xu 
LAND & WATER 
ISovemDer 22, 1917 
preparing the ground for a reconciliation based on the highest 
and most unselfish motives. The psychological moment came 
when the two former adversaries met at the Elysee for the 
first time since M. Poincare became President. They had a 
talk which lasted an hour and a quarter, during which they 
agreed to bury the past and their old grievances for the sake, 
not of their future, but of the welfare of France. I know no 
happier omen for my country. 
M. Clemenceau has a marvellously versatile mind, and is, 
moreover, a great master of the French language. His bo oks, 
his plays, his innumerable articles, his brilliant jjolemics in 
the French press, during a period which covers more than half 
a century, would alone assure his fame as one of the most 
illustrious publicists of our time. But before everything, he is 
a fighter. His logical and pitiless brain, his energetic tempera- 
ment, unite to make him the king of polemicists. No one ever 
equalled him in the terrible art of destroying whatever he had 
made up his mind to attack. Endowed with a rare gift of 
eloquence, at the same time simple and convincing, he has 
spent the greater part of his political life in dernolishing the 
schemes of his political adversaries. He was easily the ablest 
Cabinet wrecker e\'er known in F"rance. where Governments 
imder the republican regime have been made and unmade, 
with a rapidity disconcerting to those who did not realise 
that we have been making experiments for thirty years in the 
difficult science of establishing a permanent regime on thf 
ever-changing basis of democratic control. 
When M. Clemenceau came to power twelve years ago he 
had passed the prime of life, but, at last, he was given his 
chance to build up with the materials of all the structures he 
had himself pulled down. For three years he was supreme 
master in F-rance. He came to office after the terrible hurri- 
cane of the Dreyfus affair, and it must be recognised that under 
liis rule F'rance began to forget the Dreyfus case. For reasons 
which it is better not to discuss here, M. Cl^menceau's policy 
on military questions was not as successful as his Home and 
Foreign policies. But one man, however strong, cannot re- 
model in three j'ears the whole fabric of the internal admini- 
stration of a country as bureaucratic and traditional as France. 
If M. Clemenceau were to tell us the real motives of his 
apparent failure over the question of military armaments for 
instance, I am convinced he could clear himself from any 
accusation of lack of patriotism, or even of negligence. On the 
other hand, his foreign policy was masterly. It is true that 
he found in his old friend and colleague M. Stephen Pichon, 
who for years was on the staff of M. Clemenceau's paper, La 
Justice, an admirable collaborator whose loyalty to his chief 
and to their common ix)licy of the Entente Cordiale never 
wavered. Only once was the friendship between M. Cle- 
menceau and M. Pichon clouded by a misunderstanding, when 
M. Pichon backed with all his streiigth M. Poincare's candida- 
ture to the Presidency. But this episode is now entirely 
forgotten, and the two life-long friends are again united in the 
common fight against the enemy, at home and abroad. On 
the all-important article of faith in our foreign policy since 
1900, they were always of the same mind, for both realised that 
France and England if they wanted, not only to triumph 
over the German menace, but even to live, had to stand side 
by side. The return to power, in the same administration, of 
M. Clemenceau and M. Pichon is the most decisive proof 
that could be given to the world that the miserable intrigues 
of the Bolo party, and of pro-German financiers with their 
chief, Caillaux, have been defeated. Their end is near. 
That fact alone ought to fill all hearts with jov. I must 
own that personally, however great my admiration and my 
sympathy for M. Clemenceau, I have never been quite sure 
that his great destructive qualities are balanced by his con- 
structive power. But that which ir. times of peace might 
cause some anxiety gives me to-day the conviction that 
M. Clemenceau is the right man at the right moment. 
What is the first duty of the Prime Minister ? Not to 
reorganise the F'rench administration, but to purify by every 
conceivable means the whole country from the poisonous 
intrigues of German agents. To accomplish this task, honesty 
alone is not enough. France needs a statesman whose grip 
is of iron, for he will have to strike down traitors, whoever 
or wherever they maybe. Influential politicians, powerful 
journalists, wealthy financiers who have betrayed their country 
must be quickly arrested, judged and condemned without any 
regard to the consequences such action may have lor this or 
that political party. 
M. Clemenceau has already .qivcn proofs of hk fearless 
patriotism. Though a Republican, he has collaborated 
with the Royahst Leon Daudet in attacking in the press 
Vigo-Almereyda, Bolo, Malvy, Leymarie, Caillaux, and all 
their confederates. In the Senate he has denounced the com- 
plicity of M. Malvy, then Home Secretary, with traitors who 
tried to sell France to the enemy. M. Clemenceau's speech, 
one of the most powerful he ever delivered in his long public 
career, brought down the Ribot ministry in spite of the 
Premier's perfect honesty oi purpose. M. Ribot, though he did 
take action, spared too many culprits, and so he had to go. 
