his own beer. The French
peasant may still distil from the produce of his own
orchards in a public distillery, but he is no longer
allowed, duty free, a quantity of alcohol for himself
and his family. The family was often stretched to
include the commune ; in fact it was the vaguest term.
Practically, the peasant brewed as much spirit as he
could dispose of. When he had supplied the local
cabaret, he would pay any workman he employed
partly in " wet " wages, partly in dry. Thus the
174 FRANCE AT BAY
workman's family was corrupted as well as the
peasant's, for the " wet " wages exceeded his in-
dividual requirements and the wife and children
were initiated into the dangerous joys of la goutte.
Even the baby learned to cry for a little brandy
in its bottle. In working-class districts in Paris
children not infrequently carry cognac to school to
drink in the lunch interval.
France certainly has attacked the question of
alcoholism with a scientific enthusiasm. Neither
working-man nor peasant could be influenced by
quite the methods employed in England. The notion
of the blue ribbon, indicating abstention from strong
drink, has something comic in it to the clear logical
French mind; at best it expresses a negative virtue.
It is true that the Anti-Alcoholic League (with a
distinctive badge) is doing admirable work and has
130,000 members or associates, but out of that number
only 6 per cent, are total abstainers. Work has been
begun, also, in Finistere, where the Catholics have
attacked strong drink in one of its strongholds. The
White Cross League has been admirable. The work
is carried out on very sensible lines. The children in
the schools are instructed in the evils that result from
alcoholism, and the lessons are driven home by rather
lurid diagrams, which no doubt make a powerful
impression upon the young mind. This work began
with M. Poincare*, who, in 1895, as Minister of Public
Instruction, signed a circular recommending the
teachers to bring home to their scholars the danger
of drink. The anti-alcoholic lessons, however, did
not become obligatory until years afterwards. Now
they are as much part of the curriculum as history
WAR AND THE DRINK QUESTION 175
and geography. Those children who belong to the
temperance societies are taken frequently by their
teachers to the headquarters of the League, where
they listen to further physiological reasons against
alcohol, so that the mind receives its bias in favour
of sobriety at an early age.
The workman has his own reason for not joining
the anti-alcoholic society. It is a bourgeois affair,
he says; it has become suspect because employers
have become interested in it. They know by ex-
perience the influence of drink on output. An
exception to this attitude is the railway-worker,
who has joined the League in great numbers. Yet
in certain advanced circles reform in drinking habits
has come about through arguments which are not
those of the temperance propagandist. " Don't
drink," say the Socialists, " because alcohol is taxed,
and by its means the Government oppresses you.
Save your money and discourage the gendarme."
Such arguments, however unorthodox, are instru-
ments of progress, no doubt, since they effect reform.
But the workman, if he carries less of his earnings to
the cabaret and more to his wife, has not become
thereby less an egoist than before. The course of
his ambition is changed, that is all. He will not
raise up children to the State, and, thus, imitates
the middle classes in their " economy." The fact
that the population of France is dwindling and has
suffered in numbers from the war is an additional
reason why the health and happiness of those who
remain should be safeguarded from poison and
disintegration.
The younger clergy show a decided sympathy with
176 FRANCE AT BAY
temperance, though the old cures still like to clink
glasses with parishioners, if only out of a desire to be
friendly and to conform with local custom. It is
one of the reproaches against the Third Republic
that it has not taken a firmer stand against the wine-
shop and has allowed the publican to become the ruler
of country districts and the grand elector upon whom
the deputy must count for his return to Parliament.
The legislature has shown timidity in dealing with
this powerful personage. A simple declaration suffices
to open a cabaret. It is true that the Palais Bourbon
has decided that no more wine-shops can be opened
in Paris without authorization, and there is a project
to limit the number in France; but it is a classic
example of locking the stable after the horse has
been stolen. Though, in the majority of cases, the
working-man takes his pleasure sanely, passing the
Sunday out of doors with his wife and gosse, either
in the Bois or in some favourite spot in the suburbs,
a considerable proportion of the class is addicted to
drink, and the misery resulting is one of the lament-
able features of city life. When one thinks that the
consumption of alcohol paying duty in France averages
four litres per head, it is easy to see that when private
stills existed the actual consumption was enormous.
The official figures are sufficiently disquieting. In
reckoning the consumption, we may eliminate two-
thirds of the population; thus the taxed spirit prob-
ably represents a thousand petits verres a year for
each drinker, calculating that four litres furnish 350
glasses of spirit. At Le Havre, Rouen, Caen and
Boulogne the consumption has reached a litre a
month per head of the population.
WAR AND THE DRINK QUESTION 177
The war has brought the evil into strong relief for
reasons which I have explained; it has shown, also,
its prevalence amongst women and even amongst
children. It has led the Minister of War to threaten
to deprive of their allowances those women who are
guilty of excess. Naturally, the next step awaited
by the country is the interdiction of all alcohol, at
least in time of war. Some of the generals com-
manding the zones have taken this step in regard to
soldiers. But reform to be permanent must be based
upon solid foundations. The middle classes must
co-operate with the authorities in providing soldiers'
homes and rest-places as a counter-attraction to the
wine -shop. The sloth and indifference of the bour-
geoisie has contributed to the evil. Here, as in
England, the solution is to be found in cheap cafes
where no spirits are sold, which shall be made bright
and attractive by a large supply of newspapers. The
drinking amongst soldiers of the new formations in
England is almost entirely due to ennui nowhere to
go. If the energies aroused by the war are not
allowed to subside, then we may expect to see a vast
difference in the health and happiness of the people.
But the middle classes must leave their money -getting
awhile to help in saving the poor. It will be good
economy.
N
CHAPTER XV
POLITICS AND PERSONAGES
LIKE many human institutions, the French Parlia-
ment suffers from a plethora of persons, if it is rather
lacking in personalities. But the War Cabinet
contained at least an average amount of political
sagacity and compared favourably, man for man,
with the Coalition Government in England. War
found the Viviani Cabinet in office; then, on the
top of this tremendous situation, came the assas-
sination of Jean Jaures, the Socialist polemist. Here
was a combination to try the nerves of any states-
man; but, Viviani, though new to office, boldly
rose to the occasion. He did not lose his head over
the war, and he made the assassination of Jaures
an occasion for a splendid manifesto in which he
appealed to the patriotism of the working classes.
At the same time he praised the dead orator, strongly
condemned the deed by which he had come by
his death, and promised punishment of the assassin.
His frank recognition of Jaures' high qualities won
him the approval of the Socialists, and, incidentally,
showed his magnanimity for the dead leader was
undoubtedly an embarrassing opponent. Viviani,
like some of his chief colleagues in the Cabinet,
began his political life as a Socialist, and probably
178
POLITICS AND PERSONAGES 179
remains one at heart ; but responsibility has brought
prudence, and thus the wine of generous ideals has
been tempered by expediency. After he had con-
jured the danger of a civil outbreak, through the
assassination of Jaures, there remained the far
greater danger : the European War. That was not
so readily dealt with. Nevertheless, the Premier,
who had emerged from comparative obscurity less
than ten years before, dealt faithfully with that
crisis. There came the shock of reverses on the
frontier, with the Germans marching rapidly on
Paris. Taking counsel with the President and his
constitutional advisers, Viviani reformed his Cabinet
and made it a Government of National Defence. If
it had not the width of the English concentration,
it represented respectable elements and contained
the most reputed politicians of the day. Jaures was
dead and could not form part of the Cabinet, even if
he had relented on that point, and it was noteworthy
that no member of the Opposition, properly so called,
was invited to take a portfolio. Thus Albert de Mun,
the esteemed chief of the Catholic party (who died
a few months after Jaures), had no opportunity of
serving his country in an official capacity : the two
extremes of patriotism met in a common end. Yet
the Cabinet, such as it was, gave satisfaction to
public opinion, and was a coherent effort to obtain
the best results that political wisdom and experience
could furnish.
Viviani's celebrity dated from a single speech,
made when Church and State were in the balance,
and the State weighed down the scale. " The lights
of Heaven are for ever extinguished," said Viviani
180 FRANCE AT BAY
with mocking emphasis, and Catholics were shocked
at this Voltairean spirit; but the expression pleased
the fashion of the moment for strong condiments
with the anti-Clerical dish. Yet in office, M. Viviani
showed that he was neither more intolerant nor
provocative than his fellows; he gave proof, on the
contrary, of large-mindedness and of careful modera-
tion in action. Though born in Sidi-bel-Abbes, in
Algeria, he has nothing of the fatalist in his com-
position. Trained to the law, like most French
politicians who achieve greatness, and most of those
who do not, he had no particular history and,
consequently, should be happy if the adage is true
when the Germans crossed the frontier; but he is
young enough to make it. It was evident that skill
and savoir-faire were needed in the difficult circum-
stances of a war, when every part of the machine,
moral, military and economic, was tried to the utmost.
But the post of greatest difficulty belonged to Maitre
Millerand, who undertook the Ministry of War. It
was a crushing responsibility and presented ex-
ceptional difficulties : first, because of the insufficient
preparation for war, as the result of frequent changes
of policy in the last forty years, from which his de-
partment suffered; and secondly, because of the
curious temperament of French deputies who find
exercise for their ingenuity in obstruction and their
talent for intrigue in the group system of French
politics, by which a dozen different jealousies have to be
met and overcome. Be this as it may, M. Millerand
battled with considerable success against the sudden
emergencies of the campaign. He is accused of having
tried to do too much and of showing the temper of
POLITICS AND PERSONAGES 181
a Dictator; but he had every excuse for adopting
a system which means rapidity of action, even if it
exposes the Minister to the full effect of faults. The
Chamber gave him three Secretaries of State, one
charged with Transport and Commissariat, one with
the Service de Sante, the third with aviation, and he
accepted them rather grudgingly, it is said; but of
his own free will he chose a Parliamentary secretary
for Munitions, and this decentralization had the
happiest results.
M. Millerand's trained endurance as a successful
lawyer had full scope in this arduous post. In his
practice at the Palais de Justice, he earned a great
deal more than as Minister of War, with a salary
of 2,500; thus he presented the phenomenon of a
lawyer who had sacrificed income to serve his
country; in England, politics are the lawyer's road
to high emoluments. But even he found more than
sufficient employment for all his energy and ability.
And behind the fagade of the Sacred Union there was
a great deal of manoeuvring of Parliamentary puppets,
which claimed the right to what is euphemistically
termed " Parliamentary control." M. Millerand,
patient, laborious, somewhat uninspiring, was the
centre of this contest of private appetites for power.
In England, Parliament seemed as little able to
visualize the war as the public itself. Almost the
only exception was the soldier, who arose from time
to time from his place, and broke the dull com-
placency of the assembly by giving it a glimpse of
realities. Such energy on his part was generally
wasted, for the outburst was attributed to his
excessive youth, and to his deplorable failure to
182 FRANCE AT BAY
understand Parliamentary reticence. When, in spite
of dignified somnolence, and in contrast with com-
fortable platitudes, the truth was uttered, there
was a look of shocked surprise on the faces of his
colleagues. In France, things passed somewhat
differently. Parliament was tragically aware of the
war from the first day of its opening, and strove to
impress the public with the fact; but the methods
of the deputy were not always helpful to the good
cause, and would have wrought harm had the Censor
not exercised his powers of suppression and limita-
tion. The French Chamber sinned by excess of zeal
rather than by any appearance of indifference. The
French, like the English assembly (in spite of contrary
impressions), was really anxious for the war to be well
and expeditiously conducted; but it did not always
realize the methods by which this had to be done.
Thus, a spirit of criticism was engendered in the
smoke-laden atmosphere of the corridors and of the
Salle des Pas Perdus, not wholly creditable to Parlia-
mentary disinterestedness, for personal ambition
intervened. One group warred against another group
with the object of setting another Minister in the
saddle and even of substituting another generalissimo.
The politicians who were ready to " swap horses in
the middle of the stream " had no doubt about their
competence. Were they not lawyers, and therefore
armed by nature and training to assume any re-
sponsibility ? And, as we know, the law leads to
everything in France provided one leaves it early
enough for the Chamber. But such reforms, unless
they had real and urgent warrant, were so re-
volutionary that they could not be brought about
POLITICS AND PERSONAGES 183
without a rupture of the union sacree. The Minister
most menaced declared that if he were disturbed
in his all-important post, he would not allow himself
to be made the victim of such a combination without
involving others in his fate. Like blind Samson, he
would pull down the pillars of the Temple and crush
his enemies.
M. Millerand's temperament is that of the success-
ful advocate the world over. He is a good-looking
man, with pleasant features, crowned by abundant
grey, curly hair, and sharp eyes glance from behind
the pince-nez; stout and of medium height, his
stooping back is the result of a bicycle accident years
ago. He began his political life as a Socialist, and
when Waldeck-Rousseau summoned him to office
as Minister of Public Works and Railways, the bour-
geois gasped and said : " What monstrous thing is
this? We are no longer safe from wild schemes of
expropriation. The middle classes will be saddled
with the whole burthen of taxation." Sombre
prophecies of the sort prevailed. The timorous were
convinced that sacred vested interests were jeopardized.
Yet all that happened was that M. Millerand's depart-
ment accomplished more work in eighteen months
than in the ten preceding years. The new Minister
proved to be a steady and systematic worker. As a
speaker, he is unemotional and addresses himself to
reason rather than to sentiment. On this account,
his orations please less the Chamber than those of
a speaker who knows how to tickle its vanity or
excite its facile enthusiasms. Though remaining a
philosophical Socialist, M. Millerand has a horror of
extremes; he is fundamentally a reformist. It is
184 FRANCE AT BAY
true that, years ago, his language was much less
moderate than it is to-day, but I doubt if he has
changed much in his opinions; it is the world that
has changed in its attitude towards social reform.
M. Millerand is a sincere believer in the duty of
Parliament to work for the amelioration of poverty;
but he is no advocate of confiscation and resists all
attempts at revolution. He is the brake rather than
the spur, and deprecates violence in any form,
giving his support only to a broad, slow, general
development. Sometimes the " war " brake was
irritating to the forward party in the Chamber, who
desired to exercise Parliamentary control in the
spirit of the Committee of Public Safety, which sent
commissioners to the armies of the Revolution
somewhat inept creatures in their semi-military
dress, tricolor scarves and top boots. But the
Minister was always opposed to any historic revivals
of that sort, holding that complete independence
should accompany responsibility. His speeches are
rather monotonous, and a little heavy, but are stuffed
with good sense and sound argument, with no tricks
of oratory, and nothing to tickle the ears of the
groundlings. Thus, he was scarcely armed against
the intrigues which finally drove the Chamber to an
open agitation, to quell which the Premier had to
appeal, in a speech of remarkable power, to the
patriotism of all parties.
Immediately in the rear of M. Millerand appears
the figure of M. Aristide Briand, who is one of the
most powerful politicians of the day. He was the
eminence grise of the Cabinet. His prestige is very
great especially since he broke up the great railway
POLITICS AND PERSONAGES 185
strike by the expedient of calling up the railway
workers as part of the mobilizable army. Such a
coup, which broke the movement at once, was bitterly
resented by the Socialists, more especially as the
Premier arrested some of the leaders of the party
with which he had consorted in unregenerate days.
But they have forgiven him long since, and he enjoys
to-day a remarkable position among his quondam
allies. Like the Prime Minister and like the Minister
of War, M. Briand has become " adapted to his
milieu," as his phrase is, and much water has
flowed beneath the Pont de la Concorde since he and
Jaures went together for long walks, with Jaures as
the conversationalist and Briand as a rather morose
listener. Yet he is still a Socialist and dreams of
reconciling the two irreconcilables : Capital and
Labour. M. Briand's charm of manner is proverbial,
and his faculty for finding a formula is adequate to
any circumstance. He was always the potential
premier in the Viviani Cabinet the power behind
the throne but, officially, he was Vice-President of
the Council, as Minister of Justice.
The political discovery of the war was M. Albert
Thomas, who is also a Socialist, but a Socialist of the
complexion of M. Millerand : a real reformer with no
touch of the Revolutionary in him, and yet pro-
foundly interested in Labour conditions. These he
studied au fond both in France and Germany, after
he left the Ecole Normale, for he is a man of parts
and learning, though the son of a baker. He is
another example of France renewing her youth and
finding new vitality in the lower middle class; here,
as elsewhere, the upper bourgeoisie shows signs of
186 FRANCE AT BAY
exhaustion; it has worked too hard, perhaps, to
maintain its " place in the sun." The leading men of
the Cabinet are modest in their beginnings and are
" the architects of their own fortunes " in the good
wholesome English sense. M. Thomas' admission
to the Cabinet as a consultative member, after he
had been chosen by M. Millerand to be his first
lieutenant, was a reward for unremitting labour at
the Ministry of War. Strange as it may seem, this
Socialist deputy, who, until a few years ago, followed
the pacific calling of a teacher of history in a girls'
Lycee, developed a positive passion for artillery and
even invented a cannon of his own. Then he became
titular head of the department for munitions, and
immediately showed great organizing capacity, calling
artillery officers from the Front to aid him in im-
proving the system in munition factories, setting
over the workmen a man who understood the A to Z
of industrial output, and finally, invoking the aid of
expert technicians in the higher branches of in-
vention and manufacture. This he did with great
speed and efficiency, sparing himself no pains to
increase the production of the arsenals. The only
serious criticism addressed to him, probably, was his
accessibility to the newspaper press. His optimistic
statements on the subject of munitions were con-
sidered to be a mistake. To be too exuberant is to
provoke reprisals from the enemy, the critics declared,
for he is ever on the watch for information.
Rather portly in person, of florid countenance, with
hair and beard a trifle unkempt, M. Thomas suggests
the Professor of Philosophy rather than the organizer
of the war factory; but there is an expression of
POLITICS AND PERSONAGES 187
energy in his " colour," as in the eyes which shine
behind the honest spectacles. If he was the dis-
covery of the war, his own discovery was the im-
portance of the man behind the gun. In his room in
the Champs Elysees hung a picture representing a
sentinel on guard before a factory, the chimney of
which is belching smoke. Thus is symbolized the
new military brotherhood, uniting the maker and the
user of guns.
