Journal de Genève
- An Apostle
- At the Düsseldorf Exhibition
- THE SITUATION
This front page of the Journal de Genève opened with Raoul Patry's tribute to Tommy Fallot, the Protestant pastor whose call for the Churches to take up their social duty had once been branded subversive; prompted by Pastor Marc Boegner's biography, Patry held him up as a prophet whose cause had since been won in principle. René La Bruyère described the Düsseldorf exhibition, with its 5,000-seat Rhine terrace, realist painting drawn from everyday life with none of it inspired by the war, and startlingly frank hygiene pavilions of wax models and specimens in jars. The unsigned 'La Situation' column reported Chamberlain's call on Briand after his Livorno meeting with Mussolini, Stresemann's speech tracing a path from the Dawes Plan to Thoiry, stalled Franco-German talks and American coolness toward German railway bonds, and a planned step-by-step negotiation over the statute of Tangier.
Translation
An Apostle
When one is tempted to doubt progress — and our daily experiences often give rise to that temptation — nothing is more effective in countering such pessimism than spending an hour in the company of an apostle. Tommy Fallot was an apostle; if he is too little known, his influence has nonetheless been considerable: he gave an impulse which, far from dying out with him, has only grown since his death, which occurred in 1904. Thanks to Pastor Marc Boegner, we now possess a very complete account of this life, in which outward events play a secondary role, but which was dominated by a thought ceaselessly quivering and borne up by the highest aspirations¹. For having set the Churches face to face with their social duty, Fallot in his lifetime passed for a tribune, even for a revolutionary; his appeals were described as subversive. Today the cause of social responsibility has been won, at least in principle, and Fallot is rightly seen as a prophet; the progress is manifest. The time is not so far off when a certain right-thinking lady, invited to a meeting to hear about social reforms, refused in horror, "wanting nothing to do with socialists." Nowadays no one any longer believes in an imminent catastrophe because the Churches are becoming aware of their social duty. There too the progress is real, and no one contributed more to it than Fallot. It is the common lot of apostles to be ahead of their time, to be misunderstood by their contemporaries; average humanity needs a certain distance in order to grow accustomed to [?]
Raoul Patry.
At the Düsseldorf Exhibition
[?] …finally. The terrace on the bank of the Rhine can seat 5,000 diners!!! Besides, the crowd that throngs there justifies these precautions and these expanses. Second observation: one finds oneself in the presence of very original conceptions. The prewar style is blossoming again: with its geometric lines that astonish; its contrasts of color; its disconcerting experiments in decoration; but the effects of the new art have been accentuated. One really has the impression of entering a milieu that has broken with all the traditions of the past. But what strikes one more than anything is the realistic and instructive side of this exhibition. Realism in everything: in the painting exhibition, for example. The subjects are treated with vigor and a methodical naturalism. They are types taken from the street, the beer hall, the factory, from everyday life. One would look in vain for a picture of luxury and elegance. There is none. As for the war, it has inspired no artist. Democratic, materialist Germany is displayed along the walls in the canvases of its artists, whose very modern handling suits its models very well and excludes all refinement. Yet it is not in painting that one best discovers the meaning of the ideas of the people that emerged from the great ordeal, but in the pavilions of statistics and hygiene. There the spirit of realist propaganda has asserted itself with a concern for truth that disconcerts our bourgeois souls. In their desire to instruct the young, the exhibitors have shrunk from no lesson. All the social blights are laid out before the eyes of the crowd, of children and young girls. Diseases are exposed not only in very telling statistical tables, but in drawings, in wax reproductions, and even in jars in which anatomical sections of the most horrible diseases are steeped in alcohol. The Dupuytren Museum in Paris, which is open only to students, is perhaps less realistic than the Düsseldorf pavilion, where hygiene is given a preponderant place. One clearly senses that the dominant idea behind this exhibition is to confront man, and above all the child, with the darkness of his origins, the bitterness of his social condition and the weakness of his physical state. The Germans have put into practice the famous aphorism "know thyself," and to teach us to know ourselves they have found ingenious means. Step into the [?]
