Evening star., 1924-10-08
CHURCH DISPUTE
SHAKES FRANCE
BY FRANK III. SINONDS.

BY FRANK III. SINONDS,
! An authentic evidence of the return
| or peace, perhaps. certainly proof that
a nation whose whole energy and at
tention have been concentrated upon
the task of national defense and ma
tional survival has at last reached the
point where it can return to its own
private and domestic squabbles, the
| renascence of the church dispute in
France is. nevertheless, unfortunate
Tor France, unfortunate at home and
unfortunate abroad
More than two decades have passed
since the great struggle over the sep
aration law shook France and to-
gether with the notorious Dreyfus
case. gave apparent proof that France
was, as the Germans said. a decadent
nation, sinking into that final decline
| which must end in the elimination of
the great people from the ranks of a
frst-Class power.
This battle was little understood
outside of France and least in the
United States. 1t was a survival of
the struggle begun in the revolution
and waged, not against religion. but
against privilege. The Church was
assailed, not as the Church, but as a
formidab Bile ally of the monarchy, and
later of the empire. of the older roy
atty and of the younger Napoleonic
system 1t was measurably the per
fectly human effort of the great re
publicans having at last established
the third republic to destroy the po-
litical enemy.
War Wiped Out Lines.
Yet the domestic struggle of tha;
period now hidden behind the vast
i historical bulk of the World War. did
for the
ations of the French cult in Alsace. al
once loyal to France and to the
thurch. Perhaps, with the passing of
! time. il might have constituted a bar
rier to the still surviving demand for
re1ntegration in the French frontiers
But the war came, priest and anti
clerical in France rallied with equal
promptitude to the colors. the divi-
sions were forgotten and in the army
the Anti-Clerical Joffre selected as
his chief lieutenant the devout Foch.
whose brother was a Jesuit. and as
signed to defend the eastern frontier
/ the ultra-Catholic De Castelnau
| At the close of the war even Glenn
| enceau. the most outspoken of the
! champions of the diSesta ablishment of
! the Church, attracted public comment
| by decorating priests and nuns who
| had done their part nobly One hoped
| that in so far religious differences
| were concerned the sacred union
| would be eternal. But the first Par
! lament after the war was dominated
/ by reactionaries. the French embassy
! at the Vatican was revived. and the
| passions of the radicals. which had
| only slumbered, burst forth in full
| fury.
AIsace and Lorraine Arise.
All of which would have been rela-
Z tIvelN unlDDOrtHnr hnt fa
| that the first explosion was precisely
| in Alsace and Lorraine. newly re-
turned to France with astounding
enthusiasm. To these lost prov
! fnces' the tacit pledge had been given
! that they would not be disturbed in
! their religion. This meant that no
| attempt would be made to extend to
the redeemed provinces the law OF
separation, which. of course. had not
reached them while they were under
| German rule.
Now. however, Herriot has pledged
i himself to drop the embassy at the
| Vatican and TO extend the disestab-
| lishment to -AlSace and Lorraine The
| result is an enormous protest in these
lands. a protest violently echoed by
all church sympathiZers in France and
| lately eloquently expressed by the
| French cardinals. Twenty-one of the
| twenty-three deputies from the two
provinces sitting in the present
| French Chamber have protested in the
name of Alsace- Lorraine against what
| they regard as a break of contract
The worst of this mess is that IL
| will Enthusiastically give the Germans A
new ground for hope of ultimately re-
| conquering the Rhine and Moselle re-
| gions. The enthusiasm with which
after nearly so years, the people of
! Alsace and Lorraine welcomed the
| EYar oh fro nd cEx@ @rI3
| to the Germans. For the moment the
! conviction came that the Reichsland
was in fact lost forever. And this i'm
| preston was strengthened as one
German traveller after another testi-
fed to the ardor with which the peo-
\ pie strove to acquire the French
language and adopt the French ways.
! Not Pro-German. -
That any permanent increase OF
| Pro-German sentiment will result in
| Alsace and Lorraine seems hardly
| likely because the Germans have left
| a very bitter memory behind. bitter
I before the last war, intensified b
| German acts during the struggle
| when the inhabitants were treated as
| enemies and subjected to all sorts OF
| hardships and minor prosecutions Yet
| for the moment there is manifest re-
| sentiment which finds ready echo in
Berlin.
When Louis XIV acquired Alsace
partly by bargain. partly by conquest.
nearly three centuries ago he showed
himself wiser than his Republican
successors, and to the end of the
monarchy Alsace was suffered to be
come French in its own way with the
| minimum of pressure. OF course. now
| the present struggle is not actually
| the result of an effort to re-Gallicise
Alsace, but the Alsatian detail is only
a circumstance in battle being
Waged between two sets of enemies
: : in French politics.
In view of the very real damage
which will be done to France both in
| Alsace and in the world generally,
however. the friends of France every
where must hope that this battle may
| be briefly terminated. Otherwise the
repercussions. not merely in Stras-
bourg and Metz, but quite as much in
Warsaw, Prague and Brussels, may
| seriously compromise the French sit
uation in countries whose support of
French policy in Europe is of utmost ),
value to France, now and in the flu
ture.
(Copyright 1924 by the Mcfy1ure Hewsnansg