It seemed intolerable to me that for the third time
in living memory this gentle and pacific people should he exposed to outrage by the barbarians of the east. It seemed intolerable that a civilisation so ancient and yet so progressive, so intricate and yet so simple, so diverse and yet so balanced, should once again be molested by the rude hands of the " irrogne tudesque." It seemed intolerable that this France (the elder sister of all reasonable men) should once again be assaulted by the cancer of a total war. My heart was wrung with pity for a people who have assuredly not merited the sufferings to which, generation after generation, they have been exposed. And as I thought these things the great wing of the aero- plane swung upwards and with a wide sweep we slid down to earth. A number of French Deputies and journalists had come to meet us. They greeted us with exuberant delight. In the warmth of their gaiety, in the sunshine of their confidence, the mists of melancholy were soon dispersed.
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