One of the most attractive figures in the Cabinet
is the venerable M. Ribot, Minister of Finance, whose
principal achievement was to draw wealth from the
legendary bas de laine. From its kindly depths he
got twenty millions of good French money in seven
weeks. The peasant loves his gold and is always
reluctant to part with it ; but M. Ribot, whose appear-
ance, as well as his stately orations, inspire confidence,
made an eloquent appeal to the petit monde to prove
itself patriotic and carry its stocking contents to the
lap of Marianne. In the late days of the Second
Empire, M. Ribot was a functionary after having
been a lawyer a not uncommon evolution; then
he held office under the Republic responsible office,
for he was at the Quai d'Orsay at the moment when
the Grande Alliance was signed, and was one of its
chief authors. A leader of the Progressist Centre in
the Chamber, he stood midway between the two
extremes of Albert de Mun and Jean Jaures. The
two wings, alas ! passed away ; but the central figure
remained to hold the country's purse-strings in a
crisis with such authority that even M. Caillaux gave
him a certificate of competence, saying that he was
one of the few financiers having the confidence of the
188 FRANCE AT BAY
money world. His biographer credits him with a
passion for the violin, for rose-growing, and with a
tender solicitude towards grandchildren. For such
as judge by signs, there is something subtle in his
sartorial change from a top-hat to a democratic
" bowler," which has synchronized with his political
metamorphosis. Contrary to the common rule, M.
Ribot has moved towards the Left instead of away
from it ; he has grown more Radical as he has grown
older.
In the fulfilment of a Radical programme of reform,
lies, he thinks, the political safety of France, but in
the days when he led the Progressives in the Chamber,
before he migrated to the higher spheres of the
Senate, he showed no sympathy with the Dreyfusards,
and opposed the separation of Church from State.
None the less, he has succeeded in winning the esteem
even of his opponents, by his unswerving honesty
and rectitude. And then came his admirable con-
tribution to the War chest, as the result of his speech
to the people. The scenes were charming enough,
for, to the single louis of the midinette were added
rare old coins, and sometimes even the jewellery of
peasant-folk, who had resolved to hold back nothing
of their treasures from La Patrie. Thus war galvanizes
the country into new energy, and promotes sacrifice
and the unity of a people.
A figure of world-wide interest and renown is
Theophile Delcasse. His small, well-knit form has often
inspired the caricaturists of the Kaiser, by whom he
is not liked, for he is regarded as Germany's arch
enemy. Those who criticize him at home are inclined
to represent him as a revengeful man, full of hatred
POLITICS AND PERSONAGES 189
of the Germans, for the humiliation cast upon him
when he was driven from office by M. Rouvier by
the intervention of the Wilhelmstrasse. And again,
did he not, in a tremendous speech, bring about
M. Clemenceau's downfall and thus turn the tables
on the " Tiger " for his attack upon him, in which
he was accused of wishing to provoke war when the
country was not prepared for it ? But that is hardly
a fair way of looking at it. M. Delcasse is not
easily daunted, and showed a stiff front to Germany
when she attempted her brow-beating policy. But it
is unjust to suggest that he sought war. There is an
obvious and proper middle course between seeking
war and being reluctant to swallow any insult. M.
Delcasse saw there was a point beyond which the
country could not go without loss of dignity, and it
was soon apparent that M. Clemenceau, as well as
M. Sarrien and others who succeeded M. Delcasse
in office, were forced to follow where he had led.
For it was the only line consonant with the safety
and independence of the Republic. The German
was a little too insistent in his efforts to bring about
a rapprochement ; his wooing was so clumsy that it
had the look of menace. And so M. Delcasse must
be exonerated from the crime of wishing war, if so
hideous a charge was ever seriously advanced. For
his policy merely consisted in a logical development
of what had gone before. But those who do not like
this strenuous politician, who seems to be made of
iron, like his mountains in the Ariege, will continue,
I suppose, to depict him as a fierce little man,
mounted on a chair and grasping a mighty sword a
sort of militant and malicious Tom Thumb. Yet his
190 FRANCE AT BAY
real talents lie in conciliation; he has all the charm
of the South, from which he comes, like Joffre and
the chief generals of the Republic. He has a positive
gift for bringing opposing elements together and
providing a solution for them. It was he (with
M. Cambon) who negotiated the famous Entente treaty
with Great Britain in 1904, and it was he who helped
to bring Russia into line with England and France;
who detached Italy from the Triple Alliance in favour
of the Allies; who fought hard for the suffrages of
the Balkan States as against the diplomacy of the
Central Empires. M. Delcasse", it is true, loves the
ring of battle; but it is the clash of conflicting
interests, the war of policies and principles and not the
slaughter of human beings. And like M. Barthou,
he was one of the first to suffer from the war in the
person of his son, who was wounded and made
prisoner.
M. Barthou is another personality who, outside
the War Cabinet at the moment we are describing it,
might easily have been part of it. Perhaps the
reason why he received no portfolio was the opposition
of the Socialists, who do not forgive him for his suc-
cessful advocacy of the Three Years Law. But those
who were inclined to read provocation into this
military measure for lengthening service were speedily
undeceived when they saw what the German prepara-
tions were.
We may leave the Cabinet here with the final
thought that it was the image of the nation, in its
dignity and laboriousness, and its determination to
persevere until the end.
CHAPTER XVI
LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS
THERE is a great difference between the London and
Paris crowd, a difference which has been demonstrated
with extraordinary force since the war began. How
totally different is the attitude of the two crowds
towards its soldiers. The one is manifestly moved
and shows unconsciousness ; the other is moved secretly
and thrilled, but dare not show it. I am not speaking
of a crowd which has come together at the blare of
trumpets and the roll of drums ; it is always possible
to collect a crowd in such a way ; but I am thinking
of the passage of a regiment in the streets, troops on
the march for serious purpose. The reserve in England
in such circumstances is a little shocking to the sensi-
tive soul : how misplaced, how shamefaced it is ! I
have seen troops arrive exhausted, white and weary
from the Front, where they had been in a tight corner
in those dreadful early days of the war. The people
knew they had been overwhelmed by dreadful odds,
and that they had escaped barely from the most
difficult pass ; yet did they raise a cheer ? Did a hand
go out to them ? Did any one call them heroes and
say they deserved well of their country, and make
them feel that England welcomed them back as
children who had done their duty dangerously, per-
haps ineffectually, but, as Englishmen, without
191
192 FRANCE AT BAY
flinching? Not a bit of it. The public knew the
facts, such as they were related in the public Press,
but gave no sign of recognition. It looked on glumly :
the returning soldiers might have been a party of
hop-pickers, of belated bean-feasters creeping back
to work, a little ashamed of their excesses. Each
watched the neighbour out of the corner of his eye,
lest he should be guilty of enthusiasm, of any departure
from good taste. When men left for the Front, it was
much the same : an absence of demonstration. You
may assert that none knew that it was the " Front "
only the Germans knew but there is a subtle some-
thing which tells the crowd when men leave for battle,
even when there are no posters announcing it, no
paragraph in the papers. But the wives and daughters
and sweethearts assembled in the crowd made no
movement of farewell; few dared to embrace their
men. What would Peckham think? Would it not
be shocked by any weakness ?
There was curious evidence of this spirit in the
streets. Companies of recruits marching along Oxford
Street at the hour when people pressed to their busi-
ness evoked no cheer, no lifted hats, no fluttered
handkerchief, no stick or umbrella waved, in patriotic
emotion. The lads in khaki were made to feel the
chill of British respectability. Only a solitary carter
raised his hat and cried : " Hurrah ! Good luck to
yer." He was answered by a rippling smile from the
ranks it was an oasis in a desert of indifference.
Servant girls cheered from upper windows as the
troops went by ; otherwise, London was voiceless, too
restrained and well-bred to let its feelings be known-
And yet this has not been always so. The classic
LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS 193
example to the contrary is Mafeking. Here we had
the mad carnival spirit of London, the spirit of
riotous abandon. The anti-German riots showed what
could be done by a crowd in a temper. The same
phenomenon was witnessed in South Africa. A mob
resolved to express its opinion, to wreak its vengeance
for dastard acts of war, and then it returned quietly
home, without indulging in the least looting. There
was no prolongation of the scene of disorder, when
the demonstration had accomplished what it set out
to accomplish. It had a definite object, and that was
the internment of the Germans. Certainly it made
mistakes. It attacked Germans long settled in Eng-
land and known to be friendly; it destroyed the
property of innocent people who had asked only of
the country of their adoption the right to work incon-
spicuously for a living. None the less, in spite of its
blunders, its lack of discrimination and its cruelties,
the crowd worked for a principle, and that principle
was that the alien enemy should not be allowed at
large in time of war. The crowd was in its lynching
mood. It was the terrible justiciar, cruel and revenge-
ful, but still, one can say it without irony, acting in
the interests of civilization.
There is nothing so indicative of national tempera-
ment as a crowd; it is the true barometer of racial
humour. In France, particularly, it is the mirror of
the nation. It reflects its impulses and its prejudices.
The crowd is base, cruel, brave, good-humoured,
according to its mood. It depicts the general trend
of popular feeling with unfailing exactitude. You
hear rarely of a crowd demonstrating in a sense con-
trary to national sentiment. It has its own rough
o
194 FRANCE AT BAY
code of justice even if it acts according to its instincts
and desires. It cries, it demonstrates, it brandishes
fists because it is convinced that somebody is not
playing fair, that somebody in office is showing
indifference to the common interest. Crowds and
demonstrations in Paris often exhibit by their atti-
tude a just sense of indignation. When Chauchard,
the multi-millionaire proprietor of the Magasins de
Louvre died, there were hostile demonstrations at his
funeral which caused an alteration in the route of the
cortege. The crowd showed its exasperation at the
terms of the will, which left the vast fortune away
from those who had helped to make it in favour of
persons who, according to popular rumour, had
employed the grossest wiles of flattery to obtain it. A
French crowd is typical of the Latin temperament. It
is angry, restive, amused, good-humoured, gay, with
the same swiftness with which the average Frenchman
experiences these emotions. The crowd is the sum-
total of the average man with something added of
blackguardism and cowardice and a preternatural
sharpness which belongs to the gutter. The crowd
is the common man magnified, with his defects
rendered still more prominent; often his qualities
disappear. The beast is angry and lashes its tail;
blood is mixed with the foam of its jaws. In a vindic-
tive mood it has done amazing things, amazing
because of their suddenness and sheer unpremeditated
boldness and savagery. Even if the feat of taking
the Bastille was scarcely heroic, since the revolution-
aries were opposed by elderly guards, it was prompted
by the same sort of elan and spontaneity which
carried Napoleon's troops to victory.
LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS 195
A savage and exulting spirit presided over the
executions in the reign of Terror, and in this mood
Communists destroyed the Tuileries and Hotel de
Ville. And yet what a contrast this spirit presents
with the peaceful temper shown on Sundays and
fete-days ! How patient the crowd is, how absolutely
determined to extract as much innocent amusement
as possible from the hour. This is the Parisian in his
normal mood; he is simple and unaffected, and
difficult, one would suppose, to rouse to anger. " How
easy to manage ! " you say. He seems, certainly,
to be inspired by the gentle flaneur spirit. Life is
pleasant to-day, under the blue sky and bright sun.
Let him enjoy it as he may. And crowds are lining
the sylvan paths of the Bois and the avenues leading
thereunto, showing no impatience, waiting by the
hour together for the King to go by. For foreign
monarchs are dear to Republican hearts. Parisians
stand deep in the royal path to cheer the sovereign
when his visit betokens some new fact of importance.
They seem to divine the meaning of interviews be-
tween important political personages ; they have a
sure and rapid vision of the things that matter. The
true inwardness of an event strikes home to the
collective consciousness. This one-ness in action and
impulse is seen in the physical movement of the crowd,
its susceptibility to measure. The Parisian, like the
Dervish, finds a certain rhythm irresistible. It
excites him ; he becomes mad with it ; it impels him
to deeds of violence. There is something extraordi-
narily impressive in a crowd rhythmically marching,
the whole street in movement, like a field of wheat
bowing before the wind. The rat-tat-tat of an
196 FRANCE AT BAY
impatient crowd in a building waiting for the curtain
to ascend may lead to any act of folly. Drunk with
its own heady draught, the crowd is capable of any-
thing. It may wreck a building and set fire to it.
Revolutionary outbreaks may come from a moment's
madness. It needs but the baser elements to apply
the match to its own inflammable materials. The
mob is tigerish enough when moved by strong pas-
sions. In the Dreyfus case we had instance of it in
howling manifestations in the street, in theatrical
burnings of papers, in conflicts with the police, in the
destruction of kiosks. The Panama crowd too, the
crowd which hissed M. Loubet, on his return from
Versailles, where he had been elected President of
the Republic, represents an old-time Paris, pictur-
esque and forceful, a crowd that felt deeply, that
protested vehemently. Does it feel as much to-day
in its quiescent attitude ? That perhaps is not a fair
way of putting it ; but at least it is less demonstrative.
Even before the war had added a grave national
preoccupation to the anxieties of every day, the old
fiery spirit had subsided. Rarely it flamed, and then
the common astonishment bore witness to the change.
In the old time, barricades were erected in the street
on the least provocation. How often they appeared
in the last century ! They were a feature of the
Commune. Curiously enough, the last barricades
in Paris were occasioned by the Sunday Closing Act.
The smaller shop-people complained of the unfair
working of the measure. But the May Day demon-
strations often brought a wave of popular anger and
a great possibility for mischief into the street. M.
Lepine, the then Prefect, held the bridges as if
LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS 197
he expected the Germans; his preparations were
flattering, certainly, to the " enemy."
Both Rochefort and Deroulede, oddly dissimilar
in character and yet amusingly alike in explosive
methods, knew the joys of an overwhelming popu-
larity, and their return from political exile was
welcomed by hundreds of thousands. Yet, in this
case, the vast throng in the street meant but the
homage to an old reputation. The demonstration,
whatever its numbers, expressed no vital principle;
it was the Sunday crowd benevolent and bon enfant in
search of sensation. Both exiles, prodigal sons indeed,
had survived their political usefulness. Their return
evoked a sentimental interest, and that was all. The
hero had really ceased to count, and this huge black-
coated Sunday crowd was really a cortege accompany-
ing a political corpse to the shades of oblivion.
Deroulede, generous and chivalrous to a fault, nobly
inspired, feeling sincerely his mission, was, I suspect,
grievously disappointed by the fact that, on the
morrow of his grandiose reception, none came to
consult him upon a positive propaganda [he could
not foresee that, on his death, his principles would
become national]. The crowd killed, without thought
of resurrection. The strange thing is that this
heterogeneous assemblage should know so perfectly its
mind, and how to express itself distinctly, coherently.
It condemns this man, it exalts the other. Whence
comes this one-ness in the mass ? so strange when
one reflects on the divers elements composing it. Fre-
quently the crowd has a different mentality from the
ordinary man, as M. Gastave Le Bon has pointed out
in his Pyschologie de la Foule. How is it that it is
198 FRANCE AT BAY
not divided against itself : one half animated by one set
of sentiments and the other by another diametrically
opposed ? The crowd by its attitude seems to follow
the line of national thought. Reuter in our news-
papers must note its exact temper and the " colour "
of the demonstration. Has the crowd applauded the
passage of the King, or has it remained significantly
silent? These things are scanned in high places as
indications, straws upon the wind of the popular
temper.
When King Edward inaugurated the Entente in
1903, his gesture seemed to be premature. But his
political sense, sharpened by residence abroad and by
contact with continental opinion, knew better than
his advisers at home. The crowd began by being
silent, then it apprehended the deep meaning of the
visit, especially when the monarch spoke felicitously
to a deputation that waited upon him of " our friends
the French." 1 Its reserve broke down; it became
enthusiastic, it cheered; it had realized that the
genial figure passing along the Boulevards in a cloud
of cavalry represented a new force in politics the
force of Anglo-French friendship. Its brains and
instincts were excited by the fact. And this Parisian
monarch had brought a new political combination,
happy in its possibilities of peace and security, to the
consciousness of Paris. Later, when M. Poincare
went to London, the crowd gave him a welcome, sur-
prising in its intensity and political comprehension.
1 In receiving a deputation from the British Chamber of Com-
merce in May 1903, King Edwaid said, "Divine Providence has
designed that France should be our near neighbour and, I hope, a
dear friend."
LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS 199
He was cheered as is rarely a foreign visitor to London.
The British sovereign's visit to Paris a few months
before the war broke out was an amazing expression
of that same innate political sense of the populace.
When His Majesty, accompanied by the Foreign
Secretary, returned from Vincennes after witnessing
a great military review there, the crowd again com-
prehended and shouted rapturously : " Vive le Roi,"
and, more significantly still : " Vive Sir Edouard Grey."
It was the first time that a British Foreign Minister
had been cheered in Paris, and it marked an era of
what one might call popular diplomacy. The people
had understood. They knew the importance of the
visit, even if the politicians did not. Out of the
mouth of babes had come forth praise. The man
in the street had realized the inevitable trend of
the Entente and that it must take on a resolutely
defensive character. He had seen the cloud on
the horizon, no bigger than a man's hand, and had
regarded it as a portent. The French crowd, im-
pulsive as it is, is profoundly political and prophetic
in its insight; it sees in a flash and interprets by
imagination. Emotionalism expresses itself freely
in the French nature; there is no desire to hide it-
If moved to weep or to cheer somebody, the French-
man is not ashamed to weep or to cheer. He does
not stand in awe of the opinion of his fellow-man
perhaps he knows that the latter will be weeping or
cheering too. Then, again, the Gallic temperament
is readily accessible to symbolism. Even the working-
man, whose pose in peace time is a truculent anti-
militarism, is affected by the flag. In spite of himself,
the sombrero comes off and he cries " Vive 1'Armee "
200 FRANCE AT BAY
when the regiment passes, though a moment before,
at the buvette round the corner, he has said some
desperate things about the uniform as the badge
of slavery. But symbolism has stirred him. When
he thinks of the tricolour as the outward expression
of La Belle France, all argument is taken away;
he becomes intoxicated with an Idea. War has
shown us the power of an Idea. Give the people
an idea, an idea of country and of social service, and
they are electrified into action inspired by the
thought that they may be useful to humanity.
