"THEY HAD TO RETREAT."

Taihape Daily Times, 9 May 1919, Page 2

"THEY HAD TO RETREAT."

Marshall Foch spoke very simply, very colloquially, veiy much a soldier talking to his friends. He stood, chest out, head well back, with one leg well forward, suggesting the elastic posture of a fencer as he moved slightly and regularly at the knee, as though about to lunge. His main point was that he had done nothing. "The Boches attack. I said I would stop them. When they were stopped I attacked them. Well, everyone" did what he could, and after some time Ave were all attacking along the 400 mile front —the French, the English, th e Americans, the Belgians,' and we all went for them." At that point the Marshal raised both hi* hands and pushed forward with his hands slightly downward and body in one movement.

"Victory," he said, "is an inclined plane. We pushed tlrem. all of us. 'and they simply had to retreat aud retreat." He continued to make the slightly downward movement with his hands, moving elastically at the knee in unison. "And after that we simply

kept pushing., land they went back, and and we were simply on the point of getting —— •" He waved his hands.

"Then they asked for an armistice. They accepted all our conditions " Shoulders, hands, and eyebrows went up. "Well 1"

The impression every one got was of the great shock it had been to the Marshal when the enemy surrendered. —Manchester Guardian.