FOCH ON FINAL OFFENSIVE.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16434, 30 January 1919, Page 8

FOCH ON FINAL OFFENSIVE.

>[. OLE.MENCEAU'S TRIBUTE A reception <ras given by the ;Fror Ambassador (it. Paul Cambon) at t Embassy in London on Deceml 2nd to afford tho French colo the opportunity of meeting ] Clemenceau and Marshal Foch. great was tho assemblage that a ve large number were unable to obtain a mission. These overflowed into t roadway, where a large crowd was gat wed. The appearance of tho Ainbass dor -with M. Clemenceau and Marsh Foah in the main salon -was the sign for a tumultuous outburst of cheerin ■which lasted several minutes. M. Clemenceau delivered, a stirrii oration, -which deeply moved the aut once. More than once lie had to desi for some minutes until outbursts of a plause subsided. Referring to M. Cai bon. lie said lie stood in the,first rat of French representatives abroad. I paid a glowing tribute to Marshal Foci I have seen him at work. No 01 has seeii him more closely than I, an it is a groat satisfaction to me to d Jiim justice before thio assemblage c liis fellow-citizens of the- French colon in London. "We have seen each other i: the worst days and in the finest. I »ai Marshal Fobii ono day, when, sudden], and without any reason,- ho had beei thanked and placed on the unemployei .list. It was a day'l shall never for gob when Le'camc to nie and said, "Se what has come to me." He did nie-th honour to ask my advice. I said ti him. "Go home; no recriminations; sa; nothing, and before manv weeks ar< passed you -will be wanted.'' He had n< need of my advice. Perhaps ho had al ready guessed -what it would bo. Hii conscience would have suffered to pre •vent him running the risk of addinj . quarrels to tho great national crisi; through -which the countiy -was passinj at that sad hour., He went home with out. a-word of recrimination, and I be Jieve hot a fortnight'had passed befon he was Chief of Staff of the Fronoli army. We had seen him on the Yser, we hat seen him in tho Saint Gond marches . whero wo can only say by the singl< effort of that valiant soldier the enemj was stopped, and his soldiers, who wer< not all French soldiers, were constrain cd, when they -appeared, to hesitate, t< march to the attack. It was in thos« 'circumstances that he spoke those splen did words when they came and told him, ''General, wo cannot hold on," "I cannot liold on; well, then I attack. He attacked, and conquered. We aw already a loug way from that, and 'n the task which -was again confided tc Jnni it can be. said that his action 'was marked by a succession ol victories such as the history of war has never known. When the Germans hesitated between two ways, throwing themselves first on Amiens, I shall never forget the meeting at that moment at Doullens with all the Allied Generals ami heada of Governments at which General Foch—that was then his title— V s fight before Amiens, I ? t? ■4j nil ? ns > I fight behind Amiens, I fight, all the time," and he has kept his word. It is true that he had marvellous soldiers, and a good soldfer imN phes Mod chiefs. The good chief, in turn, helps to create the good soldier. Yon. can go and see the poilu in the t f«nches, you can talk to him of MarshalFoch, and you will see what ho 'has to say about liim. And l then you can go and see Marshal Foch in his office at Any hour of the day, and talk to him of his poilus, and yon will sed in what terms he will sing their praises. • After a few modest words as to his own .services'in helping to save "tho most beautiful country there has ever been,-' M. Clemenceau declared that the best way to honour their dead was to mako a great peace, which should be the true daughter of tho great war— a peace that wbuld give tho great French motherland a fresh chance of developing and of becoming still greater if that were possible. He appealed to all Frenchmen to work to that. end. Vr *° k' s reception in London, M. Clemenceau said it had something symbolic about it, oven in its cxaggera4>°n;. It was a great comfort to see Englishmen climbing up Wellington's bronze horse to cheer the representatives of France. (Laughter). Such demonstrations were both good and useful They showed the place that France had won in the esteem of her neighbours— * lt? to keep, and in that task Frenchmen abroad had a verv important part to play. ■ ' "TVE SHALL STOP THEM AT ALL ■ , ; COSTS.'.' Marshal Foch, who, op advancing to •peak, was vociferously applauded for , at least' fivo minutes, said that he was deeply sensible of the tributes which had been paid to him, but would get.

