Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/156

136 cerned in the case; and, whether a witness were a minister, an actor, a journalist, or a woman, mud was found in plenty. There was no questioning the facts that Madame Caillaux shot Cal- mette; that she purchased the revolver on her way to the Figaro office; that she had carefully learned how to use a revolver; and that she had left a note for her husband telling him that she meant to take justice into her own hands. Nevertheless, after an impassioned speech by Maitre Labori, she was acquitted by the jury a result due more to the nature of the questions left to the jury's decision by the judge, and to the dependence of the Bench upon the favour of ministers, than to any consideration of the rights and wrongs of the case. The Caillaux propaganda out- side the court increased as the trial proceeded, and sought to give to the proceedings the appearance of a political trial in which Caillaux's political adversaries were trying to find in the homici- dal impulses of his wife a weapon with which to kill their chief political opponent. Temper rose rapidly to fever-heat, and by the time the verdict was given war-fear and war-fever helped to send up the temperature of Caillaux's most ardent supporters, the Socialists and Syndicalists, and of his most bitter enemies, the Royalists. The boulevards were packed with struggling Camelots du Roy, and gangs of the Jeunesse Republicaine, whose contending battle-cries of "Vive Caillaux!" and "Caillaux Assassin I" mingled with "^4 Berlin!" and "A has la guerre!"

Outbreak of the World War. This local rowdyism in no way echoed the real feeling of the country, which saw with courage, but without any exultation or jingo fever, the approach of war. The President of the republic returned to Paris from his Russian visit on July 29, and was warmly cheered as he drove with Gen. Joffre to the filysee. There was perhaps a significance even in the warmth of those cheers; but had the scuffling on the boule- vards been due to really deep feeling for or against war, the murder of Jean Jaures, the idolized leader of the Socialists, as he was dining in a Paris cafe on July 31, would inevitably have led to very serious rioting. He was shot down by a Paris student named Raoul Villain, whose mind had apparently become affect- ed by the ferocity of Royalist attacks upon the People's Tribune. (Villain was not brought to trial until March 1919, when, to the astonishment of everybody, he was acquitted.) The body of Jaures was carried by Socialist stalwarts along the boulevards to his home at Passy without there being any disturbance of order. The next morning France was placarded with a ministerial proc- lamation explaining the crime and identifying the Government with the feelings of horror and grief which it had aroused.

Mobilization orders were posted throughout the country on Aug. i, and at the same time was issued a presidential proclama- tion explaining that, though mobilization did not of necessity mean war, it had become a necessary step in view of the bellicose actions of Germany. The proclamation appealed to the country to refrain from any emotional displays which might embarrass the last efforts of diplomacy to preserve peace. These exhorta- tions to be calm seemed to be superfluous. Mobilization was car- ried out quietly even in the effervescent capital. Scenes of jingo- ism were rare, and their significance was slight. A few Germans were naturally hailed as spies and roughly handled and some Ger- man shops were smashed up. A true picture of the national atti- tude towards war is to be seen in the sitting of Parliament on Aug. 4, when a presidential message was read outlining the his- tory of diplomatic negotiations and their failure to weaken or stay the warlike intentions of Germany. In both Houses mem- bers stood in complete silence during the reading of the address, but the concluding appeal "Haul les casurs, el vive la France!" was followed by the singing of the Marseillaise. In this demon- stration of patriotic unity, in the applause which marked the words, " We are no longer partisans here, we are all French- men," Socialists and Monarchists joined with equal fervour.

L' Union Sacree. Thus was born the political truce, the Union Sacree, which for the first two years of war enabled French Gov- ernments to continue in office without having to meet open attack. For the first two years of war this immunity against criticism had its good points. It gave greater stability to the country's affairs; the supreme command had the sense of continuity essen-

tial for the preparation of the offensives of a long war. The sys- tem had also its disadvantages, for it meant lack of control, and, since rigorous censorship was imposed, the stifling of all public opinion. At the very outset of the war changes were made in the Ministry. Viviani, so as to free himself for the general control of the Cabinet, gave the portfolio of Foreign Affairs to M. Doumergue; Augagneur became Minister of Marine, and Sar- raut succeeded him at the Ministry of Public Instructions.

Ministerial Changes. On the eve of the first battle of the Marne the Ministry was further strengthened, Viviani resigning on Aug. 26 and forming a new Government. The steady advance of the enemy, the disasters at Charleroi and Mons, and the prospect of battle at the very gates of the capital, called for the presence of stronger men. The most important change was that which put Millerand in the place of Messimy at the War Office. Delcasse returned to the post from which German arrogance had forced him years before to the Foreign Office; Augagneur took the Navy, Ribot Finance; and, as a concrete sign of the Union Sacree, Socialist deputies were authorized by the party for the first time to take office in a bourgeois Cabinet. Marcel Sem- bat, one of its wittiest leaders, became Minister of Public Works, and Jules Guesde, a Socialist veteran of uncompromising princi- ples, joined the Ministry without portfolio. The label " National Defence " was fixed to this Cabinet, which was representative of nearly all political parties. Its first concern was the defence of Paris. The day this Ministry was formed Gen. Gallieni re- placed Gen. Michel in the military governorship of the city. The appointment of such a resolute die-hard as Gallieni to this post was a clear indication that, if the worst came, Paris would be defended and fought for even through her streets. The impres- sion made by this appointment upon the public, which knew nothing of the course of events at the front, or indeed realized how near the front was drawing, was heightened by the arrival of thousands of refugees, who streamed into the capital from the direction of Amiens and Compiegne.

Departure for Bordeaux. The closing days of Aug. were marked by a great exodus of useless mouths. The Government endeavoured, in conditions of great difficulty, to evacuate as many people as possible from Paris, but was naturally hampered in so doing by the fear of causing anything like a general panic among the population. It was therefore unable to issue any proclamation, and what measures it took to encourage people who were not forced to remain in Paris to leave for the provinces had to be carried out more or less sub rosa. Its own departure to Bordeaux took place by stealth. The Government and the President of the republic were bluntly informed by the comman- der-in-chief, Joffre, that their presence in Paris during a battle which would decide the fate of the capital could only give to the army unnecessary preoccupations of a political nature, and that they would best serve national interests were they to betake themselves well out of the zone of operations. The President of the republic and the ministers left Auteuil station secretly on the night of Sept. 2, and it was not until the following day that the country was told of this momentous step, in a proclamation which appealed to it " to fight and to endure," and which called upon members of Parliament to rally around the Government at Bordeaux, so as to form with it " a rampart of national unity." The Government was naturally followed to Bordeaux by all the embassies and legations, with the exception of those of the United States, Spain, Denmark and Norway, which were charged with the interests of one or other of the belligerent Powers. For days the roads to Bordeaux were encumbered with the heavy motor traffic of well-to-do refugees; the ordinary railway-travel- ling public had to put up with very great delays upon the line; the diplomatic train itself took over 24 hours to reach the tempo- rary seat of the French Government. Most of the members of Parliament were prompt in their response to the appeal of the Government that they should go to Bordeaux. There was there- fore not a little indignation when the Government almost imme- diately declared closed the session of Parliament which_ had been technically adjourned since Aug. 4. Discontent showed itself in a half-hearted attempt to prepare the Alhambra and Apollo