Evening star., 1941-08-13

nave grave lnlngS 10 tell you!
For The last several weeks I have
felt an i'll wind rising in many
regions Of France. Disquiet is over
taking minds; doubt is gaining con-
troll of spirits. The authority OF my
government is made the subject OF
discussion: orders are often being
ill-eXecuted.
In an atmosphere of false rumors
and ;ntrigues the forces of recon-
Struction are growing discouraged
Others are trying to take their place
without their nobleness or disinter-
estedness. My sponsorship is 100
often invoked. even against the gov
ernment to justify self-styled un-
dertakings of salvation which, IN
fact, amount to nothing more than
appeals for indiscipline.
Uneasiness Infiicts Nation.
A real uneasiness intlicts the
French nation. The reasons for this
uneaSineSS are easy to understand
Cruel hours are always followed oy
difficult times.
While at the frontiers of the ma
tion-which defeat has put out OF
action bit whose empire leaves her
vulnerable-the war goes on, rava2-
ing new continents every day everv-
body wonders with anguish ABOUT
the future of our country.
Some feel themselves betrayed,
others think they are abandoned.
Some wonder where their duty hes,
others first seek their own interest.
The London radio and certain
French newspapers add to this con-
fusion Of minds. The sense of ma
tional interest in the end loses IN
Justice and vigor. From this dis
order of ideas springs disorder of
affairs. Is this indeed the fate
France has deserved after 13 months
of calm, of work, of incontestable
revival?
Frenchman. 1 put this question
to you. I ask you to measure Its
score and answer it in the confines
of your conScienceS.
Must Overcome Distrust.
Our relations with Germany have
been defined by an armistlce con =
vention, the character of which
could only be provisional. Dragging
out this situation makes that mucli
harder to support it insofar as 1t
controls relations between two great
nations.
AS for collaboration offered in
the month of october, 1910. by the
chancellor of the Reich under con-
ditions which made me appreciate
their difference it was a long
term labor and has not yet been able
to bear all its fruit.
We must be able to overcome a
heavy heritage of distrust handed
down by centuries of dissenslons and
uuarrels to turn ourselves toward
broad perspectives which can open
up reconciled continent to our
activity.
That is the goal toward which we
are heading. But it is an immense
labor which requires on our part
as much will as it does patience
Other tasks absorb the German
government, gigantic tasks in de-
velopments to the East in defense OF
civilizatio and which can change
map of world
AS regards Italy, our relations ike
wise are controlled by an armistice
convention. Here again our desires
are to escape from these provisional
relations to create more stable ties
without which the European order
cannot be constructed.
No Decline of Ideals.
I would like to recall to the great
American public the reasons why it
has no reason to fear decline of
French ideals. Certainly our par
iamentary policy is dead. But it
never had more than little in
common with the democracy of the
United States. AS for the instinct
of liberty-that lives always with
us. proud and strong.
The American press has often mis-
judged us. Let it now make an ef-
fort to understand the quality of our
souls; the destiny of nation whose
soil-during the course of history
periodically ravaged: its youth de-
cimated: its well-being troubled by
the weakness of Europe, in whose
reconstruction France intends today
to participate.
Our domestic difficulties have been
created above all out of troubled
minds. our lack of men and out of a
scarcity of products.
Troubled minds do not have as
their sole origin the vicissitudes of
our foreign policy. They come
especially from our slowneSs in
building a new order or, more cor
rectly. in imposing one The ma
tional revolution which I outlined in
my message last october II has not
yet taken its place among accom-
plished facts
1t has not yet forced its way
through because between the people
and me-who understand one an
other so well-there has risen q
double screen of those favoring the
Old Regime Assailed.
The troops of the old regime are
legion. I rank among them with
out exception all who place their
personal interests ahead of the
permanent interests of state-free
masonry, political parties deprived
of clientele but thirsty for a come
back, officials attached to an order
of which they were beneficiaries and
maSters-or those who have subordi-
mated interests of the fatherland to
foreign ones.
A long wait will be needed to
overcome the resistance of all these
opponents of the new order. but we
must start in now to smash their
undertakings by decimating their
leaders.
If France did not understand
that it was condemned to change
the regime by the force of things
then she would see open up before
her the abyss in which Spain o1
1886 just missed being swallowed
and from which she is only saved by
faith, youth and sacrifice.
AS for the power of trusts, it /.
trying to reassert itself using for it.
| own ends the institution of com.
Il