Page:Scott Nearing - Stopping a War (1926).pdf/28

 among the soldiers and sailors, placards posted in the barracks—all have advised the workers in the French army and navy to fraternize with the Riff. As the cartoonist Deschamps phrased it: "They force you to fraternize in death. Why not fraternize in life?"

At the beginning of the struggle l'Humanité published a front page appeal to the relatives and friends of soldiers, advising them that the Government was hiding the truth concerning the Riff War and that it was necessary for those interested in the soldiers to publish the truth, since the government would not even tell how many soldiers have been sent "to fight the war of the bankers." "They pretend beside that the soldiers are happy to take part in this war for the profit of colonial freebooters, of parliamentary speculators and of the Bangue de Paris et des Pays-Bas, of which the sole object is to wipe out a free people in order to use their rich mines. But we know that the soldiers leave, shouting 'Down with war! Peace with the Riffians!'"

The appeal concludes with the request that all letters and other information from soldiers be sent to l'Humanité. Large quantities of this material have since been published.