“georges clemenceau, president of the council and minister of war, and marshal foch, general-in-chief of the allied armies, have well deserved the gratitude of the country.”
that is the resolution which, by the unanimous vote of the senate of the french republic, will be placed in a conspicuous position in every town hall and in the council chamber of every commune throughout france. the senators of france are not easily roused to enthusiasm. what they thus unanimously voted, in the absence of clemenceau, amid general acclamation, is a fine recognition of his pre-eminent service as well as of his indefatigable devotion to duty at the most desperate crisis in the long and glorious history of his country. nothing like it has ever been known. the reward is unprecedented: the work done has surpassed every record.
it is well that the great statesman should be honoured in advance of the great military commander. marshal foch has accomplished marvels in more than four years of continuous activity, from the first battle of the marne to the signing of the armistice of unconditional surrender. all europe and the civilised world are indebted to him for his masterly strategy and successful man?uvres. but france owes most to clemenceau.
towards the close of this historic sitting clemenceau himself entered the senate. he received an astounding welcome. everyone present rose to greet him. men who but yesterday were his enemies, and are still his opponents, rushed forward with the rest to applaud him, to shake hands with him, to thank him, to embrace him. the excitement was so overwhelming[296] that clemenceau, for the first time in his life, broke down. tears coursed down his cheeks and for some moments he was unable to speak. when he did he, as always, refused to take the credit and the glory of the overthrow of the germans and their confederates to himself. in victory in november, as when he was confronting difficulty and danger in march and july, his first and his last thoughts were of france. the spirit of france, the citizens of france, the soldiers and sailors of france: these were they who in comradeship with the allies had achieved the great victory over the last convulsions of savagery. he had been more than fully rewarded for all he had done by witnessing the expulsion of the foreigner and the liberation of the territory. his task had merely been to give full expression to the courage and determination of his countrymen.
clemenceau spoke not only as a french statesman, as the veteran upholder of the french republic, but as one who remembered well the horrors and defeats of 1870-71, now followed, forty-eight years later, by the horrors and the triumphs of 1918. the senators who heard him and acclaimed him felt that clemenceau was addressing them as the man who had embodied in himself, for all those long years, the soul of the france of the great revolution, and now at last was able to show what he really was.
this moving reception in the senate had been preceded by an almost equally glowing display of enthusiasm in the chamber of deputies. there too—with the exception of a mere handful of socialists whose extraordinary devotion to caillaux and malvy blinds them to the genius of their countryman—the whole assembly rose up to welcome and cheer him. clemenceau, speaking there, also, under strong emotion, after two stirring orations from m. deschanel and m. pichon, assured the deputies that the armistice which would be granted to germany could only be on the lines of those accorded to bulgaria, austria-hungary and turkey. marshal foch would decide the details, which now all the world knows.
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but, after having dealt with the armistice implored by germany, clemenceau went back to the past and said: “when i remember that i entered the national assembly of bordeaux in 1871, and was—i am the last of them—one of the signers of the protests against the annexation of alsace-lorraine . . . it is impossible for me, now peace is certain and our victory assured, to leave the tribune without paying homage to those who were the initiators and first workers in the immense task which is being completed at this moment.
“i wish to speak of gambetta” (the whole house rises with prolonged cheering) “—of him who, defending the territory under circumstances which rendered victory impossible, never despaired. with him and with chanzy i voted for the continuation of the war, and in truth, when i think of what has happened in these fifty years, i ask myself whether the war has not continued all the time. may our thoughts go back to them; and when these terrible iron doors that germany has closed against us shall be opened, let us say to them: ‘pass in first. you showed us the way.’”
the french premier went on to speak of the problems of peace, which could only be solved, like the problems of war, by national unity for the common cause, “for the republic which we made in peace, which we have upheld in war, the republic which has saved us during the war.” he appealed “first for solidarity with the allies, and then for solidarity among the french.” this was needful for the maintenance of peace and the future of their common humanity. humanity’s great crusade was inspired not by the thought of god but of france. “ce n’est pas dieu, c’est la france qui le veut.”
