Journal de Genève
- The Livorno Meeting
- The Dent du Midi Landslides
- All Roads Lead to Geneva
This front page of 2 October 1926 carried three substantial pieces. An editorial signed W. M. welcomed the Livorno meeting between Sir Austen Chamberlain and Mussolini, arguing that Britain could broker a Franco-Italian détente without which Locarno and Thoiry would ring hollow, warning Mussolini against believing France was in decline, and urging Paris to make room for Italian expansion. A report signed J. M. set the Saint-Barthélemy debris flows in the Bois Noir, which had pushed the Rhône back against the Vaud mountains, in a line of Rhône-blocking landslides that Frédéric Montandon traced back to 563. A third article described how a small East Coast intellectual elite was using a flood of print, lecturers and the press to win 105 million Americans over to the League of Nations.
Translation
The Livorno Meeting
…geographical, is destined for friendship with England. A country with such an extent of coastline and a navy of middling importance cannot risk a conflict without first making sure of England's goodwill. England wants peace. That is known beyond any possibility of doubt. Sir Austen Chamberlain's entire policy so far has consisted of smoothing out Franco-German difficulties. For similar reasons he will certainly, if the opportunity is offered him, pursue a policy of good offices between France and Italy. The results of Locarno and Thoiry would be worthless, and perhaps dangerous, if they were not followed by a sincere détente between France and Italy. The policy of peace will be complete and beneficial only when it is general. And Sir Austen Chamberlain is all the better placed to act as intermediary because Italy really cannot suspect him of being the author of the steel cartel. Here the interests of England and Italy are the same. If Sir Austen Chamberlain can dispel the mutual distrust in Rome and in Paris, he will have rendered peace an inestimable service. He can, first of all, destroy the dangerous illusions that M. Mussolini's entourage appears to have planted in his mind about the decline of France and her irremediable weakness. If M. Mussolini were tempted to judge today's France as though it were yesterday's Italy, no error could be more fatal. In return, it would be useful to make Paris understand the need for certain concessions to Italian expansion. France, thinly populated and rich in colonies, has everything to fear from a people that would feel itself systematically shut in behind frontiers that are too narrow. Bismarck's policy, which sought to steer the overflow of the French people's energies toward the colonies, may still be, in present circumstances, a model worth following. We do not expect the Livorno meeting to solve all these problems. But the mere fact that they were discussed is enough for it to seem to us very important. W. M. The Dent du Midi Landslides
The Dent du Midi Landslides
…its extent from Martigny as far as Saint-Maurice… This village… lost its renown… because these abysses pushed the Rhône back against the mountains of the Bernese country…» It is exactly the spot where the St-Barthélemy, in the Bois Noir, has just forced the Rhône back against the mountains that now belong to the canton of Vaud. After putting various different hypotheses through the sieve of criticism and setting them aside (landslides at Bret, on the lakeshore, or at Mure, between the Porte de Scex and Monthey, or again at Les Evouettes, between the Porte de Scex and Le Bouveret), M. Frédéric Montandon came to the conviction that the St-Maurice tradition is correct: in 563, it was at the Bois Noir that the Rhône was cut off by a tremendous landslide. Now, partial landslides occurred again in the same area in 1635, in 1636 and in 1835. In 1635 the point of rupture was at the Dent de Novierraz, and it was reportedly a section of the ridge line between the Cime de l'Est and the Forteresse that collapsed. According to the account of Bérodi, prior of St-Maurice, half of this peak «rolled onto the glacier» (of Plan-Névé) before plunging into the Jorat couloir. «In 1835,» writes M. Montandon, «a fragment of the eastern ridge of the Cime de l'Est, at an altitude of about 2,800 m., collapsed into the Jorat combe, and the debris, after running down this long, narrow couloir, came to devastate the surface of the Bois Noir and to stop the Rhône in its course for half an hour.» And the author notes the analogy between the phenomena of 563, 1635, 1636 and 1835. To these we can now add those of 1926. How does the flow occur? It divides into four phases, described by Professor Heim in connection with the similar catastrophe of the Vitznauerstock in 1879:
All Roads Lead to Geneva
