New-York tribune., 1917-07-20
By FRED B. PITNEY

, fused. These reports were the COM
mon gossip all through France and the
bitterness against the English was In
tense.
Again there was great bitterness
when the Somme offensive IN July,
1916. was held up after the first FIVE
days. and six weeks passed without
any material advance while the French
waited for the English 10 get going. 1t
was not until the English got started
on the Somme that there was a real
change in the feeling toward them IN
France. But since then the English
have been going steadily. Their two
years Of preparation has told its tale,
and to-day il is the English who are
carrying the burden of the fighting on
the Western front.
And at the same time their long
campaign for the friendship of France
Is bearing fruit. For all the time they
were preparing the work Of their
armies they were carrying on a great
campaign in FFnce 20 be the first
friends of the French, a campaign that
was looking ahead to after the war.
Nothing more industrious and
thorough has been done in this war
than the English campaign in France
70 give publicity to the English effort
and dispel French distrust of the Eng
lish and doubt Of English good faith.
When the Maison de Ia Presse was
established in Paris as the hesdquar-
ters for French publicity, through the
efforts of the English a separate bureau
was opened in it for English propa-
, ganda in France. II was a clever move
on their part. Instead of opening a
bureau of their own they had their
propaganda work done by a French
bureau. with a Frenchman at the head
of il. the before-the-war correspondent
of lie Temps" in London. Ostenslbly
this was a French undertaking. In
reality il was controlled by the British
Foreign Office.
Another big work was done for them
by Franklin -Bouillon, a member of the
Chamber of Deputies. He is a tremen-
dously energetic man, who was edu-
Gated at Cambridge University, and he
conceived the idea of the "war after
the war" in which the war alliance
should continue as a commercial ALI
ance against Germany. Out OF this
idea grew the scheme for interparlia-
mentary conferences and coordlnated
war legislation in all the allied coun-
tries. No one except Franklin -Boull-
lon took the interparliamentary con-
fererces seriously, but the English
Joined in at once, because Of the great
benefit 20 their propaganda in France.
There has been no coordinated war
legislation, but through the advertising
Franklin-Bouillon has given TO his
scheme the English have reaped great
benefit. They have regularly sent dele
D. af
Commons and the House of Lords every
time Franklin Bouillon has set a date
for a conference. Italy has stood aloof,
been scornful, and only in May finally
consented to send a delegation, which
pictures Of the Duke of the Abruzzi at
the French front. But the English
played their parts most seriously.
The English are beginning to be
looked on as the best friends of France.
The feeling is permeating the popula-
ton. Their army is making good. II
is doing the fighting and doing it finely.
They have insisted that they are the
true friends OF France. and no rebuffs
in days of misfortune could dishearten
them. With the same stubbornness
that they have fought an uphill fight
against heavy odds on the battlefield
they have fought an uphill fight into
the hearts and goodwill of the French.
The French say to-day:
~ guess we will have to learn Eng
lsh now. After this. with the English
alliance. English will be the common
language"
All this opportunity lay at the feet
OF America. The French wanted Amer
lea, preferred her 10 England The
French and American ideals are ideals
in common. They have common ira
dition in Washington and Lafayette
Their friendship is traditional. II is
an old friendship, and there is A
strength in its age that the English
friendship in its newness cannot have.
The opportunity still waits for Amer
lea. She can still have first place with
France, and it is a place worth having
first place in the hearts OF a great
and glorious people. With that goes
first place in a great business opportu-
nifty. All depends on how America fights
the war. II she fights real war, fights
with the hearts of all her people. as
France hae fought; if America so fights,
the war is won, and if America wins
the war there is nothing she cannot
have from France. Moreover, France
wants il TO be America who wins the
war. The answer is with America.