GENERAL JOFFRE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 53, 29 October 1914, Page 5

GENERAL JOFFRE.

HEAD OF FRENCH ARMY.

CHARACTER SKETCH BY “THE TIMES" CORRESPONDENT. A GENIUS OF ORGANISATION. Times and Sydney Sun Sebtioes. (.Received 8 a.m.) London, October 28. The Times’ correspondent in Franc#, who precedes a character sketch of General Joffre by a comparison of th* Napoleonic wars with the present, says: “The aeroplane has robbed events of the tactical interest attacking to the old-time wars. War nowconsists of a series of parallel movements. The armies turn about towards each other like boxers in tht preliminary stages of a bout, pivoting clumsily, and attempting to catch each other at a disadvantage. That is practically all the art of modern war; the rest is a ding-dong battle in resistance, marching and counter-marching. “General Joffre is rarely seen on horseback, but spends hours daily in 'his motor-car, wearing out two chauffeurs daily. He also spends long hours jin an unpretentious room, with a tel - iphono at his ear. His chief characteristic is calmness. The result of confidence in himself has given confidence to others. The Staff never for a moment doubts bis capacity to win, and that conviction has percolated lb# masses and the troops and made him popular, though lie eschews popularity. His modest unassuming readiness to accept suggestions has fostered the belief that he is more adept as an organiser rather than as a strategist. Tke campaign has shown that he is ft soldier, an engineer, and an organiser. His great maxim is; ‘Nothing can be improvised, everything must be thought out.’ He takes infinite trouble, where necessary, to 'secure successes. He has'brought together tb# best military brains in France and ha* co-ordinated and controlled their efforts. He has exorcised politics as the. greatest bane from the French army, Himself a Republican and Freemason, he is surrounded by Catholics, who are disposed to cavil at the present Constitution. The result of big firmness and singleness of purpose is that he commands the greatest fighting machine in the world, from which ©vary consideration other than efficiency ha* been obliterated. General Joffre is just a plain soldier, modern, with ft scientific mass of theoretical . ledge, backed by a high sense of the practical, and can understand what to expect from a common soldier and how to extend him on an occasion. This war of silence and anonymity is in cocord with Joffre’s genius j it is » Ger-man-made scientific war, as opposed to the artistic; and General Joffre has become master of the new system which (he did not invent.”

1 • ANOTHER VIEW. ' •“ In the Daily Mail Tear Book for 1914. appears the following sketch fron the pen of G. Ward Price, the Mail’s Paris correspondent:— “He has a good head for a watchdog; calm, yet always ready to bite." This description of General . Joffre, chief of the French General Staff, furnishes in few words an insight into hhi character which is of great accuracy. For the onerous task of commanding her vast army in peace, and for the still greater burden which would fall upon the leader to whom the whole safety of the nation would be entrusted in time of war, France needs a strong man. And no one doubts that In General Joffre she has a man of the right stamp.

He is sturdy and thick-set of figure. He wears a heavy, white, soldierly moustache, under which gleam strong white teeth that flash when he talks, as if to strengthen his resemblance to a watch-dog. His. nose is short and thick and heavy. He has a habit of sharpening the glance of his eyes, always calm and clear, by contracting them and peering grimly from under his heavy eyebrows. In’spite of ins stoutness he never looks anything but a soldier, even in mufti, though there is a joke against him in the French army that he has been so much in uniform all his life that he ha» never mastered the mysteries of cirilia* dress sufficiently to learn how to keep his tie from climbing up his collar at the back.

General Joffre was born in 1852, im the Pyrenees, and ho saw active service ss early as any French officer now living. For while he was still a cadet lof eighteen, the Franco-German war broke out, and his military studies were interrupted at once. Hastily promoted second-lieutenant, young Joffre was attached to a . regiment of artillery, and took part in the defence of Paris during the‘siege.

It was as a sapper, however, that In? spent the greater part of his career. In the Tonkin campaign, in th« Far East, he built forts under the direct fire of the Chinese troops. Then ho was stationed in French IndoChina, and fought a campaign there. Finally he saw active service round Timbuctoo, before returning to a command in Paris. General Joffe was appointed Generalissimo of the French army after * Government crisis which cost one Cabinet its political life. Until he was appointed, in July, 1911, there had been lor many years no Commander-in-Chief of the French army. The Mom’s Cabinet was attacked for overlooking this important detail of national defence. General Goiran. the War Minister, explained that it was not thought wise to decide on a Generalissimo before the actual outbreak of war. The admission led to the fall of the Cabinet, and M. Caillaux succeeded to power - , frith bis War Minister, M. Messimy, pledged to fill the gap. It was then that General Joffre was chosttilt