There is always a theatrical sense in a Frenchman,
the perception of the effective, the realisation of the
deep dramatic moment. He seeks instinctively for
the quick responsive touch. In the early part of the
war, a regiment was passing the Madeleine, as the
Cardinal Archbishop in red robes was descending
the steps. He paused a moment and then blessed
the troops : strange scene in what we sometimes call
pagan Paris. People knelt in the street ; others bent
their heads in prayer; many were affected to tears
though they had lived for years outside the pale of
orthodoxy. What had moved them to this extent?
To what sudden impulse had they yielded? The
cocker doubtless obeys the same influence when he
removes his hat at the passage of a funeral. He
would not probably go inside a church except for
the christening of his child . . . but the appeal of
that solemn procession in black is irresistible.
Another scene belonging to the early days of the
war illustrates the same spirit. It was at Notre-
Dame : a great service of intercession was in progress.
For the final Benediction, the Archbishop and the
LONDON AND PARIS CROWDS 201
Cathedral Clergy issued from the main doors of the
building and took their places upon a platform erected
just within the railings before the main fa9ade. In
front of them spread a vast mass of people, even to the
opposite side of the river. It was secretly moved by
the ceremony and its meaning, though thousands
could not hear a single word. But, when the Host
was elevated, a hush fell upon the throng ; each one
felt a divine fluttering at his heart. It was a strongly
dramatic moment, out there under the cold light of
Heaven, animating and enthusing sensibility. With-
out knowing it, the crowd felt the significance of
things. Its imagination was stirred, for it lies close
to the surface. When war broke out, scenes of pathos
and enthusiasm took place in the streets. The crowd
threw flowers which the men stuck in their rifles and
in their mouths. Women and children accompanied
their husbands and fathers to the station. Tears
coursed down their cheeks. The father wept as well
as the others. That is part of French expansiveness.
Yet when the train steamed out of the station, bearing
the troops to the battle area, the young man, who had
wept so copiously and declared dramatically that he
would never see Paris again, was already whistling
and singing with his friends. Because he has a quick
intelligence and possesses a brain to realize the suffer-
ing and sordidness of war and, by an effort of will,
and by his intensity of faith in the cause is able to
overcome that M. Dupont is doubly a patriot. He
conquers himself before conquering the enemy.
By their reserve English people give foreigners the
impression of a lack of feeling. I remember the
astonishment of a Frenchman at witnessing an Eton
202 FRANCE AT BAY
boy take leave of his father, who was going to the
Boer war. " Good-bye, sir," said the son, as quietly as
if the head of the household were off for a picnic ; no
kiss was exchanged, a solemn formal handshake and
that was all; even the wife was coldly embraced.
44 The English have no feeling," says the foreign ob-
server, not realizing the Spartan courage that is
behind this attitude, and he lends an ear to the
calumny that English prisoners are neglected by their
kith and kin at home because the latter vaguely
imagine that the Government is looking after them.
44 Cold English," he says again. Our countrymen,
by their excessive attention to the facade, gain an
undeserved reputation for want of heart. And yet
this reticence is merely of yesterday. The seven-
teenth-century Englishman was expansive and re-
sponsive to every mood, and that was the golden
age of Art in England. His coldness, therefore, is a
result of convention a mere pose. Immeasurably
improved in outward graces since the Victorian era,
the Englishman has yet retained a certain shyness
of manner disconcerting to the foreigner, though those
who know him best realize that it is but the envelope
of his character. When it is merely a question of
personal conduct there is little to be said ; but when
his calm and apparent indifference is a discourage-
ment to the soldier marching to the Front or looking
naturally for some appreciation of his brave deeds,
then it becomes another affair. Coldness is a
national disservice.
CHAPTER XVII
WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND
WHAT France thinks of us is evidently not to
be gauged by the empiric method of some chance
cafe conversation with the Boulevardier. The Paris
flaneur (if the type has not been improved away) is
an amusing person, sometimes enlivening in his con-
versation, often able to throw a new light on common
subjects; but as an historian, or as prophet of his
time, he is not to be taken seriously. His capricious
humour depending on the weather or the state of
his domestic affairs, his desire to epater swings him
from an extreme of exuberance to the depths of comic
despair. Extremely susceptible to the currents of
optimism and pessimism which float in the air, he is
unarmed, by his superficial nature, before the snob
or the neurasthenic. Hysterically impressed by the
conversation of the last man with whom he has spoken,
he is the most deceptive of guides. His high recep-
tivity and limited experience of life beyond the city
walls for he only leaves Paris-by-the-Seine for Paris-
by-the-Sea or Paris-in-the-Mountains Trouville or
Deauville, Aix-les-Bains or Luchon provide him
with an outlook entirely inadequate to such problems
as a great war or a nation's conscience. To suppose
him the king of birds when he is merely a sorry
203
204 FRANCE AT BAY
rooster aiming at owl-like wisdom is responsible for
many a grotesque view of France as a country light
in character and of more than doubtful morals. Has
not Monsieur Machin, the indefatigable first-nighter,
whose opinions are so often quoted in the organs of
" the Faubourg," declared, in the presence of all the
world, that the Chamber is occupied in nefarious en-
terprises against the common weal, and that all
Ministers have skeletons in their private cupboards ?
These round-table conversations in the haze of " Mary-
land " in the hour given formerly to the "green god-
dess " (before she was dethroned in favour of more
homely deities) are peculiarly favourable to perverse
expression. And a casual foreigner, confident in his
ability to read French opinion in a couple of weeks,
is impressed with the wickedness of it all. What can
you expect from a country like that ? he says, and per-
haps writes it in a solemn review. He has not seen
through the pose of the cynical gentleman with high-
pitched voice and unspeakable clothes inking blue-
lined paper on a corner of the cafe table. He does not
realize that this man is quite incapable of represent-
ing France, or, indeed, of consistently representing
himself. His justification for existence is that one
day he may be taken at his own valuation ; otherwise,
he would disappear in the blue smoke of his cigarette
and never be seen again.
French opinion must be ascertained by a just com-
parison of the sentiment of Paris with the sentiment
of the provinces. If you have no time to get into
touch with provincial France, to talk with Normans
and Picards, with men from the North, with men from
Bordeaux, from Lyons, from Perpignan, you will
WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND 205
obtain an excellent idea of country opinion from the
perusal of provincial papers. There you will find a
point of view you had not suspected, for, like most
Englishmen, you had been taught that Paris was
France. The sentiment of the country rarely changes.
The town fluctuates from hour to hour according to
the news, to the political temper of dominant groups,
as to whether England at the moment happens to have
a " good Press." A feeling that she is not doing her
best, that she is lagging in the fight, sends down the
mercury of the barometer ; but the touch of a warm
hand, of a Kipling, of a Lloyd George, of a Kitchener,
may send it up again. Yet to-morrow one must not
be surprised if the mercury again descends.
In the provinces the conditions are more stable. The
peasant or small shopkeeper in the country towns
is largely removed from those influences which affect
the susceptibility of his brother in the big centres.
He looks at every question of politics, of religion, or
his own affairs from a different angle. He has his
own fixed notions of right and wrong, his shrewd
sense of where his interests lie. He varies very little
in the standard he applies to foreign politics, and for
him, indeed, the cardinal points of the political com-
pass never change. He is Republican by conviction,
and from the feeling, doubtless, that this style of
government best suits his material interests ; on the
other hand, he may revile the Government for its
indecision or its capitulation to Socialism, and find
salvation only in a return to monarchy. That simple
faith in kings (though it is difficult to say what kings)
is founded on the conviction that a more vigorous
government, less servile to the 'oi polloi, would effect
206 FRANCE AT BAY
marvels in national development and perhaps influence,
in some mysterious way, the crops !
The townsman is often a weathercock swinging in
obedience to the wind. If it blows east in the after-
noon papers, round he comes to the view that really
England is too bad. What ! another strike in the
midst of war ? It is monstrous. And where are those
million men, and what are they doing ? England, no
doubt, has forgotten all about the war in her desire
to make money. Those absurd visits of the Zeppelins
to British shores and bombardments by submarines,
what do they amount to ? Nothing but the loss of a
few dozen civilian lives. English civilians talk as if
they were a race apart and had no right to be involved
in war. That is an affair for soldiers; they are not
soldiers, but business people who only want to mind
their own affairs. What a shame that they should be
attacked by these horrible engines of the air. When
Tauben come to Paris, or big howitzer shells are
dropped on Compiegne or Dunkirk, there is some com-
motion, but the sufferers say, with a just sense of
proportion : " You must expect this sort of thing, for
we are at war. It is nothing to what our poor poilus
have to stand."
Even the perfection of the English soldier's clothes,
I gather, is not agreeable to the critic. He finds the
officers too spick and span, too set upon their personal
appearance to be " practical " chiefs. He prefers the
rough look of the French soldier with his soiled and
badly cut uniform. That is more real, he says. This
is trench warfare, and they do not mind the mud.
Foot -high pots of marmalade and the other luxuries
without which Tommy is supposed to be unable to
WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND 207
fight move him to a certain sardonic mirth. Such
childishness is almost as amusing as the trenches
round London, in which, he has heard, retired bankers
and other elderly sportsmen await the coming of the
invader. Meanwhile, he reflects bitterly, thousands
of men are being struck down in the north of France
in a grimly real war.
England is criminally slack, says this aggressive
person, to whom, I hope, I have not given an ex-
aggerated place. Why was not cotton stopped before ?
he asks the indispensable cotton for making shells.
Why was England so callous of the lives of her own
men? And then this vast trade with Scandinavia,
why was it permitted when every ton of food-stuff and
merchandise meant the prolongation of the war?
" Really, I begin to think," he exclaims petulantly,
" that you regard the war as a colonial expedition "
thereby quoting the words of a French writer who
crossed the Straits to see what England was doing in
the fight. " She is too much in the wings instead of
up on the stage," he says. " Not having suffered in her
own person, not having felt the edge of the foreign
sword, she cannot imagine what it means to us to have
ten of our richest departments in the occupation of
the Germans."
It must not be concluded that the French are not
cognizant of all that England has done. They realize
her colossal effort, the loyalty and exactitude with
which she has carried out her obligations and far ex-
ceeded them on a scale of unheard-of magnitude.
This book could be filled with articles that have been
written on the English achievement, inspired, I am
sure, with the best intentions. But it would not
208 FRANCE AT BAY
be true to say that the people as a whole are upon
their knees before the "miracle of England," as Jean
Richepin calls it, much as they admire the heroism
of her sons. But we are neighbours in a great fight,
standing shoulder to shoulder. We have looked into
each other's eyes ; we have seen each other's qualities ;
we have glimpsed each other's defects. The glamour
has worn off; but what has remained? I think a
great sediment of esteem and affection, and a new com-
prehension of English qualities have remained. At
the same time, I find a desire that we should show a
readier understanding of the new conditions that
have come about since the war began, that our
understanding should be awakened, that our outlook
should be broadened. It was a spirit of sacrifice,
not the Terror that was the great motive force in the
Revolution. And the spirit of sacrifice is animating
the French to-day. Sometimes they look across
the Channel a little wistfully, and fail to find it
there.
Yet they are very anxious that England, in en-
deavouring to adapt herself, should maintain her
virtues of independence, integrity, reliability. If she
becomes more accessible to new ideas, let it be without
giving up any of those splendid old principles of truth,
honour and justice upon which the empire has been
founded. Let her play even a greater role in the
world, but let her read into her " lines " something
less of self, giving greater variety to the interpretation,
a touch less of superiority in the intonation. 1 Para-
doxical as it may seem, some advanced Republicans
1 The complaint against England, in short, is that she is
"inartistic' 1 in the war in putting self before the subject.
WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND 209
in France regret any attack on English institutions,
urging that they have contributed to her solidity and
power, and without them she would be lost. At the
same time it is obvious, as M. Emile Boutroux says,
that England is moving rapidly towards that demo-
cracy which represents the political ideal of France.
But men who have themselves seen the follies and
weaknesses of democracy and realized that it is often
the expression of a materialism, principally because
the mass of the electorate is necessarily occupied with
the satisfaction of its material needs, fear that, in be-
coming wholly democratic, England may lose some-
thing of her high-mindedness. Therefore, say these
observers, this old-world England, with her Court and
her aristocracy, with her National Church, with her
ruling classes and amenable masses, stands in the
Continent of Europe for steadfast principle, for slow
and consistent evolution, and, at the same time, is
a pillar of liberty and a shining example of political
morality and purity of administration.
France in war presents a picture of confidence and
calm which can be more accurately judged in the
provinces than in the crowded centres of population.
In the different journeys which I undertook in the
first year of the war I could not fail to be impressed
by the force and direction of public opinion. The
war has chastened the nation and has promoted a new
and living ideal as well as effected the union of all
classes by removing subjects for internal conflict.
Though people in the country spoke of the duration
of the war with a certain sadness, and even with a
fear of economic complications, nowhere was there
any faltering in the feeling that it must be prosecuted
210 FRANCE AT BAY
until the enemy was brought to his knees. And one
looked in vain for discouragement and despair.
The peasants' opinion of the English was a pleasant
discovery. It was lavish in its praise. There were
no half measures in the admiration for the braves
allies. The English army was a wonderful machine ;
the speakers had seen it on the march and in camp,
and were deeply impressed by its order and method,
by the care it took of its units. I gathered that,
in the peasants' view, there would have been some
faltering of the public attitude in France at the critical
hour, some weakening of the national spirit, had it
not been for the serious steadying influence of the
English. Would not the quaking politicians have
given way before the nerve-racking march on Paris ?
That, at least, was Jacques Bonhomme's view. He
and his like were heartened by the co-operation of the
English. It seemed to them that behind their nation,
which had suffered so much from this and the pre-
ceding war, there stood the friendly giant, John Bull,
ready to help, never at a loss, always master of him-
self, always true to his word. One was conscious of
England's popularity when one received the invitation,
charmingly and graciously given : " Will you not step
inside and taste a little of my white wine ? It was
grown on yonder slopes and has something of the sun
in it."
The Midi was particularly demonstrative towards
the English. It was in travelling by train that one
got into contact with the people, for the English-
man was accepted as one of themselves and shared
in their confidences, in their hopes and fears about
the length of the war, its probable cost and the effects
WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND 211
of victory. In Savoy, as I walked the hill-side above
Aix-les-Bains, I had instances of the esteem and regard
in which our countrymen are held. " Monsieur est
Anglais ? " and after that would come a long recital
of the speaker's recollections of Queen Victoria, of
Princess Beatrice and other members of the Royal
Family. Then a neighbour would arrive and chat
about the war. " Faut que a finisse, pas ? "
and he would launch also into eulogiums of the
English. Were they not a wonderful people, so clever
in arranging things, so propres " why, they take a
bath every day ! " and the voice sank to an astonished
whisper, " and not simply when they are ill." A
village tradesman who joined the group, said : " Ah, I
like the English. My sister went to London once as
jemme de chambre to a Milady who was very rich and
very chic, and she says the town is epatante, so enor-
mous and yet so quiet and well-ordered compared
with Paris. And the police are giants, so superb and
calm, in their blue uniforms and helmets. They wear
white gloves and have no need of a baton to make
the traffic stop." Another says : " The English lads
are so self-reliant and are taught to do things for
themselves. What manly little fellows they are
and so polite. Indeed, all the English are polite.
One would suppose there were no rough people in
their island; they never say the dreadful things to
each other that people do in France when they grow
angry. The English are so correct and strong and
considerate to women."
Tommy's personal popularity is great in every
corner of France; his conduct, with rare exceptions,
is exemplary ; he is a popular figure because respect-
212 FRANCE AT BAY
ful of authority, and he never abuses hospitality.
The illustrated publications, particularly in the early
days of the war, vied with each other in showing
Tommy in interesting attitudes. Tommy's clever-
ness, good humour and courage were themes for
friendly pens. " He is always charming with the
children," the mothers said, and every kiosk showed
Mr. Atkins playing with schoolboy glee and perfect
abandon with la petite Suzanne or le petit Georges.
We are misjudged, often because we hide our
hearts under a cloak of formalism instead of wearing
them upon our sleeves. Sometimes we are accused
of want of feeling. Does not the English soldier
whistle as he goes past the cemetery where his com-
rades lie ? The Frenchman, on the contrary, doffs his
hat and makes the sign of the cross in honour of the
fallen. I have before me a letter from a man written
to his friend as he was going to the front. The train
crawled past a multitude of green mounds, the resting-
places of the brave. The soldiers left their games of
cards to crowd to the carriage doors. There was pity
and consternation in their faces, and the look that
said : " In the midst of life we are in death." ... It
was some moments before they returned to their
cards, and then one said, with a certain manly
resignation : " Ah, well, perhaps each of us will get
our six feet of earth before very long."
The method of raising an army by posters, and the
flamboyant appeals on the London hoardings " Your
country needs you " ; " Rally round the old flag "
appear extraordinary to French people. If the coun-
try requires a man, they say, why does it not demand
his attendance at the depot instead of requesting it ?
WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND 213
What is this melodramatic language, the language of
the music-hall, in a dangerous national crisis ? Com-
pare this with the French system, and you will see the
force of their surprise. A scrap of paper appeared
bearing the simple words : " Officiel. Mobilisation
Generale. Demain, premier jour de mobilisation."
