Foreign News: Golden Book

At the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) of Paris last week appeared natty, bemonocled Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, to receive on behalf of the British Commonwealth of Nations the famed “Golden Book of France.”

The Golden Book, inspired by one the British gave to France in 1920, is, in the words of Premier Raymond Poincare, a mark of the “admiration, gratitude, affection” of the French people for those of the Commonwealth.

The book has been under preparation for seven years. It is lavishly illustrated with pictures of towns and old chateaux and provides what was called “a synthesis of France past and present.” The preface is in two parts, one written by M. Poincare, the other by Foreign Minister Aristide Briand. In it Marshals Foch, Joffre, Petain, Lyautey, Franchet d’Esperey, pay tribute to the military virtues of the Commonwealth armies. And there are messages from President Gaston Doumergue, onetime Premier Georges Clemenceau and many another French notable, as well as some poems by the Countess Mathieu de Noailles. The book ends with a drawing by Jean Louis Forain depicting a poilu watching the eastern frontier of France, which is held to emphasize the military and political value of British friendship to the French.

The ceremony of donating the memorial volume was attended with usual pomp. In the Salon of Letters, Arts and Sciences in the Hotel de Ville a distinguished group of political, industrial, artistic luminaries stood stiffly at attention as a band blared “God Save the King” and the “Marseillaise,” after which the Golden Book was presented to Sir Austen by Louis Delsol. President of the Paris Municipal Council, with these words:

“To you, Sir Austen, we convey this volume in full recognition of and gratitude for your constant understanding of our people and the friendship you have striven to develop.”

The British Foreign Secretary, replying, thanked the committee of well-known Frenchmen who patiently, painstakingly prepared the historic volume, and added:

“Marshal Joffre said of Kitchener that he understood the French because of his love for them. I too love France, love all her splendors, her attractions, her gayeties. And I love her even more in her hours of anguish and sorrow, when I must render her homage for her fortitude and for her resolution. But also I love her possibly as much for her faults as for her virtues.”

Aristide Briand, not to be outdone in the Anglo-French amenities, declared:

“It is more than a speech you have made. It is an act of faith to which I subscribe fully. Certainly we are following together a policy of peacefulness based on our friendship as guarantee. . . .

“Filled with conviction that there is a necessity for France and England to be united, I repeat for my own part the prayer of the British cities, ‘May the concord founded between our two great nations by common sacrifice and cemented by the blood of our best and bravest children be perpetuated as long as the world shall endure.’