René La Bruyère.
THE SITUATION
After the Livorno meeting, which caused floods of ink to flow and aroused so much emotion in France, Sir Austen Chamberlain made a point of calling on M. Briand on his return journey. So on Saturday the two foreign ministers conferred at the Quai d'Orsay. It should be recalled that Sir Austen had had to leave Geneva before the Thoiry talks, and it was only fitting that the two statesmen, who had pursued the same aims at Geneva, should confer after the Briand–Stresemann and Chamberlain–Mussolini meetings. An official communiqué was issued to the press which, in laconic style, says that "the two statesmen examined the external situation and were able to note that their understanding in the service of peace remains closer, more cordial and more trusting than ever."
— The congress of the German People's Party opened on Saturday, and Herr Stresemann did not fail to deliver a speech on the foreign political situation on that occasion. He showed the advantages of the policy of understanding that had led from the Dawes Plan to Locarno, then from Geneva to Thoiry. He affirmed that the basis of European peace was understanding between Germany and France. Regarding the Franco-German talks, it is stated in Paris that they have made no progress, and the latest news from Washington shows that the United States has no wish whatever to facilitate the placing of German railway bonds.
— The absurd report of a Spanish-Italian naval demonstration off Tangier has been denied both in Rome and in Madrid. As for the statute of that city, Spain, it is said, is going to open talks with France for a preliminary examination of the problem in connection with the protectorate mission the two nations exercise in Morocco. French and Spanish experts will try to draw up a draft agreement acceptable to Spain and also to Italy. The discussion will then be resumed in the presence of British and Italian experts. As soon as agreement is reached among the four principal powers concerned, the draft will be submitted to the other signatories of the Algeciras treaty, that is, the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Portugal, which will be invited through the ordinary diplomatic channels to approve it. That will then be the moment for Spain to set out the claims arising from its needs regarding the modification of the regime or statute of Tangier, to the extent that would allow it to develop its mission in Morocco.
War debts
Context
Tommy Fallot, social Christianity and Boegner's biography
Patry's column treats Fallot as a misunderstood forerunner, and reference works bear out his central place: Fallot (1844–1904), an Alsatian-born pastor, is regarded as the initiator of social Christianity in France. His ministry in a working-class district of Paris, his campaigns on public morality and prostitution from 1882, and his founding of a society for fraternal aid and social study drew in figures such as Wilfred Monod and Élie Gounelle, and are said to have set a conservative, bourgeois fringe of Protestantism against him — a milieu much like the one Patry evokes with the lady who wanted "nothing to do with socialists." Patry's picture of a man ahead of his time also fits Fallot's later career: in 1890, his health worn down by years of intense activity and disappointed by how little his socialist-leaning ideas resonated in institutional Protestantism, he asked for a simple country parish and spent his last years in the Drôme. The book under review was personal as well as scholarly: Marc Boegner was Fallot's nephew and was deeply influenced by him. His biography appeared in two volumes, the first in 1914 and the second, covering 1872–1904, in 1926 — so it was that newly published second volume that prompted this column.
What the Düsseldorf exhibition of 1926 was
La Bruyère does not name the show, but the Düsseldorf exhibition of 1926 was the GeSoLei, the "Great Exhibition for Health Care, Social Welfare and Physical Exercise" — its name built from abbreviations of those three themes. It was the largest trade fair in Weimar Germany and drew some 7.5 million visitors, which accounts for his remarks about vast terraces and pressing crowds. Instruction of the public was part of the undertaking itself: as part of its "social hygiene" activities, the GeSoLei published a daily newspaper and a magazine from the summer of 1925 to the summer of 1926, and a three-minute animated film, Der Aufstieg, was made for the exhibition. With health care standing first in the exhibition's very name, the statistical charts, wax models and preserved specimens that disconcerted the correspondent belonged to its central theme rather than to a side show. His reading of them as the expression of a "democratic, materialist" Germany facing its physical and social weaknesses — and his admission that such frankness "disconcerts our bourgeois souls" — reveals a Francophone observer's assumptions as much as it describes German intentions.
