i began to write this book in june. we were then holding our breath as we looked on, after the disasters of cambrai and st. quentin, upon the british troops still fighting desperately against superior numbers and defending the channel ports “with their backs to the wall” and barely left with room to man?uvre. the enemy was at the same time seriously threatening amiens and epernay, and the possible withdrawal of the french government from paris was being again discussed. it was a trying four months on both sides of the channel. but england and france never despaired of the future. both nations were determined to fight on to the last.
in july came the second great victory of the marne, followed by the wonderful triumphant advance of the allied armies all along the line, side by side with our brethren of the united states, who were pouring into france at the rate of 300,000 men a month. and now i finish when the all-important matter of discussion is what shall be the terms of permanent peace imposed upon germany, what shall be the punishment inflicted upon her and, so far as is possible, the compensation exacted from her for her unforgivable crimes against our common humanity. the transformation scene of the huge world war within four months has been one of the most astounding episodes in the history of mankind, and the tremendous struggle on the west front has proved, as it was bound to prove from the first, the crisis of the whole conflict.
throughout the terrible period from november, 1917, when for the second time in his long political career he took office as premier of the french republic, georges clemenceau has borne the full burden of political responsibility in his war-worn and devastated country. it has been no light task for any[8] man, especially for one within easy hail of eighty years of age. when he became president of council and minister of war the prospect of anything approaching to complete success seemed remote indeed. it was a thankless post he assumed, and neither friends nor enemies believed at first that physically, mentally or politically could he bear the strain and overcome the intrigues which were at once set on foot against him. but those who had the advantage of knowing clemenceau well took a much more hopeful view of his chances of remaining prime minister until the close of the war. his mind as well as his body has been in strict training all his life. the one is as alert and as vigorous as the other. in the course of his stirring career his lightness of heart and gaiety of spirit, his power of taking the most discouraging events as part of the day’s work, have carried him triumphantly through many a difficulty. personally, i felt confident that nothing short of unforeseen disease, or a bomb from the foreign or domestic enemy, would bring him down before he had done his work. for below his exterior vigour and his brilliancy of conversation he possesses the most relentless determination that ever inspired a human being. moreover, a frenchman may be witty and light-hearted and very wise at the same time. the world of the middle ages found that out.
i read, therefore, with some amusement in mrs. humphry ward’s recent book of victorian recollections that, having met clemenceau at dinner, in the ’eighties, she came to the conclusion that he was “too light a weight to ride such a horse as the french democracy.” a very natural mistake, no doubt, for one of us staid and solemn victorians to make, according to the young cynics and jesters of to-day who gird at us! it is precisely this inexhaustible fund of animal spirits and his never-failing cheerfulness and brilliancy which have given clemenceau the power over france which he possesses to-day. frenchmen have felt the more assured confidence in themselves and their future when they saw, day after day, their own representative and ruler full of go and of belief[9] in himself at the time when the issue for them all was hanging in the balance. no real leader of men can ever afford to be a pessimist. he must assume a certitude if he have it not. there was no need for clemenceau to assume anything. it was all there.
i have known this great frenchman at many critical stages in his exciting life. what i most admire about him, is that he is always the same man, no matter what his personal position at the moment may be. never excessively elated: never by any chance cast down. good or bad fortune, success or failure, made no difference to him. the motto of the tenth legion might well be taken as his own. “utrinque paratus” has been the watchword of this indefatigable and undaunted political warrior throughout. it is well to recall, also, that he has invariably told his country the full truth about the situation as it appeared to him at the time, alike in opposition and in office, as deputy, as senator, and as journalist at large.
beginning his political career as the intimate friend and almost pupil of the out-and-out radical republican, etienne arago, a sympathiser with the nobler men of the commune, whom he endeavoured to save from the ruthless vengeance of the reactionaries headed by thiers, he had previously voted at bordeaux in the minority of genuine republicans who were in favour of continuing the war against germany when all but enthusiastic patriots held that further resistance was hopeless. many a time of late those events of l’année terrible must have come back to his mind during these still more terrible four years. his attitude now is but the continuation and fulfilment of the policy he advocated then. thereupon, five years devoted to service on the municipal council of paris and to gratuitous ministrations as a doctor to the poor of one of the poorest districts of the french metropolis: a continuous endeavour to realise, in some degree, by political action, the practical ends for which the communards had so unfortunately and injudiciously striven. then political work again on the floor of the assembly at one of the most stirring periods of french history: sup[10]porting gambetta vigorously in his fight as the head of the republican party against the dangerous reactionism of the duc de broglie and marshal macmahon, and opposing and denouncing the fiery orator whom he succeeded as the leader of the left, when that statesman adopted trimming and opportunism as his political creed.
the long fight against colonisation by conquest, the exposure of shameless traffic in decorations, the support and overthrow of boulanger, the panama scandal, the denunciation of the alliance with despotic russia, the advocacy of a close understanding with england. in each and all of these matters clemenceau was well to the front. then came the crash of exclusion from political life, due to the many enemies he had made by his inconvenient honesty and bitter tongue and pen. once more, after the display of almost unequalled skill and courage as a journalist, exceptionally manifested in the championship of dreyfus, a return to political life and unexpected acceptance of office.
from first to last clemenceau has been a stalwart republican and a thoroughgoing democratic politician of the advanced left, with strong tendencies to socialism. these tendencies i begged him more than once to turn into actual realities and to join, or at least to act in complete harmony with, the socialists. this seemed possible towards the close of the dreyfus affair. but i must admit here that, much as i regret that socialism has never enjoyed the full advantage of his services, clemenceau, as an avowed member of the socialist party, could not have played the glorious part for france as a whole which he has played since the beginning of the war. it was far more important, at such a desperate crisis, to carry with him the overwhelming majority of his countrymen, including even the reactionaries, than to act with a minority that has shown itself at variance with the real sentiments of the republic, when france was fighting for her existence.
that clemenceau has, at one time or another, made great mistakes is beyond dispute. it could not be otherwise with a[11] man of his character and temperament. but this, as he himself truly writes me, is “all of the past.” at no moment, in any case, has he ever failed to do his best for the greatness, the glory, the dignity of france as they presented themselves to his mind. this is incontestable. in the following pages i have endeavoured not to write a biography of the statesman who has been constantly in public life for more than fifty years, but to give a study of the growth of a commanding personality, who is an honour to his country, and of the surroundings in which his great faculties were developed.
le président du conseil,
ministere de la guerre.
paris, july 1st, 1918.
dear mr. hyndman,
i can really only thank you for your too flattering letter, inspired by our old friendship. i have nothing to say about myself, except that i am doing my best, with the feeling that it will never be enough. france is making incredible sacrifices every day. no effort will be considered too high a price to ensure the triumph of a nobler humanity. success is certain when all free peoples are in array against the last convulsions of savagery.
in so vast a drama, my dear friend, my personality does not count. whether i was right or wrong at this time or that interests me no longer, since it all belongs to the past. i have kept nothing of what i have said or written. it is impossible for me to furnish you with details or to mention anyone who would be able to do so. i can but express to you my gratitude for your friendly intention. i desire only to witness the day of the great victory, then i shall be rewarded far beyond my merits, especially if you add thereto the continuance of your fraternal feelings towards myself.
very affectionately yours,
g. clemenceau.