M. Painlcvc, another good Frenchman, showed great weakness 
in attempting to mix home politics with judicial matters. 
He was quite willing to arrest those Republicans who attempted 
to shelter themselves behind M. Caillaux and his friends, but he 
sought at the same time to balance this bold action by im- 
plicating Leon Daudet, Charles Maurras and their Royalist 
friends. That manoeuvre failed, for M. Piiinlevc's good 
faith had been abused by political intriguers. The supposed 
Royalist plot was a mare's nest invented by corrupt police 
spies, and the result was M. Painlevc had to go. 
M. Clemenceau, whose great speech against Malvy and his 
Boloist friends proved to be not mere words, but the most 
' powerful action taken by any politician since the Dreyfus case, 
has certainly not accepted at his age — he is 76 — the res- 
ponsibility of power, to leave things as they were before. 
He is a man of action and his programme has been admirably 
summed up by himself in his paper L' Homme Enchatne 
when he wrote a few days ago " The essential condition of any 
national life is a Government." And by government M. 
Clemenceau means a government composed of "a well- 
organised gang of workers " — to use his own expression- 
united with one object in view, to work and not to talk. 
French Pacifists 
!•!. Clemenceau may be trusted to apply this principle, not 
only to scavenging the dirty work of our Frencji pacifists and 
other traitors, but also to strengthening the military policy 
of the country. Victories won over the enemy at the front or 
behind the lines are, after all, military matters ; and it is quite 
proper that the man who is going 'to accomplish this task 
should be Minister of War as well as Prime Minister. 
There is also another reason for rejoicing in the advent 
of ?•!. Clemenceau to power. No living Frenchman knows better, 
and from personal experience, the English country, English 
institutions and English character. He has always 
kept in close contact with British statesmen of all parties. 
He has, in fact, been on terms of intimacy with rabid Tories 
as well as with ardent Liberals, and in no country of the world 
is the personal equation so influential in the conduct of affairs 
both political and private, as in England. 
The Englishman differs from the Frenchman in this respect 
that for him the function is subordinate to the individual who 
exercises it. In F'rance, however numerous ministers may 
be, there is always the feeling that Monsieur le Ministre, when 
he speaks officially, is as big as his office. And some of my 
friends on the other side of the Channel cannot understand why 
each new-comer in the domain of high politics, as for instance 
-••.. Painleve with his two-months' tenure of office, does not 
carry as much weight in discussion with his English colleagues, 
as J.I. Briand or M. Ribot, whose faces, manners, gestures and 
modes of expression have become familiar 
In spite of his years, the new chief has all the alertness 
and the jphysical strength of a young man ; and his marvel- 
lous intelligence has never worked with greater precision, clear- 
ness and logic. He is the strong man we have been waiting 
tor since the beginning of the war, though some people will 
tell 3/0U he is nothing but an old cynic, who takes nothing seri- 
ously and whose only pleasure in life is to annoy his neighbours, 
and to opjiose any project he has not proposed himself. 
Let me tell a little story which if not true— and I have 
reason to believe it is true— summarises better than any long 
analysis the qualities of M. Clemenceau. . 
Two years ago he was visiting a very exposed part of the 
Front. An aide-de-camp was sent to him by the General 
in command of the sector begging him to withdraw to a place 
of safety. M, Clemenceau said to the officer ! " Look over 
there at that poor child lying dead on yonder wires. He was 
young, most likely he loved life and love, and now he is dead. 
Why should I be frightened of death ? I no longer love 
women__and I am disgusted with men— T don't care if I die 
to-day." And M, Clemenceau. worthy of his nickname 
of the Tiger," remained tranquilly where' he was, within range 
01 the enemy s guns. 
How touching is this sympathy of the old man for the 
young dead soldier : how typical of his ever-present w it 
the manner of his retort ; and, if I may say so, what ideal 
qualifications for a statesman in a tirne of great national 
danger and allurements. A man who is entirely impervious 
to the blandishments of life can no longer be taken in by the 
pretended virtues of men. He knows that humanity is mostly 
sublime or abject. But more than ever his heart is moved by 
the sentiment incarnated in the body of that young soldier 
lallcn in defence of France, and the one thing which continues 
to flame m his soul is the passion for his country. Such a man 
must be the leader sent by Pro\idcnce to save France, and with 
France, her Allies. 
