Pompidou Man Of Varied Talents

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29799, 16 April 1962, Page 13

Pompidou Man Of Varied Talents

r N.Z ,P. A. - R cut er—Copy rig ht) PARIS, April 14. Mr Georges Pompidou, aged 50, is a broad-shouldered, silent but smiling man of varied talents, and little-known to the French public.

For the last six years he has been managing director of Rothschilds Bank in Paris Mr Pompidou was born at Montboudif, central France. He has combined literature with finance and politics throughout his life and is one of President de Gaulle’s most discreet and most trusted advisers. It was he who, at President de Gaulle's request, initiated the secret contacts which led to the first talks between the French Government and the Algerian insurgent leaders at Evian When insurgent emissaries, at the end of 1960, requested guarantees of good faith from the French, President de Gaulle is said to have expressed confidence in his adviser. saying: “I shall send Pompidou He will be my signature." Mr Pompidou, son of a professor, started his career as a professor of French literature and as recently as last October published an anthology of French poetry which one critic described as “a bank’s choice—only safe values included ” Although he has never been a* member of Parliament. he was a member of Genera] de Gaulle’s staff in 1944 and 1945 when Genera! de Gaulle was head of the French Liberation Government He has a brilliant financial

and political brain, and does not like to be called a technician. '. .s friends quote him as saying: “There are three means of ruining oneself: women, gambling and technicians. With women it is more pleasant, with gambling it is quicker, with technicians it is more certain.”