Here is war without music, without parade, purely
utilitarian without any "rallying round the old
flag."
And those who had visited London compared the
excitement of that capital with the calm and silence
of Paris. The crowded music-halls and theatres, did
they not show an absence of seriousness that was quite
inconceivable, a failure to visualize events ? " Busi-
ness and pleasure as usual " was shocking levity to
a people struggling for their very lives. In the early
months of the war French leading articles told us, with
the frankness allowed by the censor, that England was
paying scant attention to the war. " But the fleet,"
you say, " surely that is doing its duty ; surely we
have kept our bargain there ! " " Yes, yes, you have
kept your bargain; the fleet is right enough. Of
course, we want our commerce maintained, our sea-
lanes kept open; but, unless the foe is driven from
France, there will be no commerce." Perhaps, by
way of continuing the argument, we insisted that
England had contributed money to the Allies and
furnished them with stores of all sorts. " Quite true,"
the sceptic admitted, but declared : " All your efforts
should be directed to military operations, to forcing
the enemy to demand peace. If England had gone
earlier to work and obtained the army necessary in
this emergency, do you suppose the war would have
214 FRANCE AT BAY
dragged out to its present length? Of course the
voluntary system is respectable. Every hero who
offers himself to his country is respectable; but is
such a system sound and democratic ? Does it place
the burden equally upon people, or is there not some-
thing arrogantly aristocratic about it ? In any case,
it is inadequate to the present crisis." It is difficult
for the French to reconcile an ardent patriotism and
a desire to end the war with England's attitude to-
wards national service. A spirit of ease and indiffer-
ence seems to them the explanation of this reluctance
to shoulder obvious duties.
And then you may hear the English spoken of as
making war with light heart. I was confronted not
long ago with this curious allegation from an old
Parisian. " With light heart ? " I repeated. " Yes,
sir, with light heart. Is it not light-hearted to bring
a pack of hounds to France in time of war ? And if
that, after all, is a mere incident, what about the
Dardanelles ? Was there not light heart there light
heart that brought a heavy reckoning in men and
ships?"
I imagine that, unless care is taken, a source of
heart-burning may be found in rival trading methods
after the war is done. The English are superior in
most commercial ways and particularly in banking,
which, in France, is archaic in its slowness and pre-
cautionary spirit. Thus a certain niceness will have
to be observed in our business dealings with the ally,
so that the suggestion of self-interest shall not be
raised.
But there are not wanting symptoms that the solid
and loyal co-operation of England will meet with the
WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF ENGLAND 215
recognition it deserves, not merely at the hands of
the thoughtfuTand well-informed, but from the people
throughout France. After the war had lasted for more
than a year, M. Jean Hennessey, a deputy, and also
a member of Sir John French's staff, spoke grandly
in the Chamber for the heroism of the English, who
had given, he said, a superb example at the battle
of Mons. They had held on to the Craonne plateau
after the battle of the Marne, and, on the Yser, had
only 5,000 men left available out of an entire army
corps (about 40,000). Without conscription Great
Britain and her Colonies had given admirable support
to France. And this testimony was followed later by
articles in the French Press in which much the same
language was employed.
CHAPTER XVIII
FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION
PROFOUND economic changes have resulted from
the great upheaval, and many more are to be ex-
pected from the following peace. The place that
Germany occupied in France since the other war is
quite startling. In Paris alone there were 25,000
German firms, and the daily list of sequestrated
houses in the Journal Officiel showed the Teutonic
hold on the provinces. Certain industries were
almost exclusively German. They had established
a quasi -monopoly in dyes and chemicals, in drugs,
opticians' lenses, watch-glasses, electrical apparatus,
cheap cutlery, ironmongery and toys. They had
obtained predominance in finance, and Germans sat
on the boards of many leading banking establish-
ments. As Professor Renard points out, they owned
coal mines in Normandy, iron mines in Lorraine,
beauxite in the south, vineyards in the Bordeaux dis-
trict and in Champagne. They supplied the peasant
with much of his agricultural machinery. Along the
Riviera, they staffed the hotels and held practically
in their hands the cut-flower trade.
Their infiltration into the great stores, which are
common to Paris and the large provincial centres, was
quite remarkable, and many of the articles sold as
216
FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION 217
French were really of German manufacture, though
the design might have been Parisian. There were
thirty-five fashion journals in Paris in the hands of
Germans, which showed that they sat at the fount
of fashion as w r ell as at the receipt of custom;
and their ability to manufacture cheaply has con-
tributed to their success in the world. It was so
conspicuous in France that one wonders they went
to war to obtain possession of a country which they
could have obtained with a little patience without
fighting at all. Perhaps they wished to test their
mighty military machine not the less wonderful
because of the organized industry behind it. They
showed genius if that means infinite pains in satis-
fying the customer. Prospectuses and catalogues
were in his language ; weights and measures were
converted into the equivalents, and even the carriage
was reckoned to the client's door. These things
mean success. The commercial traveller was scien-
tific in his methods of attack. You might not like
him, you might wish to kick him downstairs, but
you were bound to acknowledge his ability. He
was willing to make every concession, to leave goods
on approval, to allow machinery to be used free for a
year in the hope that he would obtain an order after-
wards. German banks were active and accommodat-
ing, and stood behind business like the munition
factory behind the combatant. They advanced
money to the customer on his bills and charged quite
reasonable rates, whereas French banks, like French
business men generally, decline to take risks. Whilst
German banks supported commerce, French insti-
tutions preferred to act as agents in issuing foreign
218 FRANCE AT BAY
stock. They are shy of innovation and averse from
speculation. Their affair is a sure thing. They lend
when there is no uncertainty, with ample security.
As to encouraging the trader, that is the last thing
they think of. They take care to be well paid for
any service they may perform.
The French, too, are little disposed to back finan-
cially enterprises in their own country. The man
who starts a new business or manufactures a patent
has the greatest difficulty in eliciting his country-
men's support. Better if he applies at once to the
foreigner; and it is largely for this reason that
German capital and enterprise secured so large a
hold in France. In such a matter as the spas, which
in France are superior to any in the world, native
organization was second to the German. French
concessionaires spent little time or money in adver-
tising the attractions of their resorts. " There is
the water," they seemed to say; "you see by this
analysis how good it is all the doctors praise it.
Why, then, does not the public patronize it? How
backward it is ! " And when it is suggested that
the ordinary visitor is not moved by medical litera-
ture, these indifferent promoters again receive
a shock. " Sapristi, cest etonnant!" This curious
spirit, common enough in England, of course, does
not engender enterprise. Germans advertise their
spas with the method they employ in other affairs :
they are thorough in everything. Doubtless they
would have exploited the natural beauties of the
Dauphine (as picturesque in its way as Switzerland)
if they had been blessed with such a region in
their own country. France is not yet properly
FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION 219
organized in the tourist sense, and the Swiss system
of co-operative advertising has not been adopted
by her hotel proprietors.
Mining also needs development. The mountains
hold treasures other than those of the rich sulphur
springs incomparable in certain maladies. In some
places, notably in the Pyrenees, the "white coal," or
water power of the mountains, has been harnessed
to great undertakings. This utilization of the water-
falls points to a new industrial future for France, just
as does the large importation of coal from England,
rendered practicable by the numerous harbours.
France must pay her war debt by an increased pro-
duction of manufactured articles and by the intensive
development of her natural resources under the im-
pulse of her industrial "elite." Her poverty in
coal has not allowed her, until this moment, to
rear up great industries such as exist in England;
to a large extent she has been the country of the
handworker. All these things exercise influence
on the course of trade and on the character of the
people. The capitalist is often a sleeping partner
in a business for which he has little concern, except
a speculative interest. Neither his brains nor his
strong arms have gone to the upbuilding of it.
In a financial crisis France is almost impregnable
because of the stolidity of her capital; she is un-
affected by the ebb and flow of manufacturing trade.
She has not exposed herself, by a large industrial
surface, to the breath of depression ; she is not
amenable to it. Her wealth is made by the peasant,
rather than by the artisan or millhand. The
essential difference, therefore, between English and
220 FRANCE AT BAY
French finance is the deadness of the latter, whereas
British capital is alive paying wages, laying down
machinery, living the strenuous life of daily pro-
duction. Though there are complaints that English
banks, battening on securities, are indifferent to
trade and prefer to find their revenues in a species
of pawnbroking, yet capital, whether in the banks
or outside of them, is vastly more responsive to
industrial claims in Great Britain than in our Ally's
country, where the talent of a Minister and Acade-
mician was necessary to pierce the pocket of the
peasant through his patriotism. Small shopkeepers
in the country hide their money in mattresses and
other strange places and produce it gingerly in
any sort of crisis. Naturally secretive and imbued
with the precautionary spirit, they fight shy of
the banks. It is not unusual to find the owner
of a tiny shop able to change a thousand-franc
note.
The hoarding habit produced great stringency
during the early periods of the war. Thrift was
exaggerated into a vice. The retail business of the
country was hampered by a shortage of the yellow and
white metal, and paper issues at low denominations
were made. In certain districts one-franc and fifty-
centime notes were circulated by the local Chamber
of Commerce ; but this currency was restricted to the
district and refused outside of it. The inconvenience
of such an arrangement can be readily imagined.
The war, then, will bring more confidence, perhaps, to
Jacques Bonhomme or more particularly to his wife,
who holds the purse strings ; but no silver-tongued
Minister of Finance could ever get quite to the bottom
FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION 221
of the inexhaustible bas de laine. 1 One of the singular
features of the crisis was the democratization of
finance. Workmen and Breton bonnes discussed the
War Loan in the Underground. In England the
effects must have been even greater, for the workers
have not the same frugality, nor have they had the
same access to the public funds.
It is apparent that France must direct her energies
more resolutely towards trade and commerce ; her
methods must be improved. The German's un-
imaginative exactitude is formidable in business.
Every detail is studied; nothing is left to chance.
Markets have been captured as the result of slow
siege and the learning of languages, and even of the
phrases to be employed in talking to the purchaser.
Thus victory came as the result of ceaseless tiny steps
in the desired direction. Whatever the natural talent
of the French, they cannot stand against a system,
unless they are themselves scientific. Thus, France
must bring a swift and ordered speed, and not
merely spontaneity in invention, to her aid to become
mistress in her own domain ; she must avoid waste
and overlapping, must regulate her output and must
study the conditions and possibilities of labour, to
learn what can, as well as what cannot, be done. The
Germans were great customers of the French. They
were the largest consumers of Bordeaux in the world ;
they bought great quantities of fruit from the south,
and endless articles de Paris from everv where. That
1 It was calculated that three and a half milliards of francs
(140,000,000), largely in gold, remained in the people's hands in
September 1915, notwithstanding the large subscription to the
War Loans.
222 FRANCE AT BAY
market must be replaced by others, and, naturally,
England comes the first into view. Now in all busi-
ness matters she is superior, as becomes " a nation
of shopkeepers." She has a genius for affairs, and
clear, direct methods that are assets in such a career.
If we have lost ground through a certain indifference,
it has been born in us by a fabulous prosperity.
We have earned our money easily, by virtue largely of
our reputation and credit ; we have not had to slave
and struggle for it; and this, again, has affected the
tone of our appeals. In trading with the French,
we must take care not to hurt their susceptibilities.
American methods : " It's your money we want ! "
(with the outstretched finger) will not do in France ;
there must be something more suave and more
insinuating than that. Nor must there be a too
sharp invocation of the uniform or the flag to urge
the excellence of our wares. Let them stand upon
their feet; political and adventitious aids are in
doubtful taste. Appeals to commercial France must
be delicately made, lest John Bull be credited with
an intention to turn his alliances into cash. It must
be remembered that dissatisfaction arose from the
high exchange with England, which complicated the
French exporter's business by an adverse eight to
ten per cent. As a class, the Gallic trader is not as
well informed as the commercial man in England. He
was convinced that, in some nefarious way, England
was responsible for the high price of her gold ; he did
not realize that it was a pure question of supply and
demand. To his suspicious nature it was a deep-laid
scheme to obtain an unearned profit not the simple
result of making large purchases across the Straits
FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION 223
unbalanced by French exports. In normal times,
gold shipments would have rectified the inequality;
but war prevented this ready adjustment of the
scales. And, to increase the bad impression, French
manufacturers returned from visits to England with
the quasi-*' certainty " that money was being made
by private contracts to the detriment of the supply
of ammunition. Engineering works were fulfilling
private orders instead of filling shells. This was not
the spirit that France was showing in the crisis, and
it was a cause of irritation.
Distress doubtless will exist for some time after
victory has crowned the Allies' arms. The French
centres of production will find difficulty in re-establish-
ing themselves, and Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing will
not resume their old industrial life in a day. German
occupation has meant waste, and probably destruc-
tion. Yet, even in the midst of war were there hopeful
signs for French manufactures. South America asked
for hats, dress fabrics, ironmongery and builders'
materials ; North America still showed a taste for wines
and feminine finery ; and from Russia and Northern
Africa came an increasing demand for French goods
to replace the German. English industry, on the
other hand, has profited from the war quite apart
from Government orders. The Flemish immigrants
have given a fillip to the lace trade and brought to it
new elements of refinement. The British Govern-
ment has encouraged the manufacture of chemicals
formerly in the hands of the Germans, and from this
will result benefit after the war has become nothing
but an ugly dream. Nor is France likely to lose the
benefits of industrial organization, the direct outcome
224 FRANCE AT BAY
of the munitions war. When shells and guns are no
longer needed, engineers and the gigantic plant that
called them into being will find employment in pro-
ducing implements of labour, which will be exported
to the four corners of the earth. On the other hand,
it is obvious that Germany has roused great prejudice
against herself in the world. Her commerce must
suffer, and momentarily her factory output must be
limited to her own population.
What will the future bring forth ? It seems reason-
able to suppose that France will continue to be the
home of fashion. French taste is one of those
products which resist German imitation. Sometimes,
in bursts of confidence, New York or Chicago says
that American women shall henceforth wear American
fashions, which is generally another way of saying
German fashions, since the Teuton has obtained a
large place in the trade. But Columbia's daughters
are not easy to convince that the native article pos-
sesses the elegance and distinction that belong to
Paris, where priestesses initiated in the mysteries of
" the line " tend with unfailing zeal the sacred lamp
of fashion. Again, Hamburg has pretentions, a little
pathetic, may be, to lead the world in clothes; but
Paris still reigns supreme. However, it is not easy
to define exactly what is this subtle je ne sais quoi
of French invention which gives it its distinctive
style. Is it audacity? To a great extent I think
it is. Paris is creative and original, because she is
bold. She never thinks of suburban taste, which
is as unattractive in France as elsewhere, notwith-
standing assumptions to the contrary; the capital,
alone, is the fount of inspiration, with its band of
FRANCE AND HER ECONOMIC POSITION 225
courageous innovators. What makes French conver-
sation sprightly and its art convincing? Audacity.
The dress designer does not ask "Is it nice ? Will
it please Enghien-les-Bains ? " but "Is it artistic?"
The mental climate of London, Hamburg or New
York does not incite to creation, though there seems
no reason why it should not except for this native
and intrinsic vitality responsible for those bold
artistic touches and that particular " provocation "
which are the secret of the Paris gown. The artist
goes forward boldly, exulting a little in eccentricity,
knowing that if he has gone too far to-day, he will
strike the middle course to-morrow and thus the right
style will be attained. The " line," of which we
hear so much, is influenced by external circumstance.
The conditions of a carriageless Paris produced
a short, flowing skirt, giving freedom of move-
ment in contrast with the Tango gown. The Paris
couturiere feels, in some strange way, the ambient
influence. Others less susceptible would be less
capable of renewing inspiration, and therefore less
successful in invoking the fresh unflagging note of
novelty which is the sign of the creative brain. This
sort of art grows only in the tiny country dominated
by the Colonne Vendome.
Thus, I think, we may rest assured that Paris
will continue to be the centre whence radiates the
sartorial decrees of earth. It is remarkable that
neither Germany nor America has succeeded in
wresting from her the sceptre of the modes. But can
France hold her own in other ways ? Germany, it
is said, had marked the champagne district for her
own, and to this end spared Epernay before the
Q
226 FRANCE AT BAY
battle of the Maine. But the products of her sunny
vineyards are as safe from successful imitation as
the products of the busy brains of the Rue de la
Paix : and in articles of taste and luxury, dresses and
jewellery, automobiles, art objects, statuary and
painting and in articles de Paris the City Beauti-
ful doubtless will hold her own, aided by the British
capital and enterprise which must flow to France from
the comradeship in arms. France sends us foodstuffs ;
in return we send her coal and raw materials and half-
finished articles. French butter, eggs, fruit and
cheese flood the English market. If Marianne does
not send us wheat, it is because she does not grow
enough of it for her own use ; but her sugar, doubt-
less, will take the place of the Austro-German article.
Lyons and St. Etienne stand for silk ; Lille, Roubaix
and its neighbourhood for woollen and linen goods ;
and articles de Paris are made in various centres.
Thus the two countries complete each other and do
not compete, and development along these lines may
be expected as the economic consequence of the war.
One may anticipate also, I think, an enlargement of
the permanent British colony in France as a result
of the war, and with it will come doubtless a new
appreciation of French wines and the other products
of a generous soil.
CHAPTER XIX
FRANCE ON THE MORROW OF VICTORY
THERE has been born out of the war, in much
travail, a child fair amongst the daughters of earth;
her name is " L'Union Sacree." She constitutes a
bond supple and yet strong between her parents and
binds all classes in a universal respect. This god-
dess child is an enfant de la balle cradled in the crash
of arms and in the promiscuity of the trenches. Wise
men shook their heads over her and sceptics smiled
wanly at her. How could so frail a creature survive
the circumstances of her birth? And yet she did
survive. And she has given such promise of life, not-
withstanding the hidden attacks made upon her,
principally in the guise of " politics in Paris," that
she seems likely to carry on the happy legend of
United France until long after the guns have died
down to a whisper and man's arms have become again
implements of productive labour instead of engines
of blind slaughter.
