My Days of Adventure | Page 2

I am no
longer of that opinion. I fully believe that all French statesmen worthy
of the name realize that it would be suicidal for France to provoke a
war with her formidable neighbour. And at the same time I candidly
confess that I do not know what some journalists mean by what they
call the "New France." To my thinking there is no "New France" at all.
There was as much spirit, as much patriotism, in the days of
MacMahon, in the days of Boulanger, and at other periods, as there is
now. The only real novelty that I notice in the France of to-day is the
cultivation of many branches of sport and athletic exercise. Of that kind
of thing there was very little indeed when I was a stripling. But
granting that young Frenchmen of to-day are more athletic, more "fit"
than were those of my generation, granting, moreover, that the present
organization and the equipment of the French army are vastly superior
to what they were in 1870, and also that the conditions of warfare have
greatly changed, I feel that if France were to engage, unaided, in a
contest with Germany, she would again be worsted, and worsted by her
own fault.
She fully knows that she cannot bring into the field anything like as
many men as Germany; and it is in a vain hope of supplying the
deficiency that she has lately reverted from a two to a three years'
system of military service. The latter certainly gives her a larger
effective for the first contingencies of a campaign, but in all other
respects it is merely a piece of jugglery, for it does not add a single unit
to the total number of Frenchmen capable of bearing arms. The truth is,
that during forty years of prosperity France has been intent on racial
suicide. In the whole of that period only some 3,500,000 inhabitants

have been added to her population, which is now still under 40 millions;
whereas that of Germany has increased by leaps and bounds, and stands
at about 66 millions. At the present time the German birth-rate is
certainly falling, but the numerical superiority which Germany has
acquired over France since the war of 1870 is so great that I feel it
would be impossible for the latter to triumph in an encounter unless she
should be assisted by powerful allies. Bismarck said in 1870 that God
was on the side of the big battalions; and those big battalions Germany
can again supply. I hold, then, that no such Franco-German war as the
last one can again occur. Europe is now virtually divided into two
camps, each composed of three Powers, all of which would be more or
less involved in a Franco-German struggle. The allies and friends on
either side are well aware of it, and in their own interests are bound to
exert a restraining influence which makes for the maintenance of peace.
We have had evidence of this in the limitations imposed on the recent
Balkan War.
On the other hand, it is, of course, the unexpected which usually
happens; and whilst Europe generally remains armed to the teeth, and
so many jealousies are still rife, no one Power can in prudence desist
from her armaments. We who are the wealthiest nation in Europe spend
on our armaments, in proportion to our wealth and our population, less
than any other great Power. Yet some among us would have us curtail
our expenditure, and thereby incur the vulnerability which would tempt
a foe. Undoubtedly the armaments of the present day are great and
grievous burdens on the nations, terrible impediments to social progress,
but they constitute, unfortunately, our only real insurance against war,
justifying yet to-day, after so many long centuries, the truth of the
ancient Latin adage--Si vis pacem, para bellum.
It is, I think, unnecessary for me to comment here on the
autobiographical part of my book. It will, I feel, speak for itself. It
treats of days long past, and on a few points, perhaps, my memory may
be slightly defective. In preparing my narrative, however, I have
constantly referred to my old diaries, note-books and early newspaper
articles, and have done my best to abstain from all exaggeration.
Whether this story of some of my youthful experiences and impressions

of men and things was worth telling or not is a point which I must leave
my readers to decide.
E.A.V.
London, January 1914.

CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTORY--SOME EARLY RECOLLECTIONS
II. THE OUTBREAK OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR
III. ON THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION
IV. FROM REVOLUTION TO SIEGE
V. BESIEGED
VI. MORE ABOUT THE SIEGE DAYS
VII. FROM PARIS TO VERSAILLES
VIII. FROM VERSAILLES TO BRITTANY
IX. THE WAR IN THE PROVINCES
X. WITH THE "ARMY