All Roads Lead to Geneva. The interest of the United States in the League of Nations keeps growing year after year. No doubt the day when the Stars and Stripes will officially fly among the colors of the nations that humanity sends as its delegates to Geneva, that day is still distant. Distant, but not ruled out! What are the reasons for this optimism? What are the causes stimulating the movement of opinion on the New Continent? Let us first take exact stock of the elements involved: there is, in the first place, an intellectual elite, a tiny minority, and then there is… the rest of the population of the United States. It is these few thousand intellectuals, scattered through the cities of the Atlantic seaboard (where the centre of activity in favour of the League has generally been located), who have harnessed themselves to the gigantic task of converting, or at least of interesting in their ideas, the enormous mass, resistant or passive, of a population of 105 million inhabitants. A laudable intention! A crushing labour! And one whose mechanism is worth knowing. A single rule: the general state of finances allows the most intense publicity imaginable and the most varied undertakings. But the main force nonetheless moves within the framework of popularization through print. Notices, pamphlets, placards, posters, manifestos, circulars, brochures, handbooks, bulletins, reviews, illustrations, maps, graphs, questionnaires (one question for each day, with the answer), reading lists, work programmes, etc. A mountain of paper! A copious literature, an inexhaustible flood! These printed materials, distributed in hundreds of thousands of copies, end up catching the attention of even the most indifferent. If one adds to this printed dissemination the spoken dissemination kept up from one end of the year to the other, from Mexico to Canada and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, by legions of speakers in schools, colleges, universities and churches, speakers who moreover enjoy the backing of regional groups and private societies, organizing bazaars, holding open-air meetings, and taking advantage of congresses and political events to enlighten opinion on the significance of the doctrines of Geneva, one will have a general idea of the unceasing efforts the New Continent keeps up to draw closer to the Old World and attach itself to it through the all-powerful force of the international ideal. The press, finally! The press, an ardent auxiliary or a determined enemy, on whose influence one is forced to count. From these features common to most organizations concerned with international politics, let us turn to their particular characteristics. Among the institutions for which the study of the
Context
Chamberlain, Locarno and Italy's place in the new order
W. M. builds his argument on the claim that Chamberlain's policy had so far consisted of smoothing Franco-German difficulties, and that the gains of Locarno and Thoiry would be worthless without a matching Franco-Italian détente. The Locarno record confirms the Franco-German focus, though with a harder edge than the editorial's picture of a disinterested peacemaker: Britain's foreign secretary hoped that better relations between Paris and Berlin would lead France to give up its cordon sanitaire of eastern alliances. Italy was no outsider to that settlement. It was one of the guarantors of the main treaty, represented at Locarno by Senator Vittorio Scialoja, with Mussolini himself attending periodically. The editorial also appeared only three weeks after Locarno's most visible result, Germany's admission to the League of Nations with a permanent Council seat on 10 September 1926. That explains why a Geneva paper saw Italy as the missing piece of a general peace. The further points, that Italy might blame the steel cartel on others but not on Britain and that Mussolini's entourage believed France to be decadent, are the editorialist's own reading of the moment.
What happened in the Rhône valley in 563
The date 563 that anchors Montandon's argument refers to the disaster known as the Tauredunum event. Gregory of Tours described a hillside above the Rhône splitting from the mountain and falling into the river, so that its banks were blocked and the water flowed backwards, before the dammed water broke through with devastating force. Marius of Avenches recorded the same catastrophe in his chronicle, and the accounts describe a great wave that swept the length of Lake Geneva and struck the city of Geneva hard enough to wash over its walls. For readers of a Geneva newspaper in 1926, then, a Rhône pushed aside by debris at the Bois Noir was not only a Valais emergency: it recalled a catastrophe that had reached their own city, which helps explain why J. M. devotes so much space to where exactly the ancient collapse took place.
Was Montandon right to place the 563 landslide at the Bois Noir?
