New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-02
To Maxim Gorky
French Veterans Open Letter in Ansuer to His Appeal
for Starring Russia
By Binet-Valmer
(From, LIE Figaro)

:. Inc author OF the subjoined letter
is former citizen of Switzerland who
ENLISTED in the French army and served
writer of short stories and novels, many
OF them dealing with the World War.
lie speaks in behalf of the French vet
Grams.
According to the papers, Mr.. Gorky,
you have sent through the intermediary
Ct Messrs. Anatole France, Gerhardt
Hauptmann and Blasco Ibanez an
appeal "to all honest men" on behalf
ci the millions Of Russians threatened
with starvation. The head of an asso-
cation of former French soldiers has
the right and the duty of answering
you.
We have not been Indifferent to the
suffering OF that nation which was our
ally and to which such great geniuses
as Tolstoy and Dostoievsky belonged.
have known for several weeks that
the peasants of Holy Russia are leav-
ing their villages and are going to the
East in search of the Indian car.
This is mythical figure. A car
is chief who knows how to feed those
who have confidence in him.
Furthermore, we have among us,
dying of hunger here in France, your
compatriots exiled by those soviets
which your great talent has defended
We are helping them in every possible
way, not to conspire, but to live.
Besides this we are helping those for
mer French soldiers who possess bonds
of the Russian state and whom your
revolution has ruined. Even more i'm
portant, we are trying to appease the
widows and mothers of our brothers in
arms killed in the war of 1918, who
cry out to US: "Had it not been for the
treason of Brest-Litovsk my husband,
my son, would not be dead"
We are endeavoring to fulfill our
duty toward Russia because we re-
member the autumn of 1914 and be-
cause perhaps there still remain in the
empire Of Lenine and Trotzky some
thousands of former soldiers who
risked their life for the common cause.
But you have written one abominable
phrase: eff humanitarian ideas, crushed
by this cursed war and by the cruelty
of the victors toward the vanquished,
can and must be revived"
The cruelty Of the victors toward the
vanquished? All, Maxim Gorky, rid
yourself of the kindness of your mas
tiers and come to Us. Visit our devas-
tated regions, destroyed not by civil
war, but by the barbarity of the in
vader. Look at these fields which
French tenacity has cultivated. Look
at the cellars in which peasant families
are suffering-these cellars of the
shattered houses, and then you, who
know the life of the humble, will
understand that your expression, .the
cruelty of the victors," is blasphemy.
You will understand that famine
would annihilate the people of France
if they had been mad enough to follow
Lenine or Trotzky.
You have defended those men. We
shall not cease to admire you as
writer, but we scorn you as a man.
We snail ScorH you Until you have
redeemed yourself by denouncing to
the whole world the horrible autocracy
which is leading Russia to rain, to
misery and to death
We know that cholera is raging, that
the plagUa is prevalent, that millions
are suffering torture, and we should
like with everything in our power to
help them. To dedicate ones life to
such work, what mission for a
poet! Maxim Gorky, why arc
not you that poet?
Are you afraid7 You only sxemble: