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Matilda Betham-Edwards - East of Paris
Secretariat or body of Ministers, three in number. There is a pretence at home rule, but one fact suffices
to explain its character and working. Of the thirty members forming the local Reichstag, sitting at
Strasburg, fifteen are always named by the Stadtholder himself. This little Chamber of Deputies
deliberates upon provincial affairs, all Bills having to pass the Chamber at Berlin and receive the
Imperial sanction before becoming law. As to the party of protest in the Reichstag itself, formerly headed
by the late Jean Dollfuss, I was assured that it had ceased to exist. Years before, then burdened with the
weight of care and years, the great patriot of Mulhouse had said to me, "I no longer take my seat at
Berlin. Of what good?" And were he living still, that great and good man, burning as was his patriotism,
inextinguishable as was his love for France, would doubtless echo the words I now heard on every lip,
"Peace, peace; only let us have peace!"
Whilst at Strasburg German has crowded out French, at Mulhouse I found French still universally
spoken. The prohibition of native speech in schools is not only a domestic but a commercial grievance.
As extensive business relations exist between the two countries, especially near the frontier, a knowledge
of both French and German is really necessary to all classes. Even tourists in Alsace-Lorraine nowadays
fare badly without some smattering of the latter language. Hotel-keepers especially look to the winning
side, and do their very utmost to Germanise their establishments. Shopkeepers must live, and find it not
only advantageous but necessary to follow the same course. Sad indeed is the spectacle of Germanised
France! Nemesis here faces us in militarism, crushing the people with taxation and profoundly shocking
the best instincts of humanity.
In conclusion I must do justice to the extreme courtesy of German railway and other officials. Many
employes of railways and post offices - all, be it remembered, Government officials - do not speak any
French at all, especially in out-of-the-way places. At the same time, all officials, down to the rural
postman, will do their very best to help out French-speaking strangers with their own scant vocabulary of
French words.
My Alsatian hosts, one and all, I found quite ready to do justice to the authorities and their
representatives, but, as I have insisted upon before, an insuperable barrier, the fathomless gulf created by
injustice, exists between conquerors and conquered. And only last year dining with my hosts of
Germanised Lorraine in Paris, I asked them if in this respect matters had changed for the better. The
answer I received was categoric - "Nothing is changed since your visit to us. French and Germans remain
apart as before."
"East of Paris" has led me somewhat farther than I intended, but to a lover of France, no less than to a
French heart, France beyond the Vosges is France still!
THE END.
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