The article reports that Montandon, after weighing Bret, Mure and Les Evouettes, endorsed the Saint-Maurice tradition that the 563 collapse occurred at the Bois Noir, and J. M. uses that conclusion to add 1926 to a series running through 1635, 1636 and 1835. The site of Tauredunum has in fact long been debated, and the Bois Noir near Saint-Maurice is indeed one of the locations proposed. But the landslide is now thought to have come from Le Grammont near Les Evouettes, close to where the Rhône enters the lake, which is precisely one of the hypotheses Montandon rejected. A study published in October 2012 went further, proposing that the landslide set off a collapse of sediments at the Rhône's mouth, which would explain a lake-wide wave. The 1926 article's historical parallel therefore rests on an identification that later scholarship has not favoured, even if its basic point that the Bois Noir repeatedly dammed the Rhône is drawn from Montandon's catalogue of later events.
Why the United States stood outside the League
The article's optimism that the Stars and Stripes would one day fly at Geneva, "distant but not ruled out," makes sense against the defeat of 1920. Senate Republicans led by Henry Cabot Lodge demanded a reservation that only Congress could take the country to war, Wilson refused to compromise, and on 19 March 1920 the 49–35 ratification vote fell short of the two-thirds majority required. The kind of pro-League campaign the article describes, run by an East Coast elite through pamphlets, lecturers and societies, had a wartime precedent in the League to Enforce Peace, founded in 1915 under former president William Howard Taft. The figure of 105 million inhabitants and the portrait of a vast indifferent public are the paper's own. In the event, the United States never joined, although unofficial American involvement with the League grew, especially in the 1930s, and American philanthropy became closely engaged with its technical work.
Original
L'entrevue de Livourne
géographique, est vouée à l'amitié anglaise. Un pays qui a un pareil développement de côtes et une marine d'importance moyenne, ne peut pas risquer un conflit sans s'être assuré la bienveillance de l'Angleterre. L'Angleterre veut la paix. On le sait audessus de toute possibilité de doute. Toute la politique de sir Austen Chamberlain a consisté jusqu'ici à aplanir les difficultés francoallemandes. Pour des raisons analogues, il fera certainement, si l'occasion lui en est offerte, une politique de bons offices entre la France et l'Italie. Les résultats de Locarno et de Thoiry seraient sans valeur et peut-être dangereux, s'ils n'étaient pas suivis d'une sincère détente entre la France et l'Italie. La politique de la paix ne sera complète et bienfaisante que lorsqu'elle sera générale. Et sir Austen Chamberlain est d'autant mieux placé pour jouer le rôle d'intermédiaire que l'Italie ne peut vraiment pas le soupçonner d'être l'auteur du cartel de l'acier. Les intérêts de l'Angleterre et de l'Italie sont ici les mêmes. Si sir Austen Chamberlain peut dissiper, à Rome et à Paris, la méfiance réciproque, il aura rendu à la paix un service inestimable. Il peut, tout d'abord, détruire les illusions redoutables que l'entourage de M. Mussolini paraît avoir mises dans son esprit sur la décadence de la France et sa faiblesse irrémediable. Si M. Mussolini était tenté de juger la France d'aujourd'hui comme l'Italie d'hier, aucune erreur ne saurait être plus funeste. En retour, il serait utile de faire comprendre à Paris la nécessité de certaines concessions à l'expansion italienne. La France, peu peuplée et riche en colonies, a tout à craindre d'un peuple qui se sentirait systématiquement enfermé dans des frontières trop étroites. La politique de Bismarck, cherchant à diriger sur les colonies le trop plein des énergies du peuple français, peut être encore, dans les circonstances actuelles, un modèle digne d'être suivi. Nous n'attendons pas de l'entrevue de Livourne la solution de tous ces problèmes. Mais il suffit qu'on s'en soit entretenu pour qu'elle nous apparaisse comme très importante. W. M. Les éboulements de la Dent du Midi
Les éboulements de la Dent du Midi
