Cirrus@Austlit

'This is a step by step account of Paul Maistre's fight to reform the Melbourne Alliance française at the beginning of the twentieth century. The author first describes the early years of Maistre's career, including his exceptionally long term in Melbourne from 1885 to 1898, starting as 'chancelier de première classe' but later promoted to vice-consul. In 1901, Maistre returned to Melbourne in charge of the newly established vice-consulate, under the supervision of Georges Biard d'Aunet, the Sydney-based Consul General for Australia. Maistre was soon promoted to consul. Biard d'Aunet and Maistre were allies not only in their consular capacities but also in their passion for the Alliance française as an educational institution. Although the Melbourne Alliance had been founded by a teacher, Mme Mouchette, and its establishment had preceded that of the Sydney Alliance by the best part of a decade, by the early years of the twentieth century it had become an exclusive ladies' club run by the cream of Melbourne society, neglecting its official purpose, the promotion of the French language and French culture, whilst the Sydney Alliance, led by the Consul General in person, limited itself to the more austere aspects of the institution's pedagogical objectives. Although after Biard d'Aunet's departure in 1904 Maistre no longer enjoyed the same support from his Sydney superiors, he continued and indeed intensified the fight for a reform of the Melbourne Alliance. This fight culminated in 1907 and 1908 when a conflict exploded between the Consul, supported by the Paris headquarters of the Alliance, as well as by the vast majority of the local French community, including the Lecturer in French at the University, Maurice-Carton (although the latter was never prepared to participate in the activities of the Alliance), and a Committee dominated by the Melbourne establishment, especially Mrs Cave, the Honorary Treasurer, and Lady Holroyd, one of the Presidents. The English-speaking socialites were supported by the long-established French family, the Crivellis, who had social ambitions, whilst Maistre enjoyed the active support and assistance of several French residents of Jewish extraction, such as Mlle Irma Dreyfus and her sister Mme Aarons, who both made significant literary and intellectual contributions to the Alliance, and M.F. Levey, who acted as Honororary Auditor. The author meticulously documents the skirmishes between the two camps during this period. These eventually (by approximately April 1908) ended by the resignation of the old committee and the installation of a reformist committee under Paul Maistre. However, this was a pyrrhic victory for the Consul, as the party of the socialites, having lost the battle in Melbourne and at the Paris headquarters of the Alliance, now approached their contacts at the British Embassy in Paris, to lodge a complaint against Maistre. The British Ambassador in turn contacted the Quai d'Orsay, and on 12 August 1908, unknown to the Paris Alliance française, the French Foreign Minister wrote to Maistre to reprimand him for his undiplomatic behaviour and to signify him his recall. Maistre sailed from Melbourne on 25 February 2009, and retired on 22 September of the same year. In 1913 he published a well-researched book on Le Commonwealth d'Australie : étude de géographie physique et économique.