Marshal Joffre All British people were deeply moved as they
heard day by day of the gallant and uncomplaining struggle for life of the late Marshal Joffre. The struggle ended last Saturday morning. He was seventy-nine years of age. His first failure as French Commander-in- Chief in the War brought him some disparagement, and it was easy afterwards to compare the flashing imagina- tion of Marshal Foch with that of his humdrum pre- decessor. One would have thought that Marshal Joffre's glorious success in the First Battle of the Marne would have set him unassailably upon a pedestal, but at the time the credit for the battle was given in the main to General Gallieni, the Governor of Paris. Since then the conviction has spread, no doubt justly and upon proper evidence, that the great conception of turning the flank of General von Kluck belonged to Marshal Joffre. He had foreseen and waited for his opportunity, and he took it like a flash of lightning when it occurred. * * * *
Previous page
