PARIS LETTER
61
Vautel (of Belgian origin). To him the great "flaw" in the Hitlerian sys·
tern,
the rock on which it is sure to founder, is this: "The German generals,
those proud and titled aristocrats, will not submit very long to the military
domination of a corporal." A brilliant idea! So reassuring! But it does
not quite satisfy our nationalist leaders. Merely to replace Hitler with
some Prussian general is not enough for them. They intend to carve up
Germany, install themselves on the Rhine, and annex Bavaria' and the
Rhineland to Austria. Such is the thesis developed in
Gringoire
by M.
Recouly (formerly Ratmir, a spy in the service of Nicholas II, and biog·
rapher of Foch) and M. Maurras in
r
Action Francoise.
If
the totalitarian war permits, we have a few weeks respite. Mean–
while French propaganda expands and expands-towards what end nobody
knows. The really essential thing is Unity-the Union of All Frenchmen.
A!
a certain humorist once remarked: "You needn't know what you want
but
you've got to want it badly." And that's why Jacques Chadbourne,
Roland Dorgeles (of
The Wooden Cross!),
Marcel Prevost, Jules Romains
(of
Men of Good Will!),
and Romain Rolland (of
Above the Battle!)
become propagandists for the war. As for Rolland, it's a shame Molotoff
was so clever. Otherwise Rolland might have executed his about-face on
time, like Maurice Thorez, and re-issued today his books of 1914. But we
may console ourselves for this loss by contemplating the works of art now
being inspired by the warlike spirit, for example that extraordinary
song, "They Shall Not Win," which M. Georges Thill, of the Opera, ren·
dered a few weeks ago at an Artists Dinner presided over by M. Albert
Sarraut.
Though the literary world is charged with patriotism, there are still
a few pacifist die-hards who view the present war, like the last one, as just
another settling of accounts between German and English imperialism.
But these "individuals," as the press scornfully calls them, are all in
prison. Among them is Jean Giono, whose attitude on the war is in com–
plete harmony with the spirit of his books.
If
he has been unable to
assimilate the new "definitions" and take his place among the slaves who
sing hymns to "liberty," at least he has given us the simple and courageous
ewnple of a free man faithful to his principles-at once anti-fascist, anti–
Stalinist and anti-war. For this triple crime French democracy, true to
Valery's definition, has seen fit to shut him up.
CYPRIEN MoRMICHE
GEORGES VIDAL
