GENERAL GOURAUD

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 68, 14 December 1918, Page 8

GENERAL GOURAUD

FRENCH HERO 01' JULY 15. Who is tho most popular man in the French Army? Airs. Jlalaprop said that comparisons aro "odorous' ; and I lor ond urn not going to answer tho conundrum But if i-ou put tho question to tho fourth French Army not a single wan would hcsitaSc to reply "Oouraudl General Gouniud commands that iinny. On a ballot ho would have a M.O nor cont. majority in a popularity coiupatition among his own soldiers, lhis is not so natural and obvious as you might think. There are great generals wuom tho poilu respects and admires. I hero is at least ono to whom his heart goes out in an irresistible gush of human affection. That one is Gouraud. Gmtraud, with Jiis ono arm nml Jus "ganrn leg— |,o acquired both these disabilities when •he commanded the Allies at Salonika m 1915— is the youngest army commander in franco. Ho is just over 50. tt woe to him that Marshal tfoch confided the tanendous tusk of meeting the first shock of the German July offensive this year that was intended to hack a way through to l'arie and a great aud glorious derma n jieaco. . , ' There is no need to labour the point,, but it was the Germans who got the, shock. Tho offensive began just ono hour before tho Bodies were ready and it was C.ouraud who k'gun it. JNotlung that has happened since July 15 would have huppeneil in the sumo way if liourami, when ho said to his troops betora tho battle. "Not a man will .lookjMick. No ono will budge a single inch, had not been triply sure that every one of them, like himself, was true as steel. Thrice-tempered steel-tempered iii.tlie furnaco of African warfare before being hardened in tho scorching flamo of tho present struggle, with all tho physical euffoving it has brought hiin-such is the impression General Gouraud gives you. In character this man is a prince among soldiers. I ho-vq hoard cool-headed war correspondents, little given to sudden eathusinsm, speak of Gouraud s Kingly qualities-their own adjective-m terms those who do not know him might smile at as wild exaggeration. A recont Order of the Day spoko of Ins "lofty moral value," of tho soldier's love lor him "because ho loves them," and of his flaming patriotism. "A. leader of men of the highest order" is his chiefs sum. ininß up of Henri Gouraud. , Tho general's reputation as a soldier was made in Indochina, Madagascar, the Sudan, and Morocco. . It was he who rounded up and captured Sainory, the great Arab slave raider, who fled across tho desert, driving before him myriads of. helpless subjects and leaving 60,000 corpses of women and children in hw imth. "My horse's feet," said Gournud, Co entangled in tho dead an o>ll.B. In those days ho viw a marin>. ■WacUearded Colonial of almost Assyrian Zearance. To-dav his beard is epafter,an wfft his close-cropped ha.r oomine teVpoint in the middle of his forehead ho B t ono moment reminds you of eomoold portrait of a French monarch and nt another of a fiery mediaeval monk like* Savonarola., , A groat general and a great gontle-. man. ■