THE RIVAL LEADERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1299, 19 September 1914, Page 4

THE RIVAL LEADERS.

GENERAL JOFFRE

General Joffre, Chief of tlae French General Staff, the man who is directing the forces of France in their opposition to German invasion, entered the French army as a lad of 18 in time to serve through the FrancoPrussian war. He is now 62 years old, just four years the junior of his German adversary, General von Moltke, and has held his present position for about two years. He joined the army in 1870 as a second lieutenant, and for two months at that boyish age commanded a battery of artillery during the siege of Paris. That was General Joffre’s first service which commanded attention. Rater he led the force that occupied the town of Timbuctoo for France and became Governor of the capital of Madagascar, completing the organisation of the province before he gave up the post. General Joffre, besides enjoying a peculiar renown for experience in mathematics, of which he is very fond, is chiefly known in the French army and among the French citizens as a quiet man of great courtesy, who receives his callers and talks in a kindly sort of way that does not seem to go with his place as a war lord—the man who commands an army that in war time numbers more than 3,000,000 men. The men who have written about General Joffre have all found time to remark that his policy is one of attack. He is said to believe that a commander’s first duty is always to attack. It was only two years ago that General Joffre went to Russia and received marked consideration from the Czar and the Grand Duke Nicholas during the Russian army manoeuvres in August. A year ago he won wide praise in France for the remarkable showing made by all departments of the French army at the general manoeuvres. Very shortly thereafter he gave the French army a taste of his discipline, by depriving five high Generals of their posts for being unable to stand the physical tests of these same manoeuvres. General Joffre is said to be a man of great constructive force aud au absolute rigid will. As Commander-in-Chief he bears with the French Ministry of War full responsibility for the French forces.

GENERAL VON MOLTKE. General Helmuth von Moltke, who as Chief of Staff of the German army, in command of the Kaiser’s forces, is 66 years old, and has spent his life studying the business of war. Next to the great French Chief of Staff, General Joffre, he is probably the most picturesque of the many high army officers now engaged in an active European war. He saw active service in the Franco-Prussian war forty-four years ago, and distinguished himself notably. From the first he has been a favourite with the Kaiser. His appointment as Chief ot Staff was in fact a declaration on the Kaiser’s part that the army was to be run along lines of the old school, with a mailed fist, that is. And yet it was said, though with what authority is not known, that when the Kaiser gave General von Moltke the highest place in the army he told him that in the event ot war he would be replaced. He was born May 23rd, 1848, in Gersdorf, Mecklenburg. He attended the gymnasium at Rendsbnrg, and became a cornet on April rst, 1869, In 1870 he was promoted to be Lieutenant and took part with distinction in the war against France, being decorated with the iron cross of the second class.

In iBSt he was assigned to the general staff of the army. In 1881 he was made captaiu on the general staff aud in 1882 he became second adjutant to the chief of the general staff of the army, General FiekFMarshal Count von Moltke, With the retirement of FieldMarshal von Moltke as chief of the general staff of the army and his appointment to the presidency of the land apportionment commission, Captain von Moltke, who at that time was serving as his personal adjutant, became in 18S8 a major of the Hue. On the death of Field-Marshal von Moltke, bis uncle, in 1891, he became aide-de-camp to the Kaiser. In 1896 he became MajorGeneral and Commandant at Potsdam. He has been Chief of the General Staff of the army since February 16th, 1904. As Chief of the General Staff he succeeded FieldMarshal Count von Schlieffen. The latter, who was nearly 73 years old, was kicked severely by a horse and crippled. A rule of the general staff is that no one not physically sound may remain on it. Eyeu fat men are excluded from this most honoured department of the army.