30 MARCH 1901, Page 13

FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

Ile TR& EDITOR OP TEL usracrAroa.1 Sra,—In a letter by Mr. W. D. Scull on" Clericalism.and Anti- Clericalism in European Politics" which appeared in the Spectator of March 2nd, the writer states that La Croix, "the recognised organ" of the Romish Church, "did not scruple to ally itself with Socialists, atheists—even with such as Rochefort —in its fierce effort to inflame the French nation to invade and destroy us." Although you have closed the discussion on "Clericalism," may I crave space, as an English Socialist who is in close touch with France, to say a word on this other point in Mr. Scull's letter ? I do not know to whom he refers when he uses the word "Socialists," but I do know that the firmest friends of England as a nation, and those who have done their utmost to stem the tide of Chauvinism in France, espe- cially when directed against England, are the Socialists of France, especially their eloquent orator and leader, my friend Jean Jaures. Last October I was present at the Bourse du Travail in Paris at a great demonstration, almost entirely Socialist, which was held to welcome representatives of English workmen who had been sent over by the Workmen's Peace and Arbitration Society, for the express purpose of showing friendship to the French workers. On that occasion the two chief French speakers were the Socialists Jaures and Valliant, and the whole meeting was enthusiastic in its applause of every word which touched on French and English fraternisation. Ere long a return visit of French workmen and Socialists to London will be arranged, and I can prophesy that the keynote of that meeting will, from the members of both nations, be the same as that at the Bourse du Travail.—I am, Sir, &A.,