Paris War Days: Diary of an AmericanBarnard, Charles Inman
History
Paris War Days: Diary of an American
Barnard, Charles Inman
Paris (France) -- History -- 1914-1918; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
A large sum in gold coin, it is said, has been taken from the vaults of
the Bank of France and sent to Rennes. Sharp comment is elicited by an
incident at the Travellers Club, a somewhat select resort of Americans,
English, and other foreigners, in the former hotel of the famous beauty
of the Second Empire, Madame de Paiva, in the Champs-Elysees. It appears
that a wealthy and prominent German by birth, but naturalized American,
Mr. X., casually remarked one day at the club that he did not intend to
trouble himself to get a _permis de sejour_ (permission to reside
in Paris), because "when the German troops arrived in the capital, these
papers would no longer be needed." Mr. X. was told that if he persisted
in expressing such views, offensive to the members of the club and to
the hospitable city in which the club was situated, his resignation
would be forthwith accepted by the house committee. Mr. X. paid no
attention to the warning, but when next he entered the club--a few days
after the incident--he was informed that his name had been stricken from
the list of members.
M. Adrien Mithouard, President of the Municipal Council, states that
arrangements were made months ago to store a large quantity of flour in
the city, so as to provide the civilian inhabitants with bread. This
flour is in the hands of the military authorities, who have a
considerably larger supply than was originally intended, and are still
adding to it.
There will be no lack of coal. The army has accumulated enormous
quantities, and the Gas Company has enough coal for five months. M.
Mithouard also says he recently made a personal investigation of the
water supply, and found that, even if the aqueducts were cut, the city
would have two hundred and sixty thousand cubic meters of filtered water
available every day from the Ivry and Saint-Maur waterworks; and even
without these, Paris could still have two hundred and sixty thousand
cubic meters a day chemically purified.
The Municipal Council has also approved a proposal to buy up certain
provisions to be added to the necessaries of life for the civilian
population.
M. Georges Clemenceau, the "parliamentary tiger," who, although
remaining outside the Cabinet, is one of the greatest personal forces of
France, has made a stirring statement to Mr. Somerville Story, editor of
the _Daily Mail_. M. Clemenceau said:
"Yes, their guns are almost within sound of Paris. And what if they are?
What if we were yet to be defeated again and again? We should still go
on. Let them burn Paris if they can. Let them wipe it out, raze it to
the level of the ground. We shall still fight on.
"This is not my personal resolve alone. The Government, too, is just as
grimly determined. Do you know, it is strange that one should have been
able to come to feel like this, but the Germans could destroy all these
beautiful places that I love so much; they may blow up the museums,
overthrow monuments--it would only leave me still determined to fight
on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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