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the compass; but nowadays tubes, trains, and trams link up the outlying suburbs of London so completely that we can get to the south at least in time to visit Croydon. Here stand the almshouses, founded by Archbishop Abbott in the time of James I and still instinct with the picturesqueness that seems inseparable from matured red-brickwork. We can compare them with the not dissimilar fabric known as 'The College' at Bromley. And at Bromley we are close to Down, where Darwin lived in the house which will one day belong to the nation. As we return, we can look in at the Dulwich Gallery, which Sir Francis Bourgeois added to the scholastic foundation of Alleyn, the friend of Shakespeare. This will be worth while because Dul

wich, in spite of much building, still re

London's surrounding villages, and after you have feasted your eyes on the famous Watteau and one version of Reynolds's 'Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse,' you can wander about the charming lanes and hope to meet Mr. George Moore's Evelyn Innes, who is inseparably connected with the spot.

Greater London, as the area through which we have been wandering is called, is everywhere studded with architectural and historic landmarks. Even where the metropolis has thrown out its extended tentacles in the form of modern building development, you will unexpectedly come across some old house forgotten, it would seem, by time, and hanging on to existence amid alien surroundings. The unexpected is always the most arresting,

for previous description has not aroused undue anticipation. Thus in wandering about the purlieus of the great city, one can often catch the aura of a time that is gone in a more authentic way than by gazing at monuments that are wellknown and that have not infrequently become all too familiar through constant reproduction.

As I reread what I have written, innumerable other places seem to claim recognition: Mortlake, where Dr. Dee lived and was visited by a rather superstitious queen; Putney, where Gibbon lies buried and where Swinburne passed at The Pines' the less adventurous portion of his poetic career; Strand on the Green, where Gainsborough dwelt; and Kew churchyard, where his body rests. ... But space, or want of it, say 'No.'

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Alsace: Problems of Restoration

By Lazare Weiller

French Senator from the Department of Bas-Rhin (Alsace)

F NO nation is more closely united than France, there is also no other country where men are more closely attached to their native provinces. Every Provençal is proud of calling himself a fellow-countryman of the poet Mistral. Each Béarnese looks upon himself as a distant cousin of Henry IV. Each Alsatian fervently proclaims his fidelity to his native province: he clings to his traditions with a grim tenacity, but it would be a great mistake to suppose that these traditions make him less deeply attached to France.

For us Alsatians, for the men of my generation and for myself, Alsace has been not only the land of our forefathers and of sacred family traditions; it has been a sweet and bitter memory, the symbol of love and sorrow, and of an unquenchable hope.

In our childhood our eyes saw, as Homer said, 'the smoke of the roofs of our homes ascending to the sky.' We have recovered the ashes of our forefathers and, at last, the bright memories of childhood are revived before our aged eyes.

It will never be forgotten that our resurrection was quite as much the fruit of the sacrifices made by England as of those made by France.

T IS often asked from the point of view of the foreign policy, or even of the internal policy of France, if there is an Alsatian question. Does the develop ment of the specific differences of Alsace within the unity of France or even that of Europe present a problem?

From the point of view of foreign policy, there is no Alsatian question, and, in making this positive statement, I do not refer to the execution of the treaties. Certainly the Treaty of Versailles has blotted out the Treaty of Frankfurt. But in a world disturbed by constant shocks, there is no everlasting treaty. The clearest and most positive texts provide only provisional shelter for those who draw them up or appeal to them.

In a celebrated line of poetry, the only one, I believe, he ever composed, Talleyrand, who was being congratulated on a treaty then only initialed, said:

Pour parler d'un beau jour attendez jusqu'au soir.

Who can know precisely the time that

From the English Review (London Tory Monthly)

JEAN LAZARE WEILLER, be

sides being Senator from Alsace, is a director of three of the largest machinery manufacturing firms in France. He was educated in his native country and at Oxford, and he has written several technical books on electricity.

M. Weiller was one of the first Frenchmen to see the future of the aeroplane in modern war. In 1908 he arranged with Wilbur Wright to handle all the Wright patents in France, and he presented a Wright machine to the French War Ministry for experimental purposes.

separates the dawn of day from the night that is coming to an end?

At the end of the war of 1870, when Bismarck profited by the victory won over France to establish German unity and proclaimed the Empire, the question of the annexation of French territory by the Reich produced a distinct line of cleavage between the diplomats and the soldiers.

