THE FUTURE OF FRANCE
BOOKS OF THE DAY
By EDGAR ANSEL MOWRER
"INTERNALLY, France has lived a brave and courageous life during these years ; internationally, she has led a cautious— and many would say, cowardly existence." "These years" are the last five, of which The Destiny of France is a shrewd and exhaustive chronicle. A more poignant period could hardly have been chosen, for it marked the change from a " post-War " to what may well prove to have been a " pre-War " epoch. Like all but the deliberately blind, Mr. Werth- is sharply con- scious of this fact. In the concluding paragraphs of his preface, he notes the disintegration of the Versailles order, the equally complete ruin of the League Order—" powerfully attacked by the Fascist countries, and poorly defended by France and Britain "—but adds that if "we (liberals ?) stopped feeling self-conscious at the mention of the words ' freedom ' and 'democracy '—and we do !—we might yet pull through. For the Fascist countries have physical strength, supported by the crudest kind of bluffing—but nothing else." Yet his book is but one long description of how irresponsible dictatorship has bluffed time after time and how each time pacific democracy has thrown up the hand and paid the price.
In an admirable chapter, "Non-stop 1919-1932," we go through the post-War years, touching only the high spots. Here the reviewer could wish there had been more attempt to place the French slump in the framework of the general moral decline that followed the overstrain of the War. In Germany, the reversion to " pre-history " and the 'revolt against reason (Glauben Sie noch an die Vernunft, Herr ?) ; in Britain, an incredible switch from a comrade in arms to an ex-enemy, motivated by a strange mixture of political craft (balance of power), desire to promote trade, and non-conformist need to do penance for the monstrous mendacity and hatred of the War period ; in the United States a cowardly. shirking of responsi- bilities in nearly every field, and the attempt to forget it all in a vast intoxication of prosperity ; in France, the sudden access of terror following the realisation that the "hereditary enemy" was not only fiercely alive but already grooming himself for another round. It is not a pretty picture. If it seems more depressing in France than elsewhere, this is because France, properly called by Mr. Werth the "stronghold of freedom on the Continent," had always hitherto been so gallant and suddenly seemed so pitifully exposed. Therefore "the decline of France as the leading European power " is to the reviewer the chief subject of this volume. For the second subject, perhaps dearer to the author, namely, the successful defence of the French democratic republic against Fascism, is but a day-dream if internationally the French do not soon pull themselves together, refuse one instant longer to be duped or intimidated, and face the appalling fact that peace cannot be bought from opponents whose raison d'être is the preparation and waging of aggressive war.
As Mr. Werth shows, it began (somewhat late) with Briand : " Tant que je sera( Id, il n'y aura pas de guerre ! "—to culminate in the stubborn Laval : "Never shall I give the order of mobilisation ! "—eight words that virtually killed the League of Nations. The author, as he showed in his previous France in Ferment, is an excellent chronicler, who traces the slow thread of events from day to day, missing nothing, or at least missing little. It would be fascinating to know, rather than to conjecture, whether Sir Samuel Hoare really told Laval, in those stirring days of September, 1935, when it really looked as though the Home Fleet might save the League idea, that in no circumstances would the British use force against the Italians. For in this case the darker betrayal of the League The Destiny of France. By Alexander Werth. (Hamish Hamilton. los. 6d.)
would lie with Britain rather than with France. And the author never tries to investigate the irrepressible rumour that, even when he was promising the British " full support" in any action against the Italian pact-breakers, the two-tongued Laval also warned them that such " support " was valueless since the French people would never "march "—thereby paralysing even the boldest British pro-Leaguers. In fact, the reviewer wishes that Mr. Werth had brought into the text of his book more of the hard analysis which he crowds into his preface.
But why insist on guiding lines when the facts speak for themselves ? Briand tried to conciliate Germany. Perhaps it was an impossible task. Perhaps the attempt came too late.
Tardieu reversed the policy and when, under Bruning, the Weimar Republic was already dying, refused to lend a helping hand. Hitler's advent made conciliation without French capitulation an illusion. But Daladier and Laval ignored Hitler. Barthou tried in vain to mend a bad situation by " roughnes3 " at a time when the French were already jittery.
Germany introduced conscription in defiance of the Versailles Treaty ; Britain and Germany broke the naval restriction clauses without consulting France. Mussolini duped the
naive Laval, whom the Quai d'Orsay could hardly prevent from giving Ethiopia to Italy outright. (" Pensez qu'il a fait Fa d moi, ci mai ! "was all that the Auvergnat politician could find to justify his selling the League to the Duce for a "friendship " that was then expressed in a preference for Germany!)
And finally Laval had to go. Germany remilitarised the Rhineland, half isolating France from its eastern allies. Flandin and Sarraut hesitated, listened to Britain, did nothing. Blum came. Once more in Spain the dictators flouted international usage and democratic prestige by their open support of the rebels. And once more Blum, as the price for the presumed support of Great Britain, had to swallow his convictions and allow French interests to be harmed, perhaps mortally. It is a vivid and, to the reviewer, a depressing story leading to no good.
More inspiring to a democrat is the account of how La Rocque and Doumergue and Tardieu had the democratic republic at their mercy and dawdled about the job of stifling it until the Radicals called their bluff ; of how the Popular Front reconciled Liberals, Socialists and Communists in the single determination not to allow the advent of a French Hitler ; of how, contrary to all precedent, they succeeded, won the following election and realised a "French New Deal." Mr. Werth is at his best in dealing with French internal politics : here his intimate acquaintance with French politicians, his knowledge of the country, his sense of humour and fairness even when dealing with persons whose views he dozs not share, make him the most illuminating of writers on contemporary France. The reviewer likes best the excerpts from Mr. Werth's diaries. Away from events ind abstractions, he manages in a phrase to give an entire country : "I spent Easter Sunday at Evaux-les-Bains, in the Creuse, where I was regally entertained by the local baker, M. Maney- raud, who happens to be the son-in-law of old Thiebault, my Paris concierge." Happy country where bakers entertain visiting foreign correspondents and the "little man" has brains enough to rule. This explains many things, among them why Fascism in France was not successful ; at least, not in its first spasm.
May one, while paying tribute to the writer, protest against the wrapper design ? The choice in France is not, at least for the present, between a "Fascist saluting" tri-colour and a red flag over a clenched fist, but between a free democracy and some new sort of despotism.
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