Note 58 — Chapter V · PATRIOTISM AND POWER IN WAR AND PEACE

The assumption marks even post-war rhetoric. M. Millerand’s message to the Senate and Chamber upon his election as President of the Republic says: ‘True to the Alliances for ever cemented by blood shed in common,’ France will strictly enforce the Treaty of Versailles, ‘a new charter of Europe and the World.’ (Times, Sept. 27th, 1920). The passage is typical of the moral fact dealt with in this chapter. M. Millerand knows, his hearers know, that the war Alliance ‘for ever cemented by blood shed in common,’ has already ceased to exist. But the admission of this patent fact would be fatal to the ‘blood’ heroics.