Moltke beat Bismarck. The genius of the famous statesman had foreseen the remote consequences of the wound which would remain open in the side of the great neighboring nation. But the strategists were more powerful than the statesman; they were inexorable. It was a misfortune, not only for Alsace and France, but also for Germany herself. The annexation of Alsace and Lorraine made a real reconciliation between the two countries impossible. How much bloodshed and destruction could have been avoided if, in 1871, reason had not been made to yield to the sword? May I venture to add, if England had then shown more foresight?

Of course, united Germany managed to justify before mankind the act of spoliation of which France had just been the victim. There have always been jurists in Germany, as the great Frederick declared, who excel in justifying acts by legal quibbles. From 1871 to 1918 these jurists represented the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine as the recovery of territory of which France had

formerly robbed Germany. This fallacy has been put forward again since the Treaty of Versailles, with alarming animosity, by certain schools across the Rhine. So I may explain what this claim amounts to.

When, not by conquest, but by a voluntary gift, and in order to escape from the tyranny of the Swedish occupation, the Alsatian towns and rural districts offered themselves to France, Strassburg under Louis XIV, Mulhouse during the Revolution, there was no united Germany. The German States were, on the contrary, thoroughly disunited. And in these Rhenish German States bordering on our Alsace in the 'Couloir des Évêques,' which for centuries has played such an important part in history, there was such a mixture of Latin and Germanic elements that my eminent and lamented friend, Maurice Barrès, rightly considered what he called the 'Genius of the Rhine' (le Génie du Rhin) as one of the beacons of Western civilization.

To my thinking, it is self-evident that neither Germany nor France can found their claim to their right, with regard to Alsace, on the consideration of race. It was only by giving themselves voluntarily to France that the various parts of Alsace became conscious of their regional unity. Thus modern Alsace, whose destiny, which was settled in the seventeenth century, has since progressed along a straight line in spite of all historical obstacles, is the creation of the common will of France and the Alsatians.

But the violent separation of 1871 and even the efforts of the new rulers, which were sometimes ingenious, failed to change a state of affairs which was the outcome of circumstances and of the cooperation of the French genius for unification with the traditional devotion of the Alsatians to order and independence.

Moreover, an unimpeachable document has just been added to those which refute the claim put forward by the Germans that in 1870 they answered a call of the race. It is a letter which was recently published. It was written on October 26, 1870, by William, King of Prussia, to the Empress Eugénie. The future German Emperor declares therein that the motive of the annexation was purely military. Germany wished to take

Alsace with a view to a future war. France has reconquered it with a view to a final peace.

F the restoration of Alsace to the

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homeland has satisfied the most eager desires and the requirements of justice, nevertheless it was bound to give rise to a certain number of difficulties. Nearly half a century had elapsed between the defeat of 1871 and the victory of 1918. The Alsatians, in order toremain what they are and to preserve themselves for France, had clung with great tenacity to their tradition, and particularly to their religious traditions. During the forty-seven years of exile the church, the chapel, and the synagogue were the most active centres of Alsatian life. But during the same period French policy had followed a different course. The principle of an undenominational State had prevailed. It has been, and still is, the cause of heated debates in Alsace.

There was, then, from the religious point of view, a contradiction between the customs and legislation of Alsace and those of France. This was a first difficulty, arising out of the very nature of things. There have been other difficulties. Shut up in their country and retiring within themselves, the Alsatians had, during the period of their separation from the mother

But they had good reason to fear lest the strong tendency to uniformity, which for more than a century had

dominated French legislation and ad

ministration, should make it impossible for them to maintain their traditions and the institutions created by Germany. These traditions, even more than the institutions, were very dear to them.

The recent elections seem to have confirmed some of these apprehensions.

BUT in order thoroughly to understand

the feelings of the Alsatians, whom the French Press reproach, perhaps with too much violence, for their particularist spirit, a little more attention ought to be paid to what happened before the War, when Alsace was governed by Germany. Neither the somewhat clumsy enticements of German methods nor the heavy fist of the rulers of the Empire had been able to overcome Alsatian particularism.

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After the wild enthusiasm of the restoration to the mother country, the two had to resume the ordinary business of everyday life.

