Evening star., 1934-04-08
That FrancO-Cerman Feud
Continued From First Page.)

Continued From First Page)
udice, it will not be difficult to show
that the feud between France and
Germany originated-and the same
may be said of many other nations
not because of any marked dissimi-
larity among their people. but be-
cause the dynastic houses which ruled
over their destiny had too many con-
flicting interests. AS kings used to
decree war and let their people do the
fighting, it followed that there is not
a single living generation of French
or Germans who was not born in a
period of some kind of strife or hos
tility with each other. When We re-
call that in the fourteenth century
half of France belonged to the kings
of England through family inherit
ance or by some assumed right of
succession, it is not difficult to see
how a situation of that kind was
bound to create any number of causes
for dispute between the royal family
reigning in France with their kin
reigning in England.
People Wanted Peace.
But the peoples themselves had
nothing against each other. They
we're not interested whether Cousin
John or Cousin Henry was going to
reign over them. AS long as they
we're left peacefully alone to live their
lives without being crushed with taxes
and military service. that was all they
wanted. BY the same explanation it
may be said that the peoples OF
France and Germany never had any
conflicting interest to neceSsitate a
war between them. and there is no
ground for assuming that their pres
ent interests are now in conflict to
keep a perpetual hatred alive. AS
a Saarlander had put it to me. he
said: 1T matters not whether it is
France or Germany who rules this
land. In either case, both will see to
it that they get plenty of taxes and
take our children to war"
To refer about any nation nova
days as particular pure race by
means of anthropological features or
by geographical delineations is as alb
surd an attempt as trying to deter
mine the race of stray dog. There
is as much Celtic or Gallo blood in
modern Germans as there is Ger
manic blood in modern French. To
think of a Frenchman as pure de-
scendant of the Gauls. or of a Ger
man as a descendant of the old Teu-
tonic race, would appear as an idea
of a very paradoxical form. In the
ninth century the empire of Charlie
magne had gathered under its BAN
ners tribes of all sorts. All came to
be known as the Franks. Various
Germanic invasions from across the
Rhine transfused blood into the veins
of Celtic and Latin Gaul, which end
ed by giving to Latin country a
name of Germanic origin: France.
Thus we see that the very name of
France was originally Germanic.
This historical fact alone should be
sufficient to prove the close racial
affinity between the French and the
Germans. From the fifth century B.
c. the various Frankish tribes had
occupied a territory extending from
the Atlantic Coast to the mountains
of the Dobrudja (Bulgaria). And
the Gauls were but one Celtic tribe
inhabiting what is now known as
France. To the north and east of
that vast dominion were the Ger
manic tribes established on the right
bank of the Rhine; to the south and
west, the Gallo tribes on the left
bank of the same Rhine. So far,
there was no France or Germany
Both countries were under the ban
ner of Charlemagne, Emperor of
the Franks.
If Charlemagne had not had three
sons, we would never have heard of
Alsace-Lorraine, that territory lying
between France and Germany. and
bounded by the Vosges mountains on
the west and the Rhine on the east.
After the death Of the Frankish en-
peror, his empire waS therefore,