THE NEW FRENCH GENERALISSIMO

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3087, 18 May 1917, Page 5

THE NEW FRENCH GENERALISSIMO

\ — ■- GENERAL PETAIN DEFENDER OF VERDUN ' Durnig the opening days of the great \ Mil'? 1 ' J 6 " 1 ™ (wrote Alden Brooks ' w'i T of , ia y 13 > IM6), the French IrionlU «•? "< hun<lkd the preci--B,'tui!tlon required. Retreats and counter-attacks were being ill-timed, too o-mnnfl lost, too JUUcll Biound needlessly abandoned. "With \°i declsion General Joffre promptly called up General Petain from a reserve army and made him the .new ommander-m-chief of the armies of Verdun. Since that hour, in one of tho 'greatest battles in history, the most colos,S? tie Germans since the Battle i i i lrno apparently been completely checked. And now everyone is suddenly asking who is this defender of Vemun who when war broke out was only a colonel of infantry, (he Thirty,rd.°f Arras. And the strange part of it is that no one quite 6eoms to know. There are wild rumours, but of exact details concerning the man there is a strange absence. As it is my privilege to know two or three of Petain's officers, I have made it a point of looking tfcem up and asking them to tell about him. What kind of a man is he? Are all these 6tories true one hears about his skipping rope every- morning .before breakfast and weighing his food- carefully nt meals and taking oross-country runs in the rain? A Master of Self. "Not a word!" was the categorical re"Everything that has been written and said about Petain lately is concierge gossip. I have lived with him for three yeare, and I can promise you he eats a 6quare meal like you and me and any other man. A'or is' he' a food crank or an athletic crank or any other kind of a crank, but an exceptionally, well-balanc-ed man who has become what he has striven incessantly to make himself: a perfect military leader.. If he is a remarkable horseman and fences admirably with both hands and' keeps himself sways in splendid trim, it is because all that is in accordance with hi 6 conception of what an officer should be. His physical proclivities are only a minor. Part of him. In fact, everything in him is subordinated to the demands of his profession.' That is the key to his character:' mastery and perfection of self. How often has ho told us that it is the duty of an officer to think and dream. . battles! He told me himself that he had studied minutely over five hundred tactical ad strategic encounters and that I should do likewise.

'Of course, like all of us, he has been trained in the Napoleonic classics, but his favourite military author is Ardant . Pipq. Then, too, lie is a preat admirer of Bushido, the code of honour of the Japanese samurai. I should say that at has had a great influence upon hie own education: And I know he was always hammering into us, not to worry so much about drill and formulas of command, but to perfect ouiselves as tacticians and inspire in our men three things: patience, teracity, and selfsacrifice. 'A troops becomes invincible/ he used to say, 'when, prepared in adTance to sacrifice itself, it determines to make the enemy pay, for its sacrifice the dearest possible price.'- I think he is living up to that precept now at Yer(dun. And, again, he was a- great .stickler for speed. He incessantly advocated the reduction of the knapsack, not out of consideration for the man, you understand, but to speed up the march. Another favourite maxim with. him was: 'The constant acceleration of speed is one of tho laws of progress.' And in this reKpect I remember his injunction to us officers about our horses: 'You have a horse; use it. Don't just sit on it and let it carry you around. Get away from jour men at times; be your own scout.' Ah, yes, just to hear Petain talk is to be impressed by the keenness and force of his intelligence. And don't get the idea that he is a one-sided man. He is an omnivorous reader of all kinds of. literature and a brilliant conversationist." I asked how it was, then, that Petain, with all his qualities, was'only colonel when the war broke out and so little known. "Because he has a horror of advertising ; because he hates politicians; because . he is a man of uncompromising opinions, and he has mado enemies; because 3ie he_ is right and tho men who differ from him wrong; because ho has always been correct beforo his superiors and nothing else; because while othor officers, whom I could mention, were busy with tho fanfaronade and brass buttons and fancy .ceremonies of garrison life, and were bent on getting their names ond photographs in tho papers, Petain was only preoccupied with one thing:, training his officers and training himself. When an editor asked him for some account of his military career;he sent back three dates and that was all. Ho has steadily refused to bo photographed since the war; tho only photopa,ph I have of him comes from the Thirty-third Hegiment book. He was urged to put his wonderful lectures at the Ecole do Guerre into book form, but he only replied: 'What's the use?' Then his enemies said ho was jealous of his ideas.- And finally, when Ferdinand of Bulgaria decorated him for these same lectures, he put the decoration in liis pocket. That's why Petain is unknown: because he has willed it. Even to-day he has asked tho censor to cut out all montion of his name. But now he has got to be famous in spite of himself." Some of his Exploits. General Petain is fifty-nine. He will be sixty in April. His mental and physical vigour make hiin appear younger. He is a bachelor. When tho war broke out ho was ready. He was put in command of a brigade in the Hret Army Corps, though lie still kept his rank of colonel. That brigade distinguished itself during the long retreat from'Charjoroi to the Manic by the savage ferocity with which it repeatedly turned and boat back the enemy. Ji\st before the Battlo of the Marne he was prompted to general of division and was sent to rally the remnants of the Third Corps, badly 'disorganised during the retreat by General Sauret's inefficient handling. He ■ met tho Third.Corps at the Marne, took charge at once, and, sitting gn his horse beside the bridge, pistol in hand, made every man march calmly past him and look up at him as the embodiment of authority. These wero the words with whicli he was cited in the Army Order of September 21, 1914:

Potain, general commanding the Sixth. Division of infantry, has, by his oxAmple, his tenacity, "his calm under fire, his incessant foresight, his continual intervention^at the right moment, obtained from his division during fourteen days of consecutive fighting a magnificent effort, resisting Tepeated attacks night fourteenth day, in spite of his losses, repelling a final :very violent attack/' Petain was promoted to the command of an army corps. By coincidence it bore the same number as his ancient -regiment, the Thirtythird, and was centred about his old garrison town, Arras.-. In the soring a. division of Morfiqcan troops was added to his command, giving him an army corps and a half, and ho was told to take Carency and pierce the German front. Carency was a masterpiece of German art. It was considered impregnable by tha Germans themselves. The French high command gave him three days. Ho made elaborate preparations; going into the front trenches and conferring minutely with each of his captains in person; showing them not only what they were to do firstly, but secondly and thirdly; instilling into.them another of his precepts: "Never attack blindly, but always have a definite purpose in view.-" Then he launched his attack, and in three hours took Carency and broke clean through the German front. The Moroccans had no one in front of tliejn; the way was clcar. But if I'etain had surprised the Germans ho_ had also surprised the trench. D'Urba] answered his call for reserves by saying he was mistaken; it was impossible that he could have broken through in so short a period. Incidents (illy the reserves had been placed too

far iu file rear ami could not bo brought? up in time. So C'arency, instead of being a turning point in the war, was only a brilliant local victory. Nevertheless the whole French Armywas electrified. A hole had boen made, and it could be dona again. And if eomeono had bungled, it was not Petain. He was given tho command of an army. . - Last September he and Langle de Carey were put under Casteluau and told to break the German front in Champagne. It wis Petain's army which smashed the Germans up and in a remarkable tactical victory 1 toolc most of tho prisoners and cannon. If the others did not do so well', and there was a lack of'ammunition, that nsaiu -was not Petain's fault. His reputation was made among the few who knew as the most brilliant of French generals.

PERISHABLE PRODUCE. 6 THE FARMER'S DILEMMA. The following letter has been sent by the Hon. A. Jl. Myers, Acting-Minister-in-Charge of the Imperial Government Supplies" Department, to Mr. W. H. Field, M.P.:Dear Sir,—Further to my letter of May 8, in reply to yours of May 3, to the Hon. the Acting-Prims Minister. The subject matter of your letter has been carefully considered by the equisitions Committee, and. as a result it confirmed that tho position as regards the disposal of farm products is one demanding careful attention, especially on the point of next season's output. Everything in this connection is dominated by the question of shipping facilities, and seeing that the extent to which shipping .space will be available next season is at present impossible to determine, any pronouncement now made must be based .solely upon the probabilities af the outlook. This outlook is at present unpromising, and ,is made worse by the fact that, owing to the few ships available for May and June loading, present season's supplies of meat, dairy produce, and general cargo are accumulating in store, and there seems little, if any, prospect of getting the whole of these accumulations away before the next season opens. ,n, i It-is right that farmers should be advised as to their' farming operations in the near future, but before such advioe can be given with the necessary degree of definite lies-?, further information will need to be obtained from England, and this has been asked for by_ cable. The position as regards butter is fully realised, but it is very doubtful whether it would be wise for too many butter factorics to cease the manufacture of butter and make cheese instead.. Butter can be held frozen, whereas cheese cannot, and the risk of deterioration,, if shipment is unobtainable, being consequently much greater, producers might suffer loss in consequence. The output of frozen meat this season is less than that of tho previous year, and if shipping facilities be further decreased, a further foiling off is to be expected next season. This will mean more storage space available for butter in case of emergency. Prior to the Teceipt of your letter a cablegram 'had already been spnt, requesting information as to whether the Inmerinl Government desired to acquire next season's cheese output, and on receipt of a reply to that and the cablegram now sent asking for the fullest information possible regarding other produce. the complet" facts will b° submitted to the Honourable th« Acting-Prime Minister, in order that he may be in a position to make such announcement as he considers necessary.