How was it possible to avoid little bickerings due to differences of method, behavior, and language? Parties were at once active in France which demanded the immediate assimilation of Alsace and Lorraine, the introduction of méthodes laïques and other political innovations, which caused a real panic among the Alsatian population, especially among the villages. Moreover, circumstances necessitated the presence of French officials in Alsace for the purpose of organizing the republican system of administration and facilitating the linking up of the services. Chance - was it really chance? ordained that the officials chosen should come from that part of France which was least able to understand Alsatian particularism and confounded Alsatian mentality with that of southern Frenchmen. These officials seemed amazed to find Alsatians who were both advanced in their ideas of social progress and intensely religious. It was then that the Alsatians began to fall back upon themselves.

A FRENCH CARTOONIST'S CONCEPTION OF ALSATIAN HISTORY: ROMAN TIMES

M. H. ZISLIN, the well-known Paris cartoonist, here tells in lighter vein the story of Alsace, which Senator Weiller so ably summarizes in his article. The axiom that history repeats itself is cleverly emphasized by the repetition of similar groups in different costumes but of essentially similar types and in similar situations in each picture of the series

country, given a great impetus to their provincial activities. Moreover, they had profited either by the progress made in German legislation, or by the freedom which, though conceded slowly and grudgingly in the political field, was amply granted in the social sphere. Thus they were enabled to establish in their country and to adapt to their customs and tastes economic mutualist institutions the equivalent of which did not yet exist in France.

France desired to reassure them at once. Solemn promises were made to Alsace at the beginning of the war. So far, these promises have been kept. The Alsatians expect them to be kept in the future also. Doubtless, there may have been, and inevitably will still be, minor blunders or slight friction in the application of the difficult measures which are to safeguard within the unity of the national life the differences in the religious and social institutions of Alsace.

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Then Parisian 'pilgrims' began to explore Alsace and to discover not only

ALSACE: PROBLEMS OF RESTORATION

the noble qualities of its race, but also its shortcomings. They called the particularists by the name of 'autonomists,' and the latter finally adopted this name themselves. They laid stress, with an insistence which was unfortunately justified, on the intrusion of German elements which were, of course, only too happy to take advantage of the differences which seemed to have arisen.

This was the origin of the somewhat confused situation that has been revealed by the recent elections. But with a minimum of political understanding the French Government, seconded by the most competent representatives of Alsace and a Press which the recent election results have enabled us to see more clearly, will know how to establish Alsatian affairs on a sound basis.

The Government should deal as they deserve with the queer individuals who have come from Moscow and Germany to repeat the mischief in Alsace they do elsewhere. But it should not confound Alsace with these individuals. Instead of trying to frighten the doubtful elements of the Alsatian population, the Government should try to win them over to its side; it is not impossible, it is not even difficult. They should not be perpetually reproached with uttering an insincere cry when they shout, 'Vive la France!'

And, above all, let

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German origin are at present the masters of American politics.

All this is one of the many aspects of that particularism which has never been better understood or managed than it was by the ministers of an absolute monarch like Louis XIV. However, the French Republic has always fulfilled its obligations to Alsace and Lorraine and, I am sure, will always do so. Whatever Government

From Le Rire, Paris

may be in office, both promises and treaties. will be respected.

BUT everything

has not been perfect in the way Alsatian affairs were managed during the early days of the new rule. Alsatian conditions and modern French conditions did not harmonize, and there were difficulties due to the special circumstances.

Alsatians may be divided into three classes: those who are more than 60 years old, those who are more than 30 years old, and those who are less than 30.

The eldest men have retained, if not through themselves, at least by the immediate traditions of their homes, the French stamp of the period preceding the annexation. Those who are less than 30 years old passed into the current of our national life under the sign of victory. But we must surely face this truth: those who are more than 30 years old, i.e., two or three generations of men who are at present heads of Alsatian families, communes, and institutions, have been molded by German culture. How could it be otherwise? The intellectuals who had been influenced by the spirit of the German universities could not tune their thoughts to the rhythm of French culture. The lower classes themselves spoke German and had German manners and traditions. The Germans had made Strassburg a centre of their intellectual activity, but this centre was animated by

