MR. ELLIOTT AND MARSHAL FOCH

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 239, 3 July 1919, Page 6

MR. ELLIOTT AND MARSHAL FOCH

Sir,—Even the most expert "eammiflageurs" of France would turn green with ■envy if they learned of Mr. Howard Elliott's attempt to transform Marshal Posh into a Presbyterian elder! Of all the jokes perpetrated by this egregious humorist, surely this is the greatest. I learn on good authority that, in hundreds of Scots' homes last night, tho health of the great generalissimo was drunk with renewed enthusiasm, when the truth became known at last!

Surelv Mr. Howard Elliott is the.supreme dazzle-painter of his generation. Bv ono stroke of that magic pen he robs the Catholic Church of one of her greatest sons, and, unblnshingly, makes a present of him to the. Kirk of Scotland. It seems to me, howovor.. that t" tre are ono or two flaws in the disguise, and, as mnnv people are interested m this latest exhibition of this diverting wizard, I irust that you will find spac» for these lines. (1) For several .years past I have ufcn reading such French papers as _l<a Croix" and "L'Echo de Paris, which never tired of telling their venders chat Foch is an exemplary Catholic: "Callioliiiue trcs pratique." . „ (2) All through the war, hut especially since 1918, English and American Catholic, papers vied with one another in claiming the great Allied leader as a son of the' Catholic Church. A story, toll bv the chaplain of Marshal loch, went the round of those papers to the c led that, on .lulv 1". ISIIS, when all the plan-, for the great attack were finished, Foch retired- to his private oratory and spent a long time there in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, in preparation for the momentous event of the next day. , nr „ (3) The "Times" "History of the «nr (Vol. 17, p. 207) informs us that, whon Clemencean offered Foch the director, ship of the Ecole de Gncrrc in 1907, the

latter's sole difficulties were his religion and the fact that his brother was a Jesuit.

(i) Kene Puaux, in his biography of loch; tells us that in 1867, when the father of Marshal Foch was removed io St. Etienne, ho sent his son to the JesuitCollege in that city; that, three years later, he sent him to the famous Jesuit College in Metz; that, upon the conclusion of the Franco-German war. the future marshal at once returned to his Jesuit masters, though Metz was then u German town. This statement is confirmed in the "Times" volume quoted above.

(5) Puaux, oil page 41, makes this statement: "Foch is a Catholic," and he proceeds to inform us that Foch, rather than give up his religious convictions, preferred to leave the Staff College in 1900, when General Bounal, a man of anti-clerical views, was appointed its head.

(6) Puaux again mentions that at tr height of the second German offensive.; April, last year, he saw Foch repair K n the Catholic Church in Cussel to sp!" • light and gnidanco in prayer. (7) In a recent article feproduecd ■ The Dominion (June 25), from the "Da, Mail," Mr. J. Ward Price paid: "Foch,'. a devoted Catholic, and about his m sonality one has the intuition of n: : " •

den, but burning, ardour, such ar . marked many great men belongii , that faith." • , I

Had it ever occurred to mo that:. a dazzle-painter would ever arise in. midst, I would have presented o testimonies, proving my case more 1 than I have been able to do. It s' wise to make such provision for

future, to collect, for instance, all • i evidence that goes to show that . Lloyd George is a Welshman, or ■ ( Harry Lauder a Scotsman, for such 0,, pie facts, taken for granted by ortlinj.' mortals, may yet be challenged by £ irrepressible Mr. Elliott. After camouflaging Marshal Foch as,. Presbyterian elder, Mr. Elliott, with his characteristic logic, concludes thus: "So that, after all, it is a P.P.A. marshal who has been so signally successful nt the front." I have noticed that, of late, the meetings of the P.P.A. have often been held in Presbyterian lulls. Are we to conclude, then, in our turn, ■hat. not satined with his success in throwing the kilts over the uniform of a marshal of France, he is now essaying the further task of hiding beneath their variegated colours the crude yellow of his "Orange" ;ssociation?—l am, etc., B.T.G. July 2.