Aux Barricades! 'La Marseillaise' Is Besieged

Exactly 200 years after France's stirringly revolutionary national anthem was composed, "les enfants de la patrie" are once again being called to arms -- this time to defend "La Marseillaise" against an attack by political correctness.

The offensive has taken the form of a campaign to replace the anthem's most bloodthirsty lyrics with more brotherly phrases to demonstrate that French patriots no longer dream of spilling the "tainted blood" of foreigners. Instead, the new message would be kinder and gentler.

But while more than 100 prominent citizens, including France's First Lady, Danielle Mitterrand, have endorsed the campaign, the response of traditionalists has been swift. This week, a Committee for the Defense of the Marseillaise was formed to the cry of "Hands off our national anthem!"

"We should not touch it," Georges Suffert wrote in a signed editorial in Le Figaro on Tuesday. "It is part of our history. We should not meddle with the past. It was a Soviet speciality to change the accounts of former times according to their mood. 'The Mar seillaise' is what it is."

The idea of softening the lyrics was first raised three years ago by Abbott Pierre, a much-admired defender of human rights, but it only gathered momentum after a 10-year-old girl, Severine Dupelloux, sang the anthem at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Albertville on Feb. 8.

Suddenly, the contrast between the innocence of her unaccompanied voice and the ferocity of the words -- subtitled for the benefit of foreign television viewers -- seemed too much. "How can one call out 'To Arms!' in an Olympic Stadium?" Charles Ferauge, a retired fire department general, asked.