Le Petit Matin
- Tunisian Chronicle
- After the Ventimiglia Incidents
- Thus Was Queen Marie Consecrated, Henceforth a Sister of the Sioux Women
Le Petit Matin's front page of 4 November 1926 set colonial politics beside a border quarrel on the Riviera and a royal spectacle in America. In a signed column, Paul Lafitte welcomed Resident General Lucien Saint back with gentle irony, comparing him to an ancient Roman who claimed Rome went wherever he went, and having him declare that Tunisia was wherever he was. A Nice dispatch reported that the Ventimiglia affair had spilled over into Beausoleil, where French veterans returning from a cemetery wreath-laying came to blows with an Italian procession wearing fascist badges. A report relayed through London described Queen Marie of Romania being made a Sioux sister, with a war bonnet, a new name and a blood-mingling rite with Chief Red Tomahawk.
Translation
Tunisian Chronicle
"To every lord, his due honour," says an adage in which I find the obligation, an agreeable one at that, of addressing my greeting first of all to the Resident General, M. Lucien Saint, who has been good enough to come back to us and to bring Tunisia back with him. In truth, M. Lucien Saint has adapted to his own modern times the saying of an ancient Roman who proudly declared that Rome was wherever he himself happened to be, however far he might be from the seven sacred hills, the Capitol and the Forum. And so the Resident General professes this doctrine: "Tunisia is not on the other side of the Mediterranean when I am on the European shore; it is entirely wherever I am."
Paul LAFITTE
After the Ventimiglia Incidents
NICE, 3 November. – Despite the appeal for calm issued by the French newspapers of the Côte d'Azur, the Ventimiglia incident had repercussions this morning at Beausoleil. Numerous members of the French veterans' association were returning from laying a wreath at the cemetery in memory of their comrades who fell on the field of honour when they met a procession of Italians wearing the fascist badge who, preceded by a flag, were also on their way to the cemetery. Despite the efforts of the veterans' leaders, a clash broke out and many blows were exchanged.
Thus Was Queen Marie Consecrated, Henceforth a Sister of the Sioux Women
NORTH DAKOTA (via London), 3 November. – Queen Marie was admitted yesterday into the sisterhood of Sioux women. She received the title of warrior and an Indian name meaning "She-whom-we-awaited." During the ceremony, over which a chief, Red Tomahawk, presided, the Sovereign was crowned with the Sioux war bonnet, decorated with eagle feathers. Then she submitted to the ceremony of the blood marriage, very rarely practised today, with a sharpened flint. The chief pricked the tip of one of the Queen's fingers, and the drop of blood that appeared was mixed with the blood flowing from an incision that Chief Red Tomahawk had made in his own arm. The chief then pronounced: "You are no longer a Majesty, but a sister of America."
Context
Who was Lucien Saint, and what was the column needling him about?
Lucien Saint was a career prefect, appointed to Nièvre in 1906 and Ille-et-Vilaine in 1909, before he became French Resident General in the protectorate of Tunisia, a post he held from 1 January 1921 to 2 January 1929. By November 1926 he was therefore in his sixth year in office. His administration created four types of elected councils, among them a Grand Council with separate French and Tunisian sections to examine the regency's budget, and these reforms brought a degree of decentralization and some association between leading French and Tunisian figures. Lafitte's column concerns the Resident General's whereabouts. The columnist thanks Saint for coming back and 'bringing Tunisia back' with him, and credits him with the doctrine that Tunisia is 'wherever I am'. This implies that Saint had spent a long stretch on the European side of the Mediterranean and that the protectorate's business had followed him there. That grievance is the paper's own, voiced as irony. The sources consulted here establish Saint's office and reforms, but they do not document how long he was away in 1926.
What happened at Ventimiglia on 2 November 1926?
The 'Ventimiglia incidents' took place just across the frontier in Italy. Ventimiglia's station had held the status of an international station since an 1882 treaty, which meant a French presence on Italian territory, including French railwaymen. On 2 November 1926 fascist militiamen who had come from Genoa to 'reinforce surveillance of the frontier with France' stormed the French railwaymen's dormitory. Their pretext was that three railwaymen who appeared on the balcony of their lodging had not deigned to bare their heads. Some fifteen railwaymen were searched and driven out with kicks and punches. The same day a fascist militant burst into the French consulate at Ventimiglia, hurling insults and threats without going further. The affair caused concern at the highest levels in France despite official apologies from the Italian authorities and from Mussolini in person. The Beausoleil dispatch thus reported the next day's fallout from an event that readers already knew about.
Why did the quarrel spread to Beausoleil and Nice?
