and Bernhardi 'downfall.' The process may be slow, but the united forces of democracy shall crush this medieval hydra, this monstrous anachronism, which under the guise of a paternalistic autocracy would impose its feudalistic rule upon the world. [Prolonged applause and cheers.] The popular prerogatives wrested from despotism have always been won in blood; they have always been cast in iron. The blood of France has long ago flown freely in purple streams toward the goal of human liberties, and these noble conquests not only hers but the patrimony of mankind — her flaming sword jealously defends to-day.

"And we of this new world, we come to her to-day because she embodies all the aspirations that impelled the founders of our country, because all our cherished possessions, the legacy of Washington and Lafayette are threatened, when the mailed fist of autocracy clutches at her throat.

“United in this supreme struggle for life, when we, the witneses of this sanguinary holocaust depart, we shall point to the dawn of the new era, to the ultimate triumph of democracy; then shall we relate to our sons the part played by each actor in the somber drama. And I seem to hear the voices of the passing generation trembling with emotion, choking at the name of France, calling to the oncoming youth, 'O thou, who art to reap the fruits of this immolation, behold the sacrificial mound where thy redemption was reenacted; behold the spirit of Freedom reincarnate; behold the prostrate but smiling beauty beckoning to you, lifting her arms toward the new horizon; behold France, the immortal heroine of them all!' [Ringing applause, cheers and ovations.]

PRESIDENT STORROW. I have been asked by Mr. Martell, the chairman of our committee on entertainment, to remind you that Boston's tribute to Marshal Joffre needs your prompt attention, if you want to be on the list. That is to be given to Marshal Joffre when he arrives here this week, and it is for the adoption by the city of Boston of four thousand French war orphans. Mr. Allan Forbes is the treasurer, at 31 State Street, Boston.

The toastmaster must be brief, and I am simply going to present to you one more guest before we ask one of these brave and distinguished officers to speak to you. I take great pleasure in presenting the Hon. George W. Kyte, a member of Parliament in our sister country just across the line to the north of us.

HON. GEORGE W. Kyte, M.P., OF CANADA

"My first word must be to tell you, on behalf of the Dominion of Canada, of whom I am for the moment the unworthy representative, for the cordial reception that you have tendered to me. I need scarcely say that at the present moment all Canadian eyes are turned upon the United States. From the very first moment after the outbreak of the war, Canada took a leading part in organizing, so far as her men and resources permitted her to do, in order that she might gain some share in the great glory that will come to all the nations which are fighting the battle of liberty and freedom throughout the world. [Applause.]

"Out of a total population of something over seven millions, we have up to the present time enlisted, trained, and equipped over four hundred thousand. [Applause.] And there are at the present time over three hundred thousand Canadian troops overseas, taking part side by side with the battle-scarred veterans of France and England. [Applause.]

Out of our limited resources we have voted no less a sum than $950,000,000 for the purpose of training, equipping, and transporting these troops. And, Mr. President, is it necessary for me to say to you that we Canadians were under no more obligation to take part in this war than were the people of the United States, except that we were bound by the same obligations to stand for right and justice wherever these rights are violated?

"There is a prevalent preconceived notion existing throughout the country, and I think exists to some extent in the United States, that we Canadians are under some obligation, legal or otherwise, to participate in this war. I wish to say to you that, so far as we are concerned, the Canadians are as free in their government, as free in their national and personal aspirations to do or not to do as is the great country of which we are one of her greatest and most promising dominions. I refer to Great Britain. But when it became known that this war had been declared in behalf of tyranny and for the purpose of suppressing freedom and liberty here, as it is know to us in Canada and the United States, we, under no obligations to take part, did so; we did it freely, and we have done it, I am bound to say, who ought not to say it, we have done it with great glory and advantage to the Canadian people themselves. [Applause.]

"If the same proportion of troops were enlisted in the United States as we have enlisted in Canada, no less than seven millions would stand under the star-spangled banner and fight side by side with the allied nations in this war. [Applause.]

