CHEMIN DES DAMES.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1921, Page 10

CHEMIN DES DAMES.

WAS IT FOCH’S COUP? Paris, May 30.. The question whether the loss of the Chemin des Dames, which was occupied three years ago on Saturday, was not a. deliberate sacrifice by Marshal Foeh of a bishop to win a war chess game, is raised by the Cri de Paris. The writer states that during a secret debate in the Chamber on May 28 and 29, 1918, Premier Clemenceau was compelled to fight desperately, not only for the maintenance of Foch as generalissimo, but for the very existence of his own Cabinet.

By sheer will-power the old tiger beat down apposition, but it was remarked at the time that his defence of Foch was singularly weak. He seemed embarrassed, as if he had an argument which he could not use, and the best he could say about Foch was that he had I seen him fall asleep with exhaustion ! over maps. ; During the same debate, the then i Under-Secretary of State for Effectives made a cryptic remark on which subsequent French victory threw a startling light. Probably no one was so surprised a«s the Germans “to see themselves where they were.” Taking into consideration, sums up the writer, the fact that, this important position had been gradually stripped Qf defenders, that it was held by weakened and exhausted troops, that no attempt had been made to check the enemy before the Marne, although Foch did possess reserves, and that finally General Mangin’s victorious drive at the side of the. salient thus created in the German line was the starting-point of the Allied victory, it is a justifiable that Foch effected a. rich coup which puts him on a level with the greatest soldiers in history.