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NOTE THAT THE YOUNG ALSATIENNES' liking for soldiers (see centres of cartoons) apparently dates back to Roman times. The pleasures of the vine (lower right) seem also to be constant. It is characteristic of French nationalist feeling that the cartoonist should pass over the period of Germanic rule that preceded acquisition of

it not be forgotten that Alsatian particularism is perhaps one of the noblest forms of the political ideal. Is not the Scotsman, who, for his part, is also a particularist, a Briton who is devoted to Great Britain? And does not the Englishman whom we see hastening busily through the City cling to his traditions which are so essentially English? To-day the Americans themselves, whose optimism and wealth have grown as a result of the war, are showing

the province by Louis XIV

tans, is powerfully swayed by their religion. My friend André Siegfried, in his remarkable work entitled L'Amerique d'aujourd'hui, has laid stress on this situation in a striking manner. Whether we wish it or not, whether it is an error, a fault, or even a political crisis, the Alsatian ministers and priests are the masters of their Catholic and Protestant villages, just as the Puritans of English origin, the Protestants of Dutch origin, and the Lutherans of

the Alsatians themselves. And it was only after the Armistice that the Germans who had lived in Alsace made a new intellectual effort, which arose at Frankfurt, not Strassburg. It was in this great German centre that they formed the association of Alsatians in the Reich which was immediately subsidized by the 'Deutsche Notgemeinschaft.'

Since the Armistice, Frankfurt has become a real source of historical information, the chief aim of which is to prove and justify before the learned world the causes of the War. Here is a striking example of the sudden intellectual activity displayed by the Germans of Alsace since the time when they were no longer allowed to stay in that country. Before the War no important work on the cathedral of Strassburg had appeared in German. Since then four have appeared. The names of the authors are Dehio, Ficker, Hamann, Hascett. They all desired to prove that this cathedral bears the stamp of a building that separates two civilizations.

What has been called the 'malaise alsacien' is only a fugitive trouble, and could be nothing else; a kind of difficulty involved in the transition, which we had to expect, all the more as the enthusiasm of our reunion had reached such a high pitch.

The French Government had anticipated these difficulties, and in order to facilitate the transition it had created

Since the restoration of Alsace to the mother country, for which many Alsatians fought, the inhabitants have been directed into channels of political and administrative life for which they were not prepared. This was bound to cause, and did cause, numerous difficulties, fortunately

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ambassador, has yielded fruitful results. It was, in my opinion, a great mistake to abolish the office before its task was completed. It is certain that, while the Commissariat Général existed, there was never any question of Heimatbund or autonomism. There are Heimatbunds in Alsace, at Eupen and Malmedy, in Schleswig-Holstein, in Czechoslovakia, and in the Tyrol. What statesman does not understand what may happen in a country that has been recently reconquered?

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THE GERMAN PERIOD

the

The claims of the Heimatbunds are linked up by the 'Deutschtum,' i.e. the defence of Germanism, among populations which the theorists of revenge, notwithstanding treaties, declare to be German minorities temporarily separated from the Reich. If these disquieting theories of the Heimatbund were upheld by the German spirit of revenge, they would necessarily lead to war, for none of the nations aimed at would allow itself to be robbed gratuitously of any portion of territory essential to its sovereignty. The character of certain events observed in Alsace will appear at first sight as strange to Englishmen as it did to Frenchmen. However, it is common to all home defense associations. These often lean both on the most religious elements of Christian communities and on the Communist elements of the population. These elements manifest themselves especially when elections are in progress. In this respect, the Communists of Moscow show an extraordinary ability in flattering the religious passions of the Alsatians. In associations of this kind. which seem to us to be against nature, the Catholics and Protestants who allow themselves to be led astray into the company of Communists are dupes. They will soon become aware of it, and they run the risk of preparing for themselves endless regrets.

From Le Rire, Paris

RACIAL TYPES REMAIN much the same, representing that auspicious mixture of Jew, Latin, and German, to which is attributed the high quality, physical, moral, and intellectual, of the human stock in Alsace. The artist slyly scoffs at the stiff military carriage of the German soldier, who is contrasted with the easy-going and much less obtrusive French poilu of the succeeding picture.

not serious, with which it was impossible to cope at once. They have arisen from day to day, and it is only from day to day that they can be solved. Doubtless the echo of these events would not have passed beyond the walls of our towns and villages, had not interests opposed to all social peace in Europe, Asia, India, and wherever disorder can bear fruit, made use of them in order to transform a passing indisposition into a deadly disease.

in Alsace and Lorraine a 'Commissariat Général.' It was the duty of the High Commissioner, assisted by provisional representative assemblies, to prepare the way for combining with the whole body of French institutions those features of Alsatian institutions that had to be and could be preserved. The work done by the Commissariat Général, which was presided over in succession by M. Alexandre Millerand, afterwards President of the Republic, and M. Alapetite,

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