GENERAL AS POILU

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 162, 5 April 1921, Page 5

GENERAL AS POILU

A "CONSCRIPT” BRITISH OFFICER

French conscripts of the 1921 class have been undergoing the ordeal in all parts of France of “passing the doctor nnd other formalities on which depend their liabilities to fight for their country in case of need. In this connection the unusual spectacle was witnessed in one of the Paris town halls of a British General appearing before the council of French officers whose duty it was to decide whether he was or was not fit to

serve as a “simple soldat” in the armies of the Republic, says the Paris correspondent of the “Morning Post.” The reason for his appearance in such cir-

cumstances was interesting. The officer in question was BrigadierGeneral Raymond Brutinel. General Brutinel was born in France, in the department of Aude, in 1882, and was taken to Canada by his parents when still a baby. There he lived until he was eighteen years of age, when he returned to France and contracted a voluntary engagement in the French Army for a period of four years. At the end of that period he went back to Canada, where he remained until the war broke out. He then presented himself at the nearest French Consulate, where he was

advised, as he had neglected to keep in touch with the French mobilisation authorities, to join up with the Canadian troops. This he did, and simultaneously presented to the Army of his adopted country a fleet of some forty motor ma-chine-gun cars. On arriving in France he claimed the right, although serving in the British Army, to retain his French citizenship, and this he was enabled to do in virtue of a Presidential decree and other measures adopted during the war to meet sueli special cases. During the great conflict this Canad-ian-Frenchman fought heroically-in the North and round Amiens, and was six times mentioned in dispatches. He wn« promoted rapidly to the rank of major, and" then to colonel and brigadier-gen-eral. and was created C. 8.. C.AI.G.. D.S.O. Tn December. 1918. General Briitinel received ’he Rosette of an Officer of the Legion of Honour, and subsequently Im was awarded the Croix d» Guerre. TTo was al-'o nwnrdedi the Order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus nf Italy. z With all this his personal situation from the point of view of Frcich law was irregular, ns his service records did not show that Im had ever passed a Mili’arv Revising Council. Tn order to Regularise his position. General Brutinel mi'ngled with the nondes'-ript crew nf ' budding young French soldiers who were waiting round tig' doors nf ’he Town Dall, round which centres the Opera quarter of Paris, passed inside when his name was called, stripped tc the skin nt the request of doctors, and passed t.riu mphantlv through his examination fnr physical fitness. "Bon nour le service. mon. General," said the Mrdecrn Mai’-r with a smile. a» ho came sw..-,.rtly to Dm salute in honour of the most distinguished conscript that had ever passed through his hands.