The Times of Tuesday published from its Bordeaux corre- spondent
an extremely interesting appreciation of General Joffre. We have presented to us a short, stout man, confident in his own judgment, free of all ostentation, and contemptuous of reclame, either rushing about in his long, low motor-car and wearing out two chauffeurs a day, or sitting in a small room with a telephone to his ear. It is impossible for him to visit on any single day the whole of his immensely long front. He is necessarily personally unknown to a large part of his army—a fact which is vividly implied in the suggestion that he probably has to show papers to sentries to prove his identity. "His chief characteristic is calmness." This, we may point out, is amply confirmed by Sir John French's des- patches. It must have needed amazing calmness in General Joffre to draw back and back, requiring the French Army to fight in a manner contrary to all its traditions, and to let the enemy come so near Paris while be was waiting for the favourable opportunity that he used with splendid success on the Marne.
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