GENERAL GAMELIN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 61, 11 September 1939, Page 8

GENERAL GAMELIN

FRANCE'S MILITARY GENIUS If you were to meet General Gamelin walking in the Bois de Bologne in one of liis beautifully cut civilian suits you would Lake him for the philosopher he will tell you he is, in explanation of his coolness in dangers and crisis. But then of course you will notice the ribbons of the Military Medal and the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour on the lapel of his coat. This great soldier, Avho will as General Officer Commanding the French and British Armies, lead both French and British forces in the field of battle, is a slightly-built man of 66, his once copper.coloured haii and small clipped moustache now iron grev his blue eyes as keen and as kindly as ever. They call him "the new Napoleon'' and indeed a bust of thnt great predecessor of his stands on his desk in the small room of the ground floor of the War Office where lie does his work. That Empire-fashioned desk is cleared.of all but a very few books the papers being dealt with at the moment, and a couplc of telephones. The interviews that largely take up his mornings arc equally neat, being efficiently carried through with no waste of words or time. When General Gamelin leaves the meetings of the Supreme War Council (of which he is vice-president) at the War Office, he looks directly across the Boulevarde St. Germain to the house where he was born, but nowadays he lives in the Avenue Foch, smartest street in the capital.