Evening star., 1929-12-01
By HENRY ". BUM.

The following Is q brief summary Of
the most important news OF the world
for the seven days ended November 80:
FRANCE.-Georges Clemenceau is
dead at SO; the most towering states
man since Lincoln.
The average person has a fairly Just
notion of Clemenceau's direct participa-
ton in the war; of the situation of
France in 1917; how treason. defeatism
and pacifism had gone far to paralyze
the government; how fear Of betrayal
from the rear was undermining the
morale Of the army, so that many ap-
pretended q French and more disastrous
Caporetto; and how Clemenceau, under
taking the premiership at the age of 76,
clapped the traitors in quod, Silenced
the pacifstS, entirely restored the mo-
rale and confidence Of the troops with
whom he spent three days a week at
the front, constantly exposed to fire.
and with his "Je Fais la Guerre! Je Fas
la Guerre!" created the atmosphere es-
Sential to victory. It is this Clemenceau
of 1917 Of whom we are apt to think to
the exclusion OF the rest Of his remark
able career: lie Pere de la Victoire of
1917 and 1918.
likely that the philosophical historian
Of the future will find that the service
rendered by Clemenceau as head of the
government, as organizer of victory, was
not more important than the service
rendered by Clemenceau the censor, the
super-Cato, during the long period from
1875, when he entered the National AS
sembly, until 1917 Except the years
1906 1909, when he was minister of the
interior and premier).
Reviewing the history Of the third
republic, one wonders how 1t survived
the intrigues of clericals, Orleanists,
anna scandal, the Dreyfus affair dn
connection with which Clemenceau
played so magnificent a part), so much
else, including-not least important
the opportunism of genuine Republicans
why, Gambetta himself turned oppor-
tunisO. 1t survived because of sue
cessive purgations effected by the most
savage, unremitting honest, intelligent,
informed, fearless and patriotic political
Georges Clemenceau. Probably, but for
Clemenceau it would not have been In
plight in 1914 to sustain the terrific
impact of the German attack.
Clemenceau's criticism during all
those years was not merely destructive.
1t was in many ways constructive, both
as to domestic and as to foreign policy.
To him the all-important deSideratum
Of foreign policy was an intimate un-
derstanding with Great Britain Far
more than any other man was he in
strumental in the creation of the An
glo-French entente. In the eighties
and nineties of the last century a con-
siderable proportion of the French
people would have preferred an alliance
with Germany to an alliance with
Great Britain. One of the most effec-
tive points made against Clemenceau
by the coalition which defeated him for
reelection to the Chamber in 1893 was
his friendship for Britain. Against
such difficulties, after an uphill fight Of
many years, he achieved the entente.
More clearly than any other French
man he perceived the inevitability Of
another attack by Germany, and he
knew that France must go under with
out the British alliance.
SO, then, as critic and as seer Glenn
enceau was scarcely less indispensable.
, to France and the crushing of imperial
Germany than as head of government
But Clemenceau was not only
statesman, he was one of the most
effective journalists the world has seen:
he was a first-class wit, his good
things" being almost as numerous as
| those attributed to Lincoln, and he was
| novelist, playwright, essayist. 1t is
doubtful, however, If any of his writ
ings Will live except the "DemoSthenes," !"
IN which, under the guise of biograph-
ical sketch Of the great Athenian, he
poignantly appeals to the French people
not to forget certain lessons OF history
No, one should except also that essay
In which he tells again the story told
by Plutarch and Rabelais and glanced
at IN the most imaginative passage Of
milton - the story of the mariner
! Thamous, plying from the island of
Paxo to port Of Epirus, who heard a
voice biddinB him on arrival ct the