Le Petit Matin
- A Latin Union?
- The Prince of Wales and M. Doumergue Inaugurate the Canadian Students' House in Paris
- She Smokes? Oh!!!
This front page paired a political essay with lighter dispatches. In 'Une Union Latine ?', Paul Myx described a strong current of opinion for an understanding among France, Italy, Spain and the Iberian-language countries of South America, recalled a wartime campaign by a newspaper in south-western France, and suggested that French hostility toward the United States and Britain, provoked by their governments' unfortunate words and actions, had revived the idea. A Paris dispatch reported that President Doumergue and the Prince of Wales opened the Canadian Students' House at the Cité universitaire on 30 October, accompanied by the Canadian high commissioner Philippe Roy, the education minister Herriot and the rector of the University of Paris. A London wire passed on a report that a women's temperance union in Indiana had written a letter of protest to the visiting Queen of Romania after reading that she smoked cigarettes.
Translation
A Latin Union?
There is at present a very intense current of opinion in favour of an understanding among the Latin countries. To tell the truth, this is nothing new. Already, during the war, a newspaper published in the South-West of France made praiseworthy efforts toward a rapprochement between France, Italy, Spain and the Iberian-language countries of South America. Perhaps current events, and the hostility that has shown itself in France against the United States and England following unfortunate actions or remarks by the governments of those nations, have much to do with the revival of a campaign in favour of a Latin understanding.
The Prince of Wales and M. Doumergue Inaugurate the Canadian Students' House in Paris
PARIS, 30 October. – The President of the Republic and the Prince of Wales inaugurated the Canadian Students' House in the Cité universitaire today at three in the afternoon. They were assisted by MM. Philippe Roy, Canadian High Commissioner in Paris, chairman of the organizing committee; M. Herriot, Minister of Public Instruction; G. M. Wilson, senator from Montreal; M. Lapie, rector of the University of Paris, vice-chairman of the committee; Firmin
She Smokes? Oh!!!
LONDON, 30 October. – The New York correspondent of the Daily Express cables that the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Kokong, in the State of Indiana, having learned from the newspapers that the Queen of Romania smoked cigarettes, has drawn up a letter of protest which it will have handed to the Queen as she passes through.
Context
Why French opinion turned against Washington and London in 1926
Paul Myx credits the revived talk of a Latin union partly to French hostility against the United States and Britain over 'unfortunate' actions or remarks by their governments; his account of a wartime south-western newspaper campaigning for a Latin rapprochement is his own claim. The most concrete grievance of 1926 was war debt. The Mellon–Bérenger agreement of that year fixed France's repayment of wartime loans from the United States, and although it reduced the sum, it was deeply unpopular among French people who felt Washington should waive the debt outright. The United States had quietly withheld loans to France while repayment remained unsettled, putting pressure on the franc, and 20,000 war veterans demonstrated in Paris against the agreement. American Prohibition, which hurt French exports, and punitive tariffs on other French goods added commercial resentment. France's debts to Britain were settled in a separate agreement. The French Chamber of Deputies did not ratify the American settlement until 21 July 1929, and then only by 300 votes to 292. The Latin-union campaign the editorial describes thus arose while the American debt deal was still unratified and fiercely contested in France.
The young Cité universitaire the Canadian house joined
The Canadian Students' House opened on a campus that was barely a year old. The Cité universitaire grew out of a plan formed just after the Great War by André Honnorat, then minister of public instruction, and Paul Appell, rector of the Paris academy, guided by the idea that cultural exchange among young people of different nations could ease tensions. Its first residence, the Fondation Deutsch de la Meurthe with seven pavilions, opened in 1925, and Honnorat then needed donors of other nationalities to keep building. The City of Paris history dates the Belgian and Luxembourg houses to 1927 and counts fourteen foundations inaugurated in eight years, about two a year. This report, with the French president and the Prince of Wales presiding on 30 October 1926, places the Canadian house among the earliest national residences. The guest list in the article, with the Canadian high commissioner Philippe Roy chairing the organizing committee, the education minister Herriot attending and the rector Lapie as vice-chairman, shows the project combining French official backing with foreign sponsorship.
Queen Marie's American tour of 1926
The Queen of Romania whose cigarettes upset the Indiana temperance women was Marie, wife of King Ferdinand I, who in 1926 made a diplomatic tour of the United States with her children Nicholas and Ileana. Americans received her enthusiastically and she travelled through several cities, which is why a local union could plan to have its letter handed to her 'as she passes through'. The item reached the paper at third hand, from the Daily Express's New York correspondent by way of London, so even a small-town protest about the queen's habits was travelling through the European press. On returning to Romania, Marie found Ferdinand gravely ill, and he died a few months later.
The temperance movement and women who smoked
The Indiana protest followed a line the Woman's Christian Temperance Union had laid down six years earlier: in 1920 the WCTU stated that it would work to prevent women and youth from smoking. The same prohibition activists, prominent from 1920 to 1933, were feared by tobacco companies trying to sell cigarettes to women. In that climate a smoking queen, celebrated by American crowds, offered the temperance women a highly visible example to object to. The paper's headline, with its three exclamation marks, presents the protest to its French-language readers in a mocking tone, while the editorial on the same page gives the reasons for French resentment only as 'unfortunate actions or remarks', without naming Prohibition.
Original
Une Union Latine ?
Il y a en ce moment un courant d'opinion très intense en faveur d'une entente entre les pays latins. A vrai dire cela n'est pas nouveau. Déjà, pendant la guerre, un journal édité dans le SudOuest de la France, faisait des efforts méritoires en vue d'un rapprochement entre la France, l'Italie. l'Espagne et les pays de l'Amérique du Sud de langue ibérique. Peut-être les événements actuels et l'hostilité qui s'est manifestée en France contre les Etats-Unis et l'Angleterre, à la suite de gestes ou de propos malheureux des gouvernements de ces nations, sont-ils pour beaucoup dans la reprise d'une campagne en faveur d'une entente latine.
Le prince de Galles et M. Doumergue inaugurent à Paris la Maison des Etudiants Canadiens
PARIS. 30 octobre. - Le Président de la République et le prince de Galles inaugurèrent aujourd'hui à 15 heures la Maison des Etudiants canadiens dans la cité universitaire. Ils étaient assistés de MM. Philippe Roy, haut commissaire canadien à Paris, président du comité d'organisation; M. Herriot, ministre de l'Instruction publique: G. M. Wilson, sénateur de Montréal; M. Lapie. recteur de l'Université de Paris, vice-président du comité; Firmin
Elle fume ? Oh!!!
LONDRES, 30 octobre. - Le correspondant du «Daily Express» à New-York télégraphie que l'Union de tempérance des femmes chrétiennes à Kokong, dans l'Etat d'Indiana, ayant appris par les journaux que la reine de Roumanie fumait des cigarettes, a rédigé une lettre de protestation qu'elle fera remettre à la reine à son passage.