EVENING SPIDERS
The Fire Worshippers

"What joy! There is a fire over there! And a real fire, a fire that promises to become something grandiose! Remember, that's how it started in 1914, when the whole house almost burned down. If the sky sends us a favorable wind, the flames will certainly reach here and we will, once again, have our hair singed! What a magnificent argument to oppose to the imbeciles who believe they must put out a fire with water, instead of pouring oil on it, as has always been done!"
This is what we can read between the lines inspired in our best rearguard colleagues by the events in Egypt. And these fire worshippers add victoriously: "Ah! ah! we will now see what help we can expect from Geneva and what the firefighters of the League of Nations will do!"

Alas! my dear colleagues, I believe that you will not see anything; but do not rejoice too quickly, it is perhaps because there are no firemen in Geneva, there are hardly any but old diplomats, statesmen out of use and members of the Institute; it looks like it, there is something in the helmet, but it is not quite that. Similarly there is no League of Nations, there is only a facade painted in trompe-l'oeil to deceive the poor world. That is why, if you ask me, like my colleague Clemenceau: "Do you believe in it?..." I will have no difficulty in answering you: "No, not in that one"

Bernard GERVAISE.