NEW FRENCH CONSUL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 151, 29 June 1931, Page 8

NEW FRENCH CONSUL.

M. JOUBERT ARRIVES. FOUGHT BEFORE VERDUN. HEROIC EPISODE RECALLED. M. Edouai-cl M. V. M. Joubert. who has been appointed to the post of Consul for France in Xew Zealand and its dependencies, said on his arrival by the Xiugura from Sydney this morning that he would do his best to ameliorate economic conditions between Xew Zealand and France. Speaking in French, M. Joubert said he was very happy to come to this Dominion and was highly delighted when the President of France advised him of his appointment. For the past twelve years he had been stationed at Prague, Czecho-Slovakia, and he had previous experience of consular work at Bremen and . Rotterdam. He could converse freely in Russian; German-ami the Czech languages, but admitted that the English language was'a little difficult for him. "Xew Zealand reminded me of the coast of Xorway as we passed the Three Kings and Cape Brett," the new Consul said; but M. Paul A. Serre, the retiring Consul, who was present at the interview, suggested that his colleajr'.e would have more vivid memories of the rugged

coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula if ho paid-a visit to Milford Sounds during his period of service in this Dominion. During the war M. Joubert was an artillery officer, ami met English and Xcw Zealand troops on the Western Front. lie was at Verdun, which was the centre of the biggest siege of the war. and it was there that he was wounded in the attack of 1918. While the siege was ill progress there was ,a memorable incident which indicated the valour of the French soldier. At the very height of the siege, when the French troops weve being decimated and attack after attack was being launched by the Germans to capture the Verdun forts, a sally under cover of night was made by a email band of French officers -who crept up to the German front lines and there erected a signboard with the words: "You shall not pass." The Germans did not pass, but 28,000 Frenchmen fell in front of Verdun forts.. At the time the sally was made the French defenders were in desperate straits, and if the Germans had known the whole'course of the war might have been changed. It was on the Sommo that M. Joubert met the New Zcalanders and formed a high opinion of their fighting qualities., and their good humour and friendliness. "I am very glad now to be here among you," lie said. M. Joubert is a much-travelled man. and his passport is endorsed in various Continental languages. He is middleaged and well-built, above the size of the average New Zealander. Although a bachelor, he remarked jokingly, he brought his furniture all the way* from Prague, and will set'up home in Auckland.