Why Tangier's statute was back on the table in 1926
The column's account of planned Tangier talks makes sense against the regime created shortly before. The Paris Convention of 18 December 1923, signed by France, Spain and Britain, made Tangier a neutral, jointly administered zone while ignoring Italy's stated wish to take part; the zone began operating on 1 June 1925. Fascist Italy declined to ratify, insisting on equal status as a Mediterranean power. From 1926, Spain backed Italy's demand to join on equal terms — which helps explain why the paper expected Franco-Spanish experts to seek a draft "acceptable to Spain and also to Italy" before bringing in British and Italian experts. The smaller powers the paper names were real parties: Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands and Portugal ratified the 1923 convention, whereas the United States preferred to keep its freedom of action. The process the column sketched did eventually produce a result, though more slowly: a new conference opened in Paris in March 1928 and led to a protocol amending the 1923 convention.
Original
Un Apôtre
Un Apôtre Lorsqu'on est tenté de mettre en doute le progrès - et nos expériences quotidiennes font souvent surgir cette tentation - rien n'est plus efficace, pour réagir contre ce pessimisme, que de passer une heure en compagnie d'un apôtre. Tommy Fallot a été un apôtre; s'il est trop peu connu son influence n'en a pas moins été considérable il a donné une impulsion qui, loin de s'éteindre avec lui, n'a fait qu'augmenter depuis sa mort, survenue en 1904. Grâce au pasteur Marc Boegner, nous possédons un exposé très complet de cette existence, où les événements extérieurs jouent un rôle secondaire, mais dominée par une pensée sans cesse frémissante et portée par les plus hautes aspirations¹. Pour avoir placé les Eglises en face de leur devoir social, Fallot, de son vivant. passait pour un tribun, voire même pour un révolutionnaire, ses appels étaient qualifiés de subversifs. Aujourd'hui la cause des responsabilités sociales est gagnée, au moins en principe, et l'on voit en Fallot, à juste titre, un prophète; le progrès est manifeste. Le temps n'est pas très éloigné où telle dame bien pensante, conviée à une réunion pour entendre parler de réformes sociales, refusait avec horreur «ne voulant rien avoir à faire avec des socialistes». A l'heure actuelle plus personne ne croit à une catastrophe imminente parce que les Eglises prennent conscience du devoir social. Là aussi le progrès est réel, nul n'y a plus contribué que Fallot. C'est le sort commun des apôtres d'être en avance sur leur époque, d'être incompris de leurs contemporains, l'humanité moyenne a besoin d'un certain recul pour s'habituer à des [?]
A l’exposition de Düsseldorf
fin. La terrasse du bord du Rhin peut servir 5000 couverts!!! D'ailleurs la foule qui se presse justifie ces précautions et ces étendues. Seconde observation: on se trouve en présence de conceptions très originales. Le style d'avant-guerre refleurit: avec ses lignes géométriques qui étonnent; ses oppositions de couleurs; ses recherches de décorations déconcertantes; mais on a accentué les effets de l'art nouveau. On a bien l'impression de pénétrer dans un milieu qui a rompu avec toutes les traditions du passé. Mais ce qui frappe plus que tout, c'est le côté réaliste et instructif de cette exposition. Réalisme en tout dans l'exposition de peinture par exemple. Les sujets traités le sont avec une vigueur et un naturalisme méthodique. Ce sont des types empruntés à la rue, à la brasserie, à l'usine, à la vie de tous les jours. On chercherait en vain un tableau de luxe et d'élégance. Il n'y en a point. Quant à la guerre, elle n'a inspiré aucun artiste. L'Allemagne démocratique, matérialiste s'étale le long des murs dans les toiles de ses artistes dont la facture très moderne s'accommode très bien de ses modèles et exclut