Paris, March 13.
After an interval of 16 years, diplomatic relations are to be established again between France and the Holy See. The Government has asked for a vote on account for the expenses of an Embassy to the Vatican, and there is no doubt that it will be granted, whatever the anti-clericals may say, The rupture took place in 1904, when President Loubet paid a visit to the King of Italy in Rome without taking any notice of the Pope. This visit to the representative of the system which had deprived the Holy See of its temporal power was described soon afterwards, in a Papal despatch to the other Powers, as extremely offensive to the Pope. M. Combes. the most anti-clerical Premier France has ever had, at once seized the opportunity, and the French Ambassador to the Vatican was withdrawn. France, the eldest daughter of the Church, thus deprived herself of a voice in her father's house, though she did not give up her privileged position as the defender of Christian missions in the East.
The vast. changes brought about by the war have made it clear to French statesmen that they cannot continue to ignore the world-wide influence of the Church. So many important questions have to be debated, in which religious questions are involved, that France cannot afford to go on discussing them through intermediaries. Alsace and Lorraine, for instance, have a concordat with the Holy See, and when it comes to appointing bishops of Strasburg or Metz, it is of importance for the French Government to have a voice in the selection of candidates for posts which carry so much influence with the inhabitants.
Throughout Syria, Palestine and the rest of the East, French influence is often bound up with the Catholic establishments and missionaries. It is to the interest of the French Government to keep in touch with these pioneers, and it can be done much more effectively by first coming to an understanding with their spiritual head. The same argument of course applies to the Far East. It was disregarded in 1904, and French influence has suffered incalculably in consequence. Now that the principle of separation between Church and State is fully established in France, there is no reason why France should not do what Protestant England did years ago.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.