The Evening Star THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1929. MARSHAL FOCH.

Evening Star, Issue 20130, 21 March 1929, Page 10

The Evening Star THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1929. MARSHAL FOCH.

Marshal Foch has fought his last ! campaign—n long and hard one, ; against complicated illness—and succumbed to the victors’ victor. Heath has taken heavy toll of tho military leaders of the Great War. Sir John French, Marshal Haig, the Grand Duke Nicholas, General Cadorna, General Diaz—all have gone, and this latest of j them to go, Ferdinand Foch, was the | greatest of them, so far as con tern- 1 porary judgments can tell, as a soldier. So far as we can gather, he was second to none of them as a man, and that is saying much when the shining character of Earl Haig, to name no other, is remembered. Foch also was modest, unassuming, and, “as the greatest only are, in his simplicity sublime.” Born , seventy-eight years ago, he was the oldest of their company. His age would have been an excuse for shelving him at an early stage of the war, after . ho had shown his talents, if religious and political prejudices in France could have had their way. The “ amour propre ” of individual nations, hound ] in alliance, made a more potent reason why he was late in coming to his great position of Generalissimo of tho British and French Armies, in which his transcendent strategy, helped by : the growing weariness of Germany and j the moral, more than material, influence of the new reserves of Americans, quickly turned calamity into: triumph, and made an end of tho war. He indulged in no plots while he was kept back from positions which Ids genius might have commanded. He ■ waited his time, and in the hour of victory he was as considerate of the cost of war as he had been peerless in directing its whirlwind. He would not waste one life which could be saved at the cost of spectacular glory for a triumphant march to the Rhine. Flc never doubted the end in the midst of reverses. He had the finest appreciation of his Allies. It was a rare honour that was paid to him by France when a. statue was erected to him in his lifetime. Tho considered tribute of Mr John Buchan ; to his military pre-eminence is not likely to bo discounted by time. “ One figure alone,” Mr Buchan writes, “ among the commanders on any side stands out in the full heroic proportions. By whatever standard we judge him, Ferdinand Foch must takerank among the dozen greatest of tho world’s captains. Long before the outbreak of war he had made himself a master of his art, and a happy fate gave him the .chance of' putting into practice in the field the wisdom he had acquired at leisure. He had studied eiesely the work of Napoleon, and had brought his mind into tunc with that supreme intellect so that ho absorbed its methods like a collaborator rather than a pupil. Discarding the pedantic cobwebs which a too laborious German Staff had woven round the Napoleonic campaigns, he mastered those principles which to the great Emperor were like flashes of white light to illuminate his path. Few soldiers have been more learned in their profession, and few have worn their learning more lightly. His broad, sane intelligence was without prejudice or prepossession. He turned a clear eye to instant needs, and read the facts of each case with

a bravo candour. But he did not forget that the maxims of strategy aro eternal things, and ho brought his profound knowledge of the past to elucidate the present. No aspect was neglected; he knew how to inspire men by tho beau gesto as well as how to labour at tho minutiae of preparation. Ho was both artist and man of science; he worked at a problem by the light of reason and knowledge; but when these failed he -was content to trust that instinct which is an extra sense in great commanders. His character was a happy compound of patience and ardour; ho could follow Fabian tactics when these were called for, and he could risk everything on tho sudden stroke. Ho was not infallible, any more than Cccsar or Napoleon, but he could rise from his mistakes to a higher wisdom. In a word, he had a genius for war, that rarest of human talents. In the splendid company of tho historic French captains ho will stand among tho foremost—behind, but not far behind, the greatest of all.”