Sir: The fine assurance with which Mr Mayer gives General
Gallieni (sic) an acute accent makes him an unreliable witness. The general has in Paris a boulevard and a metro station, but no acute accent in either (see Michelin and RATP plans). He can occasionally be found with one; the English are not alone in scattering accents about (Degas, for example, where the accent makes it easier to pronounce than the cor- rect Degas); the French do it too, also for reasons of euphony: Clemenceau is a fre- quent victim.
In the works of reference I have consult- ed the general has no accent, but usage is marginally uncertain: in Jean Favier's mon- umental history of Paris, for example (Fayard 1997), the general has an accent in the index but not in the text.
To see certainty where there is none is the mark of the uncritical mind. Mr Mayer is quite right in saying that arrogance and hubris are not confined to warlords.
Gerald Long
15 rue d'Aumale, B.P. 5.09, 75421 Paris, France
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