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AN IMPORTANT DECISION.

SWANSEA POLICE COURT.

TAKE A COURSE NOW.

COCKETT PARISH COUNCIL. -

.THE REAL TRAITOR TO FRANCE,

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THE REAL TRAITOR TO FRANCE, THE PERNICIOUS INFLUENCE OF THE DAILY NEWSPAPER. In the November number of the National Review, a writer has something to say on the pernicious influence of the daily press. The French," says the writer, are prone to ascribe their disasters to treachery, yet their worst and most dangerous traitor is never recognised. It is the popular daily newspaper of Paris we say popular advisedly, meaning news- papers that have the widest circulation. There are good newspapers which struggle obscurely; but they have none of °the 'absinthe' of popular journals. We are apparently on the brink of war, and the French people neither desire the war, nor have they the remotest conception as to the circumstances of its origin. War comes on them because they have been misled and befooled by their newspapers. What chance has a people which is served by newspapers such as the Petit Journal, t'littrallsigeaitt, the Libre Parole, the Eclair, the Patrie, the hiberte, and the Echo de Paris? These news- papers are the daily press of France. It is these which demand circulation, and are devoured and assimilated by the nation. The Petit Journal has a circulation of over a million. The I'lntransigeant and the Libre Parole circulate daily some quarter of a million copies each of their lies and venom. It must be remembered that these newspapers monopolise all the channels of information. All that the bulk of Frenchmen know of current events is derived from them. We have witnessed the campaign of calumny they have recently been engaged in over the Dreyfus case. What sort of morality or fair- ness can be expected from such organs in treating international disputes ? The Libre Parole's contribution to a pacific solution in the present crisis is to say England will invariably retreat if she has to face the point of the sword.' No English journalist could pen such a passage. It is the wont of superior persons to dismiss these newspapers as Boulevard rags.' MISLEADING THE FRENCH MASSES. "This does not dispose of the fact that they are the sole medium of communication between the French masses and the outer world. The French people dwell in a fastness of ignorance. All that they know of the Fashoda question has been derived from these rags.' There is, of course, a better French press, with a more limited circulation, repre- sented by such papers as the Figaro, the Journal des Debats, the Temps, and the Matin; but these papers all rail at England and represent her as a greedy and perfidious nation. They seize every occasion to make bad blood between the two countries. In any international disputes they do not give us a chance of being heard. The Temps is as bad as any of them, and it is much given to quoting Sir Charles Dilke and Mr. Labouchere as powerful exponents of English opinion. Perhaps the most moderately expressed critic of our conduct in the French press is the ex- Deputy Francis Charmes; he writes regularly in the Revue des Deux Mondcs. He dealt with the Fashoda question in the last number, and vaunts the spirit of conciliation with which France has treated England in Egypt, Madagascar, and Tunis-always concessions, he says, and « tout vt-ix He asserts in defence of the Marchand mission, that it originated in 1893, at a time when England gave no sign of intending to recover the Soudan for Egypt, and this is the best defence that can be made of it; but after Sir Edward Grey's warning the circumstances were altered. A clear notice was given, and still the Marchand expedition was encouraged to proceed, and further transport material was supplied. However, lest this excuse should be insufficient, he vindicates the right of remaining at Fashoda on the ground of anterior conquest.

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