son estendue depuis Martigny jusques à sainct Maurice... Ce village... perdit son renom... parceque ces abysmes ont fait reculer le Rhosne, contre les montagnes du Païs de Berne...» C'est exactement le lieu où le St-Barthélemy, dans le Bois Noir, vient de refouler le Rhône contre les montagnes qui appartiennent maintenant au pays de Vaud. Après avoir passé au crible de la critique et écarté diverses hypothèses différentes (éboulements à Bret, sur les bords du lac, ou à Mure, entre la porte de Scex et Monthey. ou encore aux Evouettes, entre la porte de Scex et le Bouveret), M. Frédéric Montandon est arrivé à la conviction que la tradition de StMaurice est exacte: en 563, c'est au Bois Noir que le Rhône fut coupé par un formidable éboulement. Or, des éboulements partiels se sont encore produits dans la même région en 1635, en 1636, en 1835. En 1635, le point de rupture eut lieu à la Dent de Novierraz, et c'est une portion de la ligne de faîte entre la Cime de l'Est et la Forteresse qui se serait écroulée. D'après le récit de Bérodi, prieur de StMaurice, la moitié de cette dent «roula sur le glacier» (de Plan-Névé) avant de s'engoufrer dans le couloir du Jorat. «En 1835, écrit M. Montandon. un fragment de l'arête orientale de la Cime de l'Est, situé à environ 2800 m. d'altitude, s'écroula dans la combe du Jorat, et les débris, après avoir parcouru ce couloir long et resserré, vinrent ravager la surface du Bois Noir et arrêter durant une demi-heure le Rhône dans son cours». Et l'auteur de constater l'analogie des phénomènes de 563, 1635, 1636 et 1835. On peut y ajouter aujourd'hui ceux de 1926. Comment se produit l'écoulement? Il se divise en quatre phases, décrites par le professeur Heim à propos de la catastrophe, analogue, de Vitznauerstock en 1879:
Tous les chemins mènent à Genève
Tous les chemins mènent à Genève L'intérêt des Etats-Unis pour la S. d. N. ne cesse chaque année de s'accroître. Sans doute, le jour où le drapeau étoilé flottera officiellement parmi les couleurs des nations que l'humanité délègue à Genève, ce jour est encore éloigné. Eloigné mais non pas exclu! Les raisons de cet optimisme, quelles sontelles? quelles sont-elles les causes qui stimulent le mouvement d'opinion dans le Nouveau Continent? Qu'on se rende d'abord exactement compte des éléments en présence: il y a, en premier lieu, une élite intellectuelle, infime minorité, et il y a ensuite... le reste de la population des Etats-Unis. Ce sont ces quelques milliers d'intellectuels, répartis dans les villes du littoral de l'Atlantique (où s'est de manière générale localisé le foyer d'action en faveur de la S. d. N.) qui se sont attelés à la tâche gigantesque de convertir, du moins d'intéresser à leurs idées, la masse énorme, réfractaire ou passive, d'une population de 105 millions d'habitants. Intention louable! labeur écrasant! dont il n'est pas vain de connaître le mécanisme. Règle unique: l'état général des finances autorise la réclame la plus intense qui soit, les entreprises les plus diverses. Mais la masse de manœuvre cependant se meut dans le cadre de la vulgarisation par l'imprimé. Notices, pamphlets, pancartes, affiches, manifestes, circulaires, brochures, manuels, bulletins, revues, illustrations, cartes de géographie, graphiques, questionnaires (une question pour chaque jour avec la réponse), listes d'ouvrages, programmes de travail, etc.. Montagne de papier! littérature copieuse, d'un flux intarissable! Ces imprimés, répandus par centaines de milliers d'exemplaires, finissent par frapper l'attention du plus indifférent. Si l'on ajoute à cette diffusion imprimée la diffusion verbale que ne cessent d'entretenir d'un bout de l'année à l'autre, du Mexique au Canada et de l'Atlantique au Pacifique, des légions d'orateurs dans les écoles, les collèges, les universités et les églises, orateurs disposant en outre de l'appui de groupements régionaux, de sociétés privées, organisant des bazars, tenant des meetings en plein air, profitant de congrès et de manifestations politiques pour éclairer l'opinion sur la portée des doctrines de Genève, on aura une notion générale des efforts ininterrompus qu'entretient le Nouveau Continent pour se rapprocher de l'Ancien Monde et s'y rattacher par la toute-puissance de l'idéal international. La presse enfin! la presse, auxiliaire ardent ou ennemi résolu et sur l'influence de qui on est forcé de tabler. De ces traits communs à la plupart des organisations de politique internationale, passons à leurs caractères particuliers. Parmi les institutions pour qui l'étude des