A FOOT PUZZLE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 32, 1 November 1919, Page 8

A FOOT PUZZLE

■ SECBET OF THE f.nF;MTN DBS DAMES. "Now that Marsha' Foch has received such ovations from tho Londoners anil sucli an honour at the "Mansion House, you will be interested in the secret of wlrch he and Clemenceau alone know the facts." says the Paris correspondent of the "Sunday Times."

The question i.s: Was the lerrible setback of the French army at the Cliemin des Dames, in June, lfllS, tho/r.sult of strategical deficiency on our part, or was it a snaro laid for llio Germans by the Marshal, aylio thus enticed them down lo the Maine, where he dealt tliem the final blow? "In the first place, the Cliemin des Dames should I>e put down a,s our greatest defeat in Ihe war, which was, of course, the clamo.rous opinion of Mr. Franklin-Houillon at Ihe Kndical Congioss. In tho second, the strategy of tho Marshal was certainly tho most daring in all military history. "Tho Press has been discussing tho problem for months: one of the Parliamentary commissions has taken it up recently, and close observers of C'lemencenu's speech at Ihe Chamber took liutico of tho fo'.lowing mysterious ulleva nee:—'There was a day wlie 1 !! 1 played n fateful card, and if I had not played it the war would not have been won.' "This utterance h.rs been interpreted as meaning: 'Frch asked for my consent before taking the most formidable risk in order to make sure of Ihe west fonuidabV vxlory, and I gave it.' "Will the secret in those two brains he revealed lo history before or after their disappearance from I his world I'"