NAMES AND PLACES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 198, 12 August 1940, Page 2

NAMES AND PLACES

GENERAL DE GAULLE Little is known personally of General Charles dc Gaulle, now the leader of all French peoples outside ■France who are determined to aid the Allies in this war. For years he had been writing, pleading, imploring—in articles, report§, and con ferences —for the complete mechanisation of the French Army. Until the last deeks of the conflict in France his message went unheeded. General de Gaulle is 50 years of age, tall and thin. He passed through St. Cyr, the military college of France, ltot long before the last war began. When that was over his military knowledge was wide and deep and he looked to the future. In 1920 he was sent to Poland with the French Military Mission;, then he was appointed to the personal stall of General Petain. Next he served in Syria where General Weygand realised his value as a leader. When this war broke out General dc Gaulle was a colonel, on the staff in Paris. As soon as M. Reynaud became Prime Minister he selected dc Gaulle as his chief assistant in the War Ministry. When the German thrust broke the French defences de Gaulle's defence-in-depth theory was put into practice, but it was too late. The man who had for 20 years advocated that if France was to meet Germany on equal terms she must have more tanks, trucks, motor cycles and airplanes, is now the leader of the French patriots outside prance.