f away from personalities and come ' facts. He proceeded:— After the magnificent words whi you have just heard, it is very bold ■ my part to speak, but I should like give you a few explanations. You i know through what vicissitudes the w lias pased. I shall not recount thei , You know them as well as I. I w L ' n run briefly over the last phases in ord lie to tell you this. We also had to dra er up our balance-sheet for 1918. The sa iy rifices to which France had consent* I were colossal. Our dead were rec ,' oned fti millions. We all had dead : 90 our families. That you know as wc '7 as I do. / Tho regions ravaged, tl tl- towns destroyed, the people carrif away into slavery, all the abominatioi [ u of barbarism let loose—was all that 1 go unpunished? No. Wo owed it 1 ~ our dead and to our people that oi 31 losses should not be in vain, and ths *1 they should be fittingly atoned fo; 5, When the enemy appeared in March, i April, in May, to march on Paris, whs us did wo <]o? We agreed to this —-first,- the Frencl ' ? then the British, and tho America! -when they arrived —and we said, "firs [>- we shall stop them at all costs a- (cheers), and, when developing a sm j c den and furious offensive the enem fell -upon troops worn oiffc by four yeai of trench warfare, we stopped his marc '• upon Amiens, his march upon Paris e Tnat is tho formula which we carrier I out with startling regularity. We sue ceoded. There is nothing like the aim r pie for success. We then made U] our accounts, and wo said, "We hav< f troops that are tired and worn out, hiv i who are still capable of indisputabli f energy." As regards the Allies, th< . British Armies have suffered formid able disaster. We said the same thing ■ "We shall recuperate, and make a fresl start," and the fresh start was made " (Laughter and cheers.) Was that fresh start made with t distant object in view? No. It ivai \ mado to assure communications indispensable ' pensable to the life of the nation,: t< set free Chateau-Thierry, to restore th< communications betweeu. Paris anc ' Nancy, then to assure the communica--1 tions with the North, which were stil ' very precarious at Amions—tho attach j of August Bth with Generals RawlinI son and Debeney—and to freo Amiens • at all costs.. All that came off. . Thee ' the Arras attack with the British " Armies. And then, seeing that all this "was not going badly, the offensive was ' extended, and we finished by deliverI ing battle on a front of 400 kilometres (250 miles), in which everybody was en- , gaged—French, Belgians, and ; Americans. Rom ember that in these offensives we took more than 330,000 prisoners and ; captured over 6000 guns. If it had ( been necessary to continue, the position of the enemy was daily becoming very rapidly worse. Victor}*, I have already said, is an inclined plane. The hall starts slowly on it, Vut it increases , rapidly in speed is not stopped, and we were going to accelerato the movement." We had started-on that plan. Our offensive more and, more developed, becoming greater and greater, and was about to increase still more in force when the enemy stopped .us T>y requesting an armistice. We laid down the conditions of that armistice. The enemy accepted our conditions. Wo could not but sign an armistice. Well, gentlemen, these.results are due to tho re-awakening of all the energies which united to work together when they found a leader to conduct .them to victory. That is what we owe to our dead. That is what we owe to our country, and itis that which has permitted us to prove that B ranee is still capable of leading the Armies which come to rang© themselves under her banner to victory over the common enemy '•GOOD OLD TIGER." PARIS, December 2. The warm reception in London of Marshal Foch and M. Clemenceau is discussed at great length in the whole Press. The greeting "Good old Tiger" to M. Clemenceau is quoted everywhere, and the friendly sentiment implied ili it has been explained. The Paris Midi writes:— The vieux tigre has shared with Marshal Foch the ovations of a crowd which has taken these two great men of the war to its heart. Marshal Foch belongs to thorn as he doe.3 to us. Tho brotherly feeling which has shown itself equally in Paris and London makes ! ns certain that. in the opening cam- | paign France' and Groat Britain will remain - united in order to make follow i on the splendid victory a solid peace, siayed by strong realities, and not "based on the sands, as some would like. Commenting upon the announcement • of Mr Lawson, the Victorian Premier, that a feature of the Health Bill of next session would be provision for full time medical health officers, .a leading member of the Friendly Societies' Association said that his Association welcomed tho proposal. The number of full time medical officers could be made fairly large with little cost to the State if the services of the appointees, many of whom could be returned army surgeons, were made available for friend]}' societies at the rates proposed by Judge Wasley.