The Frenchman is essentially political. His
opinions envelop him like a skin-tight garment; he
finds difficulty in divesting himself of them. He is
attached by the accident of birth to one camp or the
other. Either he is true blue in the Republican
sense, or red as the Socialist eglantine ; or he is white
in his devotion to the lost cause of the House of
227
228 FRANCE AT BAY
France unless his political shoulders are draped
with the purple of the Empire. Until the other day,
he believed in the intrinsic wickedness of political
opponents. As a devout and practising Catholic, he
shunned the Radical as a man of no morals whose
hostility towards the Church might at any moment
break into violent monomania. Was he not a pro-
fessed " eater of the priests " ? And, of course, the
Republican, who did not go to church and who was
supposed to have unholy converse with Freemasonry
anathema to the Catholic could not possibly regard
the Orthodox as otherwise than steeped in super-
stition and retrograde in politics. As to the Socialist,
he was the Prodigal of politics, playing, with ghastly
lightness of heart, with vested interests. But occa-
sionally he entered the bourgeois household a
chastened sinner, trying to live down in a sedulous
Ministerial career his Bohemian days when he was
nothing but a rapin in a Latin Quarter of his own.
But in his salad youth the Socialist feels contempt
for the orthodox Republican, tied down, in his narrow
little heart, to the sordid realities of life, as repre-
sented by three meals a day and the tax-gatherer.
Perhaps there was more sympathy between the
Socialist and the Churchman because the latter, in the
days of his adversity, flirted a little with advanced
opinion and has stood the friend of the working-man
against the capitalist on some conspicuous occasions.
And so a thousand differences of opinion have sprung
up, inseparable from a lively intellectuality, and due
to diametrically opposed views of government. In
England, where the monarchy is enthroned and
established in the people's hearts, no one dreams of
FRANCE ON MORROW OF VICTORY 229
a Republic with Mr. Lloyd George as President;
but in France a not inconsiderable section of the
people feels that, in the permanency of sovereignty,
lies the only hope of the nation.
A Frenchman's political opinions are to a great
extent coloured by his school surroundings. If he
goes to a Church school and afterwards to a college
(or grammar school), where the influences are similar,
he is almost certain to become hostile to the Re-
public, unless, out of sheer contrariness, he forswears
his early teaching ; but such cases, if notorious, are
comparatively rare. In the Communal or State
school he may fall, on the other hand, under anti-
clerical or even anti-Christian teaching. His young
mind is warped against the Church, and he may
become, in consequence, a sectary of the most rabid
type. The war has resulted already in a series of
discoveries. The Royalist has discovered the good
in the Republican, the Republican is astonished at
the loyalty of the other, and at the patriotic fibre of
the Socialist, and this outcast has shaken hands in
solemn cordiality with property and the Church. In
Paris and the provinces the lion of the Confederation
du Travail (a Revolutionary body) has lain down
with the Clerical lamb ; labour leader and cure have
worked together on the same committees.
One cannot believe that this national union, so
necessary to the working out of the many problems
of the war, will disappear with the occasion which
gave it birth. The Chamber has shown that it can
throb with pure patriotism. At the famous sitting of
August 4, 1914, it provided a remarkable example of
solidarity. Listening in silence to the Premier's
230 FRANCE AT BAY
speech, explaining the war, it voted the credits for
its prosecution with cries of " Vive VArmee ! " Not-
withstanding the liveliness of its temperament and
there is a touch of fever in the normal life of France
(we have Michelet's authority for it) the French
Chamber knows, on occasion, how to be dignified and
how to conceal its differences.
None the less, intrigue lifted its head when the
enemy was close to Paris. That is part of the penalty
of French impulsiveness, which manifests itself in
drastic remedies and violent changes of policy. But
the men who have faced death in the trenches will
demand greater steadfastness in their representatives.
They will not tolerate the old levity. Their daily
touch with danger and their long reflections in lonely
vigils have given them a new conception of national
life. The old shibboleths have ceased to mean any-
thing. " Radical," " Socialist," " Royalist," it is all
the same. By one standard alone is a man judged : by
his quality as patriot. In the army are no politics;
M. Viviani, the Premier, declared it, just as Maeter-
linck in The Blue Bird says : " There are no dead."
The one is as comforting as the other, for politics
are dead and only patriotism remains. Republican
or Anti-Republican, each has done his duty in the
trenches, and therefore deserves well of the country.
When, on August 26, 1915, M. Viviani in the Chamber
affirmed that France, without forgetting anything,
had carried in her side for five-and-forty years the
weight of a horrible wound they were words that
Paul Deroulede, bearer of the Fiery Cross of La
Revanche, might have uttered. Indeed, the language
of President Poincare, of the Ministers, of Maurice
FRANCE ON MORROW OF VICTORY 231
Barres, the Nationalist deputy, is identical. The
war is common ground for all to stand upon. France
is living her own motto: " L'Union fait la Force,"
and great results may be expected from it.
Young Frenchmen will insist on respect being shown
to the army, which has saved the country, and on toler-
ance towards the Church, which has given its blood
on the battlefield. This of itself marks a momentous
change. >4 The Republic," said General Joffre (and
M. Viviani after him), " may be proud of its heroic
armies." More than ever the soldier will be con-
sidered. The era of the flche is dead; there will be
no more enquiries into the private opinions of officers
as in the days of General Andre. If the Republic
cannot afford to run risks in the loyalty of its com-
manders, it will insure it, at least, by worthier means
than spying and delation. Officers no longer will be
condemned unheard by Masonic Lodges in the exercise
of their occult power, but every soldier of the Republic
will be assumed to be a faithful son until proved
the contrary. " On the day of danger all the children
of France are reconciled," was a glowing phrase in the
great speech already quoted.
We have no time to linger over the mistakes of
yesterday, which are as dry bones. The present is
with us and the morrow which is to-day. It is certain
that Catholicism will gain from the heroism of its
priests ; it will gain also from the spiritual renaissance
which preceded the war and filled the churches with
earnest worshippers. The priests have shown bravery
as combatants and as ghostly comforters. They have
held daily Mass behind the lines ; they have carried
consolation to the dying under the storm of lead.
232 FRANCE AT BAY
As officers or simple soldiers their example has
been an inspiration. All the world has seen that,
in the hour of trial, religion nerves the arm and
strengthens the heart and envelops the padre with
the shining armour of the perfect knight. At Rive-
saltes, the birthplace of General Joffre, a priestly
officer who had lost an eye in the battle was decorated
by the General Commanding with the Legion of
Honour. Such incidents have not been uncommon
and have their weight. They prevent a return to the
policy of M. Combes, the famous executioner of the
Orders. Even Anti-clericals petitioned the Govern-
ment for chaplains when the war broke out, and these
spiritual warriors were accredited to both regiments
and battleships.
The war, also, brought back the dispersed Orders
from the ends of the earth. The Government cannot
compensate them for their devotion in the trenches
and in the hospitals by a new decree of banishment.
Moreover, France has need of her repatriated sons
and daughters need of their teaching to mitigate the
selfishness which is depopulating the country. How
is the generation slain on the battlefield to be replaced,
except by a change of heart ? whereby those who have
economized in their children shall now, in cheerful
sacrifice, rear up citizens for the State ? Already the
downward tendency of population is terrifying in its
impetus. It can be stayed only by a loftier sense of
civic duty such as the Church inculcates. In that and
the purer morals of a people willing to be great are
the salvation of the race.
The new conditions may bring about a resumption
of official relations with Rome. Even Radicals, who
FRANCE ON MORROW OF VICTORY 233
are anti-clerical on principle, recognize the necessity
of such a step. The employment of the French
bishops as intermediaries is inconvenient; an official
spokesman is needed. The new Parliament may well
be asked to re-establish an embassy to the Holy See.
Nor does this imply the resumption of the Concordat
with its state-paid clergy, for England and Holland
have both appointed representatives as Protestant
Powers. The Pope's attitude on the war, so dis-
appointing to French Catholics, may be attributed
to the absence of French influence behind St. Peter's
chair. Sheer practical wisdom dictates the recon-
ciliation of the Republic with Rome. The Protector-
ship of the Christians in the Near East, which was part
of the patrimony of France, was jeopardized by her
home policy to the advantage of the Triple Alliance.
There was evidence of this in the war as well as of the
German sympathies of Spanish Catholics for similar
reasons.
If, out of the hesitation of the Pope to condemn
acts which raised a world-wide reprobation, there
arose a demand for a French National Church, it had
little substance in it. Such an experiment has failed
in the past and will fail again for lack of authority.
" The Pope's infallibility in dogma does not affect his
personal opinions," is a sufficient answer to those who
thought that he had ruined for ever his ecclesiastical
power in France. The Church of Rome to-day has
come to its own in the Republic if it will leave politics
alone and devote itself to its spiritual functions.
And a return to its former simplicity of ritual and
practices might attract, perhaps, some of the older
elements alienated by ultramontanism.
234 FRANCE AT BAY
The Army and Church, then, are again where they
ought to be. The one will save the country from
re-invasion and the other from materialism no less
dangerous than the second and not, perhaps, un-
connected with it. There is no denying the new
impulses in the domain of art and letters. One may
expect a greater life and joyousness in books. The
pessimist declares that literature is dead in France.
If there is visible no school of outstanding talent,
there are many signs of an active, intellectual force,
representing the new aspirations and vigour of the
people. The old perfection of form, which is a dis-
tinguishing mark of French litterateurs, is often a
dead thing responding to no movement or hint of
spiritual development. In its calm and pose it is as
lifeless as the Sphinx. The generation of the last war
produced the literature one would have expected of
it : spiritless and bookish, for it had taken to its
studies in a despairing effort to forget the past. Now
that the reaction has come, it will show itself in the
printing press.
" The new brood," as Marcel Prevost calls it, is
scarcely likely, however, to equal the brilliant pleiades
of Hugo, Balzac, Dumas and Alfred de Musset, born
in the glow of revolution and empire. But the gigan-
tic struggle of to-day, unlike the war of '70, which
produced no new literary name, may yet bring forth
a group of writers whose imagination, working upon
nerves braced and invigorated by exercise and self-
control, may be led to translate new emotions with
the help of unwonted imagery. The new generation
combines with a taste for mechanics a refreshing love
of out-of-doors, as is proved by its successes in the
FRANCE ON MORROW OF VICTORY 235
French inventions of the bicycle, the motor-car and the
aeroplane. Sport has taught discipline, patience and
tenacity, where there was little of them before, and it
is recreating the French nation with astonishing speed.
These fine young men, head and shoulders taller than
their fathers, with straight bodies and muscles of steel,
may be expected to produce a different sort of in-
tellectual output from their bookish forbears suffering
from intellectual forced-feeding, with playless play-
grounds, and prison-like lyce"es, wherein they took
a monthly bath as variant from the deadly round
of lessons. No wonder school to them was " the
railway station, from which they were only too anxious
to depart."
It is true that the school curriculum continues to
be overcharged and that the intense democracy of
France, where birth is no passport to office, aids in
this excessive system. But there are greater forces
than personal ambition at work to change France*
and the principal is patriotism. Patriotism decrees
the sound mind in the sound body, a robust national
health. Thus the cult of sport and manly exercise
must stay and profoundly influence the mental
calibre of the generation as well as the ideals of its
thinkers and statesmen.
In the arts, too, one may expect something of the
fresh-flowing spring note that Lucien Simon introduces
so happily into his salon pictures. Art, no doubt,
will pique itself on interpreting the love of action of
the age. In the theatre, also, the menage a trois and
its infinite variations must give way surely to wide
subjects of popular appeal. The petites histoires,
pathological as much as psychological, become an
236 FRANCE AT BAY
insult to the intelligence when grave themes are in
the air and the world is pulsing with new problems.
And so this France of to-morrow will be a glad new
France, sane and strong in its civilization and refusing
to weaken its panoply either by internecine politics
or by equivocal art.
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The Lizard H. Vaughan-Sawyer.
Mary Moreland ....... Marie van Vorst.
Big Tremaine .... tnd Edition Marie van Vorst.
His Love Story (5.) Marie van Vorst.
Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill . tnd Edition Hugh Walpole.
The Prelude to Adventure . tnd Edition Hugh Walpole.
The Unknown Woman Anne Warwick.
Toddle 3rd Edition Gilbert Watson.
Chapman's Wares H. B. Marriott Wataon.
Its and Ans H. B. Marriott Watson,
Tess of Ithaca Grace Miller White.
The Wind among the Barley tnd Edition M. P. Willcocks.
The Friendly Enemy T. P. Cameron Wilson
The Prince and Betty P. G. Wodehouse.
The Court of the Gentiles .... Mrs. Stanley Wrench.
Ruth of the Rowldrich Mrs. Stanley Wrench.
Happy Endings ... ... I. A. R. Wylie.
The Temple of Dawa . Srd Edition L A. R. Wylie.
The Red Mirage ... Wi Edition I. A. R. Wylie.
The Daughter of Brahma Stk Edition I. A. R. Wylie.
The Rajah's People . . 8th Edition I. A. R. Wylie.
Dividing Waters ... kth Edition I. A. 14. Wylie.
In Different Keys I. A. R. Wylie.
&
MILLS & BOON'S SHILLING NOVELS
Picture Covers. Crown 8vo. Is. net.
THE NEIV YORK HERALD says: " They have long ago
acquired the reputation for the production of original books."
Ashes of Incense . . . The Author of " iListering Flame."
Eve Spinster Anon.
Shop Girls Arthur Applin.
Sister Susie- Spinster Arthur Applin.
The Woman Who I Arthur Applin.
The Girl who Saved His Honour .... Arthur Applin.
Cardillac Robert Barr.
"The Bill-Toppers Andie Castaigne.
His First Offence J. Storer Clouston.
The Peer's Progress J. Storer Clouston.
The Prodigal Father J. Storer Clouston.
Tales of King Fido J. Storer Clouston.
"Within the Law M. Dana and E. Forest.
The Blue Bird's- Eye George Edgar.
Swift Nick of the York Road George Edgar.
When the Red Gods Call Beatrice Grimshaw.
The Bolster Book Harry Graham.
5ons of State Winifred Graham.
The Love Story of a Mormon Winifred Ghmhut.
The Needlewoman Winifred Graham.
The Enemy of Woman Winifred Graham.
Mary Winifred Graham.
Ponyooly . Edgar Jepson.
The Confessions of Arsene Lupin .... Maurice Leblanc.
813 j A New Arsene Lupin Adventure) .... Maurice Leblanc.
*Arsene Lupin . . . Edgar Jepson and Maurice Leblanc.
The Square Mile Horace W. C. Newte.
The Socialist Countess Horace W. C. Xewte.
The Sins of the Children Horace W. C. Newte.
The Lonely Lovers Horace W. C. Xewie.
Sparrows: The Story of an Unprotected Girl . Horace W. C. Newte.
Lena Swallow: A Sister to "Sparrows" . . Horace W. C. Newte.
Living Pictures Horace W. C. Newte.
White Heat Pan.
The Adventures of Captain Jack .... Max Pemberton.
Beware of the Dog Mrs. Baillie Reynolds.
Thomas Henry W. Pett Hidge.
*D'Arcy of the Guards L. E. Shipman.
Santa Claus (The Fairy Story of the Play) . . Harold >
The Marriage Market Harold Simpson.
*The Dollar Princess Harold Simpson.
*The Count of Luxembourg Harold Simeon.
The Mountain of God E. S. Stevens.
The Veil E. S. Stevens.
John Cave W. B. Tritcs.
Life W. B. Trites.
The Cheat Lady Troubridge.
The Woman who Forgot Lady Troubridge.
Body and Soul Lady Troubridge.
The Prelude to Adventure Hugh Wai pole.
Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill Hugh Wali^ole.
The Daughter of Brahma I. A. R. Wylie.
The Rajah's People I. A. R. Wylie.
Dividing Waters .... ... I. A. R. Wylie.
For Church and Chieftain May Wynne.
Norel of the Play.
6
MILLS & BOON'S
Shilling Cloth Library
Is. net each volume (postage 3d.)
The volumes include Novels and General Literature by the finest writers
of the day. In a number of cases the books will be published for the first
time, three of these being by the American " Kipling" Jack London and
published exclusively in this library, never having before been issued in
Great Britain and the Colonies. The First volumes are :
The Valley of the Moon JACK LONDON.
John Barleycorn JACK LONDON.
Smoke Bellew JACK LONDON.
An Odyssey of the North JACK LONDON.
The Cruise of the Snark JACK LONDON.
The Cruise of the Dazzler JACK LONDON.
The Iron Heel JACK LONDON.
The God of his Fathers JACK LONDON.
The Scarlet Plague. (Entirely New) JACK LONDON.
Children of the Frost JACK LONDON.
A Son of the Sun JACK LONDON.
South Sea Tales JACK LONDON.
When God Laughs JACK LONDON.
The Road. (Entirely New) JACK LONDON.
The House of Pride. (Entirely New) JACK LONDON.
The Frontier MAURICE LEBLANC.
The Room in the Tower E. F. BENSON.
Down our Street. ("The Yorkshire Classic")
J. E. BUCKROSE.
Love in a Little Town J. E. BUCKROSE.
Because of Jane J. E. BUCKROSE,
Aunt Augusta in Egypt. (Entirely New) J.E. BUCKROSE.
Twenty -Four Years of Cricket A. A. LILLEY.
The Czar's Spy WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
Who Giveth this Woman WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
The Hidden Road JOAN SUTHERLAND.
Life W. B. TRITES.
Cumner's Son SIR GILBERT PARKEB.
The Haven EDEN THILLPOTTS.
The Order of Release H. DE VERB STACPOOLE.
Sporting Stories THORMANBT.
Daily Express." The best collection of anecdotes of this generation."
Guinea Gold BEATRICE GRIMSHAW.
The Man from Nowhere VICTOR BRIDGES.
