NEW WAR MINISTER

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 12 July 1916, Page 3

NEW WAR MINISTER

AN UNKNOWN MAN PBOMOTED. I j I j Like General Petaiu, the French eomfmander in the Verdun battle, General 1 Roquo, the new Minister of Wcr, has j been sudenly lifted from the recesses 'of absolute anouymity to the very j front of the stage where the limelight j plays. Though General Roques had I been the commander of an army, just las General Petaiu. his name had not 'been mentioned in the general news | columns of th c French papers until the day he was made Minister of War. No illustrated paper had shown his picture. His promotions inside the army after the war started had passed unnoticed as far as the general public went. I have searched all the Paris papers in vain for his first name. The Minister of War is. therefore, practically an unknown man-—unknown as far as polities go. Why he was picked to succeed General Gallieni is not clear, except that ho is a close friend of General .Toffre, which was not exactly true of his predecessor. Nominally, the Minister of War is the superior of the Commander in Chief; but, as things stand now, the Commander in Chief of thc Army insists on having a pretty free hand, and get it. Not yet 58 years of age, the present Minister of War is a comparatively young man. It is noticeable that, while all the men in high command at the beginning of the war were over GO, all the men who have come to he front reentry are under that age. General Soque was born, December 28. at Marseilles. A great number of the prominent French generals were born in the south, including General Joffre himself. They have strains of the Basque race in their blood, rather than the Gascon or Provencal, and are calm, stolid men, which is seldom true of the impetuous Southerners.