New Britain herald., 1917-08-07
FRENCH CITIZENS ] MODELS OF COURAGE
Their Bravery and Conhdenca
 Has Helped Keep Army Going

Paris, Aug. 7.-Louis J. Malvy French minister of interior, mas re1 piled to the request of the Associated Press for a statement outlining hi
 views on the end of the third year p4 the world war. The minister began by emphasizing the fact, which he said
 sometimes had not been sufhclenti5 realized, that it was the "unanlmous and concerted effort of every cltlze! which allows our regiments to keel crushing the barbarous assaults on the moving frontier of trenches
 Mr. Malvy ended with words tq which added weight were given by Ill
 three years at the ministry of lnterlor4 where, under Frances highly central1 ized administra ton, he has been Tn tne closest touch with the whole country being the only minister who has held the same office throughout the Wa1 under the successive premiers. The minister said:
 '"The length of the war and the enemy's inauguration of submar1ne| piracy placed us last winter face to| face with fresh difficulties, but econ omically, as in every other waN{ France has inflexibly and imperturb- -I ably confronted each, and has already
 begun to conquer. She has poured
 forth her blood too freely to begrudgel her gold or endurance. With firm en !
 durance she is accepting a regime o4 restrictions. After some inevitableI tentative efforts she will regulate be tween now and the beginning of win ter the food supply and heating. NO less firmly has the world o1 work applied the only possible remedy to the increased cost of living. namelyI proportionate increase in Wages1 The strikes which were witnessed laSq spring have evolved in a perfect calm They constitute nothing more than one of those phenomena of compensatory movements whereby our social bodyi seeks to adapt itself to new conditions1 They were less numerous in France l than in any other country. They arose. l in calm and ended in closer, more
 trusting unity between the employers l and employed.
 By the end of the three years
 France has endured every affliction, suffering and glory. Without vio- lence or shock, but not at times with | out discussion (for discussion is the 1 very essence of liberty and demos 1 cratic regime) she has maintained l within her land order and discipline 1 accepted, not forced, discipline-and 1 she will conquer. She is as united as
 she was on August 2. 1914. Better 1 still, she is unanimous-that IS, she | forms but one soul for work as for l combat. .s
 ''The country, then, is ready to en-
 ter upon the fourth winter of the
 war in the best conditions of physical
 and moral health. It knows that,
 thanks to American aid next spring.
 it will apply at once all it's endurance ] and every sacrifice"
 Every time we have exacted in-
 creased work or devotion it has been 1 sufficient to explain our reasons. for
 the French citizen is like the French 1 soldier, who is willing to die if ne-
 cessary, as the civilian is willing to
 suffer, but each demands to under- | stand why.
 "Never was my mission easier than 1 in the first months of the war. when, at the governments appeal, every party and class difference disappeared. Even our extremists answering to a | confidence which it was an honor to
 me to offer them, rushed to the frontier to fight. The public then imagined the war would be short and that the battles would be gigantic but decisive. France of the interior then thought its only duty would be to efface itself before armed France"
 The minister then traced the changes through which civilian France had passed. First came work for the wounded and other war char ities, but as the war continued it had to work to live. and the aged and the women and children worked the land. Then came the urgent need of a supply of munitions and heavy artillery, but never, MT. Malvy said, had France of the interior failed France of the front.