Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-29
CHAPTER V


4 WILL begin my story of France by speaking
first of one Of the chief actors in her down.
fall; of Edouard Dalader who for many
wasted years held the portfolio of Minister of War
But he was, alas, minister who did not
prepare for war in those years when the Germans
were thoroughly preparing.
Yet in those six wasted years few of us at first
suspected his intrigue with Jeanne de Crusso
which Slapped his strength and will and turned him
into frightened man, hesitating knowing not his
own mind
Edouard Daladier! They called him the Bull of
Orange, because his face seemed strong his Shout
ders big his jaw firm and masculine And because
he had way of launching his shoulders then strk-
ing out with gestures, when pressing home an
argument. And also they called him the Bull of
Orange because he came from Vaucluse in the
same region, where the sun is warm and the people
ardent.
But others called him Smiling Edouard" And
l, If ! were asked what name preferred for him,
/ would answer with words of Browning-"call him
our Lost Leader I"
Edouard Daladier is contradiction, his be-
ginnings were so promising, his end so tortured
and compromised Yet Edouard Daladier entered
public life as man capable of action man of old
fashioned nature To illustrate this change in the
War Premier, / might quote a story told by Jules
Romans in his Seven Mysteries of Europe"
Monsieur Romans had gone to Minister
Daladier to ask him, in his capacity as Minister of
Public instruction, to stiffen the courage of the
Director of the Coincide Franchise the state
endowed theatre of France. This gentleman had
accepted a play of Romans'-"The Dictator Z"
Then swiftly he had rejected it, because he said it
satirized public minister's And he added the
Coincide must deal tactfully with the political
world. For many of its young actresses were on
most intimate terms with the ministers of
France
In fact, as most everybody knew, it was
almost fixed custom for the ministers of
France to find mistress "a belle annie -
among the young actresses Of the Coincide
And where in other countries a man would
give his sweetheart jewel, in France min
lister would get her an appointment at the
state theatre, instead.
1t was an economical custom of these min q
listers BY and by this custom grew to be II
respectable scandal" A minister would al ~
most consider himself declasse unless he had V.
some lovely young actress of the Coincide
Franchise to share his idle hours.
So, when Jules Romans went to ask Min
lister Daladier to do what he could for his plaV
with that Director who feared political repris- re-,
ais by way of the ministers and their "belles n
amies, the actresses, Daladier laughed OUT z
loud.
Il can speak with complete detachment"
he said. Il have never had mistress among
the young women Of the Coincide But that,
Will admit, is most extraordinary"
So-then- Years ago Edouard Daladier
spoke his opinion about illicit love affairs for
public ministers. For in those days the private
life of Minister Dalader was above reproach.
But this was years ago.
And after that. and later an when his
tory records that story of this French Decline
and Fall then surely one of the causes will b,
traced TO the astounding change in the Premier
which came after his association with Jeanne
Marquise de Crussol.
Then historians will decide if a guilty con
science tortured the soul Of that stern man from
the provinces, TILL fumblingly, he helped lea
France on TO ruin. And then, perhaps history vii
also apportion some blame upon the chickering's o
those two women, the Marquise of Crussol and he
rival the dead mistress Of that other War Premier
Paul Reynaud
But let us leave all this to history Let me
rather as woman who knew them all, tell tn
more human side of the debace saw it playe
In the salons of Paris.
SO now, for an orderly beginning will TAX
you back to the sturdy, homely province of Vau