NEW FRANCE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 118, 5 October 1912, Page 9

NEW FRANCE

300,000 PEOPLE AT A REVIEW. Paris, July 20

The great review of the Paris garrison, held'annually before the President on July 14, the national fete day, afforded over 300,000 people assembled for Longehamps this morning, the occasion for demoiistratinf tehir enthusiasm for the army and for France. The military spectacle- is a people's festival for the French as Derby Day is for the English. This year's parade was the apotheosis of the great revival of patriotism which has swept across France during the past twelve months. The fact that the new uniforms designed for the army by M. Edouard Detaille, the military painter, were to be tried for the first time appealed strongly to a people every man of whom has served with the colors. Thousands of Parisians journeyed to the Bois de Boulogne last night and slept beneath the stars. Before the sun was up endless files of conveyances of every kind proceeded up the Champs Elys'ees on their way to Longehamps. A cloudy sky and a pleasant breeze tempered the fierce heat of the past two days and made the conditions ideal. When amid the booming of the guns of Mount Valerien the Presidential cortege drove up to the racecourse the green expanse of turf with its pleasant fringe of woods presented a superb spectacle. As far as the eye could see twinkling bayonets flashing cuirassiers, plumes and waving pennants filled the picture. President Fallieres, in a carriage and four, with the Bey of Tunis.'and M. Millerand, Minister of War, drove down the lines escorted by a squadron of cuirassiers. In the Presidential cortege rode all the Foreign Military Attaches in full uniform.

The President conferred a number of decorations and then presented the regi-' mental colors to the Army Air Corps. As Colonel Voyer received the silken Hag from the President's hand the band struck up and the crowd cheered uproariously, while simultaneously a thousand array carrier-pigeons were released. One by one four great airships emerged like spectres from the clouds and hovered above the crowd. They were saluted with frantic cheers, but the enthusiasm reached its height when a military aeroplane, flying at an immense height, made a wide sweep of the ground. The march past followed. First came a battalion of Alpine chasseurs with flat caps and alpenstocks, and then seven brigades of infantry, including sections wearing the new uniform. M. Detaille's helmet of gun-metal, surmounted by a burnished brass guard, did not meet with popular approval, but the blue-grey tunic t—and the dark blue" tunic found favor. "The tunic, a*proposed varient, ftinguished. " ;