the deputies rose again and again. it would have been strange if they had not.
but fine though these speeches were, and impressive as was the prime minister’s adjuration that, since the problems of peace were harder than those of war, they must prove their worth in both fields—it was clemenceau’s personal influence[298] that gave them their special value. undoubtedly the splendid fighting of the french and british and american troops and the admirable skill of their commanders had produced that dramatic change from the days of depression from march to july to the period of continuous triumph from july to november. this clemenceau never allows us for one moment to forget. but he it was who had breathed new life into the whole combination, military and civilian, at the front and in the factories. no man of his time of life, perhaps no man of any age, ever carried on continuously such exhausting toil, physical and mental, as that which this marvellous old statesman of seventy-seven undertook and carried though from november 1917 to november 1918.
his energy and power of work were those of a vigorous young man in the height of training. starting for the front in a motor-car at four or five o’clock in the morning at least three times a week, he kept in touch with generals, officers and soldiers all along the lines to an extent that would have seemed incredible if it had not been actually done. once at the front he walked about under fire as if he had come out for the pleasure of risking his life with the poilus who were fighting for la patrie. marshal foch and higher command were in constant fear for him. but he knew what he was about. valuable as his own life might be to the country, to court death was a higher duty than to take care of himself, if by this seeming indifference he made frenchmen all along the trenches feel that he and they were one. he succeeded. fortune favoured him throughout. then having discoursed with the marshal and his generals, having saluted and talked with the officers, he chatted with the rank and file of the soldiery and rushed back to paris, arriving at the ministry of war at ten or eleven o’clock at night, ready to attend to such pressing business as demanded his personal care. and all the time cheerful, alert, confident, showing, when things looked dark, as when the great advance began, that the prime minister of the republic never for one moment doubted the germans would[299] be hurled back over the frontier and france would again take her rightful place in the world.
and that is not all. clemenceau’s influence in the council chamber of the allies was and is supreme. the old gaiety of heart remains, but the soundness of judgment and determination to accept no compromise of principle are more marked than ever. many dangerous intrigues during the past few months, of which the world has heard little, were snuffed clean out by clemenceau’s force of character and overwhelming personality. the french prime minister wanted final victory for france and her allies. nothing short of this would satisfy him. there was no personal loyalty he wished to build up, no political object that he desired to attain, no section or party that he felt himself bound to propitiate. therefore the other ministers of the allies found themselves at the table with a statesman who was something more than an individual representative of his nation. he was the human embodiment of a cause. what that meant and still means will only be known when the dust of conflict has passed from us and the whole truth of clemenceau’s policy can be told.
for my part i have done my best as an old and convinced social-democrat, and on some important points his opponent, to give a frank and unbiassed study of clemenceau’s fine career. his very mistakes serve only to throw into higher relief his sterling character and the genius which has enabled him to command success. read aright, his actions do all hang together, and constitute one complete whole. comprising within himself the brilliant yet thorough capacity of his french countrymen, he has risen when close upon eighty to the height of the terribly responsible position he was forced to fill.
therefore his efforts have been crowned with complete victory. having forgotten himself in his work, the man clemenceau will never be forgotten. he will stand out in history as the great statesman of the great war.
and now that he and we have won—our aid, as none knows or appreciates better, having been absolutely indispensable to[300] the french triumph—clemenceau feels so deeply that france as a whole has shared in the great awakening that, having himself appointed the devout catholic marshal foch generalissimo of the allied armies, he, of all men, joined in the te deum of thanksgiving in the cathedral of lille! the work he has done, the risks he has run, the unshakable determination he has displayed, have raised him high above all petty considerations of politics, creeds, classes, or conditions. therefore he is the hero of france after her desperate struggle for national existence.
the end
