JOFFRE'S FAITH.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 748, 24 February 1915, Page 7

JOFFRE'S FAITH.

An officer in the French army gives some notea of a conversation he has had with General Joffre at some unnamed place at the front. He says: "With a calm and unshaken voice the General expressed his confidence in the coming victory—a matematical victory he called it. First of all he told me he had to forge the weapon which was placed in his hand. Reliable generals had taken the. place of those who had been found wanting. At present the French military machine is in such a state that the German attack, broken in its first onset, will dash itself upon it in vain in the future.

"When I alluded to the victory of the Russian troops I expressed the view that the necessity of pushing forward reinforcements would weaken the German armies in the west. "General Joffre replied that he was not anxious for them to decrease the number of their forces in the west. In that case the Russians, he went on to any, would be able to advance at a greater rate, for he was in a position in the future to dispose of all the forces which Germany can bring against him on this front. " 'Was that bluff?' it may be asked. No. It was only the quiej confidence of a man who is consqious of his strength. This is the man who on the day following the victory of the Marne, replied to the congratulations of an officer, who told him that he had just won the greatest battle in all nißtory, by saying after a moment's reflection, "What I have won is an early rest in my little home in the Eastern Pyrenees.'"