The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-06-10
ASK FRANCE 7 D.
THINK Of LESSON
Of JEANNE ARC
English Editor Fears French
Making Mistake English
Did In OIden Days
by J. ST. LOE sTRACHEY
Editor of the London spectator"
Published By Arrangement with ''The
SpectatOr.v

LONDON, June 9.-Jeanne Dare is
the glory of the French. Her death
was the disgrace of the English
Above all she is an eternal warn
ing to those who think that mankind
will long endure to be ruled by
mechanical statecraft Shylock's claim
to his pound of flesh. Whenever the
great lesson that Joan of Arc taught
the world is forgotten there is dam
ger.
The Analogous case" has taken
hundred forms throughout history;
but never, it seems to me, has-it come
nearer, or proved more poignant,
than in the situation in which dis
tracted Europe now finds itself.
l believe now quite as firmly as
l believed in 1914 that it was neces-
sary to Withstand German autocracy
in its mad ambition to achieve
world supremacy by force of arms. ]
hold that If we had not withstood it,
and withstood it to the end, we should
now be fellow slaves with the Ger
the Germans were guilty of crime
against humanity, civilization, and
freedom in supporting the Kaiser,
and guilty OF an equal crime in con-
senting to be governed by a Hohen-
zollern tryant, | am not going to say
hates or hits a German Is in the right
and everyone who wishes to make
mercy, not revenge. the new way of
life is in the wrong.
Recalls Joan.
l ask the people of France to re-
call the story of Joan Of Arc. l do
so to prevent them making the cruel
error that the English made in the
fifteenth century. l act in the hope,
vain it may be but none the less
sincere, of saving them from irrepar-
able disaster.
The supreme lesson she taught US
is that those who think that because
they have power they can use it as
they will and who. so thinking. drive
a people to despair, must inevitably
pay the full price of their ill-doing.
Whether autocrats or democrats, for
eigners or oppressors akin to those
whom they Cypress, they must reap
as they have sown.
At present it may look as If the
last thing in the world that could
happen In Germany would be the
rising of some Jeanne Dare, man or
woman, to inspire the German kin.
Up till now 1 fully admit that moth
ing has been done in the Ruhr in the
way of oppression comparable to
the oppression which produced the
Maid of Orleans. But France is
standing at the edge of a steep slope
and seems determined not to draw
back from the path that leads to
the precipice. 1t Is because there
is yet time for her to count the
cost and save herself that I ask her
to call to mind her greatest patriot
and not to press on in a hopeless
task till there springs up. even in
soil so unlikely. some soldier saint
who will turn despair to devotion;
misery to hope.
Germany Is United
Already Frances action in the
Ruhr has made Germany a united
people. The only institution in the
country which is not taking or pur-
posing hostile action towards France
is the government. and their acquies-
cence is based on fear and weakness
and the palicy of despair, not on
conviction. They secognize too fully
the physical power OF France to have
any hope. They have not ina gina
ton enough to realize the irresistible
force of a people who have lost the
hope of better times. Men who be-
come the voluntary votaries of death
and long to enlist under his grim
banner are not easily crushed. They
are, in truth. dread menace to their
own people, to us, and to the world