The Rajah's People I. A. R. WYLIE.
The Red Mirage I. A. R. WYLIE.
The Valiants of Virginia HALLIE ERMINIE RIVES.
In Search of Each Other SOPHIE COLE.
7
MILLS & BOON'S
SIXPENNY NOVELS
Picture Covers. Demy Svo.
MILLS & BOON are issuing a new series of Copyright Novels
by the foremost Novelists of the day. They are printed
from large type on good paper. The first volumes are :
Calico Jack. By H OR ACE W.C.NEWTE, Author of "Sparrows."
Globe. " Calico Jack is no mere creature of invention, but the real thing."
The Sins of the Children. By HORACE W. C. NEWTB.
Globe. " A strong convincing picture of life."
Lena Swallow. By HORACE W. C. NEWTE.
Living Pictures. By HORACE W. C. NEWTE.
(,'tit.ii/ow Herald. "None of them is less than brilliant."
The Lonely Lovers. By HORACE W. C. NEWTE.
l),i!h/ 0,,-onicle. " A very vivid rendering of tense human passion and
.motion."
The Summer Book. By MAX PEMBERTON.
The Adventures of Captain Jack. By MAX PEMBER-
TON, Author of " The Summer Book."
/> !/r ,y.^._" what he liaa to tell is so deftly told that I spent an excellent
-remlin^ hi* volume (Mills ii Boon)."
A Golden Straw. By J. E. BUCKROSE, Author of " Dowa
Our Street."
Dally Graphic. " A story of invincible freshness and charm."
The Pilgrimage of a Fool. By J. E. BUCKROSE.
Globe." Far and away above the ordinary novel."
Fame. By B. M. CROKER, Author of " Angel."
Scottman." A clever workmanlike novel, always bright and entertaining.
The Quaker Girl. The Novel of the Play. By HAROLD
SIMPSON.
The Education of Jacqueline. By CLAIRE DE PRATZ,
Author of " Elisabeth Davenay."
Observer. "Jacqueline is a darling."
The Silence Broken. By Mrs. BAILLIE REYNOLDS, Author
of "Nigel Ferrard."
freeman's Journal. - " A most suitable book for the summer holidays, filled
from cover to covei with love and romance."
MILLS & BOON'S
MY YEAR SERIES
My Spanish Year. By Mrs. BERNARD WHISHAW.
With 20 Illustrations from Photographs. Demy 8vo.
10*. Gd. net.
Westminster Gazette. " A vivacious .and charming record. 1 '
The Times. "Has real value as an interpretation of Spain to English
people."
Daily News. " An admirable volume in an admirable series."
My Japanese Year. By T. H. SANDERS. Illus-
trated. Derny 8vo. 10*. 6d. net.
Professor Kimura Yamaguehi, Higher Commercial School, Japan. " I
have read this book through in manuscript, and observe that the author
does not pretend to be profound and authoritative or comprehensive on the
subjects he deals with, but with rare humour and intimacy he gives vivid
descriptions of the seasons and climate, the people and society, customs and
manners, institutions and culture, and so forth, and in a very informal
manner the author introduces his personal experiences and witty obser-
vations. The author has lived in the country long enough to understand
fairly well the real life of the people, and yet without losing the faculty
of being impressed with things new and strange and fresh enthusiasm to
observe and learn all things which might come within his reach."
My Italian Year. By RICHARD BAGOT. with 25
Illustrations. Demy &vo. Second Edition. 10*. fid. net.
The Observer. " 'My Italian Year* will tell the reader more about the
out-day go-ahead Italy than any other book that has come to our
notice."
Daily Telegraph." h thoughtful, knowledgeful book."
Truth, "The best-informed book which has appeared of late on Italy."
My Russian Year. ByROTHAY REYNOLDS, with
28 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. Second Edition. 10s. (id. net.
Also Popular Edition. 2*. 6d. net.
Times. "Pull of anecdote, sometimes indeed of gossip, but it is first-
hand anecdote and the characteristic gossip which comes to the ears of a
man who has lived in the country and understood its people. . . . Mr.
Reynolds has succeeded in drawing a truthful and impartial picture of the
ordinary Russian."
Truth. "I have never read a book on Russia which gives such intimate
and interesting, and at the same time vivid, pictures of social, domestic,
political, and ecclesiastical life of Russia."
Punch. " It is the best work of its kind I have seen for years."
9
Mills & Boon's My Year Series
My Cosmopolitan Year. By the Author of "Mas-
tering Flame "and "Ashes of Incense." With 24 Illus-
trations. Demy 8vo. 10*. 6d. net.
Times. "Here we have the fresh and breezy comments of one who has
' seen the cities and known the minds of many men." "
Athencsum. " Brightly written, admirably illustrated, should become
a favourite with observant travellers."
My Parisian Year. By MAUDE ANNESLEY. with
16 Illustrations from Photographs and 1 in Colour.
Demy 8vo. Second Edition. 10*. 6d. net.
Pall Mall Gazette. "The 'joie de vivre' radiates from its pages . . .
never dull or commonplace."
Observer. " Lots of wrinkles . . . a sprightly book."
Evening Standard. " What Max O'Rell did for our countrymen Maude
Annesley does for his."
Scotsman. " Convincing as well as highly entertaining."
My German Year. By I. A. R. WYLIE, Author of
"The Kajah's People." With 2 Illustrations in Colour
and 18 from Photographs. Demy 8vo. Second Edition.
10*. Gd. net.
Evening Standard." Should be read by every household. We hava
seldom read a more interesting book."
Westminster Gazette. " A wise, well-informed, and very readable book,
with some delightful fresh information and shrewd criticisms.*
My Irish Year. By PADRAIC COLUM. with 12 Full-
page Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10*. 6d. net.
Bystander." Intensely interesting."
Athenceum. " Full of interest and charm."
Freeman's Journal. "An epitome of Irish life, compounded of tears
and laughter, despair and exaltation, with a strong leaven of hope running
through it, to be re-read and digested by all who desire to know the real
Ireland."
Sunday Timct."A pur literary joy."
10
MILLS & BOON'S
RAMBLES SERIES
"So auspiciously inaugurated with Miss Wylie's and Mrs.
Goatling's volumes." LIVERPOOL COURIER.
" They teem ivith interesting information about people and
places. "-STA NDARD.
Rambles around French Chateaux. By
FRANCES M. GOSTLING, Author of " The Bretons at
Home." With 5 Illustrations in Colour, 33 from Photo-
graphs, and a Map. Crown 8vo. 6.?.
Manchester Courier. "Amusing, interesting, delightful."
Birmingham DoAly Post. " Very instructive, very amusing."
Morning Post. " Full of interest."
Rambles in the Black Forest. By I. A. R. WYLIE,
Author of " My German Year." With 5 Illustrations in
Colour and 24 from Photographs. Crown 8vo. 6s.
Tatler." She has the ' soul' of the true rambler."
Morning Post. "Miss Wylie has made a new and admirable /route for
herself."
Rambles in Norway. By HAROLD SIMPSON. With
8 Illustrations in Colour and 32 from Photographs.
Crown 8vo. 6.5.
Dv.ndee Advertiser. "Vf ell worth reading. Deserves to be widely read
by those who have enjoyed such Rambles in Norway and by those who
have not."
Scotsman. "A lightly and pleasantly written account of a delightful
round."
Standard. " Beautifully illustrated."
Rambles with an American in Great Britain.
By CHRISTIAN TEARLE. With 21 Illustrations.
Crown 8vo. 6*.
Liverpool Courier. "An interesting and ingenious account of a literary
pilgrimage, and in every place the author has something lively and original
to say."
Daily Express." Good and wholesome reading."
11
Mills & Boon's Rambles Series
Ramfrles in Ireland. By ROBERT LYND. with 5
Illustrations in Colour by JACK B. YEATS and 25 from
Photographs. Crown 8vo. 6s.
Pall Mall Gazette." Mr. Lynd's delightful book, which be present* with
beauty simple and unaffected."
Evening Standard. " Mr. Lynd knows his Ireland and has written a
charming book on it."
Daily Xewa. " Ibis fascinating book."
Rambles in Florence. By G. E. TROUTBECK
With 8 Illustrations in Colour by R. McANDREW and
32 from Photographs. Crown 8vo. 6*.
Guardian. " The work of a real student of Dante."
Time*. "Full of information."
Dundee Advertiser. " Written with an equal appreciation of artistic
beauty and historic greatness, this book is one which will commend itself
to every lover of Florence."
Rambles in Rome. By G. E. TROUTBECK. with
8 Illustrations in Colour by R. McANDREW and 32 from
Photographs. Crown 8vo. 6*.
Rambles in Holland. By E. and M. s. GREW.
With 32 Illustrations and a Map. Crown 8vo. 6*.
Aberdeen free Frees. " A delightful book about a delightful country.
Altogether admirable."
Globe. "A very charming and a very useful book."
Rambles in the North Yorkshire Dales. By
J. E. BUCKROSE. With 24 Illustrations in half-tone
and 4 in colour. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net.
Daily Chronicle. "It is altogether a joysome time, with sunshine and
merry episode to ensure success."
Rambles around the Riviera. By FBAKCES M.
GOSTLING. With 41 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6s.
"Rambles around the Riviera" is a delightful account of a motor-car
trip taken in that wonderful old-world district which is visited by thou-
sands every year, and gives the reader a first-hand acquaintance with the
subject. Those who are already familiar with Mrs. Goatling's work will
need no urging to buy this joyous book, for it will prove a valuable guide
to the cultured visitor
MILLS & BOON'S
VOLUMES OF REMINISCENCES
Sam Darling's Reminiscences, with 8 Photo-
gravures and 42 Half-Tone Illustrations. Demy 8vo.
21*. net. Large Paper Edition, limited to 75 copies,
signed by the Author. 52*. 6d. net.
Sporting Life. "A most valuable addition to the literature of the Turf."
Scotsman. "A very desirable addition to every sporting man's library."
Wliat I Know. Reminiscences of Five Years' Personal
Attendance upon his late Majesty King Edward VII.
By C. W. STAMPER. With a Portrait in Colour, never
before published, by OLIVE SNELL. Third Edition.
Demy 8vo. 10s. Qd. net. Popular Edition. Crown 8vo.
2s. net.
The Times. " What would the historian not give for such a book about
Queen Elizabeth or Louis Quatorza? . . . adds something to history."
Forty Years of a Sportsman's Life. By SIR
CLAUDE CHAMPION DE CRESPIGNY, Bart. With 18
Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. Gd. net. Popular Edition.
Large Crown 8vo. 6,v.
Sporting Life. " More enthralling than the most romantic novel."
Daily Mail. " From cover to cover there is not a dull page."
From a Punjaub Pomegranate Grove. By c. C.
DYSON. With 14 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10*. 6d.
net.
Evening Standard. " So pleasant and picturesque is Miss Dyson's atyla
that we would gladly welcome a second volume."
Egypt as We Knew It. By E. L. BUTCHER,
Author of " The Story of the Church of Egypt." With 16
Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.
Spectator. " Most entertaining and not a little instructive."
Eight Years in Germany. By i. A. R. WYLIE,
Author of "My German Year." With 16 Illustrations.
Demy 8vo. 10*. &d. net.
A delightful book of impressions by the Author of " My German Year."
IS
Mills & Boon's Catalogue
Forty Years in Brazil. By FRANK BENNETT.
With 24 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
Standard. " Can be recommended to the reading public generally, and it
should command close attention from students of international politics,
and from the business world."
Pall Mall." Maybe warmly recommended to all who are interested in
a country that is steadily coming more and more to the front.'
Sheffield Daily Telegraph. " Intending residents in, and visitors to,
South America will serve their own interests greatly by reading through
this capitally written book."
Memories and Adventures. By MADAME
HERITTE-VIARDOT. With 20 Illustrations. Demy
8vo. 10*. 6d. net.
Daily Telegraph." Full of the deepest interest for both laymen and
musicians."
Sheffield Daily Telegraph." A mine of amusing anecdote."
Sixty-Eight Years on the Stage. By Mrs.
CHARLES CALVERT. Popular Edition. Large Crown
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Horning Post. "Agreeable and amusing."
Pail Mall Gazette." Charming."
Yvette Guilbert: Struggles and Victories.
By YVETTE GUILBERT and HAROLD SIMPSON. Pro-
fusely illustrated with Caricatures, Portraits, Facsimiles
of Letters, etc. Demy 8vo. 10*. Grf. net.
Daily Telegraph. 11 The volume is a real delight all through.
Daily Chronicle. "A fascinating book, and a remarkable one, because
for the half of it you may read Yvette Guilbert's own French, and tt
translation of Mr. Simpson on the opposite page."
14
ROMANTIC HISTORY
The Hero of Brittany : Armand de Chateau-
briand. Correspondent of the Princes between France
and England, 17681809. By E. HERPIN. Translated
by MRS. COLQUBOUN GRANT. With 8 Illustrations,
Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
Armand de Chateaubriand was a cousin of the famous French author
Rene de Chateaubriand. The book presents a very faithful and pathetic
picture of Brittany during and after the great Revolution. Armand was a
fine sportsman, and served with Conde's army ; but he spent his day*
crossing the Channel, often in great peril, for the purpose of embarking the
escaping emigrants, and bringing back such men as were assisting the
return of the Bourbon princes.
The Man Who Saved Austria : The Life and
Times of Baron Jellacic. By M. HARTLEY, Author of
" A Sereshan." With 18 Illustrations and a Map. Demy
8vo. 10s. Qd. net.
Bookman. "A capital account of the life and times of Jellacic. Ex-
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A Mystic on the Prussian Throne : Frederick-
William II. By GILBERT STANHOPE. With 12 Illus-
trations. Demy 8vo. 10*. Gd. net.
Morning Post. " We congratulate Mr. Stanhope on a very genuine piece
of work."
The Life and Times of Arabella Stuart. By
M. LEFUSE. With 12 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. JO*. d.
net.
Globe. "An extraordinarily interesting book."
Pall Mall Gazette. "A vivid picture of a remarkable and unhappy
woman and of the times in which she lived, loved, and suffered."
A Queen's Knight : The Life of Count Axel
de Fersen. By MILDRED CARNEGY, Author of "Kings
and Queens of France." With 12 Illustrations. Demy
8vo. 7s. Gd. net.
Liverpool Courier. " Far greater than that of the ordinary novel is the
interest in the story of his life as told in this book."
15
Mills & Boon's Catalogue
Roman Memories, in the Landscape seen
from Capri. Narrated by THOMAS SPENCER JEROME.
Illustrated by MORGAN HEtSKELL. Demy 8vo. 7s. Qd.
net.
To make the great historical suggestivenesa which the country aroun I
and near the Bny of Naples possesses for the cultivated observer assume n,
more distinct form in the consciousness of visitors to these shores, is th-.i
purpose of this book. It begins with the old myths and continues down
through the surprisingly large number of Roman events associated wit.i
this district to the end of classical times (476 A.D.), keeping the local episodes
in their due relation to the general current of ancient history by giving
an outline thereof, which makes it of value as a general sketch of Roman
affairs,
Margherita of Savoy. By SIGNORA ZAMPIN1
SALAZAR. With a Preface by RICHARD BAGOT.
Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 10*. 6d. net.
In the present volume the part played by Margherita di Savoia in
encouraging every legitimate and practical effort to enlarge the sphere
of feminine action in her country, and to employ feminine influence as an
intellectual and civilising influence instead of confining it entirely withia
the walls of palaces and cottages, is described by Signora Zampini Salazar
both accurately and faithfully.
In Cheyne Walk and Thereabout. By REGINALD
BLUNT, Author of "Paradise Row." With 22 Illustra-
tions. Demy 8vo. 10*. 6d. net.
To say that Cheyno Walk ia the most interesting, historic, and delightful
street in all Englad might strike a stranger to Chelsea as rather an
extravagant claim, yet these pages go far to support it.
The English Court in Exile : James II. at
St. Germain. By MARION and EDWIN SHARPE
GREW. With 16 Illustrations. 15*. net.
Spectator." Should certainly be read by all students of the revolution ;
an exceedingly interesting and readable book."
Athenceum. " Not a single uninteresting page. We had no idea so good
a book could be written on such a story."
Truth. " Excellent . . . picturesque and impartial."
The Court of William III. By EDWIN and
MARION SHARPE GREW. With 16 Illustrations.
Demy 8vo. 15*. net.
Morning Pott." Done with fairness and thoroughness. . . . The book
has many conspicuous merits."
10
Mills & Boon's Catalogue
The Romance of the Oxford Colleges. By
FRANCIS G KIBBLE. Popular Edition, with 12 Illus-
trations. 2.?. Gd. net.
Westminster Gazette. " Does not contain a dull page."
The Romance of the Cambridge Colleges.
By FRANCIS GRIBBLE. With 16 Illustrations. Crown
8vo. G.*.
Times. " May be cordially recommended."
Truth. "The history of the colleges in a bright and readable form with
an abundance of anecdotes. "
Aberdeen Free Press. 11 Not a dull page."
The Romance of the Men of Devon. By
FRANCIS GRIBBLE, Author of "The Romance of the
Oxford Colleges," etc. With a Photogravure Frontispiece
and 16 Illustrations. Crown Svo. 6*.
TJu Lady. " A delightful volume."
Dundee Advertiser. "Written with a charm and ease which are de-
lightful."
The Story of the British Navy. By E. KEBLE
CHATTKRTON. With a Frontispiece in Colour and 50
Illustrations from Photographs. Demy 8vo. 10s. Gd. net.
Naval and Military Record. "Contains practically everything which the
average individual wishes to know."
Royal Love-Letters : A Batch of Human
Documents. Collected and Edited by E. KEBLE
CHATTEKTON. With 12 Illustrations. Demy Svo.
10s. Gd. net.
The Petticoat Commando : or, Boer Women
in Secret Service. By JOHANNA BRANDT. With
13 Illustrations and a Map. Second Edition. Crown Svo.
fo.
Romances of the War. By E. s. GREW, illus-
trated. 3*. Gd. net.
" Romances of the War" is a volume dealing, as the title denotes, with
many incidents, some tender, some pathetic, some romantic, and most of
all with the human side of War as it is in France at the present time.
The great charm of the book is that it proves how true is the well-known
spying, " What a small world we live in," and also perhapa that "Truth is
stranger than fiction."
17
FOR EVERYDAY LIFE
Nerve in War Time. By EDWIN L. ASH, M.D.
(Lond.)- Crown 8vo. 1*. net.
Nerves and the Nervous. By EDWIN L. ASH,
M.D. (Lond.). New Edition. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 3*. 6<2. net.
Daily Express. " One of the most refreshing books pxiblished for sorua
time. Dr. Ash not only probes into exactly what one feels when one is
nervous or worried, but the treatment is so free from fads that it does even
an unnervy person good."
Mental Self-Help. By EDWIN L. ASH, M.D. (Lond.),
Assistant Physician Italian Hospital, London ; Physician
for Nervous Diseases to the Ken.sington and Fulham
General Hospital. Author of " Nerves and the Nervous."
Crown Svo. 2,v. Gd. net.
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About Baby. By FRANCIS TWEDDELL, M.D.,
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LEY, M.B., B.CH. (Southfields). With an Introduction
by the Matron of the Hospital for Sick Children, Great
Ormond Street. Crown Svo. Is. net.
Hearth and Home." A most comprehensive guide to the correct bringing
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" Can't Waiters" ; or How You Waste Your Energies.
By EDWIN L. ASH, M.D. (Lond.). Crown Svo. Is. net.
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Paper cover, 1*. net.
British Medical Journal. "A useful reference work for nurses both
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Child Nurture. By HONNOR MORTEN, Author of
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tionary." With a Frontispiece in Photogravure. Crown
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Household Accounts. By RDPBRT DEAKIN, M.A.,
and P. J. HUMPHREYS, B.Sc. Fourth Edition.
Crown Svo. Sd. net.
This little book contains information which is of real value to every one
who ha* the control or management of a house.
18
SPORTS AND PASTIMES
England V. Australia. By p. F. WARNER. Popular
Edition. Demy 8vo. Is. <od, net.
Sporting Life." The book is one that every cricketer should possess."
Twenty-four Years of Cricket. By ARTHUR A.
LILLET. Popular Edition. Is. net.
The Beaufort Hunting Diary. By H. STUART
MENZIES. With an Introduction by the DUKE OF
BEAUFORT. Size 13 x 8. Cloth, 7*. Gd. net. Second
Edition.
Morning Post "The thanks of many a hunting man will have been
earned by Mr. Stuart Menzies."
Ladies' Field. "The very sight of this well-arranged diary reminds one
how much one has lost by not keeping an exact diary."
The Motorist's Pocket Tip Book. By GEOFFREY
OSBORN. With 13 Full-page Illustrations. Fcap. Svo.
Leather. 5*. net.
Scottish Field. "Contains in the clearest, most condensed, and most
practical form just the information one wants."
The Chauffeur's Companion. By "A FOUR-INCH
DRIVER." With 4 Plates and 5 Diagrams. Waterproof
Cloth. 2s. net.
The Lady Motorist's Companion. By " A FOUR-
INCH DRIVER." With 7 Plates and 4 Diagrams. 2*. Gd.
net.
British Mountain Climbs. By GEORGE D. ABRA-
HAM, Author of "The Complete Mountaineer." With
18 Illustrations and 21 Outline Drawings. Pocket size.
Leather, Is. Gd. net. Cloth, as. net.
Sportsman. "Eminently a practical mamiaL"
Swiss Mountain Climbs. By GEORGE D. ABRA-
HAM. With 24 Illustrations and 22 Outline Drawings
of the principal peaks and their routes. Pocket size.
Leather, Is. Gd. net. Cloth, 5*. net.
Oounti-y Life. " As essential as good climbing boots."
19
Mills & Boon's Catalogue
The Golfer's Pocket Tip Book. By G. D. FOX,
Part-Author of " The Six Handicap Golfer's Companion."
Fully Illustrated. Pott 8vo. Leather. 5-?. net.
HARRY VARDON says : " It is a very handy little book."
The Six Handicap Golfer's Companion. By
"TWO OF HIS KIND." With Chapters by H. S. COLT
and HAROLD H. HILTON. Illustrated with 15 Photo-
graphs of JACK WHITE (ex open champion). 2s. Qd. net.
Popular Edition. Paper cover, 1*. net.
Oolf Illustrated. "The author's aim is to teach inferior players how to
reduce their handicaps to at least six. There is a frreat deal of sound advice
in the book, and its value is greatly increased by two excellent chapters by
Mr. H. H. Hilton and Mr. H. S. Colt."
First Steps to Golf. By G. s. BROWN, with 94
Illustrations by G. P. ABRAHAM, F.R.P.S., and 9 Dia-
grams. Crown 8vo. 2s. &d. net.
Daily Graphic. " A most lucid guide for the benefit of the beginner."
Letters of a Modern Golfer to his Grandfather.
Arranged by HENRY LEACH. Crown 8vo. G*.
Outlook. "A book in which the human interest is as marked as the
practical instruction."
Club Bridge. By ARCHIBALD DUNN, Author of
"Bridge and How to Play it." Crown 8vo. Popular
Edition. 3*. net.
Evening Standard. "This is, in fact, 'THE BOOK.'"
Royal Spade Auction Bridge. By ARCHIBALD
DUNN. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 2s. Qd. net.
Birmingham Post. "An exhaustive discussion of the many debatable
pomta in connection with the systems of play at present in force. Mr.
Dunn's reasoning ia logical and his suggestions valuable."
The Rifleman's Companion. By L. R. TIPPINS.
With 6 Illustrations. 2*. 6d. net.
The Aviator's Companion. By D. and HENRY
FARMAN and Others. With 21 Illustrations. 2*. Qd. net.
TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE
The Philippines Past and Present. By DEAN
C. WORCESTER. With 128 Full-page Illustrations.
2 Vols. Demy 8vo. 30s. net.
Morning Post." Mr. Worcester's knowledge of the Philippines is un-
surpassed."
The New Russia: From the White Sea to
the Siberian Steppe. By ALAN LETHBRIDGE. With
95 Illustrations and 3 Maps. Demy 8vo. 16*. net.
Time*. " Page after page discloses a homely and intimate acquaintance
with the habits and thoughts of Russians of every stock."
Pall Mall Gazette. " Piquant impressions of the Russian disposition
the whole narrative is engaging to those who have a compartment of their
minds devoted to the present and future of Russia."
Evening Standard. " Mr. Lethbridge's cheery and glowing pages should
have a great effect when the war is over in stimulating both the tourist*
and the merchandise of this country to enter Russia. Altogether an
attractive book."
Bystander. "Deserves a wide public. Mightily interesting and in-
structive."
The Cruise of the Snark. By JACK LONDON.
Fcap. 8vo. Is. net.
Scotsman. " Makes a fresh and strong appeal to all those who love high
adventure and good literature."
Daily Graphic." We have to thank Mills <fc Boon for publishing this
remarkable world's cruise."
Two Years with the Natives in the Western
Pacific. By DR. FELIX SPEISER. With 40 Illustra-
tions. Demy 8vo. 10s. &d. net.
Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. "A really valuable book of
tiavel."
Daily Chronicle. "Supplies valuable material for a knowledge of raues
low down in the scale of culture in his detailed account of their social life,
belief, Jifid customs."
SI
Mills & Boon's Catalogue
The Wonderful Weald and the Quest of the
Crock of Gold. By ARTHUR BECKETT, Author
of " The Spirit of the Downs." With 20 Illustrations in
Colour and 43 Initials by ERNEST MARILLlER. Demy
8vo. 10s. 6d. net. Popular Edition. Large Cr. 8vo. tis.
Daily Telegraph. " A charmingly discursive, gossipy volume."
Sunday Times. " He adopts the quest in the Stevensonian manner, and
creates the right atmosphere for the vivid presentment of the history and
romance of the Weald. He knows the Weald BO well, and can chat about
it with such unobtrusive communicativeness, such a charm of literary
allusion, and such whimsical humour, that we journey with him delightedly,
and come to its end with regret."
My Slav Friends. By ROTHAY REYNOLDS, Author
of My Russian Year. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 10*. 6d.
net.
Tramps through Tyrol. By. F. w. STODDARD
("Dolomite"). With 20 Illustrations. Demy 8vo.
Second Edition. 7s. Gd. net.
Standard. " The outcome not of a mere holiday scamper, but of long
residence. In his good company we explore the Dolomites, the Brenner
Pass, cross the Fanes Alp, and make acquaintance with such delectable
places as San Martino, Molveno, and Cortino to say nothing; of Innsbuick
arid Meran. He tells us a pood deal about shooting and fishing and the
delighto of the swift ski. Altogether ' Tramps through Tyrol ' is an alluring
book. ' Try,' we say, therefore, Tyrol,' and take Mr. Stoddard's delightful
4 Tramps' with you."
From Halifax to Vancouver. By B. PULLEN-
BURRY. With 40 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12*. 6rf.net.
Daily Chronicle. "Well written, well arranged, full and complete."
Switzerland in Winter. By WILL and CARINE
CADBY. With 40 Illustrations. XDrown 8vo. 5*. net.
This is a lightly written and entertaining description of all that has to
do with the life led by Winter visitors to Switzerland. It treats in a
comprehensive way of such varied subjects as journeys, sports, indoor life,
excuses, and climate, and has two carefully written chapters on the
important subject of where to go.
To those who know Switzeiland in Winter this book will be welcome,
and to all those who are contemplating their first visit it will be indis-
pensable, aa it contains the condensed essence of the writers' fourteen
years' experience. From the study of its pages the intending traveller
may easily decide which is the Winter centre best suited to his individual
taste and pocket.
28
BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
The Doll's Day. By CARINE and WILL CADBY.
With 30 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. Is. Gd. net.
" The Doll's Day" is a book- for children telling a pretty and attractive
story of how a little girl had a dream that her dolls were living, and is
chiefly concerned with adventures during "The Doll's Day." It contains
30 delightful illustrations from photographs which will be simply
fascinating to children.
The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey.
By G. E. TROUTBECK, Author of " Westminster Abbey "
(Little Guides). With 4 Photogravure Plates and 21
Illustrations from Photographs. Third Edition. Crown
8vo. 5s. net, Popular Edition, Is. net.
Stories from Italian History Re-told for
Children. By G. E. TROUTBECK, Author of "The
Children's Story of Westminster Abbey." With 22 Illus-
trations from Photographs. Crown 8vo. 5*. net.
Taller. "These stories are so vivid and so interesting that they should
be in every schoolroom."
Kings and Queens of France. A Concise History
of France. By MILDRED CARNEGY. With a Preface
by the BISHOP OF HEREFORD. With a Map and 4
Full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 3*. 6d.
Queery Leary Nonsense. Being a Lear Nonsense
Book, with a long Introduction and Notes by the EARL
OF CROMER, and edited by LADY STRACHIE of Sutton
Court. With about 50 Illustrations in colour and line.
Crown 4to. 3*. Gd. net.
Daily Telegraph. "A book full of fascinating absurdity, and the true
spirit of the King of Nonsense."
Science and Magic. By F. w. SHOOSMITH, B.Sc.
With 54 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 2s. Gd. Also School
Edition. 1*.
A unique science book for boys on uncommonly interesting lines, con-
taining a clearly written account of some of the many ways in which a
knowledge of scientific principles have been utilised by magicians of all
ages to deceive and astonish others. Magnetism and Electricity, Chemistry,
Sound, Light, Pneumatics, and JSurface Tension are laid under contribution,
and the author, after carefully describing the tricks and the means by
which they are performed, utilises them as so many illustrations of
scientific laws and principles. The language employed throughout is as
simple and untechnical as possible, and the interested reader and what
boy is not interested in conjuring? is put in possession of the secrets of
a number of capital tricks and astonishing feats, while absorbing a very
considerable amount of scientific knowledge.
Mills & Boon's Catalogue
The Lear Coloured Bird Book for Children.
By EDWARD LEAK. With a Foreword by J. ST. LOB
STRACHEY. 2*. d. net.
Francis Chantrey : Donkey Boy and Sculptor.
By HAROLD ARMITAGE, Author of "Chantrey Land,"
" Sorrelsvkes," etc. Illustrated by CHARLES ASHMORE.
2s. Gd. Also School Edition, 1*.
A wholly delightful book, giving a sketch of the life and work of Sii
Francis Chantrey, the mil* boy who modelled the statue of the Duke of
Wellington opposite the Royal Exchange, and the Sleeping Children in
Lichfield Cathedral. He gives many romantic details about Chantrey's
boyhood, and tales about him and his donkey that are particularly
attractive to children. Scott, Wordsworth, and most of the famous men
of his time, were modelled by Chantrey, and monuments by him are
to be seen in London, Liverpool, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, etc. The
clever pen-and-ink illustrations by Air. Charles Asbmore are exactly in
tune with their subjects.
The Duke of Wellington. By HAROLD ARMITAGE.
Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 2*. <nd. Also School Edition, 1*.
A book for boys of from 12 to 14. Mr. Armitage writes with spirit,
and he is a master of vigorous phrase-making. The book will be of special
interest in view of the Centenary of the Battle of Waterloo. The author's
description of Wellington's amazing industry, of his unswerving loyalty, of
Lis unbending devotion to duty cannot fuil to impress all those who read
this biography of Britain's hero.
A Little Girl's Cookery Book. By c. F. BENTON
and MARY F. HODGE. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. Taper,
l.v. net.
Daily Tdepraph. " A capital idea. Hitherto the manufacture of toffy
has represented the limit of nursery art in the di>ecti<>n indicated, but this
volume contains excellent recipes tor disl.e. which children will find quite
easy to make, and their elders to wit without misgivings. Every father,
mother, uncle, ;md aunt should make a point ot' presenting their child
fiiencib with ;i copy of this uteful and practical book."
A Little Girl's Gardening Book. By SELINA
RANDOLPH. Crown vo. Cloth, 2*. Gd. net. Paper,
1*. net.
Aberdeen Free Press. "A first-rate book."
Manchester Courier. " All children lovo gardens. This book will make
then, genuine gardeners."
Letters to Children about Drawing, Painting,
and Something More. By JOHN MEADE. Crown 8vo.
2*. Gd. net.
A charming book which will fulfil a long-felt want.
24
ON MATTERS THEATRICAL
A Century of Great Actors (1750-1850). By
CECIL FEKARD ARMSTRONG, Author of "The
Dramatic Author's Companion," etc. With 16 Illustra-
tions. Demy 8vo. 105. 6d net.
Standard. "An interesting series of pithy biographies concise and
entertaining."
World, " An interesting and useful book."
Bookman. " Very alert, very scholarly, and entirely readable."
A Century of Famous Actresses (1750-1850).
By HAROLD SIMPSON, Author of " Yvette Guilbert,"
"A Century of Ballads," etc., and MBS. CHARLES
BSAUN. With 18 Illustrations, Demy 8vo. 10.?. 6d.
net
Illustrated London Neiot. " We have seen no book of bygone aotora
giving a better idea of their acting."
A Century of Ballads (1810-1910), Their
Composers and Singers. By HAROLD SIMP-
SON. With 49 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10*. 6d. net.
Popular Edition. Large Crown 8vo. 6.?.
Daily Express. " Deaia brightly with a most fascinating subject."
The Garden of Song. Edited by HAROLD SIMPSON.
Fcap. Bvo. 2*. 6d. net.
Scotsman. " An excellent anthology of lyrics that have been sot to
music. They are, for the most part, songs that have enjoyed a wido
popularity, and this collection of lyrical gems forms a very desirable*
little volume."
Shakespeare to Shaw. By CECIL FERARD ABM-
STRONG, Author of "The Dramatic Author's Com-
panion." Crown 8vo. 6*.
Athenaeum. " The dramatists Shakespeare, Congreve, Sheridan, Robert-
eon, Sir A. W. Pinero, and Mr. Shaw have been selected as landmarks
of English draiua. The method adopted by the author is tho separate
examination of every play of his subjects .with criticism of the qualities
of eaca,"
26
Mills & Boon's Catalogue
An Actor's Hamlet. With full notes by LOUIS
CALVE RT. Crown 8vo. 2s. Gd. net.
Daily Chronicle." Full of illuminating insight."
The Dramatic Author's Companion. By CECIL
F. ARMSTRONG. With an Introduction by ARTHUR
BOURCHIER, M.A. Second Edition. Crown 8vo.
2s. Gd. net.
Times. " This is a very useful book, and there seems little omitted which
will be of practical service to an aspiring playwright. All about different
kinds of plays and their production, contracts, placing MiSS. (with an
excellent covering letter), facsimile MS., copyrights, etc."
Pall Mall Gazette." The best book of its kind we have seen. Its author
has not only a wide knowledge of plays, but a sound judgment both from
the artistic and popular standpoint. His advice is always practical."
The Amateur Actor's Companion. By VIOLET
M. METHLEY. With 8 Illustrations. Crown 8vo.
2*. Gd. net.
The aim of this book is to be a more complete and more up-to-date
handbook upon Amateur Theatricals than has yet appeared.
The Actor's Companion. By CECIL F. ARM-
STRONG. With an Introduction by ARTHUR BOUR-
CHIER, M.A. Crown 8vo. 2s. Gd. net.
Whilst having no pretensions to teaching the difficult art of acting, thia
book will be found to contain many practical and useful hints to the
young actor. The author, ;issociated us he has been for many years with
one of the larger West End theatres, has had exceptionally good
opportunities of studying the inner workings of a theatre, the technical
requirements of the actor, and the many considerations besides that of
mere talent necessary to ensure success on the stage. Two special chapters,
one dealing with Scientific Voice Production and the other with the Art
of Gesture, are contributed by well-known experts.
