The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-04-10
France Still Stands at the
Frontier of Barbarism

| and people, upon French motives and
the French state Of mind, have reused
Mr.. Simeon Strunsky, who for two
months has been in Paris for the New
York Evening Post, to voice Wig
orous plea for fairer attitude tcS
ward "the nation that barred it's
breast for the defense of humanity -
and, in the short space of four
months, can hardly have become ga
profteer and a menace to peace"
Says Mr.. Strunsky, as a result of his
observations in the immediate vici-
nifty of the Peace Conference:
find French motives regarded
with suspicion; the French Govern
ment described as a gang of poll
ticians" utterly unrepresentative of
the people, as tho no other govern
ment has been accused of an inclina-
ton to play politics; the French CEN
sorship held up to horror as tho no
other government has its "Doras"
and its propagandas, and France as a
whole described as surrendering itself
to dreams of vengeance, while every
other government is presumably
thinking only of justice and the
worlds welfare
If it is worth while to consider what
is going on in the mind and heart of
Germany, it is fully as necessary to
know the minds and hearts of the
French people. France, confronted by
tremendous tasks, must not be left
nervous, fearful, and misunderstood.
Says Mr.. Strunsky further:
There is a phrase one continually
encounters in talk among Americans
in Paris which in the present writer
never failed to arouse an indignant ir-
ritation. France, you were continu-
ually being told, is suffering from
shell-shock. 1t was the intonation
that hurt. People said shell-sL~ck,
but they implied that the fault was
in the sufferer; that France was ma
lingering, that her fears and tremors
were self-induced. One would mag
inc that enough shells have fallen
on French soil and on French hearts
in the course of more than four years
to win sympathy and understanding
for even the most aggravated case of
nervous collapse, however painful it
might be to live neighbor to it. But
France, tho confessedly nervous, has
not gone mad, and it is no less cruel
than unwise to brush aside her pres
~ ,+o+ Of ,o,i,,1 Of
biological administration.
There is still in the heart of Europe
a solid block of anywhere from seven
ty to eighty million Teutons against
Frances less than forty millions, even
if we include Alsace-Lorraine. And
the respective birthrates on the two
sides of the Rhine are such that if
war should come at the end of a gen
Grafton France will face an enemy
possibly two and half times her
own strength.
Will another German raid come?
Frenchmen say it is not a question of
weighing chances. France can not
take the slightest chance of a repeti-
ton of the horror of the last four
years and half. Frenchmen say
that their national life was never at
its normal since 1905, when the Kai
ser began his Moroccan sallies, and
that they can not get back into the
normal state of mind for the rebuild
ing of their ruined land with the an
cient incubus on their soul. 1t is be-
You'd human power. They are not
convinced Of German change of
heart. And even if today there should
appear unmistakable signs of repent
ance for the crimes of Kaiserism
there is no guaranty that the peniten-
tial mood will endure as Germany
energies from under the pail of de-
feat.
France must stand on guard. She
is not preversely in love with arma-
ments and their financial burdens, nor
with the old disastrous system of ALI
ances. But she must have security.
So we read:
All that Frenchmen really ask is
which method gives them the greater
security; and until the League of Ma
lions has demonstrated its efficacy
they feel they can not take a chance.