LYAUTEY (Hubert). 1854-1934. Marshal of France. - Lot 153

LYAUTEY (Hubert). 1854-1934. Marshal of France. L.A.S. to his "good Peter". (Rabat), February 14, 1925. 12 pp. two-sheet in-8, headed to his address "Résident général au Maroc". Very long political letter from Marshal Lyautey, discussing his thoughts on France's crisis situation in the face of the rise of Fascist regimes in Europe, deploring parliamentary instability and the influence of Freemasonry, etc. He begins by congratulating his correspondent on the success of the French Revolution. He first congratulates his correspondent on the success of his lecture to the Foreign Trade Committee and thanks him for reporting on his travels; he encourages him to travel, notably to Athalin, and asks for news of France, of his audience with the President of the Republic, before inviting him to Morocco, alluding to the preparations for the presentation of the gold medals at the forthcoming exhibition, which "doesn't thrill" him. He continued: "You give me great pleasure by sending me such a complete diary of your life (...). It makes me live in a world I no longer know, and at every moment I find on your pen names I don't know, but which I'm delighted to learn. But I conclude that after thirty years of uninterrupted absence, I feel more and more a stranger in Paris, and less and less inclined to live there (...). It is certain that the habituation I have acquired to the direct and almost absolute government, discipline and hierarchy of the native peoples, has made me more and more unsuited to French life. I can well imagine myself serving in the Reich - with Mussolini - or even in Spain, where monarchical loyalty and popular anti-parliamentary phobia have just manifested themselves so vividly. But I have nothing but revulsion for the atmosphere we breathe in France, and especially in Paris. The eternal palaver, the importance of the press, the parliamentary ulcer, the general optical distortion giving attention and interest only to the word, to the intrigues of corridors and salons, the cabotage of dinners and, above all, individualism, all this is such a negation of everything I live in and come from: Order, Social Hierarchy, Discipline, Authority, Tradition! (...). The only environment in France where I find some agreement is with the peasant, first of all in Lorraine; Thory, and that's where I'd like to bury myself by cutting off all external relations (...)."