Peter Pan: The Fairy Story of the Play.
By G. D. DREXXAX. With a Photogravure of Miss
PAULINE CHASE as Peter Pan. Fcap. 8vo. Leather,
2s. Gd. net. Popular Edition, Crown 8vo. Paper, Gd.
School Reader Edition, with an Introduction by A. R.
PICKLES, M.A. Cloth, Gd.
Santa-Claus : The Kinemacolour Fairy Play.
By HAROLD SIMPSON. With 34 illustrations. Crown
4to. Is. net.
Votes for Women. A Play in Three Acts. By
ELIZABETH ROBINS. Crown 8vo. Is.
26
VOLUMES OF VERSE
Deportmental Ditties. By HARRY GRAHAM.
Profusely Illustrated by LEWIS BAUMER. Fcap. 8vo.
Third Edition. 3*. Gd. net.
Daily Graphic. " Harry Graham certainly has the knack."
Daily Chronicle. "All clever, generally flippant, invariably amusing.''
Canned Classics, and Other Verses. By
HARRY GRAHAM, Author of " Deportmental Ditties,"
"The Bolster Book," etc., etc. Profusely Illustrated by
LEWIS BAUMER, Crown 4to. 3*. 6d. net. Also
Fcap. 8vo. 3*. 6d. net.
Times. " As fresh as ever."
Evening Standard." One long delight."
Founded on Fiction. By LADY SYBIL GRANT.
With 50 Illustrations and a Cover Design by GEORGE
MORROW. Crown 4to. &. Qd. net
T. P.'s Weekly." A book of chuckles."
Daily Chronicle. " The vivacious offspring of a witty mind."
Times. " Mr. Morrow's pictures fit the verses like a glove."
Ships and Sealing Wax. By HANSARD WATT.
With 40 Illustrations by L. R. BRIGHT WELL. Crown
4to. 3*. 6d. net.
Daily Mail. "Very clever and amusing, the humour enhanced by
quaint illustrations."
Through the Loopholes of Retreat. By HAN.
SARD WATT. With a Portrait of COWPER in Photo-
gravure. Fcap. Svo. 3s. Gd. net.
Daily Chronicle. " Mr. Hansard Watt has hit upon the happy plan of
placing poet and letter-writer side by side, so that the two voices may
blend in unison. The volume has a select passage of prose and verse for
every day in the year, and the whole is a pleasant and surpriseful store-
house of good things. Mr. Watt print* for the first time a letter from
Cowper to his friend Joseph Hill : it is full of interest, and lends an
additional charm to the volume."
ft
FOR THE CONTEMPLATIVE MIND
Involution. By LORD ERNEST HAMILTON. DemySvo.
7*. d. net.
Daily Graphic." Extremely interesting, an honest and lofty endeavour
to seek the truth."
St. Clare and Her Order : A Story of Seven
Centuries. By the Author of "The Enclosed Nun."
With 20 Illustrations. Demy Svo. It. Kd. net.
Catholic Times." Fills a gap in our religious literature."
The Town of Morality : or, the Narrative of One
who Lived Here for a Time. By C. H. R. Second
Edition. Crown 8vo. 6*.
Daily Graphic. " In short, C. H. R. ha* written a new ' Pilgrim's Progress,'
a passionate, a profound, and stirring satire on the self-satisfied morality of
Church and of Chapel."
The Book of This and That. By ROBERT LYND.
Crown 8vo. 4s. Gd. net.
A collection of brilliant Essays by a talented Irishman.
Pall Mall Gazette. " This delightful book. Mr. Lynd writes so wittily
and pleasantly."
Manchester Guardian." His cleverness is amazing ; fresh, amuaing,
suirpestive."
Emjliik Review. " An elegant writer ; jocund and attractive."
The Enclosed Nun. Fcap. 8vo. New Edition. Cloth,
2v. Grf. net ; Paper, 1*. net.
Pall Mall Gazette. "A remarkably beautiful piece of devotional
writing."
Unposted Letters. Crown 8vo. 6*.
Daily Express. " Full of tender memories. There is something about
them peculiarly touching and rery human."
Morning Post. "They have a style of their own which must attract
every reader of taste."
Out of the Ivory Palaces. By p. H. DITCHFIELD,
M.A., F.S.A., F.R.S.L., F.R.Hist.S., Author of "The
Parson's Pleasance." With 12 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6*.
Globe. " The author gives much curious and out-of-the-way information
In these very readable pages."
38
FOR POLITICIANS AND
OTHER READERS
Makers of New France. By CHARLES DAWBARN.
With 16 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10*. 6d. net.
Pall Mall Gazette: "Well worth setting alongside the best literature
that we Lave on France from Bodley or the Philosophers, for the book is
imbued with a profound and instructive sympathy expressed in admirable
form."
Morning Post : "A triumphant book which ought to be read by every-
body who wishes to understand the new orientation of French mentality."
Liverpool Post: "Mr. Dawbarn is a literary ambassador of the
Entente."
Romany Life. By FRANK CUTTRISS. With an
Illustration in 4 Colours and 46 in Monotone. 7s. 6d. net.
A charming book on Gipsy life, beautifully illustrated and
quite the best thing of its kind that has been published. It
is written by an expert whose knowledge of Gypsies is beyond
question, and whose photographs are the real thing.
The Kaiser's Heir. With 12 Illustrations. Crown
Bvo. Gs.
Times. " Shows a minute knowledge both of the Prince's career and of
German conditions generally, which makes it a really valuable contribution
to current history."
Home Life in Ireland. By ROBERT LYND. Wim
18 Illustrations. Third and Popular Edition, with a New
Preface. Crown 8vo. 6s.
Spectator. " An entertaining and informing book, the work of a close
and interested observer."
Captive of the Kaiser in Belgium. By
GEORGES LA BARRE. With 7 Illustrations by the
Author. Paper Cover. Is. net.
Military Mail. " One of the best and most reliable personal narratives
of the state of Belgium at the time of the German invasion."
Physical Training for Boy Scouts. By LIEUT.
A. G. A. STREET, R.N., Superintendent of Physical
Training to the School Board of Glasgow, with a
Foreword by SIR R. S. S. BADEN- POWELL, K.C.B.
With 29 Diagrams. Paper Cover. Id. net.
Morning Pott. "An excellent little Manual, it should be invaluable
to Scout Masters."
FOR THE CONTEMPLATIVE MIND
Involution. By LORD ERNEST HAMILTON. DemySvo.
7a. d. net.
Daily Graphic. "Extremely interesting, an honest and lofty endeavour
to seek the truth."
St. Clare and Her Order : A Story of Seven
Centuries. By the Author of "The Enclosed Nun."
With 20 Illustrations. Demy Svo. Is. (id. net.
Catholic Times. "FiUa a gap in our religious literature."
The Town of Morality : or, the Narrative of One
who Lived Here for a Time. By C. H. R. Second
Edition. Crown 8vo. 6*.
Daily Qraphic. "In short, C. H. R. has written a new ' Pilgrim's Progress,'
a passionate, a profound, and stirring satire on the self-satisfied morality ot
Church and of Chapel."
The Book of This and That. By ROBERT LYND.
Crown Svo. 4s. Gd. net.
A collection of brilliant Essays by a talented Irishman.
Pall Mall Gazette. " This delightful book. Mr. Lynd writes so wittily
and pleasantly."
Manchester Guardian. " His cleverness is amazing; fresh, amusing,
suL'peative."
Snglitk Review. " An elegant writer ; jocund and attractive."
The Enclosed Nun. Fcap. 8vo. New Edition. Cloth,
2*. (>d. net ; Paper, 1*. net.
Pall Mall Gazette. "A remarkably beautiful piece of devotional
writing."
Unposted Letters. Crown 8vo. 6*.
Daily Express. " Full of Under memories. There is something about
them peculiarly touching and very human."
Morning Pott. "They have a style of their own which must attraot
very reader of taste."
Out of the Ivory Palaces. By P. H. DITCHFIELD,
M.A., F.S.A., F.R.S.L., F.R.Hist.S., Author of "The
Parson's Pleasance." With 12 Illustrations. Crown Svo. 6*.
Globe. " The author gives much curious and out-of-the-way information
In these very readable pages."
38
FOR POLITICIANS AND
OTHER READERS
Makers of New France. By CHARLES DAWBARN.
With 16 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10*. 6rf. net.
Pall Mall Gazette: "Well worth setting alongside the best literature
that we have on France from Bodley or the Philosophers, for the book is
imbued with a profound and instructive sympathy expressed in admirable
form."
Morning Post : "A triumphant book which ought to be read by every-
body who wishes to understand the new orientation of French mentality."
Liverpool Post: "Mr. Dawbaru is a literary ambassador of the
Entente."
Romany Life. By FRANK CUTTRISS. with an
Illustration in 4 Colours and 46 in Monotone. 7s. 6d. net.
A charming book on Gipsy life, beautifully illustrated and
quite the best thing of its kind that has been published. It
is written by an expert whose knowledge of Gypsies is beyond
question, and whose photographs are the real thing.
The Kaiser's Heir. With 12 Illustrations. Crown
8vo. 6*.
Time*. " Shows a minute knowledge both of the Prince's career and of
German conditions generally, which ruakea it a really valuable contribution
to current history."
Home Life in Ireland. By ROBERT LYND. witn
18 Illustrations. Third and Popular Edition, with a New
Preface. Crown 8vo. Gs.
Spectator. " An entertaining and informing book, the work of a close
and interested observer."
Captive of the Kaiser in Belgium. By
GEORGES LA BARRE. With 7 Illustrations by the
Author. Paper Cover. 1*. net.
Military Mail. " One of the best and most reliable personal narratives
of the state of Belgium at the time of the German invasion."
Physical Training for Boy Scouts. By LIEUT.
A. G. A. STREET, R.N., Superintendent of Physical
Training to the School Board of Glasgow, with a
Foreword by SIR R. S. S. BADEN- POWELL, K.C.B.
With 29 Diagrams. Paper Cover. Id. net.
Morning Pott. "An excellent little Manual, it should be invaluable
to Scout Masters."
29
Mills & Boon's Catalogue
The Italians of To-day. By RICHARD BAGOT,
Author of " My Italian Year." Crown Svo. Third Edition.
2s. 6d. net. Popular and Revised Edition, 1*. net.
Scotsman.' 1 Shows the same intimate knowledge of Italian life and
character as ' My Italian Year.' "
The German Spy System in France. Trans-
lated from the French of PAUL LANOIR. Crown Svo.
5s. net. Paper Cover. Gd. net.
T.P.'s Weekly. "A book that should awaken the public and the authori-
ties to a condition of things that can only cease to be alarming if prompt
action is taken."
The Pocket Gladstone : Selections from the
Writings and Speeches of William Evvart Gladstone.
Compiled by J. AUBREY REES, with an Introduction
by the Rt. Hon. Sir ALGERNON WEST, P.C., G.C.B.
Fcap. Svo. Cloth, 2s. net. Paper, 1*. net.
The Pocket Disraeli. By J. B. LINDENBAUM, M.A.
Fcap. Svo. Cloth, 2s. net. Paper, 1*. net.
The Pocket Asquith. By E. E. MORTON. Fcap.
Svo. Cloth, 2s. net. Paper, Is. net.
Spectator. " Should be Tiseful to the student of contemporary politics."
The Bolster Book. A Book for the Bedside. By
HARRY GRAHAM, Author of " Deportmental Ditties."
Frontispiece by LEWIS BAUMER. Fourth Edition.
Fcap. 8vo. 3s. Cd. net. Popular Edition, 1*. net.
Daily Chronicle." Humorists are our benefactors, and Captain Graham
being not only a humorist, but an inventor of humour, is dearer to me
than that ' sweet Tuxedo Girl ' of a famous song, who, ' though fond of fun, 1
is 'never rude.' I boldly assume that Biffin, like 'the Poet Budge" and
Hoaea Biglow, is a ventriloquist's doll a doll more amusing than any
figure likely to appear in the dreams of such dull persons as could be put to
sleep by articulate laughter."
Daily Graphic." Most ref reahingly and delightfully funny."
SO
EDUCATIONAL BOOKS
Full particulars of these may be obtained from MILLS & BOON, LTD.,
49, Rupert St., London, W. Heads of Schools are invited to write for
specimen copies of books likely to pr^ve suitable for Introduction as class books.
ENGLISH TEXTS
As You Like It. Edited by C. K. Gilbert, M.A. With Notes. 1*.
Henry V. Edited by C. R. Gilbert, M.A. 1*. Plain text, (W. net.
The Tempest. Edited by Frank Jones, B.A. Is. Plain text, Cd. net.
The Merchant of Venice. Edited by G. H. Ball and H. G. Smith. Is.
Plain texr, W. net.
Maxwell's Poetry for Boys. Is. d.
Smith & Ball's English Composition, la. English Grammar.
Is. Gd.
FRENCH
Baron's Exercises in French Free Composition. Is. 6d.
Barrere's Elementary French Course. Is.
Barrere's Intermediate French Course. 2s.
Barrere's Precis of Comparative French Grammar. 2s. Gd.
Barrere's Recits Militaires. 3s.
Barrere's Short Passages for French Composition. 2*. 6d.
Bossut's French Word Book. Is.
Bossut's French Phrase Book. Gd. net.
Shrive' s First French Unseen Book. Gd. net.
Shrive' s Second French Unseen Book. Is. net.
Walters' Reform First French Book. Illustrated, la.
DIRECT METHOD FRENCH TEXTS
Edited by R. JK. N. BARON, M.A., Cheltenham Grammar School.
Claretie's Pierriile. Is. tU
Daudet's La Belle Nivernaise. Is. Gd.
Merimee's Tamango and Jose Maria le Brigand. Is.
Hugo's Bug Jargal. 2s.
MODERN FRENCH AUTHORS
With Introductions, Notes, Exercises for Retranslation, Vocabularies, etc.
Balzac Ursule Mirouet. Without vocabulary, 2s.
Daudet.-La Belle Nivernaise. With vocabulary, Is. 6d.
GrevHle. Le Moulin Frappier. With vocabulary, 2s. Without, Is. Ou.
de Nerval. La Alain Enchantee. With vocabulary, Is.
Toudouze. Madame Lambelle. Without vocabulary, -2s.
GEOGRAPHY
Wetherill's New Preliminary Geography. Is. Gd,
Bird's School Geography, ^s. Cd.
GERMAN
Walters' Reform First German Book. Illustrated. 3. net.
Lange's Advanced German Reader. s.
DIRECT METHOD GERMAN TEXTS
Meister Martin. Edited by L. Hirsch, Ph.D. 1. Gd.
81
EDUCATIONAL BOOKS continued.
MODERN GERMAN AUTHORS
With Introductions, Kotes, Vocabularies, Exercisesjor Retran&iation, etc.
Auerbach. Selection* from Schwarzwalder Dorfgeschichten.
Wiih vocabulary, 2.i. Without vocabulary, Is. tid.
Bechstein Ausgewahlte Marchen. With vocab., 1*. Ctf. Without, Is.
tienedix. Doktor Wespe. With vocabulary, 2a. Without, i. Gd.
Ebers. Eine Frage. Without vocabulary, 2*.
Freytag. Die Journalisten. Without vocabulary, 2.
Freytag. Soli und Haben. Without vocabulary, 2s.
Hey se. Hans Lange. Without vocabulary, Is. txf,
Hoffmann. Meister Martin. Without vocabulary, Is. 6<t
Hoffmann. Schiller's Jugendjahrc. Without vocabulary, 1*. 6d.
Moser. Der Bibliothekar. With vocabulary, 2s. Without, is. itf.
Schefiel's Selections from Ekkehard. Without vocabulary, -2t..
LATIN
Ball's Latin Extracts for Sight Translation, it.
Williamson's First Latin Unseen book. Cxi.net.
MATHEMATICS
Boon's Preparatory Arithmetic. With answers, 1. 6d. Without, la.
Answers only, <x(. net.
Boon's Arithmetic for Schools and Colleges. With answers, 4s.
Without answers, 3. (W. Answers only, I'd. net.
Deakin's New School Geometry. 2*. 6d. Tart I, !.; Tart II, lj. Gd.
Deakin's Rural Arithmetic. With answers. 1. 6rf. Without, It
Deakin's Household Accounts. With or without answers. 6ti.net.
Harrison's Practical Mathematics. With ;UIR., Is. '/. Without, Is. 3d.
Harrison's Practical Mathematics for Elementary School.*.
Stainer' s Graphs in Arithmetic, Algebra, and Trigonometry
Walker's Examples and Test Papers in Algebra. With i .
answers, 2*. (Jd. In 2 i>arts, each with answers, 1*. oJ. Without, Is. Sd.
READERS
Peter Pan : The Fairy Story of the Play. Illustrated. Gd.
Francis Chantry : Milkboy and Sculptor. Illustrated, is.
Armitage's The Duke of Wellington. Illustrated. 1*.
Cadbys' The Doll's Day. Illustrated.
Shoosmith's Science and Magic. With 54 Illustrations. Is.
SCIENCE
Goddard's First School Botany. With 207 diapranis. 2*. 6d.
Hood's Problems in Practical Chemistry. With 22 lllustrs. $g.
Old ham's First School Chemistry. With 71 Illustrations. 2*. 6<i.
Oldham's Elementary Quantitative Analysis. With 11 diagrams.
Is. M.
Bucknell's Practical Course in First Year Physics. Illustrated. Is.
N orris' Experimental Mechanics and Physics. Illustrated. Is. 6d.
Laws and Todd's Introduction to Heat. With 108 Illustration*
2s. Cd.
SCRIPTURE
Gilbert's Notes on St. Matthew's Gospel, it.
Hauit, Wauom t Ftiuy, Ld., London and Aylttbvm 15/4120.
AH
W1U -
DAY
OVERDUE.
AND TO S
LD2 l-lOOm-7,'40(6936
YB 21345
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
