Evening star., 1928-12-02
BY COUNT CARLO SFORZA,
Former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
and Ambassador to France.

w WIEN I was in Paris as Am
n bassador, about six years
| W. ago, it was an open secret
| that there was a difference
of tendencies between the
| two PresidentS-M. Millerand, Presi-
| dent of the Republic, and M. Poincare,
president of the council of ministers.
In home policy M. Millerand was ac-
cused of barring the current which was
! driving France toward the Left.
M. Poincare, although approved by
| the Right for his foreign policy, never
| lacked the confidence of the Left, in
| spite of his deep and warm loyalty not
! only to the form but to the very spirit
of republican institutions.
BY previous personal experience when
| nrirne minister under the Millerand
| presidency, Poincare knew the difficult
! ties which surround any possible action
| by the President of the Republic. He
had been President himself during the
war: he had tried to have errors avoid
| ed, but his prime minister, Clemenceau,
| had been a jailer to him. The prison
was a golden cage-the exquisite PalalS
de Elysee--but still cage.
Poincare himself is wont to say when
| in some intimate circle of friends that
| if he ever writes his personal remin1s-
| cences he will borrow the title from a
masterpiece of italian literature, lie
Mie Prigioni' ("My Prisons'O, by Pei
| leo. the italian patriot.
| Probably Clemenceau added to the
difficulties of the situation Of the
French President-Whose power, as
everybody knows, much more closely re-
sembles that of the King of England
than that of the American President
by the ruthless violence of his tempera-
ment.
One might even remember that Gle
rnenceal was perhaps one of the un-
willing authors of Poincare's election
! to the presidency of the Republic in
1913. simply because, being strongly op-
nosed to Poincare, and asked when he
arrived at Versailles to vote, whom he
would vote for, answered:
"Je vote pour le plus stupide, mean
ing by that M. Pans, the millionaire
candidate, PoincareS adversary.
While prime minister Clemenceau
governed always by fear.
How Poincare Governs.
M. Poincare governs. if not by love,
| at least with the consent of the gov
erned. He is now prime minister for
the second time since the end of his
seven years as President of the Repub-
lie. and even the Socialists, although
ostensibly in opposition, have in part
rallied to him.
Unlike Clemenceau, Poincare has no
censorship at his disposal; he cannot
send his political opponents before a
court martial or even high court OF
Justice. Yet Poincare's authority con-
tinues and remains unchallenged.
Contrary to Clemenceau, who was
conspicuous in so many ways-and who
liked to be nspicuous-contrary even
to BRAND and to CaillauX-to speak
only of renchmen-Poincare has no
apparent emanation of personality; he
has no magnetism. He comes from
those serious and dull French upper
middle classes, than which nothing
could be duller or more respectable" in
the world, were it not for the exist
ence of what remains of the Victorian
type of British middle classes.
Thus it is all the stranger that few
statesmen have been so deeply dis
cussed, so differently interpreted, as
Poincare has been. One of his best
biograpiers wrote on the very first
page of his study: "One feels the mys-
terry of the man.
In reality. there Is no enigma IN