Franco-Italian relations darkened from the mid-1920s. Benito Mussolini, in power since 1922, adopted an increasingly aggressive attitude towards France, and the tension was felt most sharply on the coastal frontier between Menton and Ventimiglia. Writing for RetroNews, Yvan Gastaut records that in the days after the Ventimiglia affair demonstrations took place on the French side at Menton, Beausoleil and even Nice. Many Italian immigrants worked and lived in these towns, divided between sympathy for and aversion to the Mussolini regime. Le Petit Matin's dispatch fits that pattern. According to the paper, a commemoration of the war dead brought French veterans and an Italian procession under a fascist badge and flag to the same cemetery, and the veterans' leaders could not prevent blows. The paper also mentioned that the Riviera's French newspapers had appealed for calm, which suggests that local opinion already feared such spillovers.
Why was Queen Marie of Romania touring America?
Queen Marie, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, arrived in New York on 18 October 1926 to cheering crowds and a ticker-tape parade. Her 1926 journey is described as a diplomatic tour of the United States, made with her children Nicholas and Ileana. One of its immediate occasions was the wish of the businessman Sam Hill that she speak at the dedication of his Maryhill Museum of Art in Washington State. That dedication took place on 3 November, the same date as the London-relayed dispatch printed in Le Petit Matin. On the way west the royal party travelled by train through North Dakota. The tour was cut short when she received news on 17 November that King Ferdinand was ill. The Sioux ceremony the paper reported was therefore one stop on a heavily publicized journey, and the dateline shows that the story reached the paper by way of London.
What do other accounts say about the Sioux adoption?
Other accounts confirm the core of the dispatch. Prairie Public's Dakota Datebook says that in a ceremony during a stop at Mandan, North Dakota, Red Tomahawk adopted Queen Marie as a sister of the Sioux. The tribe gave her the name Winyan Kipanpi Win, 'the woman who was waited for', the same name the French dispatch rendered as 'She-whom-we-awaited'. She received a headdress of eagle feathers and was carried on a buffalo robe into a teepee. The paper's 'North Dakota' dateline agrees with the Mandan location. Another account places the induction in South Dakota, and explains her title of 'War Woman' as an honour for her role in the First World War, which corresponds to the paper's 'title of warrior'. The blood-mingling rite with a sharpened flint, and the chief's words that she was no longer a Majesty, appear in the dispatch but not in these later summaries, so they rest on the wire report alone.
Original
Chronique Tunisienne
«A tout seigneur, tout honneur», dit un adage où je trouve l'obligation, d'ailleurs agréable, d'adresser d'abord mon salut à M. le Résident Général Lucien Saint qui a bien voulu nous revenir et nous rapporter la Tunisie. En vérité, M. Lucien Saint a adapté à sa modernité le mot d'un ancien Romain qui affirmait fièrement que Rome était là où il était lui-même, pour tant qu'il fût éloigné des sept collines sacrées, du Capitole et du Forum. Ainsi, M. le Résident Général professe cette doctrine: «la Tunisie n'est point de l'autre côté de la Méditerranée lorsque je suis sur la rive européenne; elle est toute où je suis.»
APRÈS LES INCIDENTS DE VINTIMILLE
NICE, 3 novembre. - Malgré l'appel au calme des journaux français de la Côte d'Azur l'incident de Vintimille a eu une répercussion ce matin à Beau Soleil. De nombreux membres de l'association des anciens combattants français revenaient de déposer au cimetière une gerbe de fleurs à la mémoire de leurs camarades tombés au champ d'honneur, lorsqu'ils rencontrèrent un cortège d'italiens qui arboraient l'insigne fasciste, et qui, précédés d'un drapeau, se rendaient également au cimetière. Malgré l'effort des dirigeants des anciens combattants une collision se produisit et de nombreux coups furent échangés.
Ainsi fut sacrée la Reine Marie désormais sœur des femmes Sioux
DAKOTA DU NORD (via Londres), 3 novembre. - La Reine Marie a été admise hier dans la confrérie des femmes Sioux. Elle a reçu le titre de guerrière et un nom indien signifiant «Celle-que-nous-attendions». Pendant la cérémonie, que présidait un chef rouge Tomahawk, la Souveraine a été coiffée du couvre-chef de guerre Sioux, décoré de plumes d'aigles. Puis elle s'est prêtée à la cérémonie du mariage du sang, aujourd'hui très rarement pratiquée, avec un silex aiguisé. Le chef piqua le bout d'un doigt de la Reine et la goutte de sang qui apparut fut mélangée au sang coulant d'une incision que le chef rouge Tomahawk s'était faite au bras. Le chef prononça alors: «Vous n'êtes plus une Majesté, mais une sœur de l'Amérique».