Thirty years ago many towns in France resounded to the cries: “Down with the Jews”, or “Down with the clergy”, Deputy Maurice Sibille, the oldest member of the French Chamber said, in presiding to-day by seniority at the opening of the new Parliamentary session.
The war, he want on, saw Freethinkers, Jews, Catholics and Protestants all doing their duty side by side, with the friendship born of the trenches. After the Armistice the custom grew up of soldiers commemorating their dead comrades by going from the Catholic Cathedral to the Protestant Church and to the Synagogue, so that all the fallen, whatever their religion, should be properly honoured. The old prejudices, Deputy Sibille said, have now disappeared.
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