Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-06

Pert1ndT is the pen name OF Andre
Geroud, one of Frances most famous
Journalists. In the years since 1886,
1Uhen Germany marched into the
Rhineland, he repeatedly 1Darned his
countrynten that internal qudrrels
must be forgotten, that France must
unite to meet her greatest danger
the threat OF Mai aggression His
EARNINGS 1uent unheeded, France tell,
and Pertindr came to America.
We know. of course, that the French
people had been deeply divided ever since
l934-35 But when war was declared we
believed that some kind of national
unanimity had come into its own to face
the German danger Six months before.
the group created by Abetz, the personal
representative of Won Ribbentrop, to re-
cruit and lead the fifth column, had
practically disappeared from the scene.
And when the deadly blow was struck at
Poland. what seemed to be genuine anger
burst out in those rightiSt newspapers
which, in preceding months and years,
had been most outspoken in their devo-
ton to the totalitarian states. We
been effectively patched up, at any rate.
Alas, We were mistaken.
The reconciliation of all Frenchmen
was merely on the surface. Deeper, the
old feelings still ran very vigorously. The
only real change was that the men at.
tracted by the totalitarian ideal concen-
trated their favor on Mussolini alone.
where previously they had distributed 1t
between the Duce and the Fuhrer. How
ever, we can clearly see now that some
of them. at the bottom of their hearts.
never completely gave up allegiance to
the odious idea that the extremist writer
Thierry Maulnier had been bold enough
to express eight weeks after the Munich
surrender. In attempting to justify that
surrender, he had written: "A victory
of the French arms would have been
not so much a victory for France as
victory of the principles rightly regarded
as leading straight to the ruin OF France
and of civilization itself.
Widespread Defeatist Policy.
That famous phrase of Thierry Maui
nier stands as probably the most I'M
pudent expression of the widespread de-
featist policy that blinded so many
conservatives to the German menace:
conservatives who, a generation before.
would have been aligned by the side OF
the great patriots Maurice Barres and
Albert de Mum But there are other
leitmotivs of the defeatist policy that
deserve to be quoted even today, because
thev indicate how extensive the move
ment was.
One of them. of course, charged the
Jews with the responsibility OF the war.
Another denounced the Jewish Leon
Blum as the chief culprit because he
had weakened France to such a degree
as to make it appear an easy prey to
Hitler. Still another theme. heard very
frequently, was that it was still possible
to win back Mussolini to cooperation
with France, but that the game was
spoiled at every turn by the Marxist ele-
ments and by their accomplices within
the Quai d'Orsay.
That accusation sounds ridiculous to
any one acquainted with the great patti
ence shown to the Italian dictator by the
officials of the Ministry of Foreign At
fairs-and of their laborious efforts to
invent. to enforce and, periodically, to
repair the successive formulas of the So
called policy of non intervention during
the Spanish civil war. Nevertheless, the
accusation found ready audience in
the most unexpected quarters.
Whispering Campaign.
And let us not forget the whispering
campaign conducted. even during the
war, against our British allies, in the
best Ferdonnet style: "As-tu WI lang
lais?" ("Have you seen the English
man?'D That slogan was to be heard
everywhere in the military zone. 1t not
only implied that the number of British
divisions on the north and northeastern
frontier was altogether inadequate
(Which, unfortunately, was too we'll
founded in fact, but it also implied that
Great Britain was setting a bad example
to the rest of the democratic world. and,
accordingly was making the propaga-
ton of Bolshevism that much easier.
England, as Charles de Montalembert
wrote towards the middle of the last GEN.
fury, has always been unpopular in France
with the extremists of the Right and of
the Left because she is apt to demon
strate that a traditional monarchy and
an aristocratic system can be perma-
nently reconciled with regime of public
opinion.
1t goes without saying that bad STRAIT