"I am quite sure, however, that such a contribution to the military operations at the present time is not necessary, but you can assist us largely in many other directions, and in many other respects. We in Canada were not a military people. We have no standing army. The four hundred thousand men recruited are young men taken from the farms and workshops, from the lumber woods, and from the stores and banks, men who never thought for a single moment up to the declaration of war that they would be called upon to take part in the world's greatest and bloodiest conflict."

PRESIDENT STORROW. When it is getting now to be almost three years ago that horde of men who for a quarter of a century have been plotting against their neighbor, France, swept down without a moment's warning upon our allies, the first great critical battle where human liberty was at stake in this war was the battle of the Marne. France was indeed fortunate to have at her service at that critical moment her great General Joffre. [Applause.] We have here a distinguished officer as our guest, typifying the French army and our allies, who at that critical time was serving as an officer on General Joffre's staff. Later, when the struggle became intense, in another part of the battlefield, as

France was fighting in deadly grip with her enemies, down in the trenches of Belgium, our distinguished guest was in those trenches as an officer attempting to help them at that time. While serving his country in those trenches he was seriously wounded.

In the next year there was fighting elsewhere to be done. Our distinguished guest had recovered from his first wound, and was there. In the course of that campaign he was again wounded, not once but three times, by a rifle bullet, by a piece of shrapnel in the breast, and by a fragment of a shell in the arm.

As soon as he was able to get on his feet again, he again took part, as many other brave soldiers have done, and went to serve his country on the Somme, where you know the fighting has been taking place.

Recently, I think only last week, there were some pictures here representing that fighting. In 1917 there seemed to be a need on the Aisne, and he was there on the staff of the commanding general. It was then that he received orders to come here to give us his help.

Gentlemen, in honoring this man you are not merely honoring one noble, brave soldier; you are honoring all your guests, and you are honoring our brave ally whom we are going to stand by, France. I take pleasure in presenting to you Major P. J. L. Azan. [Tumultuous applause, cheers, waving of flags, and cries of "Vive la France!"] When Major Azan was able to be heard, he addressed the members in French, and was immediately followed by Lieut. Jean Giraudoux, who was a student at Harvard College at the outbreak of the war, and who presented in English the remarks and address of Major Azan.]

MAJOR P. J. L. AZAN

"Mr. President and Gentlemen, On the vessel on which we sailed from Europe to Boston, we met a Frenchman who had been in America for many years, and when he was told that we were going into Boston, he said, 'Oh, Boston! It is a wonderful town. It is a very beautiful town. It is the head of the United States in democratic activity, but the people of Boston are very cold.' In view of the expressions to-night, I dare say that our Frenchman did not tell the truth. [Applause.]

"We are deeply touched by your welcome. We feel that we are here as a guest, as a friend of all the members of the Club and of the citizens of the city. We feel with the greatest thankfulness to you that your welcome is not only to us as representatives of the army, but to us as representatives of the French nation. [Applause.]

We are deeply touched that you are to stand side by side with us in this war. The French are the most peaceful and democratic nation. And we are proud that you give to France your tribute in this war. We hope that you look upon us not as creatures of war, but we will try to teach you from our own experiences and our own fortunes those things which may aid you and aid us all to put an end to this, the last and most terrible of all wars. [Tremendous applause.]

"This is not a war of peoples, but of governments. Our enemy, a humane people, must soon awake in horror from their dreams. They have been misled even by their professors. And we rejoice at your help because it is not enough for France to defeat the imperial govern

ment. We cannot deal with it at all. We must never treat with the militarism which is still violating the sacredly guaranteed Belgium, in a fashion that one would have believed impossible in this century among civilized men. At moments, even, I doubt that the outrages which I myself have seen can be true.

"Gentlemen, I have noticed the meeting of both flags here. It is most significant in this city. We know that the soldiers of your flag will fight, and fight splendidly, because of the heroic helpers you have already sent. To-day I have witnessed the blessing of the flag of the Harvard unit, at the Cathedral of St. Paul, as they were about leaving from Boston to France. But it is not merely the Allies that you have gone to help. You are fighting for an ideal, and I look forward to coming here after the war and celebrating with you the victory merely not of the Allies, but the victory of democracy, the victory of all the world." [A toast of friendship was proposed by Lieutenant Giraudoux and was drunk by the members and guests.]

