GENERAL JOFFRE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2308, 16 November 1914, Page 8

GENERAL JOFFRE

FRENCH COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. A striking sketch of General Joffre's cajeer appears'in. the 'New York "Nation" from its' correspondent at Lausanne:—. ' , . - Like William the Silent and Moltke. who was "silent in seven languages, General Joffre is notably taciturn; and he lias been silent through a-laborious military, career of forty-four years. He is now sixty-one, but.still inthe\full. vigour of his strength of body and mind —and by far the most noteworthy figure which this , surprising war hae. so far disclosed. Clemenceau sliarply criticised him, and the others of. tho General Staff, but he, too, has reversed hisjudgment since the mobilisation proved them foresight and complete organisation of the military resources. A little more and, General Joffre will be the incarnation of the soul of France in her life-and-death struggle. Joffre was a first-year military' engineer at the difficult Ecole Polytechnique, and only 17 years of age, when the war of 1870 broke out. He enlisted and fought : like the rest to the bitter end. Ho came out a lieutenant, and was employed, when peace allowed, 'on the plans of the new fortifications of Paris. Marshal MacMalion, who was himself not a talker, ■ noticed his calm silence amid the other officers in a visit to one of the fort© and unexpectedly, saluted him—"My compliments, Captain!" So he was a captain at 22, long before.his time; and ne was sent to organise the defences of Pontarlier, just where the Germans, if they break through at Belfort, may now sweep down along the Swiss frontier. Then he went out to build forts in Tonkin; but Admiral Coiirbet, who was in charge, scented the born commander, and set him to fighting at the head or the troops. He was kept fighting, next in Dahomey;, and ho was the first to enter Timbuktu—speaking never a word. Ho was silent, in Madagascar, where 'lie fortified Diego Suarez mightily. Back in France, he was mado a professor at the Higher .War School, and became successively general of brigade, of division, and of a corps d'armee. He came to have the confidence of all as a strategist and organiser—and, with all fhe Radical hostility to the army, he was never reproached with reaction or not being faithful to the Republic. When the nomination of general-in-chief had to be made by the Higher War Council, General Pan, who lost his arm at Sedan, pointed with his remaining hand to Joffre —and the nomination was unanimous. ■

The public knows little of persons; but it knew that the law of three years' compulsory service which has saved Franco was due largely to General Joffro'B foresight. And these recent weeks of his command have made con-fidence-in him universal. Time will tell how far his silence will lead to victory; but, until now, no newspaper correspondent even knows where General-in-Chief Joffre and his Headquarters were placcd yesterday'or to-day, or shall be to-morrow. _ "Joffre's Headquarters?" said a military man who may have known and may not: "it's a monastery !"