M. Emile Massard, editor of the Nationalist Patric, and one
of the Municipal Councillors of Paris who recently visited London, has publicly recanted his Anglophobia, and con- tributes to the Daily Express an explanation of his change of opinions. Briefly stated, the reasons for M. Massard's hostility were fourfold,—the humiliation involved in the Fashoda. in- cident; the interference of the English in the Dreyfus affair ; the Boer War ; and the bad bargain made by France in Morocco. Furthermore, the entente cordiale was engineered by the governing classes of the two countries, it "was not rooted in the heart of the French people " ; consequently, M. Massard and his friends attacked it as inspired, on England's side, by self-interest, and by the desire to embroil France in complications with Germany. But once he arrived in London M. Massard's antipathy was dissipated by the warmth of his reception, the broad and elevated ideas of the English governing classes, the frankness and loyalty of the English character. He admits that he may have been a little sentimental, but his misgivings were swept away by the homage rendered to his country. "At bottom I have not changed. I judged England by her hostile acts. I judge her now by her demonstrations of cordiality." M. Massard observes that the conversations he had with various enlightened Englishmen, including his host, completed his conversion. We do not, of course, wish to exaggerate the value of M. Massard's testimony, but it certainly shows what a happy thought it was to billet the French visitors at the private houses of their hosts. Hotels are cosmopolitan affairs at best, and the result of contact with German waiters might have sent M. Massard back to Paris a more convinced Anglophobe than ever.
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