PRESIDENT STORROW. Gentlemen, I am going to ask our other guests simply to present themselves to you for your greetings, and I am going to call first on another officer of infantry, who, too, has been grievously wounded in the service of his country, Maj. J. de Reviers de Mauny. [Major de Mauny rose and bowed, and was greeted with an enthusiastic demonstration.]

PRESIDENT STORROW. I now ask Captain Dupont if he will not make a bow and let us greet him.

[Prolonged applause and cheers as Captain Dupont stepped forward.] PRESIDENT STORROW. We have here another young man who has been fighting in the trenches as an officer for his country, Lieutenant Morize, and I will ask him if he will stand.

In

[The greeting of the members to Lieutenant Morize was wildly enthusiastic, and burst forth with renewed vigor and loud acclaim. response to cries for a speech, Lieutenant Morize spoke in French as follows.]

LIEUTENANT A. MORIZE

"Mr. Chairman and Members of the City Club, - Everything has been said here to-night that the occasion calls for, but it seems that from the depth of my heart surges a new sense of gratitude towards you. It arises not only from our feelings of thanksgiving for the greetings and the manifestations of affection that have been accorded us here to-night; it is the thanks of France and the soldiers of France I bring you; the thanks of the soldiers of France who, wounded and dying in the trenches, have beheld bending over them the sweetness and the smiling countenances of the American nurses [applause]; the thanks of the women and children of France, who, driven from their homes and from their fields by the invader, have found helping American hands to clothe them and nourish them; the thanks of the soldiers of France who from the trenches of France have so often viewed the American birdmen above them [applause]; the thanks of those whose horizon had long been limited to the confines of the trenches, and for whom you have opened wide prospects and splendid vistas; finally, the thanks of the whole of France

whom you have aided in resuscitating and in whose heart you have rekindled the purest flame of idealism. [Applause.]

After two years of a bloody and terrible war, without having forgotten the cause for which she strives, France might have been in danger of seeing her boundary lines fixed by trenches. But at this crucial hour your nation is stirred to action, and has given us the magnificent spectacle of a country which has risen in its entirety without any other motive than to defend liberty menaced and ideals imperiled. [Loud applause.] You have given solace to our hearts, so that our strength and courage have been increased. [Applause,]

"American friends, from the bottom of my heart receive the gratitude of France." [Prolonged applause and cheers.]

PRESIDENT STORROW. Gentlemen, we will close the evening by singing "America."

VIVIANI'S MESSAGE AND ELOQUENCE

May 13

A red-letter day in the history of the Club, live it forever, will this Sunday be. Wearied by his tour to Montreal and by his prior visits to the City Library and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, M. René Viviani came into the Club under escort, late in the afternoon, to meet one of the most cordial receptions of his entire tour in the States. After a brief ceremony of formal welcome in the "Lounge," where Judge Hugo Dubuque was the spokesman not only for the Club but for the large French population of New England, the French statesman and orator, with his attendants, mounted the stairs to the auditorium. It was filled with a picked crowd of local celebrities standing on the floor and on the chairs along the sides of the room, and also filling the gallery. Mayor Curley called the meeting to order, saying, "Distinguished Guests, Members of the City Club, A very pleasant and exceedingly brief duty rests upon me as mayor of this city.

66

Boston boasts many institutions in which the city should take justifiable pride. There is no institution, with the possible exception of those that because of historical traditions occupy a place of greater moment or of greater value in the life of this city, to equal the Boston City Club. [Applause.]

"It is an institution that knows neither race nor creed. It is an institution that demands but one credential, character and right American citizenship. [Applause.] And as mayor of the city it affords extreme pleasure to introduce as the presiding officer of this meeting a member of the City Club, Mr. Charles Martell." [Applause.]

The Club's Formal Welcome

Mr. Martell said: "Honored Guests, Gentlemen of the City Club, We are surely grateful to his Honor the Mayor for the very splendid characterization of the City Club that he has given us.

"The City Club now, as always, typifies not only the great City of Boston, but every American community. It further typifies in an es