tout raffinement. Ce n'est pas cependant dans la peinture que l'on découvre le mieux le sens des idées du peuple issu de la grande épreuve, mais dans les pavillons de statistique et d'hygiène. Là, l'esprit de propagande réaliste s'est affirmé avec un souci de vérité qui déconcerte nos âmes bourgeoises. Dans leur désir d'instruire la jeunesse, les exposants n'ont reculé devant aucun enseignement. On étale aux yeux de la foule, des enfants et des jeunes filles, toutes les tares sociales. Les maladies sont dénoncées non seulement dans des tableaux statistiques très parlants, mais dans des dessins, dans des reproductions de cire et même dans des bocaux où marinent dans l'alcool des coupes anatomiques des plus horribles maladies. Le musée Dupuytren à Paris, qui n'est ouvert qu'aux étudiants, est peut-être moins réaliste que le pavillon de Düsseldorf où l'on accorde à l'hygiène une place prépondérante. L'on sent bien que l'idée dominante qui a présidé à cette exposition c'est de mettre l'homme et surtout l'enfant en présence du ténèbre de ses origines, de l'amertume de sa condition sociale et de la faiblesse de son état physique. Les Allemands ont mis en pratique le célèbre aphorisme «connais-toi toi-même» et pour nous apprendre à nous connaître, ils ont trouvé des moyens ingénieux. Pénétrez dans le [?]
LA SITUATION
LA SITUATION Après l'entrevue de Livourne, qui a fait couler des flots d'encre et a soulevé tant d'émotion en France, sir Austen Chamberlain a tenu à rendre visite à M. Briand lors de son voyage de retour. Samedi donc les deux ministres des affaires étrangères se sont entretenus au quai d'Orsay. Il faut rappeler que sir Austen avait dû quitter Genève avant les entretiens de Thoiry et il était indiqué que les deux hommes d'Etat qui ont poursuivi à Genève les mêmes desseins s'entretinssent après les entrevues Briand-Stresemann et Chamberlain-Mussolini, Un communiqué officiel a été donné à la presse, qui, dans un style laconique, dit que «les deux hommes d'Etat ont examiné la situation extérieure et qu'ils ont pu constater que leur entente au service de la paix reste plus étroite, plus cordiale et plus confiante que jamais». - Le congrès du parti populaire allemand s'est ouvert samedi et M. Stresemann n'a pas laissé de prononcer à cette occasion un discours sur la situation politique extérieure. Il a montré les avantages de la politique d'entente qui avait conduit du plan Dawes à Locarno, puis de Genève à Thoiry. Il a affirmé que la base de la paix européenne était l'entente entre l'Allemagne et la France. A propos des pourparlers franco-allemands, on déclare à Paris qu'ils n'ont fait aucun progrès et les dernières nouvelles de Washington montrent que les Etats-Unis ne désirent nullement favoriser le placement des obligations de chemins de fer allemands. - On a démenti, tant à Rome qu'à Madrid, la nouvelle absurde relative à une démonstration navale hispano-italienne devant Tanger. Au sujet du statut de cette ville, l'Espagne va, dit-on, amorcer des pourparlers avec la France pour un examen préalable du problème en rapport avec la mission de protectorat que les deux nations exercent au Maroc. Les experts français et espagnols s'efforceront d'établir un projet d'accord acceptable par l'Espagne et aussi par l'Italie. Puis la discussion sera reprise en présence des experts britanniques et italiens. Dès que l'accord sera fait entre les quatre principales puissances intéressées, le projet sera soumis aux autres signataires du traité d'Algésiras, c'est-à-dire aux Etats-Unis, aux Pays-Bas, à la Belgique, à la Suède et au Portugal, qui seront invités par la voie diplomatique ordinaire à l'approuver. Ce sera alors le moment pour l'Espagne d'exprimer les revendications découlant de ses nécessités, au sujet de la modification du régime ou du statut de Tanger dans la mesure lui permettant de développer sa mission au Maroc. Les dettes de guerre