ENTENTE CORDIALE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 February 1940, Page 5

ENTENTE CORDIALE

UNITY OP FRANCE & GREAT BRITAIN CLOSER THAN IN LAST WAR. NOTED WRITER IMPRESSED. (British Official Wireless:) RUGBY, January 30. Various aspects of the Allied war effort were discussed by the noted author and journalist, M Andre Maurois, who is one of the party of French war correspondents attached to the British Expeditionary Force who are visiting England, in an interview with the Press in London today. He laid special stress on the unity of the two nations in the present conflict and the complete mutual confidence eixsting between the two commands.

He compared the present position, when the co-operation of the armed forces of both countries, under a single commander, had been accepted as a natural and necessary measure, with the difficulties over and the opposition to this vital unification which arose in the course of the last war.

Today, M Marois said, one heard British troops referred to “our General Gamelin,” and no trace existed of the sort of national pride which, by refusing even to admit faults or limitations in the achievements or capabilities of one’s own nation often resulted in an impaired efficiency and strength of the Allies as a whole.

M Marois particularly praised the training of such troops—members of tank corps and flying schools —as he had visited during his present stay in England, and he pointed out the typically British war in which such training is carried out, emphasising the place given to practical demonstration rather than to theory. The Entente Cordiale was solemnly reaffirmed today at informal but pic-' turesque ceremonies when 10 members of the French Chamber of Deputies comprising the delegation headed by M Delbos, Minister of Education, which is in London for talks with British M.’sP., visited the first Canadian division at Its military encampment. The visitors spent nearly two hours among French-speaking Canadians, watching them at their exercises. They also called into the mess ■ while the men were at lunch. M Delbos said: 'My colleagues and I have been greatly impressed by what we have seen today. It is with profound pride we greet you who speak our common tongue and symbolise the link that binds our two countries' in bonds of unity. Through the spirit which has brought you over and the strength of Allied arms we can be sure that victory will be ours.”