The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1925. POLITICS AND WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 261, 4 November 1925, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1925. POLITICS AND WAR.

■ ■ For the- cause that lackt assistant*, For the wrong that needs resistance, For tha future in the distant*, And the good that we can *».

During the Great Waf, in every country alike, from time to time the cry was heard that the soldiers were being sacrificed to the politicians. The conflict between "the fighting men" and "the talking men" was often as hot in England as it was in Germany, where to this day it is maintained that it was only the collapse of "the home front"—the weakness and perfidy of the politicians— that brought about the defeat of the German armies. . Nor should it be forgotten that it' is still an open question whether the settlement achieved by the great statesmen who drafted the Peace of Versailles did not in effect sacrifice a great part of the fruits of victory won by the Allied arms. The contrast thus constantly drawn in the public mind between the politicians and the soldiers is in some respects justifiable. But there are cases in which the parts are, in theatrical parlance, "doubled"; that is to say, there are instances of politicians who turn soldiers, and of soldiers whose primary interest in life is not war, hut politics. And when this curious combinaton of circumstances arises it appears to present worse possibilities of danger than even the traditional antagonism between the class of talkers and the class of fighters.

An interesting illustration of these rather comprehensive generalities is to be found in the ease of General Sarrail, the distinguished French Commander who is just now supposed to be enforcing the French mandate over Syria. Apparently ha has ■been directly responsible for the recent disastrous occurrences at Damascus; and this is not by any means the first time in his career that he has embarrassed the French Government and jeopardised his country's prestige. Sarrail has had a successful military career, and under the watchful eye of Joffre he played a very creditable part in the great struggle at the Marne and subsequent operations on the Western front in the early stages of the Great War. But, as we have already indicated, he is even more of a politician than a soldier, and for this reason the extreme Republicans who held office in France during a critical stage of the war, regarded him as the only man fit for the supreme command. When the Allies decided to try to break down the resistance of the Central Powers by a turning movement from the East, and strong forces were sent to Salonika to break through from the Balkans, Sarrail was for the time virtually commander-in-chief on that front. But he proved himself extremely difficult to work with, and what with his refusal to co-operate with or recognise the other Allied generals, and the arrogant self-assertiveness that he displayed toward the Greeks and the Serbs, he virtually paralysed the operations and rendered the original plan of campaign abortive. But M. Painleve and his other political friends refused to remove him, and it was not till Clemenceau came into power at a critical juncture that Sarrail was recalled, and the Allied forces at Salonika, helped, of course, by events in the West, were free to develop the strategy which, by breaking tho strength of Bulgaria, brought about the Balkan collapse, and thus precipitated the close of the war.

But Sarrail's star had not yet set. After the peace, when Clemenceau had withdrawn from public life, Painleve and the Republican extremists came to the front again; and though they had not been "defeatists" they brought back in their train Caillaux and his followers, who have always regarded the winning of the war as entirely subordinate to the settlement of the peace on lines satisfactory to themselves. Protected! by these powerful influences, Sarrail, who is still in the eyes of his party "our only general," speedily emerged from the obscurity of his temporary eclipse, and as administrator of Syria, with a strong military force under his control, he has been ever since an important factor in French public affairs. So potent had his influence become that not long since a sinister rumour was circulated to the effect that, as a last resort, the Caillaux party might attempt a "coup d'etat" with the help, of Sarrail, who was represented as aspiring to the Napoleonic role of military dictator. These reports may have been entirely baseless, but they emphasise the political importance of this strange man who was appointed to his post solely by political influence, and has been maintained there largely as a political expedient. This much seems to be certain, that the present disastrous condition of things in Syria is largely due to the arrogance, the recklessness, and the irresponsibility characteristic of Sarrail; and Painleve and his Republican friends must share with him the blame for what has happened, with all its far-reaching consequences.